-
Ex-HINT Editor, KAYODE AJALA
The name Kayode Ajala may not ring a bell to the Gen Zs, they didn’t have the good fortune to have known him during his active journalistic days. But to the much older generation, it’s a name that instantly triggers nostalgia, bringing back enduring memories of those good old days when almost everyone wanted to read about some of the strangest true life stories and romantic tales that happened around them at the time. And Kayode Ajala was the name and the face behind the magazine that published those stories. The magazine was called HINTS and Kayode Ajala was the Editor. He was just 23 years old when he was appointed the Editor of the largest selling publication in the land at the time.
What made HINTS special was that the stories were written in intricately breezy and beautiful prose that kept readers hungry for more every single week. Soon enough, Kayode became the toast of celebrities and emerged one of the most eligible bachelors of his generation having transformed into a fiercely celebrated journalist himself. He was popularly referred to as the Romance Merchant or the King of Romance. The ladies adored him. Prominent men in the society respected his accomplishments as a writer and journalist. He had the world at his feet.
Ajala soon left HINTS to set up his own publication called Hearts Magazine. And Hearts was a big success. He had issues with his co investor and soon dumped Hearts to set up Sweethearts and then followed a legal crisis that compelled him to abandon Sweethearts and establish Sweet dreams. Not long after, Kayode Ajala went off the radar. For many years, a lot of people wondered where he was, how he was doing and what was happening to him.
Well, last week, the tall, good looking Kayode Ajala with his ever charming boyish smile strolled into City People Head Office at Gbagada, Lagos, looking pretty well, like a man totally at peace with himself. He proffered answers to all of the questions many had been dying to ask him. He had an engaging yet interesting conversation with City Publisher, SEYE KEHINDE and Senior Editor, WALE LAWAL (08037209290). Below are excerpts of the interview.
Let me start by asking you, where have you been? A lot of people who followed you and read you religiously back in the day still can’t understand why you suddenly disappeared. So, to start with, where have you been all this time?
Well, I’ve been around. Maybe not as visible in the public glare as I used to be, but I’ve been around. If you know me very well, you will know that by nature, I am someone who likes to live a quiet life but it was because of my job that I had to be out there, but if you know me very well, you will know that I’m not that kind of person. And I’d always craved for it, to be able to go back to that quiet life that I was used to. So when the opportunity came, I grabbed it with both hands.
So, I’ve been around, it’s just that I’m not out there like I used to.
We also understand that the king of romance journalism has also gone spiritual. He’s become a more spiritual person, a lot closer to God than he used to. So how did that evolve?
Yeah, you’re very right. Even when I was in the secular world, I’d always gotten messages, spiritual messages. And I had a calling, even way back at HINTS, but I never took it seriously. It would come, it would go. After a few years, I would get the messages again that there’s this calling and I have to do it.
But I didn’t take those things seriously. I was too deep into what I was doing at that time. I saw all those people as opportunists who wanted to, maybe, extort me and collect money from me and that was why they were coming up with all those messages. So I didn’t take it seriously. But long after I let HINTS… in fact, I had not totally let things when certain things began to happen. I ran into a particular crisis that was really, really very bad, where I was accused of having murdered someone and I was declared wanted by the police.
So I didn’t know what to do at that time. I went to an uncle at Abeokuta to tell him what was happening and he said there was nothing he could do. He didn’t know any policeman to take me to or any IG or commissioner to take me to but that he has God. And I said, God? I said, okay, if it is God, no problem. He said, so would I follow him to church? I said, which church? He said, the Celestial Church of Christ. I said, ah, at Abeokuta? He said, yes.
Since I didn’t even have any other choice at that time, I was in the middle of a very bad crisis. I said, okay, let’s go.
So, I went to the church. They prayed and they did some vigils. And they asked me to go back and face the crisis but what God has told them is that in the next seven days, I will be back in church with them to worship. Of course, I didn’t believe. So I came back to Lagos and I reported myself to the police and I was detained. And about four or five days after I was detained, miraculously, some of the policemen came to the cell and asked for me. I came out and they said that they had been instructed to let me go.
And I didn’t know how it happened. So they took me to their bosses and we signed the necessary papers. And I asked the boss, one CSP or so, what happened and he said, well, that the Commissioner of Police, it was the late Okiro who was commissioner of police at that time, had called and asked if I was there. And they said yes. And he said they should let me go on self-recognition.
So I left. And I later found out that someone just mentioned it to the late Okiro. And he was like, no, how can that happen? That he had also heard of that person, the former Editor of HINTS, he said, no, no, no, they can’t keep him in cell. He can’t kill anybody and he called them and they let me go.
So, like they prophesied in the church. I was back there the following Sunday worshipping with them. And another message came that if I didn’t want more of such crises in my life, I should sow the government and worship there and that was what I had to tell you about that church.
