Life on the Streets of Cyprus – The Jay Wahker Story, Diaspora Connect

In a beautiful city like Cyprus where you find attractive locations like the casino, hotels, beaches and lots more, the thoughts of going broke should never be conceived, if you go broke on the streets of Cyprus, it could get so ugly with little or no hopes of getting assistance from locals. Nevertheless, Cyprus offers many opportunities even to students, perhaps the reason why this destination attracts a large number of tourists from different parts of the world. In terms of education, Cyprus is blessed with brilliant and conducive environment for learning.

One very beautiful aspect about Cyprus is its exceptional location, though not an anglophone country, yet offers education in English with adequate provision for laboratories and technological infrastructures. Cyprus have three season winter, spring and summer. This could be challenging at first to new students especially during the winter season.

Cyprus have more vegetarians and a popular Pastry called “Durum” which everyone loved. It is interesting to know that some shops in city centers sold only Africa food.

The educational system and the economy in Cyprus is organized and strategically structured with high quality infrastructure even though it is a small country.

Diaspora connect (DC) have played a vital role in the unity of African students coming from different parts of the world, especially helping them connect with one another and sharing experiences. The testimonials gotten from the idea of Diaspora Connect (DC) have obviously shown that lives of students studying abroad are being impacted immensely.

Frank Ikechukwu Ugbana popularly called Jay Wahker was born on 14th November 1988, a native of Delta State, born and brought up in Jos Plateau State of Nigeria.  He acquired his first school leaving certificate in Dadin Kowa private school Jos and during his junior secondary level, he attended Saint Joseph’s college and later proceeded to Federal Government College Enugu.

In 2006 he started his university degree at the Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University, Bauchi and obtained his Bachelor of Technology certificate. Later on in 2015, Jay Wahker proceeded for his masters in Cyprus and finally graduated in 2017.

Jay Wahker was an outstanding student with exceptional performance in school activities. Jay Wahker surprised everyone with his unique style of music which was greatly accepted back then at the University in Cyprus. Jay Wahker is a very talented song writer with a great taste for good music.

It’s important to inform you that in 2017 Jay Wahker was awarded the best artist during Africa Students Grand Awards (ASGA), at Cyprus and was also nominated in the same event for the best song of the year after surprising fans with his smash hit titled “Snapchat Love”.

Jay Wahker joins the train of diaspora students across the globe as he shares his experience in a chat with Toktok9ja Exclusive on Diaspora Connect (DC).

My music ambition has always been that driven force which gave birth to new ideas. I love music so much and started playing with musical toys and books at a very tender age “thanks to Mum and Dad for the great support”, which makes me aspire to be the greatest of my time.

The road to success is not a straight forward one, finding it hard and challenging boost my ideology on music and enables me think outside the box. With catchy tunes and new concept in my music I want to reach out to the world. My dream is to Africanize my music to the world.

Let’s spice it up with my experience on the street of Cyprus, I will try to elaborate as I can recall. Though Cyprus is a great place to pursue academics, yet there are challenges students faces which I will address as I proceed.

Jay wahker’s story is an experience you would sure want to read about. My story in a nutshell all started when I landed the airport to board a flight to Cyprus. Permit me to make this statement because ever since I heard about Cyprus it has always been painted in my memory as a colorful island with a lot of recreational activities and tourist attractions. This is exactly as I thought, but to be frank with you, there is more to be told.

Cyprus has both the Cypriots and the Turkish people, the two sets of people appear to be in secret accumulating hatred with each other. This really affects Cyprus in terms of job opportunities and exposure.

Truth be told, the secret hate among the Cypriots and the Turkish people affected me so badly that it got to a point I forgot I was an artist.  Funny enough this happened to me during my first year when I was still a novice, life was so challenging at that time.

I could recall the day I attended a freestyle show organized in the basketball court around my neighborhood. The plan was to actually generate funds from the freestyle show, but rather, funds were extracting from me at the end of the day. Yet I never let that discourage me, instead it inspired me.

The survival mode in Cyprus is something I wouldn’t want to experience again, being broke in Cyprus was a real bad experience. There are no provisions for soft loan and the locals won’t lend you money when you go broke. I hope the schools authorities will make provision for students to access soft loans which they could pay back with little or no interest as a way of solving this predicament, because most student resolve to all manner of things just to provide for their needs.

During my stay at Cyprus, I was loved by many probably because of my humorous activities; this made me always put-on a smiling face even at hard times. In Cyprus there are all manner of oppression and it affects people who aren’t contempt with what they have or could afford. This was never the case with me, I knew my focus and where I was heading to. I always hearken to the words of my father, “the way you make your bed is the way you lay on it” I made this my watch word.

In 2017 things began to change, I started developing a fan base for myself, especially from Cyprus International University where I schooled. I began to participate in the school events. This was the beginning of my struggle for fame, I blew the minds of both African and international students and got a strong ground. My song got featured in all the entertainment activities around Cyprus.

This connected me to numerous music producers from other countries, it was a remarkable experience. On one occasion, I introduced a difference ball game of music genre in Cyprus campuses by releasing a hit track titled “Snap Chat love”, to my greatest surprise this song was loved by many and the song was always requested each time I was performing in a show.

This was an attestation to the fact that I could do even more, that same year my newly released song “Snap Chat love”, was nominated for the best song of the year, and I was also nominated for the best artist of all times at Africa Students Grand Awards. The location of the event was at ‘Near East University’, which I got the award for best artist of the year.

That same year I performed at “The Nigerian Night Festival” at my school ‘Cyprus International University’. I also performed at the Miss CIU Beauty Parget, trilling fans.

Love life in Cyprus sucked, nothing was real, emotions where tempered with and most girls fell into traps, they were not enlightened enough. Girls were all over the place to my disposal but I chose to live a smart and wise life not falling for common traps around.

Landlords charge very high amount of money for rent in Cyprus and this was a major issue for African students which forced so many girls to indulge in immoral activities to meet up.

This bordered me when I understood the system in Cyprus where we pay our rents in pounds, pay school fees in euros and get paid in Turkish lira if you ever got a job. To surprise you, do you know that the Turkish lira does not have any value compared to pounds and euros? I feel it is just a strategy to extort money from innocent students.

As blacks it was almost impossible to get a proper job other than restaurant jobs, construction jobs and cleaning jobs, which was bad.  I also noticed that there was a form of segregation where Turkish students pay their school fees very cheap in Turkish lira and foreign students paid very high amount in euros.

My advice to the youths, you have no other choice but to believe in yourselves because everyone has a hidden treasure, so having that ability to discover these hidden talents the sky will always be the starting point.  As for the government of Nigeria, please support the youths for they are the future leaders of tomorrow, also focus on those areas lacking maintenance so that Nigeria will be made a better place and we won’t have to travel overseas to study.

I have always wanted to be an exceptional star and a great songwriter so full of uniqueness and outstanding qualities. I see myself touring round the world and impacting lives through the music that I preach.

To round it up I survived in Cyprus as one who never gives up and who is ready for any sort of challenge in life.       

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