Talks About Life @ 60 & Journalism Experience
On Monday, 5th April, 2025, Ambassador Olayinka Agboola, the Chairman/CEO of Parrot Xtra Media Network, will be 60. And for the very first time, Agboola is rolling out the drums in a big way. It’s going to be a 2-in-1 celebration; his 60th birthday and the 20th anniversary of Parrot Xtra Media Network. The mega celebration promises to be colorful and glamorous. It will attract all the who-is-who across different sectors in Ibadan and beyond. This is because Agboola is well connected and a hugely respected man not only in the media industry but also in the social scene. It’s in the spirit of the double celebration that City People’s Dare Adeniran (08057639079), last week, engaged the suave publisher, Olayinka Agboola in an interview during which he spoke extensively on his life at 60, his journey into journalism and experience in the profession as well as how he has been able to sustain the Parrot Xtra brand in the last 20 years. It was such an interesting moment with Agboola, an Archaeologist turned-journalist.
Agboola started Parrot Xtra Media in 2004 after serving as Press Secretary to late former Governor Lamidi Onaolapo Adesina (Lam Adesina) of Oyo State.
He attended Lagelu Grammar School, Ibadan. He had two degrees from the University of Ibadan, B.A in Archaeology and M.A. in History.
He later obtained a Post Graduate Diploma in Journalism at the Nigerian Institute of Journalism, Ogba, Lagos.
He officially started his journalism career at the defunct Fame Weekly Magazine in Lagos in 1991, after his service year. He later worked at Ovation International Magazine, Thisday Newspaper, Eko FM Radio Station, Daily Sketch, Nigerian Tribune. Read on…….
You will be 60 in a few days time, are you nervous or excited or would you say 60 has crept on you?
Thank you very much. I’m not nervous. Excited, yes. The excitement comes in the fulfillment of life at 60. I’m not nervous because it’s a natural thing when you are getting old certain aspects of your life physically, spiritually you start feeling it. It’s quite normal. I’m not also afraid because I know I have tread carefully as much as possible to live a very straightforward life, and this has helped me psychologically. There are also some principles in life that I got to imbibe, I think when I clocked 50.
These principles have helped me so much. The first one is that it’s only God that is powerful. And that we as human beings live essentially on God’s goodwill and benevolence. There are actually nothing you can do on your own. Another major principle that I have held on to is that, well I thank God that I was able to discover myself and doing what I love to do. If they call for most fulfilled Nigerian today, I will be the first person to raise up my hand. Do you know why? Of course, I don’t have all the money but I’m fulfilled because I’m doing what I love to do, and I’m enjoying my life. So I want to use this medium to tell parents to please, endeavor to identify what their children love to do and push them along that line. And make them learn the ropes and know how to do it. By the time they are 30 they are already on their own doing what they love to do and they will be living a fulfilled life. As a matter of fact, that will even reduce the rate at which people steal in Nigeria. Because when you know you are doing what you are good at, you will be creative and you will be okay. So, I’m on my lane. I’m not looking at anybody. I’m not copying anybody. It’s whatever God ministers to me to do that I’m doing. I so much believe in God and what He has endeared me with, and I’m happy and I’m okay.
Are there things to change about your life now that you are 60? Like your life resolutions at 60?
Now that I will be 60 in the next two weeks by the grace of God, what I’m thinking of now is to work less. The business we do at Parrot Xtra Media Network I want to make it half auto running. I mean maybe to get more human beings that will be there and be running it for me. The English people that brought the civil service idea to Africa stipulated it that people should be retiring at the age of 60. I think they still do it in Europe. They know what they are talking about. If you are 60 your productivity will start dwindling. It’s natural, and there is absolutely nothing you can do about it. So at 60, I’m thinking of reducing the physical stuffs.
What would you say life has taught you at 60?
The major lesson life has taught me could be derived from the two or three submissions that I just gave you. That it’s only God that provides. That all you need to do is get to start doing what you love to do because we spend 3/4 of our lives working. So if you don’t love what you do then you are not fulfilled. The implication of this is that somebody would just end up being frustrated. That is why you see a lot frustrated people all over the place. Even our people in Europe, most of them do not like what they are doing there. But because we don’t have the kind of setup that is conducive for them to stay in Nigeria, especially when you look at the difference between the pound sterling and naira or dollar and naira, they will prefer to stay there and be suffering. At the end of the day, you are not happy. You are not fulfilled. Life has taught me that I should preach to parents to encourage their children to do what they love to do. Also to be as much as possible be good and kind to your neighbors, to your friends and your family because what goes around comes around. If you are good, goodness will follow you. These simple principles are helping me. Let me also add this one. What you can’t allow people to do to you, don’t do it to fellow human beings. What really is the essence of this life? Have you ever asked yourself, what are we here for? We are here to serve God. We are here to serve humanity. Anything outside these are nothing but nonsense. Go and check how much you make and how much you spend in a month. You will know that it’s not by your power. It’s simply because God loves you, and He’s sharing His benevolence and His goddess and goodwill with you.
