Obed Miracle David aka Mirobed is one of the distinguished male music artistes in Akwa lbom State, Nigeria. He is known for his melodic hip hop tunes that captivate the spiritual young minds in the city of Uyo with impacts across other States in the Country. A distinguishing feature which significantly sets him apart from his counterparts is his ability to create a sound that depicts creativity, passion and soul fulfilling.
A native of Okossi in Urue Offong Oruko LGA, Akwa lbom State, Mirobed spent a great part of his childhood in the northern city of Kaduna, Northwest Nigeria. He admits being privileged to warm the bed of influence as the first child to an army personnel.
Life unfolded nicely according to the artist until 1992 when the State experienced an outbreak of a religious riot between the Christians and Muslims. It was a devastating period as his father lost everything and his mother was pregnant at the time. He recounts:
“The crisis made us lose vital belongings and we had nothing to hold on to. We had to escape from the tragic incident and relocate to our homeland in Akwa lbom State. Landing in the city of Uyo with nothing marked the beginning of our struggle. A friend of my father had to accommodate us for a couple of months before we rented an apartment in the city.
“At age 10, I had to hawk crayfish after school to help meet the family’s needs. In the process of selling, I could not flow in my mother’s tongue due to spending my entire life in Kaduna. My approach to speaking my dialect earned me the name “Effiong ikomakara”. This was a detrimental factor because I had difficulties in interacting with buyers, but in all I had to learn the Ibibio language to facilitate more sales.
“As a boy who had music as blood flowing in his veins, l had to make extra efforts to raise money from my hawking business in order to purchase a small radio. Back then at home, there was no TV or radio set to fill up my inner passion for music.”
Mirobed’s exposure to hardship launched him into the hustling part of life and this gave him opportunity to make more money as a young boy.
The music icon gave “VoiceYourStories” team a hint into his educational life. At some point in time, he had to repeat SS1 three times during his sojourn in the science class at Science College, Abak. “I knew I was an art student but I wanted to do science and this decision made me to repeat the senior class three times. I believe this was God’s way of forcing me into purpose because if I had succeeded as a science student, I don’t think I would have ventured into singing.
“After failing thrice, I was eventually withdrawn from Science College to Four Towns Secondary School where I did my third term in SS1 and eventually majored in arts subjects”.
According to Mirobed, he sang casually but never had reasons to focus on it as a career or profession until 2004 when he discovered he had a whole lot of work to do if he had to scale through as a successful music artist. He had difficulty in obtaining good scores during song rehearsals, even after special sessions for almost one year, with his mentor, Danny Andi.
“I was so demoralized”, he stated. “I felt myself being stuck in a particular point but Danny Andi encouraged me to keep singing if I wanted a breakthrough in the music industry. Till date I am grateful to him for his tremendous support that warmed my heart throughout the traumatised situation”.
Miraculously Mirobed got his wish in a most supernatural way during an encounter with the Holy Spirit.
“I really needed help and as a gospel artist. I trusted in the power of the Holy Spirit through God’s word in John 14:26 and this reminded me that the Holy Spirit is meant to teach me all things and bring to my remembrance of all I had studied
“I asked the Holy Spirit according to my faith. I was shocked when He actually came into my room at night to teach me sol-fa notes. It is an incredible experience but nobody believes me when I tell the story. I am a music teacher today because of the help of the Holy Spirit and not because of school. He has also helped in developing my passion in music”.
This experience launched him into making professional music since 2005. Fifteen years down the road, Mirobed has done exploits through music. Characterized by a great time and fulfilment of his dreams, the artist gave “VoiceYourStories” a clue of what it means to be a gospel musician in Africa, with emphasis on his challenges in the industry. His description reflects on how gospel music is perceived in Africa.
“The acceptance of gospel music in Africa is now measured by how spiritual the song sounds. The slow medley songs are mostly preferred as spiritual but the fast medley which I major on is considered unspiritual.
“I have come to realize that a gospel artist who is into full time gospel must have a prayer room and get himself extremely equipped with power so that as you minister to people, they will feel the exuberance of God’s power in the ministration”.
Another challenge is exploitation of gospel artists by spiritual leaders after their performances. Mirobed noted that sometimes he is not paid at all or given small sums of N2,000 as against actual fee of N20,000. The young artist stressed that in the early stages of his career, he never saw music through the eyes of making money but later in his journey as an artist,raising funds became inevitable to cater for his crew.
Regardless of these challenges, Mirobed is still thriving daily to bless souls with his music. Over the years he has trained many individuals who are successful gospel artistes. Notably, a good number of successful Akwa Ibom gospel artistes can be traced to him. He has also released singles like Victory, Ubong and Amikiso.
Remarkably, Mirobed is the CEO of M-dot-music recordings, a great music teacher with 16 members of crew on his team, and a skilful housing agent. Through his music and industrious spirit, he has inspired many young people to pursue their dreams in music. These exceptional traits have earned him our “PERSONALITY OF THE WEEK”.
Congratulations!!!
