With hillcrest hope of getting a new job in my dream newspaper, I sauntered into the expansive newsroom of The Guardian this sunny Friday afternoon in April 1994. My mission was clear: to see the then editor of the now rested Guardian Express, the much-sort after evening tabloid of The Guardian stable, Mr. Gbenga Omotoso, who is the current Lagos State Commissioner for Information and Strategy.
Armed with a colourful, glittering complimentary card of my uncle, Prince Emmanuel Daramola, a then operative of the dreaded military-era State Security Service (SSS) and Omotoso’s senior at Ajuwa Grammar School, Okeagbe-Akoko, Ondo State, I was ushered into the newsroom from the reception after a brief intercom phone call by the receptionist.
Omotoso’s secretary, Dan, a clean-shaved elderly man, breezed into his office and breezed out within seconds and in a clear tone, said, “you can go in.”
Sitting confidently behind a table littered with heaps of offcuts with stories written in different handwriting, newspapers and other materials and a cup of steaming hot tea in his front, Omotoso warmly welcomed me to his moderate-sized, chilly office.
After collecting the complimentary card and reading what my uncle wrote on the flip side, he told me to bring my Curriculum Vitae (CV) the following Monday. Within minutes, I was out of his office, satisfied. The encounter was brief but very enchanting. It marked the beginning of my a little less than a decade journey to The Guardian newspapers.
Unexpectedly, within two weeks of submitting my CV and starting work as a “test candidate”, The Guardian’s way of testing the ability and capability of anybody seeking a job as a reporter in its establishment, which usually lasted for four weeks, I was hired as a full-time reporter on The Guardian Express desk, having been a staff writer with The Republic newspapers for four years before then. The dream I had right from my undergraduate days in the University of Lagos (UNILAG) in the mid-1980’s had been fulfilled, courtesy of Omotoso.
The period I worked under this gentleman, whose birthday is today, was one of the most fulfilled years of my journalism career, for he laid a rock-solid foundation for me to build an exciting career.
With the likes of ebullient Joe Idika; the late Nnamdi Inyama; gentleman Gbenga Ohiani-Jegede; man of a few words Dokun Omojola, now a university don; the brief and quarrelsome Ibe Uwaleke; gentle giant Austin Agbonsuremi; fast-talking David Ogar; Idowu Ajanaku, who resumed same day with me in Guardian Express, and a few other reporters under Omotoso, we took the tabloid to greater heights before the dark-goggled late General Sani Abacha’s heavy hammer fell on The Guardian stable, leading to the death of the evening publication.
However, with Omotoso as our editor in The Metro Section of The Guardian daily, where some of us in Guardian Express were moved to after the reopening of the establishment, we soldiered on as a formidable team.
His red ink with which he marked our stories never ran dry. He was the quintessential editor that even if your brain was made of sawdust, you would be forced to learn under him.
Gradually, our relationship moved from the realm of an editor and his reporter to that of brothers. And as part of my training as a reporter under his tutelage, Omotoso would bombard me with difficult assignments that made me to traverse Badagry to Ibeju-Lekki, Ikorodu, Ijebu-Ode, Ijebu-Igbo, Ilodo, Iperu-Remo, Ikenne, Sagamu, Ibadan, Oyo town, Kogi State, Ekiti and several other towns and many parts of the Lagos metropolis.
After leaving The Guardian as its Saturday editor, he had wanted me to come along with him to The Comet where he was the pioneer editor, but I politely turned down the request for personal reasons. Then as the pioneer editor of The Nation when The Comet changed ownership, Omotoso invited me again as an assistant editor (features), an invitation I honoured this time.
Even when I left the newsroom for the corporate world after pioneering the Nigerian Compass with others, Omotoso stood with me like the Rock of Gibraltar. His unflinching support contributed in no small measure to my success as the head of corporate communications of Bi-Courtney Aviation Services Limited, operators of the Murtala Muhammed Airport Two (MMA2), Lagos. He was there for me like a father would for a toddler trying to learn how to walk. Even up till now, I keep drinking from his ceaseless fountain of knowledge.
Omotoso’s contributions to my family have made us achieve what we would ordinarily not have achieved, for he keeps supporting us unconditionally. To us, his compassion knows no bounds.
Testimonies also abound of how he has been quietly supporting many organisations and individuals and how he has been giving water to quench many people’s thirst.
While some men are easily intoxicated by power, position or money, Omotoso remains his humble and easily accessible self as a two-term commissioner for information and strategy under the administration of Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu of Lagos State, where he is discharging his duties in a unique and professional way expected of a man of his calibre. And this is adding immense value to the Sanwo-Olu administration.
While to those of us whose paths crossed his in journalism, he remains our “Editor”, to his old school and classmates, as well as his friends, he is simply Gbenga or “Gbengulu”.
Born on November 11, 1961, Omotoso, who hails from Ada, Osun State and a multiple award-winning journalist, editor and columnist, obtained a Bachelor of Arts (B.A. Hons) degree in English and Literature from the University of Benin (UNIBEN) in 1984 and a Masters degree in Public and International Affairs from UNILAG in 2007.
He has won many awards in the course of his career, including the DAME Award in 2010, the Nigeria Media Merit Award (NMMA) Editor of the Year in 2013, 2015 and 2017, among others.
As you celebrate your special day today, I wish you the best in good health and sound mind. God Almighty will keep you for long to continue contributing to the development of your fatherland. Happy birthday Editor and Honourable Commissioner, Sir.
Chief Omolale, a journalist and media consultant, can be reached via somolale@gmail.com.
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