At 60, I can say boldly that I don’t have enemies. I don’t have anybody that I’m thinking of as my enemy. People may think that I’m their enemy but it depends on how God will help me to deal with them. You know why I don’t have enemy? Because if I come to you for one favor or support or assistance and you refuse to do it, i will go back to God and plead with Him that Dare Adeniran has refused to do it for me, send Seye Kehinde, and God will answer me. Spiritually, physically I won’t be annoyed with Dare Adeniran because God didn’t send him at that point. The blame should not be on him. So why should I be angry with people. Why should I have enemies?
How would your describe your life at 60?
I have done many crazy things but I will tell you today, no regrets whatsoever. No sense of being lost or something. I have lived my life according to what God had planned for me. I have been running my own ministry the way God wants me to run it.
How do you plan to celebrate the milestone?
A lot of people have been asking me that question. Thank you. I don’t actually have a life. My life is very much intertwined inside this my ministry that I have been saying. The ministry of Parrot Xtra Media Network because what we do, essentially, has not left me with much time to say I’m living my own life. I’m living for Parrot. It’s my ministry. So celebrating it now is just a question of me trying to take it to another level. Like I submitted earlier, so we can start running a semi auto running status, unfortunately for me, I don’t think my children are interested. And I don’t want to force anybody. I want everybody to follow his or her own destiny. So that it won’t be like because I’m running Parrot Media I will be forcing them. It’s my own ministry, it’s not theirs. Interestingly, Parrot Xtra Media Network is tunning 20, and we want to celebrate the two together. Although the Parrot Xtra Media Network’s 20th anniversary is going to be louder because that is the ministry itself, it’s not me. I’m just a messenger. So we’ll hold what we call South West Leadership and Legacy Summit. The lecture, during the Summit, will be delivered by Dr. Seye Oyeleye, the Director General of DAWN Commission (Development Agenda for Western Nigeria). Then after that we’ll launch Parrot Xtra Media Network Compendium, and that comes in three parts. One will be about my life and the story of Parrot Xtra Media Network. The second part is about some of the guests we have interviewed on our radio show. They will have their interviews in the second part of the book. And the third part is the most exciting. We have a WhatsApp platform, Friends of Parrot on WhatsApp. So everybody’s photos and their dates of birth will be on the book. Nobody has ever done this before. Our goal is to turn the WhatsApp platform to a community, where everybody can congratulate each other on their birthdays and other celebrations.
Of course, Adewale Ayuba and Dele Taiwo will be on bandstand. Well, we are hoping the two of them or one will come. It depends on my friend, DJ Semite, the planner and coordinator of the event, who is currently in China. He should intimate us about that when he comes back to Nigeria.
Any special gift to pamper yourself at 60?
That has never crossed my mind. Maybe somebody will take me to Canada to go and see my wife. Maybe that is the best gift anybody can give me because my wife has so much to do in Canada. She won’t be around.
What is that thing that has helped and sustained you over the years If you reflect back on your life?
What has sustained me most is the fact that it took me a very long time to realize my actual gift. I was in Lagos for about 11 years not knowing what I wanted to do with my life. I was once an artist manager. I managed Dele Taiwo, Adewale Ayuba, Oliver De Coque, Sunny Okosun, Yoboro and others. I also managed Segun Adewale. In fact that one landed me into a lot of troubles in that time. At a point we were managing Silver Shadow night club at Opebi. That was in the 90s. I was just there until later that God started showing me the right path. Here we are today. God has manifested His goodness in our lives, and I give Him all the glory. What I also want to mention here is that Basorun Dele Momodu was the one that God used to point me towards the right direction. How? He just called me when we were fighting and abusing each other on the pages on newspapers that time. He just said, “look let me tell you my own story.” He said he was fighting with so so and so before Chief Mike Adenuga called him and told him that, “anybody that is your friend, that you’d eaten and drank together you don’t go online or on the pages of newspaper to quarrel with such person. Go and meet each other and sort out yourselves.” He said, ‘Oya come dey follow me’. So I started following him around and he started teaching me how to write. He would write his Pendulum page and threw it to me to re-write. That was how I started untill he left Nigeria and I started Ovation Magazine for him in Lagos that time.
