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MEDIA ALL THE WAY
I spent 36 years in professional journalism - 1967 to 2003. I was first employed by the Sketch in Ibadan in September 1967. Mr. T. A. Awobokun, General Manager of the Sketch Publishing Company as it was known then, offered me the position of “editorial assistant”, which was not a vacancy in the paper’s editorial department.
Having graduated from Lagos University in June 1967 and determined not to work in Lagos, I had gone to Ibadan where the Sketch was just 3 years old. The “graduate journalist” was not the norm then. The British system of training was the preferred preparatory route to professional journalism in Nigeria.
Mr. Awobokun asked me how I came to like journalism. And I told him I had written articles for my secondary school magazine, The Trumpeter of the Baptist Boys High School, Abeokuta. His countenance changed; he had also attended B.B.H.S, Abeokuta and had indeed been the first editor of Sunday Times in 1953. ( I was to later edit the Sunday Times from 1976 to 1980).
Mr. Awobokun decided to employ me, but was not going to start me in a graduate’s salary. Instead of £720, which was a new graduate’s salary, he offered me £684, but pledged that if I gave a good account of myself, he would increase my salary to £804 in three months, so my next raise was not to wait until one year review. He not only proved true to his pledge; he paid me slightly higher even before the 3- month period.
This book, MEDIA ALL THE WAY, is mainly a collection of my columns over the 36 years of professional practice - Sketch, Times, OPEC, Voice Of Nigeria, and also my tenure as press secretary to President Olusegun Obasanjo (2001-2003). During my career, I wrote for Concord and I also worked with Comet and Anchor as chairman, Editorial Board at their inception.
I got into column writing when I did not expect to start by any stretch of imagination. Rather early in my SKETCH days, and as I ploughed my way as a beginner, the editor of Sunday Sketch then, late Jide Adeleye, who thought I belonged to less rambunctious professions than journalism, said he had been asked by Mr. Awobokun to tell me to start a column.
I began more as an act of compliance than in a gale of enthusiasm. In fact my early columns were more in foreign affairs. Gradually and with comments from readers, I got my feet back home in Nigerian issues.
I kept writing though, throughout my professional career, whether at home or abroad. I have, with a lot of assistance, been able to assemble the columns and make a selection which I have divided into themes. I had entered journalism during the Nigerian Civil War (1967-1970) and have practiced no other profession till year 2003 when the first term of President Obasanjo’s two terms ended.
For me, it has been solely journalism... hence the title, MEDIA ALL THE WAY. The idea of putting the column and writings together in book form had come from my younger brother, Adeboye Oseni, now resident in Los Angeles, USA. He had practiced in Nigeria in both print and broadcast journalism, his last beat being at Dodan Barracks - seat of the Presidency then in Lagos - as a correspondent for Sketch. My friend in many respects, Peter Ajayi, was also instrumental to bringing the idea to fruition. The good offices of Mr. T.F. Familusi have also facilitated this undertaking.
My wife and daughters – Funmi, Ranti and Dolapo - have also had to make sacrifices, as have my hosts when I stayed in the US in the early part of year 2004 - Dr. & Mrs. Bolaji Onabajo and their daughter, Opeyemi. I have divided the book into twelve chapters for convenience and in the hope that the readers would find the compartmentalization agreeable, and easier for their own preferences.
I have chosen the chapters as: PRESS, GOVERNANCE, PUBLIC AFFAIRS, YOUTH, SOCIAL ISSUES, TRANSITION 1998/99, OPEC, TRAVELOGUE/DIARIES, FOREIGN AFFAIRS, INTERNATIONAL BROADCASTING, INTERVIEWS, and PORTRAITS.
Going through the writings, I have been struck by the fact that many of the challenges before our country in the 1960s and 70s are still with us today; the state of our public utilities, corruption, politicians’ performances, economic challenges, and bad Government administration, etc.
This raises several questions, including our gain by continuing to feature them? How useful is the whole exercise of falling back to history? What new approach should we forge? I believe that as long as our problems remain with us, we have no choice but to continue to re-visit them through analysis, new insight and unrelenting effort to find solutions. It is no viable alternative to either stop thinking them through or simply throwing up our hands in frustration. We cannot give up. Our country cannot move forward that way.
Is history useful? Yes. Without knowing where we are coming from, we may have an insufficient grasp about what constitutes wholesome solutions. It is also humbling for the diligent mind to know that today’s challenges are not all that novel. It is one way to understanding the human mind better.
I should mention that the selections in this volume have not been arranged chronologically. More emphasis has been laid on thematic symmetry - that is ensuring that the issue discussed belongs to the chapter in which it appears. Sometimes, by bringing individual write- ups together, it has been seen that a sequence develops on its own.
I do wish the reader of this collection a pleasurable reading. I’ve engaged similar collections not by reading “from cover to cover” at a stretch but by picking a few pages at random as circumstances permit.
Tunji Oseni
Contact: 0802 350 8533, 0802 778 8888, 0803 360 2887
Contact: +234-802 350 8533, +234-802 778 8888, +234-803 360 2887
OR +234-872-0238
Soft Cover $20 (N2,000), Hard Cover $30 (N3000)
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