24092020 - BLACK WEDNESDAY: 30 killed in Kogi petrol tanker explosion

Vanguard, THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 2020 — 21
By OYEYINKA OLUDAYISI
FABOWALE
If you never believed
there’s a strong spiritual
link between man and
his name, you are bound
to reappraise or jettison your
doubt after reading Chief
Olusegun Osoba’s
autobiography, Battlelines.
From higher spiritual
knowledge, it is known that
the name is more than a label
but encapsulates the innate
gifts, qualities, abilities the
bearer brings upon
incarnating and often
presages his path of destiny in
life. A person is, therefore,
what his name says.
As a child, Osoba, may not
have been aware of the
significance and potency of
his name, Olusegun (which
means God triumphs or simply
Victor). Neither, perhaps, did
his parents, even if they had a
vague sensing of it, realized
why the child’s maternal
uncle the famous and
redoubtable Evangelist and
faith healer, Apostle Ayo
Babalola, charged that he be
addressed solely by this
particular appellation of the
many beautiful ones he took
at his christening.
But the import of the
prophet’s admonition was to
unravel later in the life of the
lad, in the many battles he
had to fight as an iconic
newsman, politician and
former governor of Ogun State
in effort to distinguish himself
and help foster a better society,
first, as a career reporter,
media manager, boardroom
player, and then in politics
and ultimately governance!
Battlelines is the story of the
transit of an exceptionally
brilliant, vibrant, albeit naive
young man and his fortuitous
immersion into the sociopolitical
dynamics and
machinery that determine the
affairs of the Nigerian nation
for almost all of its 60 years,
but essentially during critical
phases and potentially
disruptive junctures of
national history.
It is the tale of a battle of
passion, of patriotism and
treachery, selflessness and
betrayal, of service, wins and
setbacks at the end of which,
despite the travails, emerges
the portrait of an apparently
misunderstood patriot!
Although autobiographies
are most often nothing but
revisionist exercises at image
laundering and/or distorting
historical facts, the Osoba in
this account does not fall too
far away from the image of him
in the public domain, or that
one has a fair personal
knowledge of.
Neither is there any
significant departure from the
integrity of the truth with
respect to his own side and
views on controversies in
which he was embroiled, some
of which, in fact, are in the
public domain. Far from being
a vainglorious and
extenuating run, Battlelines is
a moving story presented in a
classic, credible journalistic
reporting traditions that does
Osoba great credit as an
accomplished professional.
The narrative evidences
adherence, as much as
possible, to ethical rules of
objectivity, balance and
fairness as the author gives
A review of Battlelines: Adventures
in Journalism and Politics
equal or more generous vent
to criticisms and opposing
views only contesting or
countering them and
advancing the frontiers of the
arguments by divulging fresh,
illuminating facts including
documentary proofs.
Although he was vindicated in
the end despite his trials,
Osoba’s narrative is,
remarkably, devoid of any
strain of gloating!
Told in three parts and spread
over 19 chapters, the first
section of the book captures
the preparation of the
renowned journalist -turned
politician for the campaigns
ahead of him – from Osogbo,
where he was born and
nurtured in Yoruba and
Christian values to Abeokuta
and Lagos where he grew into
an
adventurous,
sporty and
street -wise
adolescent.
His being a
s c h o o l
prefect,
academic
brilliance,
sporting
prowess,
activism in the
intrepid,
Boys’ Scout
Movement at the
Methodist Boys
High School
(MBHS), one of the
prestigious
secondary schools
in Lagos then,
combined with the
circle of peers and
some of Nigeria’s
noble and influential
families among whom
he grew up as well as
vast network of eminent
friends and contacts in
commanding heights of
different spheres of
national life he later
cultivated, laid the
foundation for his success in
his later forays and
intervention in journalism and
politics.
This section also reported his
stellar career rise and
invaluable contributions to
journalism beginning from
Daily Times where he cut his
professional teeth and
became one of Nigerian
journalism’s finest and
reporting legends, editor and
later Managing Director and
Chief Executive of the
newspaper conglomerate; to
his stint, after being headhunted,
at the Kwara State
Government-owned Herald
newspapers; and the
crusading journalism era at
the Ibadan -based Sketch
newspapers where he was
General Manager before
returning to the Daily Times
for a second sojourn.
The reader is awed at how,
despite
perceived
professional envy, intrigues
and persecution, Osoba, with
some of the best education
received from ivy league
journalism institutions across
the world including the
University of Lagos; Fleet
Street, England and Harvard
University, Boston USA,
tenaciously fought his way up
to the peak of the career
ladder, using the press to
promote social justice,
fairness, good governance
and public good.
