Chief Olusegun Osoba has just published his me memoirs. In his new book, Battlelines: Adventures in Journalism & Politics, Chief Olusegun Osoba revealed 2 people who influenced his life greatly. “After my parents whose enduring influence and upbringing still continue to guide and permeate my daily life, 2 personalities left indelible marks in my Growth and Development” he revealed in the 344-page book.
“First, is Apostle Joseph Ayo Babalola, my maternal uncle who is the founding father of the Christ Apostolic Church. My parents at birth gave me two names- Tanimowo and Oluwasegun.
Having lost 2 previous children, they chose Tanimowo, meaning ‘Who can watch over him?’ and Oluwasegun, meaning ‘God Is Victorious’.”
“It was Apostle Babalola who advised that Oluwasegun should be chosen against Tanimowo. Holidaying in Efon Alaye, as a young boy with Apostle Babalola, who took me around on his crusading tours, taught me inner spiritualism that has helped me in all my travails.”
“The second is Alhaji (Dr.) Ismail Babatunde Jose. He aborted my original plan to read Law, and instead mentored and nurtured my journalistic career. He sponsored and exposed me to some of the best institutions in the world to make me one of the luckiest and perhaps best trained in the profession. From the International Press Institute course at the University of Lagos to the Commonwealth Press Union course in the UK, to the training at Indiana State University in Bloomington, USA, to the Nieman Fellowship programme at Harvard University, Cambridge Massachusetts, Jose ensured I was well trained as a Journalist and media manager. So, his book is, therefore, dedicated to both Apostle Joseph Ayo Babalola and Alhaji Dr. Ismail Babatunde Jose.”
“This book is a tribute to doggedness. After a series of failed attempts, it has seen the light of the day. Dr. (later Professor) Rotimi Olatunji and I made the first attempt. The second attempt involved Messrs. Mike Awoyinfa and Dimgba Igwe, who had honoured me with the book, Olusegun Osoba: The Newspaper Years. The sudden passing away of Dimgba ended this effort. The third attempt ended disastrously when some young men, recruited early 2014 to type and store the manuscript into flash drive, totally mutilated the exercise.”
“The resolve to publish this work received a new breath of life in 2016. It involved making better use of information and communication technology facilities available. Simple and effective, it involved scanning manuscripts and sending it through email and WhatsApp, first to my Secretary, Mrs. Iyabo Akindele in Abeokuta, who, after typing, will email to me and Mr. Lanre Idowu to edit. Idowu brought to bear his training in History and Public Communication through regular fact checking of dates and sequence of events.”
“Special gratitude goes to my spouse, Beere Aderinsola Osoba, who I virtually turned into my proofreader. I wrote parts of the book on long haul flights between such places as Dubai-New York or London-Miami. With Beere by my side, we often did quick reviews, corrections and proofreading.”
“The enthusiasm of my childhood friend, Dr. Adefolarin Olufunwa, who enjoyed reading the draft over and over with valuable critique, spurred me on. Journalism teacher, Professor Tunji Dare read the final draft.”
“My appreciation also goes to Mr. Joop Berkhout, who over the years, kept ringing it in my ears the need to document my memoir. It seems appropriate for him and Mr. Lanre Idowu to collaborate in publishing this work. Mighty gratitude also goes to members of my family-core and extended-colleagues, dignitaries, friends and all who contributed in different ways to the successful completion of this book.”
Reporting is my life. For me, to be called a Reporter is the greatest accolade. Reporting is the soul of journalism. To report is to be the eyes and ears, the nose and voice of a news organization. “It is to bear witness. Newspapering has been good to me. It has offered me a Passport and a Visa to see the world. It has forged many rewarding friendships for me.
Journalism has taken me to places I never imagined I would go. It has made me meet People – the high and mighty – all over the world; it has brought me in contact with the lowly and weak. It has given me insights into the common humanity of all peoples of the world – their fears, ambitions, dreams, joys and sorrows. I have met interesting people with different perspectives on life.”
“Journalism has elevated me and shaped my attitude to life. As a journalist who later went into Politics, Journalism was a great training ground. Journalism frees and opens the mind. It opens you to different narratives and perspectives.”
“It enables you to ponder, sift and weigh the elements that go into your decision-making. It builds a sense of objectivity and fairness. It gives insights into the facts behind the news and developments in society. Journalism is a life-long journey in education. You continue to learn every day. As a journalist, your brain is always active, working, seeking information, processing information into news, analyzing, explaining, commenting, reporting, and educating.
Journalism has offered me a ringside seat at the theatre of history. Sometimes, I have found myself being part of history, as in the case of the January 15, 1966 coup d’etat. I risked my life as a young reporter to locate the bodies of some historic figures killed during the coup.