You look as handsome as ever at 60, what is the secret of this your youthful looks?
It’s just the grace of God. Again, I’m at peace with myself and with the people around me. I’m very contended with what God has blessed me with. I also try as much as possible to do away with things that could be toxic to my system.
You dress well too, what informed your style and dress sense?
To God be the glory. When I joined the media industry I was in the midst of very powerful boys. The likes of Dele Momodu, Kunle Bakare, Mayor Akinpelu, Seye Kehinde and Co. You will never catch any of these wonderful boys out there shabbily dressed. Never. And you will never find them in any place where they are doing anything that can bring reproach to their brands or the profession. They always execute their jobs with so much dignity. Dele Momodu used to tell me something, he would say “Ba se rin la koni” (dress the way you want to be addressed).
God has also blessed me with a wonderful man, Chief Bashir Akande, the owner of Opulence Creations. I think 2 years after we started Parrot Xtra Media Network, God just ministered to him to call me and have a partnership arrangement between our organizations. In the past 18 years I don’t know how much they sell clothes. If I need 10 ‘agbadas’ or whatever now I will just call him and he will deliver. We, in return, will give him advert in our publication. That’s to tell you that he’s a very good man. I’m a good man too anyways (laughs). When you are consistent you will maintain your friends, you will keep your relationships. Dele Momodu is writing the forward for the book we are launching. This is the man who gave me a note to Biodun Oduwole when I left Lagos to work at the Sketch. He’s a man with a very large heart.
So what has changed about the Yinka Agboola of that time and the present Yinka Agboola?
The only thing that has changed is that my knowledge about God is becoming deeper. I have learnt why not to rely too much on churches but to deal directly with God. I’m learning to be more attentive to what He’s telling me. And I’m saying it to those of you reading me out there to learn how to deal directly with God. God talks to all of us but it’s just that most of the time we are not attentive enough to hear Him or sometimes we just don’t listen. We must realize that we are actually nothing. It’s God that is the author and finisher of our faith. So I have learnt to be more patient so I can hear more of what God is telling me.
You have never thrown a party for your birthday. What informed the idea of having a mega celebration?
It’s unlike me I know. My people have been saying the same thing. It’s because of the business. We want to use it to reposition the Parrot Xtra Media Network. I have never staged a birthday celebration but this one, we are doing it for the business.
Share with us your experience in journalism and running of your media outfit in the last 20 years?
Wonderful! The story of how I meandered my way into journalism is interesting. My experience, maybe one or two occasions I have had reasons to escape death. There was a day I went to interview the late Chief Gani Fawehinmi. He was attending to some people and he asked us to conduct the interview inside his waiting room. The waiting room happened to be the first place you get to when you enter the house. I think it was his 60th birthday. As we were having the interview we just heard a noise from the outside. He stood up to check what it was about. There was a sliding door. He just slide it and attempted to look outside. A very big cow, one of the cows they were meant to slaughter for his birthday celebration, had escaped. In fact, it was the spirit of inquisitiveness in journalism that saved me that day. Because I was right at his back when he stood up to check what was happening. As he opened the sliding door he just withdrew back his head and stepped aside so I stepped aside too. The cow just broke the remaining part of the door and landed exactly where we were sitting, conducting the interview. Then we all ran out through where the cow came in from before it was later tamed. That was very scary. Chief Fawehinmi gave me autobiography of one of his books. It was one day I cheated death.
To what do you attribute your successful career in journalism?
The grace of God. The fact that it’s my path. It’s just my own ministry. It’s the way God wired me to be in life. When we wanted to start the Parrot Xtra Media Network I didn’t understand what God was telling me initially. After serving as Press Secretary to Dr. Lam Adesina, the late former governor of Oyo State, I returned to Tribune. I had left from Nigerian Tribune to serve as a political appointee. I spent one year. But I was never happy anytime I was going to Tribune because God kept telling me that there wasn’t a place for me there. I didn’t understand what He was telling me. I met one of my friends, Lanre Alabi, who said, “you this man, what are you doing there? Go and do something now”. Then Dayo Olomu also called me from London. We were running entertainment business together in Lagos in those days. He said, “you this man, create a niche for yourself in Ibadan, Oyo State and the South West”. I asked him how do I do that. He advised me to first get out from Tribune and get something started. So I just resigned. I didn’t have any idea of what I was going to do. I went to rent an office at Damin Plaza on Ring Road. Of course, you were there at that time too, 20 years ago. Then I couldn’t furnish the office. I didn’t have money. So I went to beg my mother, she gave me some money. I equiped the office. But it remained computer so I went to meet my senior friend and brother, Godwin Mekwuye of Vivid Imagination. He busted into a laughter when I told him that I wanted to start a newspaper. He was like, you that I gave money last week to feed your family now want to start newspaper. I left and came back to Ibadan. The following week I went back to him again. He said, “your ‘wahala’ is too much. What do you want?” I said I need to buy computer so he gave me 50,000 naira. I can never forget. A desktop computer was about 22,000 naira then. From there I went to another friend, Hassan Fatugase. He was running Bakers World in Lagos on Allen Avenue. That one too laughed. But he said, “don’t worry, I will support you with whatever I have.” So I came back to Ibadan and bought the computer. Everything was between 26,000 or 27,000 naira and I ‘shopped’ the remaining money. That was how we started like a joke.
