By Bashir Adefaka
I first met Professor Fola Lasisi in Ile-Ife, Osun State, during the visit of His Eminence Alhaji Muhammadu Maccido, the 19th Sultan of Sokoto and elder brother of the sitting Sultan, His Eminence Alhaji Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar sometimes in 2003.
One day, Baba called me, “Bashiru”, I said ‘Your Excellency sir’, and he asked, “Nibo logbe wa bayi na?” Meaning, “Where are you at this time?” And I replied, “Eko ni sir” that “I am in Lagos sir”. He said, “Wa rimi were were nisin o” meaning, “Come and see me quickly” in Abeokuta and he gave me an address to come as he said not at Ashero. That was how he announced his movement from Ashero to Olusegun Obasanjo Hilltop GRA, Abeokuta, Ogun State new residence to me, adding that the relocation became necessary “because the Ashero environment was becoming noisy”.
Days later we went out together and he asked his PA to raise down the car seat behind him and go to the back to enable me sit beside him. In any outing or travel that involved me, he made sure I saw beside him in the car. Upon return, he said to me usually in Yoruba Language like father to son, “Mo ni lati bere si n support e fun ise ribiribi ti o nse funmi pelu advert. Eleyii l’a je ki won respect e ni office”, meaning that, “I have to start supporting you for the good work you are doing for me with adverts so that you will be accorded due respect in the office.” That came from the horse’s mouth (of Baba Bola Ajibola) to me at his Salmat Badru Street home and I said to myself “waoh!”
Because, all along that I was working, even up till now, my focus was never on money but to get materials for publications. It was Baba Bola Ajibola that naturally turned journalism to money for me. I remember in one year, when I looked at adverts from him for the publicity of his projects namely Crescent University Abeokuta and others, I counted 20 full coloured pages that Vanguard got through me. Although I earned respect from my bosses and colleagues in the office, the fact that I was also attracting adverts from Abeokuta made that respect huge. That was how Bola Ajibola also made me.
A night of surprise gift
One day on a Sunday evening at the tail end of 2017, my wife and I just returned from a janazah (funeral) in Ijoko and we were at home seated front of our flat when my phone rang. It was Baba Bola Ajibola, who called me in his usual way, “Bashiru” and I said, “Your Excellency sir”. He asked, “Nibo logbe wa bayi na?” Meaning, “where are you at this time?” And I replied, “Ile ni Eko ni Your Excellency sir”, that “I am in Lagos Your Excellency sir”. I lived in Ijoko, a Lagos-Ogun states boundary town community at the time before I later moved to Alagbado. And he said, “Wa rimi were were nisin o” meaning, “Come and see me quickly”, that was Abeokuta and it was never any stress for me to be there to see him as required.
That call was 6pm with no single kobo in my pocket not even in the bank. We do journalism and by the nobility and powers that are embedded in the profession, we are so very well connected but, sadly unknown to outsiders, most of the time we are poor. Some of us, who have difficulty pursuing wealth, hide our fate on natural goodwill that come to use because, we want to keep to the training and tenet of integrity based journalism that our fathers of journalism mainly Alhaji Babatunde Jose and particularly Alhaji Kola Animasaun mentored us in. Only journalists on that tenet are the ones keeping the flags of the profession flying till present but they are so poor until they, especially those that are able to make it to establishing themselves among them, are able to make money through legitimate business.
So, the likes of Prince Bola Ajibola make integrity-based journalism practice easy for us and so we were so contented even when (within us) poverty bites us to stupor. It is the oxygen that makes it possible for us to reject politicians’ or money bag’s financial advances or patronage even when we know that they have no side effect. Many a time, we have turned down helps from patronages running into several millions not for hate or anything but because we had a set time that the need for business will start. We needed to build a formidable newspaper and that we have already achieved and time for business is now.
Like I said, by the time Baba called me on phone while I was at home in Lagos, it was 6pm but by the time I got to his Hilltop GRA Abeokuta residence, it was after 8pm and I met him praying Solatul Ishai, just at a space behind his residential building near the parking lot between the house and his aides’ office block. I sat at a distance that when he finished he was able to easily see me, and without taking much time, he took me up stairs into his private office.
Why Baba called me? He said, “Lati oni lo, mo ti appoint e gege bi Press Secretary mi. Wa maa bami promote gbogbo project to nise pelu mi. Die ninu ona ti a leegba fi emi imoore han si e niyen. Omo mi daadaa ni e”, meaning, “As from today I have appointed you my Press Secretary. You will promote all projects that are connected with me. It is the little way to encourage you. You are my good son”.
I remember vividly how Baba communicated that appointment to me like when he said other things. Not only that, he said, “I want to also give you a direct cheque of N160,000 to enter motor back to Lagos” and he still gave me extra N10,000. He called Alhaji Kazeemu, “Kazeemu, bami mu cheque kekere yen wa l’egbe beedi” meaning, “Kazeemu, bring me that small cheque book by the bed side”, and he wrote it by himself that night, signed, tore off and handed the cheque leaf to me.
