Azuka Jebose
Appreciation
As a young reporter, sent to the Punch from the Times Institute of Journalism in mid-1985, I would roam the streets all day, searching for news, and returned to the Onipetesi newsroom, occupied one of the desks and watched my new intern colleagues churned out front-page stories. I was stressed and disturbed: I had not written a published story for almost two months.
Suddenly, the world opened and my first story was a back page cover. The back page Lead read: HOSPITALS OR SLAUGHTER SLABS, an investigation of Lagos state general hospitals. The story went viral in the then electronic media. I had been welcomed as a young hot blood reporter and the newsroom recognized that there was a new hot head in the madhouse. Baba Erico , Eric Teniola, quickly embraced me.
As the News Editor, Eric Teniola expected stories from me every afternoon. I was blooming with great human-interest stories.. Those expectations boosted my confidence. So I was ruthlessly seeking human interest stories from strange and toxic places. I remember a commuter being hit and sliced into two by a train at Oshodi Train Depot. The man was attempting to out-speed a raging locomotive during rush hour but was dismembered. Other commuters gathered around his fresh remains badly decapitated . I walked through the crowd, checked his pocket for identification, got one and ran to the newsroom to write the story. The next morning, the story hung on the right front of the page. It was daring, but news…
One lazy Thursday afternoon, I came to the newsroom to be naughty and “fabu” our newsroom pool typist, Fausat. During my silly disturbances with her, I overheard Ladi Ayodeji complaining about a badly written review of the Disco 80 competition by the reporter he assigned to cover the event.
There was a disco dance competition inside the National Arts Theater in Lagos sometime in 1985… A friend invited me to this popular entertainment event. In the heat of Thursday’s production, Ladi ayodeji, the entertainment editor complained to Eric Teniola that the reporter sent to cover the event could not submit a well-written review. I immediately volunteered that I also attend the event. Ladi asked if I could do a review. I did not know what a review was. But I went to my desk and wrote a “review’ within two hours. Ladi was impressed. He had discovered a hidden jewel: me!!!!
I came to The Punch newspaper as a young restless intern reporter aggressively seeking anything news. I was also seriously flirting with the entertainment desk at the newspaper’s Onipetesi office. Ladi Ayodeji went to the news editor, Eric Teniola’s desk one late afternoon and requested that I be assigned to his celebrated Saturday Highlife weekly entertainment desk.
Teniola, flatly refused saying: “No, I can’t give you Jebose, he is one of our young resilient reporters and very aggressive.”
The next morning, ‘Baba Erico’, as we all called him, transferred me to the Lagos office, out of sight of the envious Ayodeji. My assignment was to assist the City Editor, Feyi Smith. I resumed at the Marina office during the closing days of Fela’s currency exchange violation trial by a military tribunal.
After Fela’s trial, I was sent back to Onipetesi and rejoined Ladi Ayodeji at the Entertainment desk. Kafui Gale Zoyiku and Alozie Uzoukwu were also Entertainment reporters, stringing for Ladi when I returned. Ladi welcome me to the Saturday Highlife Desk. Alozie, Kafui and I became a three-man Entertainment reporter-gang for Saturday Highlife Desk.
Saturday Highlife was a lively and exciting Entertainment weekend tucked in the center spread of the Punch: a breezy and fascinating show business celebrity pull-out. Our desk was a mini celeb hang-out for the famous, seekers of fame and fortune, and also for keepers of fame and fancy. Our desk was hotter than any events theatre as musicians and popular societies best stumped and stopped by our Desk for interviews or just a regular visit that would feature them in our weekend center spread.
Alozie and Ladi were full-time staff of The Punch. But Kafui and I were freelancers. After my internship, The Punch retained me as a freelance reporter. I loved the scenes and the beats of wild entertainment journalism and Ladi Ayodeji, as my Editor, encouraged me to ride on the wild side. Ladi Ayodeji would later resign to pursue his desire of an entertainment magazine. A few months after his resignation, he birthed BEATS ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY.Kafui and I followed Mr Ayodeji to the Beats.
Long before Ladi Ayodeji turned entertainment journalism into an exciting lively and breathtaking center spread pull out in the Punch, there were other entertainment Editors such as Victor Oduah of the Observer, Dean Disi who also edited SATURDAY HIGHLIFE, Fola Arogundade of the Vanguard, Tony Amadi, AFRICA MUSIC.
Ladi’s impact on Nigerian entertainment journalism is immense. He transformed the landscape with his engaging and witty writing style, making entertainment journalism “sexy, attractive, and breathing”. His gossip column, TALKAHOLIC, was a must-read for celebrities and entertainers.
Ladi Ayodeji discovered my talent as a young fine entertainment journalist. He took a risk in me, He gave me every opportunity. He created a pathway for me and led me through that path which defined my career as an entertainment journalist in Nigeria’s entertainment journalism.
Please join me in celebrating Ladi Ayodeji’s remarkable life and career. May his 70th birthday be filled with love, joy, and appreciation for his contributions to Nigerian entertainment journalism!