I have written about People and people have written about me, but until now I have not written my own story. I enjoy reading memoirs of accomplished individuals for the insights they provide into challenges they faced and how they overcame them. They offer rich lessons on our common humanity and our uncommon and uneven response to what life brings our way. They provide perspectives on the evolution of our society and the roles played by individuals and groups. Histories of societies are as much stories of individuals and groups as well as social forces that transform their societies with their thoughts, ideas and actions, as they are stories of how those elements are themselves transformed by their societies. For these reasons, I have relentlessly urged my accomplished friends and associates to document their experiences for posterity.
Unfortunately, despite my efforts, most of them have been reluctant to commit their experiences to paper. Some of them who were willing passed on before they could do so.”
“Painfully, the rich accounts and lessons they could have shared remain interred with their bones.
Papa Alfred Rewane, the great philanthropist, financier of many a worthy cause, and a walking encyclopaedia of Nigeria’s History and politics, was assassinated just as Peter Ajayi, Felix Adenaike and I were about to record his invaluable anecdotes. My confidant, friend and soul mate, Chief Sunday Awoniyi, died in a motor accident without telling his story. Awoniyi, the Aro of Mopa, was a high class bureaucrat who participated in series of historical events in the country and had assembled files and documents in his library to guide his writing when death struck. Senator Abraham Adesanya miraculously dodged Sergeant Rogers’ salvo of bullets as NADECO leader but died without telling the larger story of the escape, and without sharing his experience in detention at Divisional Police Headquarters, Club Road Ikoyi and at the Police Medical Centre Bourdillon Road, Ikoyi. He did not leave his account of how he led the Yoruba Nation and Afenifere at a trying period in Nigerian history. Chief Bisi Onabanjo, star columnist of the Aiyekooto fame, died without leaving us an account on his life as a great journalist/columnist and statesman of the first rank.”
“Dr. Alex Ibru did not live long enough to tell the story of how we conceptualized the highly successful Guardian Newspapers which he published with great support from the likes of Dr. Patrick Dele Cole, Dr. Stanley Macebuh and Lade Bonuola. Ikemba Emeka Odumegwu Ojukwu did not publish his account of the Nigerian Civil War before he passed on.”
“The world still expects to hear from the likes of General Yakubu Gowon on the events that pushed Nigeria to war and how he piloted the affairs of the nation. Despite my entreaties, he is yet to do so. General Adeyinka Adebayo in whose house NADECO was formed did not tell the story of how he and his colleagues such as General Theophilus Danjuma, Admiral Ndubuisi Kanu, and Commodore Ebitu Ukiwe formed the Committee for Unity and Understanding (CUU) that preceded NADECO. Much more painful is the irretrievable loss of NADECO records kept with General Adebayo. General Abdulsalam Abubakar, who nearly lost his commission as an officer because he hosted a team of NADECO activists led by me at his Ikoyi home, is yet to respond positively to calls for him to share his experience in the military and as Head of State. Alhaji Lateef Jakande, living media legend who founded the Newspaper Proprietors’ Association of Nigeria, the Nigerian Guild of Editors, the Nigerian Institute of Journalism, and is the first African to be elected twice as the president of the International Press Institute (IPI) is yet to share his experience in a book. Apart from his account of the political crisis in the First Republic, “The Trial of Obafemi Awolowo”, he has not written on his days as the famed Action Governor of Lagos State and his rich contributions to journalism. My great friend and brother, Samson Amuka, publisher of the Vanguard, an octogenarian and the oldest practising Nigerian newspaperman, is yet to share the account of his voyage from the lucrative editorship of the Sunday Times to starting Happy Home Magazine, to co-founding Punch with Olu Aboderin, and finally, Vanguard newspapers.”
“It seems to me a bit odd if not hypocritical to be encouraging these distinguished compatriots and professional colleagues to write their stories and not practise what I was preaching to them; hence my decision to put together these reminiscences while I still have the wherewithal to do so.”
“As I sit down to reflect on my life, it is with the nostalgia and the sobriety of a man who has led a good life. Where to start? What to share? What to leave out? There is the saying in journalism that to start a story, the trick is to just start somewhere and go anywhere. Or start anywhere and go somewhere. Do I start somewhere and go anywhere or should I start anywhere and go somewhere? I have chosen to start somewhere and go somewhere.
So come along with me into my world of people, press, politics and places. It is the story of how my life as a pressman and politician meshed to shape my interactions and encounters with people in different places. It is a story of hope, drive, ambition and success. It is a story of human foibles, of jealousies, persecutions and setbacks. It is a story of vision and enterprise, a chronicle of plots and betrayals. It is a tale of high-mindedness and pettiness. It is a story of God’s abiding grace.
This is my story, this is my song.”
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