Remember that I came to Abeokuta on borrowed N1,000 because I had no single kobo in my pocket and I felt like it was a dream. He had always been magnanimous but that of the night in question was very unusual. I think it was result of an accumulated trust as he said to me, “Omo mi daadaa ni e”, meaning “You are my good son”.
As I went to the ground in appreciation, he said to me that “Tete yara maa wa lo, tori ile ti su”, meaning, “Come and start going because it is getting to night”. That was now 8:30pm. And he called his driver to go and drop me at the place that would be easier for me to get a CAR DROP back to Lagos. The kind of security I provided for the cheque leaf that night as I touched it often and every minute while on my way back to Lagos, it is not certain Central Bank of any nation can provide it for their trillions of currencies depending on what currencies are legal tender in their respective countries.
That was how a journalist, who despite his connections still left Lagos for Abeokuta koboless that evening, became N160,000 rich when he returned in the night. Judge Bola Ajibola knew that I was working with Vanguard and that was 2017 when he appointed me his (unstaffed) Press Secretary. But he was also exposed to global standard much enough to know that a journalist can do many jobs at a time without one causing hitches to the other, much more so that what I would be doing for him would most of the time be to be his eyes in the newspaper that I worked for. There was a Public Relations Officer in the person of Mr. Idris Katib at Crescent University Abeokuta, who was and still is staff, and so the Jurist saw me as one to be given that great opportunity.
Earlier in 2016, The DEFENDER Newspaper that he first knew with me was being planned for a return as I was already in consultation for guidance with then immediate past Ogun State Commissioner for Information and Orientation, Mr. Sina Kawonise, who was then Managing Director/Editor-in-Chief of African Compass Newspapers and who was the one that told me not to restart The DEFENDER as a print but online newspaper saying to me, “Go and stand where the world is coming and”, he added, “that is the online journalism” and it started same year 2016 but not fully.
When finally in 2017 The DEFENDER returned fully as online newspaper, I still operated in my name as his Press Secretary. One of the things I did for him was the publicity of the settlement of dispute between then Minister of Communications, Barrister AbdulRaheem Adebayo Shittu, and some people in Ibadan including his aides to show members of the public who knew about the problems that the matters should no longer be nursed as they were resolved. He did his best.
He made integrity-based journalism easy
One day, he called and told me that he had asked Crescent University PRO to give a job to a billboard company and that he also wanted me to take one for The DEFENDER. That was how The DEFENDER started having advert and he was paying me every quarter. The good news is that, all along that I have been practicing, I was never able to buy a land until The DEFENDER resumed and I was able to buy one that is now at the stage of being roofed. I have also trained and fought hard for Nigeria, my children as well as producing a Journalist among them. I have one of the children schooling outside Nigeria in a West African country.
I have been able to offer services in form of what I call social responsibility to people and have done what can best be called public defender services carrying out extra-journalism activities defending the defenceless in the society. That is why many would never believe that I am not one of the rich journalists that they think, because the little that I got from patronages of personalities like Prince Bola Ajibola, who would take me as son from day one of meeting me in an interview meeting as journalist. It is courtesy of the kind of patronages that such personalities I regard as few biggest backers of The DEFENDER have offered. Prince Bola Ajibola was one of them.
Judge Bola Ajibola (SAN) was one of the great icons that made integrity-based journalism easy for me from The DEFENDER Newspaper days to Vanguard Newspaper and back to The DEFENDER Newspaper now as Editor-in-Chief. He taught me a lot of lessons bothering largely on the legal disposition to journalism, media proprietorship and contribution to national peace, unity and development. Judge Bola Ajibola trained me by personally sitting me down and tutoring me on investigative journalism using his experience of how he got a woman revealed a truth she hid while telling lies against her husband before a court of law. I cannot vividly remember the case now but he said, “I got the woman by simply asking her to write the same statement several times” and she wrote the same word in several different ways.
Adieu a father in a million!
Just like I remember the word of Dr. Kola Adeshina, his very close aide and Head of Department of Mass Communication, Crescent University, we will talk about contributions of Prince Bola Ajibola (SAN) to our individual lives daily but they will not be exhausted.
The fact, that he personally chose a location between the Mosjidul Al-Jabbar and the IMA Hospital that he established at the heart of IMA Centre as where he wanted to be buried and the day he would die he died in the month of Ramadan, is a testimony that Prince Bola Ajibola (SAN) ended well. May Allah please forgive his shortcomings, accept all his good deeds and repose his gentle soul in Al-Jannah Firdaus. Amiin.
Adieu a father in a million!
Wishing you a safe journey Daddy but while on your way, remember that you left a son, Prince Muhammadu Bashir Olorunkemi Adefaka, behind, who will never forget the impact that you made and role you played in his life. I remember the day you called me purposely to tell me about the power and wonders of Moringa and Habatu Saudah. I remember you told me that because you now used Moringa leaf powder and Habatu Saudah you no longer used glasses to read neither used stick to walk and I saw it and also saw how you invested in 16 acres of land for the planting of Moringa for the benefit of all.
Ma asalam Daddy, until we shall meet in Al-Jannah and part no more! Good night!