In the process of course, he
inevitably acquired the tag of
being controversial. The book
highlights and addresses
some of the incidents that led
to this. Notable among them
were his alleged role in the
sacking of Chief
AreoyeOyebola whom he
succeeded as Editor of Daily
Times in the aftermath of the
Murtala/Obasanjo coup d’etat
in 1975; purported partisan
use of the press to
advance
the
political
cause of the
progressives and late sage,
Chief Obafemi Awolowo, on
It is the tale of a
battle of passion, of
patriotism and
treachery,
selflessness and
betrayal, of service,
wins and setbacks
at the end of
which, despite the
travails, emerges
the portrait of an
apparently
misunderstood
patriot!
account of his friendship with
the nationalist and elder
statesman; his alleged
dubious claim of
Kwaraindigeneship to clinch
the Herald top job; as well as
plots to rob him of his
appointment as General
Manager, Sketch, after a
competitive board interview,
and another later to
unceremoniously ease him off
the Daily Times MD seat
during the Gen. Ibrahim
Babangida’s military era.
Also documented later in the
book were his alleged betrayal
of Frank Kokori, the NUPENG
Secretary General who was
the linchpin of the labour
strike and resistance to Gen.
Sani Abacha’s dictatorship,
his perceived treachery in the
Afenifere fold that
purportedly led to the 2003
massive electoral defeat of the
Alliance for Democracy in the
South West and more.
The author reveals his side of
the story corroborating it with
compelling and incontestable
facts from confidential and
official memos, press reports
and other archival documents,
while also citing living
witnesses to exonerate
himself of any wrongdoing
and set the record straight.
This section also details the
era in which Osoba devoted
his vocation to fighting for
social justice and promote
progressive politics. Two
incidents come to mind – the
illegal deportation of Alhaji
Abdulrahman Shugaba and
impeachment/removal
from office of the then
Kaduna State radical
governor, Alhaji Balarabe
Musa.
Part two of the book
chronicles the author’s
friendship with and
political tutelage
under Chief Awolowo
as well as his
eventual plunge into
partisan politics.
Here, the reader
comes to see how
the late elder
statesman’s
lifestyle and
political ideology won
Osoba as a disciple and
influenced his politics and
stint in government.
We are also introduced to
how he became friends with
the late Chief MKO Abiola,
although a kinsman but
hitherto a sworn foe, whose
battle to become the President
of Nigeria he was to champion
even at the risk of his own life
before and during the
Abacha’s bloody dictatorship!
This section also records his
role and life as a fugitive under
the repressive regime of the
late tyrant and usurper, while
fighting as a National
Democratic Coalition
(NADECO) chieftain for the
validation the June 12, 1993
presidential electoral victory
of Chief Abiola.
In between these sections, is
an intermission wherein the
author recalls how he met his
wife “BereDerinola”, to whom
he pays so much tribute for his
numerous successes and
escape from several
assassination attempts by
Abacha’s goons!
Part 3 captures Osoba’s rule
and legacies as governor of
Ogun State, which, however,
he suggests his successor and
opponents tried to obliterate,
deny him due credit and
persecute him for. This
concluding part of the riveting
story sheds light on the rift in
Afenifere, his rumoured sellout
of the of Awolowo disciples
to former President Olusegun
Obasanjo and controversial
role in his party, Alliance for
Democracy’s (AD)
monumental loss in the 2003
general elections in the South
West.
It winds up with an account
of the formation and
ascendancy of the All
Progressives Congress (APC)
to power in 2015. The
narrative, however, drips with
Osoba’s regrets of unfulfilled
vision and promises that the
reign of the party since its
ascendancy to power has
been, which he blames on
subversion of the ruling
party’s ideals and
misdirection of its noble goals.
Traveling through the book,
one cannot but acknowledge
Chief Osoba as a master prose
stylist and journalistic
craftsman. Apart from putting
to effective use the flashback
technique, opening the story
from the midriff only to plunge
into the beginning and
relaunching into a
chronological build-up,
occasionally and ingeniously
disrupted by anecdotal
switches across epochs, not
enough could be said of the
author’s racy and breezy
narrative style which makes
the book unputdownable!
But most importantly,
perhaps, is his professional
adroitness in avoiding the
pitfall of prejudice, bias and
self-adulation common to
many self -narrated accounts.
In Battlelines, there is hardly
any perceptible self -
extenuation, or attempt by the
author to deodorize or paint
himself as a saint. Rather,
Osoba readily and candidly
admits to his humanness and
fallibility. To critics’ attacks,
scurrilous tales and gossips he
offers explanations and
counter arguments with an
uncanny force of logic and
corroborative factual
evidence.
In the end, emerges a man of
rare professional talent, a
conscientious leader,
consumate patriot and
champion, who although
badly bruised, certainly ran
away with the diadem as one
who came, saw and
conquered!
It is good that Chief Osoba
thought of gifting the world
with this book. With its literary
appeal, scholarly depth and
profound insights especially
into the undercurrents of
landmark events in the life of
the nation postindependence,
it’s an
invaluable reference resource
not only for historians and
students and practitioners of
politics and journalism, but
also for the general reader
interested in issues of nationbuilding
and development.
·Fabowale is the Editor of
Newspeak magazine