Iconic reggae artiste, Victor Eshiet, popularly known as Mandator in deed passed through the school of hard knocks. As a teenager in his village in Akwa Ibom State, he survived being killed by Nigerian soldiers who shot and killed his parents and others in his presence.
Being orphaned at that age, in order to survive, he went into child labour, which euphemistically means, houseboy.
He spoke to CHRISTIAN AGADIBE on his life, music and his sojourn in the US.
What has been your greatest moment in Nigeria?
The greatest time was in the 80s, when after a lot of struggle I came up with an album that spoke greatly to Nigerians and to the down trodden people and they responded. They came to realise that music played such an important role in redirecting peoples thinking. I think that was the greatest time we had. To see that we were capable of speaking on behalf of our people, and they responded by appreciating it and showing overwhelming support, buying records, coming to concerts can help to change their entire music industry as seen back then in response to what we did.
What are the changes in the music industry?
The change is that music has been played without content. Having good music in a country where there are a lot of problems can change situations, but musicians have turned their back on the country. We have too much of radio Dj’s and print medias who are trying to exclude the conservative musicians and allow those secular who are not paying attention of becoming the watch dog as they supposed to be and to support what is conscious that could change our people and nation. This is a terrible change in trail that has followed our people, but at the same time we try to make people understand that these changes which have helped the younger people to at least put food on their table and be able to take their minds off the government who is not functioning instead of becoming murderers and robbers, but there is something they have found to do by using their talent to get what they need and use what they have to get what they need. But the point that electronics and prints have basically shut down other genre of music just to support what is going on right now, in that you could call mind controlled music as it does not allow the younger people growing up to think properly, because you think you want to be like that guy even though you do not know what is behind that glitter and that all that glitters is not gold.
Reggae singers are revolutionarists, but they don’t live long, are you afraid to die?
I am not afraid of anybody or afraid of death. Death is just a transformation but what is painful is life, you check it out. Abiola was killed because he stood up for his people. As this world is concerned you can kill the revolutionary but you cannot kill the revolution.
How was your growing up?
My growing up started in a village called Ikot in Uyo in the South Eastern State, my parents were very strict, God fearing, philanthropist, humanitarians and Christians who brought all of us up to fear God and be kind to everyone because the God created us in His own likeness and own image. My father has many wives and we were all brought up in a great way, and so during the war, the Nigerian soldiers came to my family shot my parents, my sisters and many others. I barely survived that, as I stood there and saw something I never knew. It’s not like these days were kids could watch and see people being shot. When that happened, I was robbed of my childhood, my family was thrown into a disaster as everything went down and I saw the system as a murderer, a vampire. So, I struggled from that point to go out of my father’s compound because nobody there was taking care of us, my siblings scattered and I went to Calabar to be a house boy at the age of 10. They took me to Lagos to be a house boy to one Second lieutenant Mohammed who helped me to go to school. I started working with the Nigerian Ports Authority as a cleaner and still strived to go to school and saved money to buy a guitar and try to make music.
What inspired you to bring out such song, `Rat Race’ that was the hit in 1980s?
Have you ever watched animals in the animal kingdom? I have seen them because I lived in a country side so I know how things grow. I know how animals react, and how every natural things function. So, I grew up to see people shooting people; you see a coup where a solider killed another and took away something. The other man is fighting to make sure nothing good existed. I survived by struggling through the power of the Most High God and then I found my voice and the voice of other people. You see a lot of our people sitting around just to joke with these children that the Boko Haram took from Chibok. They are the future of the country and nobody is looking for them and that is called a rat race. Where nobody cares for anyone, you kill or be killed. It is like they mutate into a vulture culture, which is a culture where you won’t catch the robbers when they come and everyone watches them as they grow wings. It’s not a joke.
When is your album coming out and what does your fan expect from you?
Everyone who knows me also knows that Mandator does not care when it comes to music. We brought a rhythm out of the album that is coming called Freedom train and that’s just an ice-berg of what is coming. We have a company that came to be part of the recording company “Mr. records” and to be part of the next release and so because of that, we just decided to hold on for everything to be put in place as we still have a lot of forthcoming projects around the world including the forthcoming reggae in Nigeria. And so the album comes out next year, as a matter of fact, Lucky dube’s daughter and I have done a lot of things like a Fantastic Collabo.
Who are the musicians that you look up to when you were coming up?
Of course, there were people who had been there before we got to know any other person, people like Fela. We grew up listening to Fela as the first person who was against the system and he paid the price and got dragged around everywhere, so he was our first influence before any other foreign influence such as Bob Marley, Jimmy Cliff etc.
How were you able to cope in America when you go there?
It was difficult because when I went to America, nobody knew me. And it’s not a place where you have your uncle or something, but a reggae historian, Bob Marley biographer who has an international reggae archive, helped me. The only reggae archive in the entire world if I am not mistaken and he would be present in this festival, he helped me to deal with the record company and their subsidiary in Massachusetts and after that I got a deal which did not last due to some issues and I had to leave the company and tried to make it on my own. Though it was a little bit hard but I had to try harder. I suffered a lot and it was not easy but God saw me through.
How did you come about the name Mandators?
People always ask me that question but I don’t know. We must understand that back in the time when we were coming up, we were just like kids not knowing much, and somehow the name came in my head, and the only thing I could remember about it is that I always heard in the media when they said, “the government mandated all this or that, or mandated that,” I did not really understand but I was sure it was related to giving an order or something, and then I decided to call my band the Mandators and this led on till I was able to check the dictionary to see what ‘Mandator’ mean, so I got to understand that the Mandators are like the commanders giving orders for oneness in the world.

Mandators: I was houseboy at 10