Wow, that’s incredible.
That was actually what happened.
So, how has it been? This new phase of your life, how has it panned out for you?
Well, it’s far better than anything I’ve gone through because most importantly, I have peace. And I found out that when you have peace of mind, there’s nothing as valuable as that. I have my peace. And it’s not as if we don’t have our own challenges right there but, you know, when you are guided by God, in the short time, well, about two, three decades now that I’ve been there, I have risen meteorically, which also speaks to the fact that there was a calling. because in all my years there, I’ve never agitated for anything. I’ve never agitated for any position. I just do my own thing. But I get called into assignments and higher assignments until I find myself where I am.
Okay, so apart from being a member of the church, you also hold a significant position at this moment?
Yes, I’m the secretary of the Pastor in Council. The Pastor in Council is the highest policy-making body of the church. I’m also the head of Media and Publicity of the church worldwide.
Oh, so more or less, you still get to practice your first love…
Oh, yes, yes, and for that, I’m very grateful to God that I’m not throwing away journalism completely.
Because, you know, when you are in this business of ours, it’s in your blood. And if you’re not doing it, it’s like something is missing in your life. So I thank God that I can still do my journalism in the church.
That’s great. Do you miss those days, those very active days in journalism, the HINTS days? Do you look back sometimes and say, I wish I could turn back the hands of time?
Honestly, when I look back, it’s not that I… I don’t think missing those days is the right thing to say.
Because when I look back at those days, man, I’m amused. Like how could we have lived our lives that way?
You know, I’m amused when I look back. Sometimes when I’m alone and I’m reflecting, I just shake my head and I laugh. You know, it’s not as if I miss those days.
I like the quiet life. I really like it. I don’t want to be out there. I commend my friends. I see some of my friends everywhere, you know. And I’m wondering, where do they get the energy? You see them everywhere.
When I look at the social media, man, I’m amused. I don’t even have that kind of energy anyway. Even if I want to live that kind of life, you know. No, I don’t miss it.
But you will agree that because of the position you were in at the time and the fact that you were editing one of the largest-selling publications at the time, that just threw you right into the public glare and that came with a lot of things as well…the highs, the lows…
Oh, sure. In addition to that, don’t forget, I was very young. Very young. When I became editor of HINTS, I was only 23 years old and, you know, at that time, at 23, you feel as if you were a big boy, you were old. But now when I look back and when I see 23-year-olds, I have children who are 23 years, my 23-year-old daughter, and I look at her and I say, so at this girl’s age, I was editor of HINTS. I must have been a baby. But at that time, I didn’t see it that way. I thought, yes, the world is at my feet. I’m big now.
But actually, I was a baby at 23 and I was editor of HINTS and I was out there. And there was so much fun, you know, so much fun. The clubbing, the girls, you know, everything just came. The only thing I appreciate that I did at that time was that I did not get swept away by all the excitement, you know. Because even though I threw myself into all that, I held on to my job. My job was priority. Yes, my job was priority.
It was only after the job had been done that I would go out there to enjoy myself. It never affected my job. If it had, maybe I would have been fired.
I was going to ask if you had certain principles that you held on to that helped you, being a much younger person at the time, to deal with the stardom, the fame, the ladies, all of the buzz at that time.
Before we go into the principles, let me just tell you a bit about my background before I got into that limelight. I come from a family where I had lost some of my siblings when I was quite young as a toddler. But I was sensible enough to know what was happening. I lost one of my brothers then in an accident. May his soul rest in peace. When I think back, I think it was pure exuberance because he had told us at that time that he was going out to search for a holiday job. That was in 1974. But he went picnicking with his friends at the beach and on their way back, they had an accident and he died on the spot.
I had another sibling who died in similar circumstances. I’m telling you this because those experiences had put some fear in me. So even when I found myself in the limelight and all the fun and excitement, that fear never left me. And it guided me. So even when I was enjoying myself, I knew where to draw the line, I knew where to put a stop, I knew when to go back.
I would never do some things, even at that time, things that would be considered as very reckless, that would end up taking my life. No, no, because I had that fear at the back of my mind.
So it kept guiding me and it helped me a lot. In terms of principles, anything I do, I always put moderation. I’m guided by that. Even when I was having all those exciting moments, the ladies, the wine, the women, the celebrities, parties. I knew where to draw the line. A lot of people who did not know me very well would think, oh, he’s a very reckless person. But I knew where to draw the line. And once I get to that line, I would stop. I would stop and I would go back.
So it guided me and it helped me a lot because if I didn’t have that kind of background, maybe I would have been completely swept away. At that age, I was quite young. And I didn’t have… I had lost my mom, who I knew if she had been alive would’ve been on my case 24/7 to guide me.
So there was really nobody to guide me. I had to guide myself. So that’s about it.