You have not told us about the 360° turnaround from Archaeology to Journalism?
I said earlier that God has this design for everybody. Even that Archaeology that you are talking about I didn’t know what it was meant by the time I entered University of Ibadan (U.I) to study the course. I was in Nigerian Defense Academy (NDA) running my interview and all that in Kaduna, 36 regular course when my mother insisted that I must not become a soldier man. She had an Uncle in U.I that time, Chief S.M. Winsala. He was the one who got Jamb form for me. They filled the form, and they wanted a course that would be resident in U.I that fits enough. That time U.I didn’t use to admit much Jamb candidates. Meanwhile, I was also running my A-levels at the Polytechnic Ibadan. So after NDA, I just came to write the Jamb and got admitted into U.I to study Archaeology. I was just not interested at all. So half of the semester I would be in Lagos working with my Uncle, Pastor Adewale Adepoju.
What were you working as?
Some of the time I would be clerk or driver. I was just there. There was a time I was working at Construction 1, Chief Alogba as P.A to Site Engineer, Engr. Yomi Adetona.
So how did journalism come in?
By the time I graduated I had already started knowing that I knew how to write. So after NYSC in Baunchi, my friend and I got a job and a company we were running. One day they just started their troubles and burnt our office. That was what drove me back to Ibadan. But I didn’t want to stay in Ibadan. So I picked one of the cars in my father’s house and took it to Lagos. Guess what I was doing in Lagos? I was running cab business. That was how I got to meet Segun Adewale. I started picking him everyday and he started paying me. One day, he said you are educated now, come and become my manager. That was how I found myself in the entertainment industry. From there I met ‘Egbon’ Ladi Ayodeji. I later met Dele Momodu and that was how I started writing.
What has sustained the Parrot Xtra brand over the years?
It’s simply the grace of God. Again, when we started God told me that time never to use the platform to blackmail people or fight my own battles. The instruction was to celebrate people and make people happy. About three years after we started, things became so tough. Our office was at Ajeigbe that time. I just entered the office one day and told my staff of the intention to close down the place. We had about 12 desktop computers and other office effects. So I shared them to the staff one after the other. As I was getting downstairs to enter my car someone just drove and blocked my car. He said, “where are you going? I have a job for you.” I was like me that had already shut down the office. The person at that time was Reverend Ademola Moradeyo. He just brought out the money, I think about two hundred thousand naira. I collected it and looked up into the sky and started crying. Tears dropped freely. He asked me why and I told him. He then led me upstairs and prayed for us. That night as I was sleeping someone just woke me up and said, “Mr. Man, never in your life should you shut down that your ‘shop’.” That was the exact language I heard, ‘shop’. The voice said never shut it again because it doesn’t even belong to you. You are just a caretaker and as long as you listen to me, and you don’t transgress, you will continue to publish and remain in business. There has never been turning back since that time.
What is the greatest thing that journalism has done for you?
Maybe we have met people. We have generated goodwill. Let me repeat it here again that life is about generating goodwill from God and from human beings. So those of you reading me out there, life is not about generating cash. Cash can fail you but if you generate goodwill from God and human beings you are good to go.
What do you think is the hope of traditional media in the face of social media?
Well, it’s a problem that I have been trying to get people to come and even discuss and educate me. You know we run a radio show on Splash 105.5 FM. And anytime I bring media personality, especially senior ones, I try to ask them the same question. Nobody has had answer. Because nobody is doing any research. Nobody is actually looking forward. The fact is that the traditional media is dying, and we are not helping it too. Then the way our politicians have weaponized poverty is badly affecting the traditional media industry. And I know that it now depends on how creative you are and how well beloved by God you are for you to survive.
