On Scales and Balances
By Yinka Fabowale
My career as the Oyo State correspondent benefitted immensely from the magnanimity of my departing colleagues. Although they could not wait to personally introduce me to their news sources because their resumption in Lagos was overdue, they passed me a directory in the office containing a list of who-was-who in the diverse spheres of life including leading political figures, past and serving top government functionaries, among them governors, ministers, legislators, business leaders, intellectuals, professionals, etc, on which I leveraged and added new ones I went on to cultivate on my own.
The Guardian Express reporter, Ademola Adeyemo (now deceased) and two stringers –Austin Uganwa and one Adeniyi whom I met in Ibadan gave no room for me to get complacent with equally robust exclusive reports they filed, using the advantage of their knowledge and familiarity with the terrain.
Recognition soon came from within and without the organisation. Barely three years in Ibadan, I won the Best Reporter of the Year Award of the Oyo State Council of the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ), breaking a veteran Punch reporter, Mr. Lere Fagbola’s three-year serial win of the professional prize, a feat I repeated the following year.
When finally The Guardian became the indisputable authority on ASUU and education reporting in the state, on leadership wrangling and undercurrents in the state’s council of traditional rulers, when the newspaper was the most sought- after medium where to read, among other interesting things, expert views, opinions and incisive analyses on national, economic and other germane issues by notable and influential personalities in the state, when an exclusive report of a plot by the Ibadan political elites to clip his wing and overarching influence in the politics of the state could upset the illiterate albeit powerful Alhaji Lamidi Adedibu, enough for the self-styled “strongman” to order my abduction amid threats by his thugs and loyalists in government mentioned as characters in the story to ‘neutralize’ me, when my stories and byline stopped from fitfully appearing and became a regular contender for space on the front and back pages of the newspaper and I could predict with almost accurate precision how the editors would treat them based on worth, then I knew I could now indulge the thought that professionally, my pupa had grown into a butterfly!
But, nothing gave me greater joy than my bosses’ good impressions of my work. One day I got a phone call from Anikulapo, who told me his unit just held a meeting in the course of which the Editor looked in. Izeze, the Arts Editor said, had, while evaluating the productivity of some of the reporters, chided them, remarking on how I, with my regular schedule as a state correspondent, competed and challenged them with what he called my prolific and quality contributions to the arts page.
Pleased, I asked Anikulapo why he didn’t tell the boss I was first an arts reporter and that he had encouraged me by publishing my reviews on arts exhibitions, stage production, books and coverage of literary and cultural activities. Anikulapo, with whom I had covered the culture sector while in Lagos Horizon, had, discussed with me the need to widen the geographical spread of arts reporting, which, he observed was confined mainly to Lagos because most state correspondents did little or nothing about it. My being in Ibadan, he reasoned, could save the company resources required in sending reporters down to cover occasional major events as done with other states.
Then, there was the general memo by Mrs. Lawrence singling Banji Ayoola (Akure Correspondent) and I out as the only reliable outstation reporters who not just always responded to requests for inputs from the states into pool feature stories, but also regularly fed the Features Desk with worthy and independent contributions.
I also often got phone calls from Adedigba praising my stories which he described as “deep”, even as I joyfully looked forward to constant pestering from Mr. Kingsley Osadolor, Editor of The Guardian on Sunday and Mr. Gbenga Omotoso, Editor Guardian Express, to do “the kind of thing” I did for one or the other.
Proof that I had become accepted as a valued member of The Guardian also manifested in tremendous goodwill by bosses and colleagues alike at critical moments of my career. And when the Editor, Mr. Izeze, referred to me as “a reporter of your standing in The Guardian” in the sole instance of censure by him for a perceived professional negligence, I happily took the rebuke as a compliment. Till date, I still debate if my archive is where that memo belongs or on my wall as glazed decoration or medal!
Concluded
