KALU LEADERSHIP SERIES BUILDING FUNCTIONAL EXECUTIVE/ LEGISLATURE SYNERGY August 11, 2012 Vol.9 No.502
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Fashola’s father of all tributes PressClips BY MIKE AWOYINFA mikeawoyinfa@gmail.com 08051271177 (SMS only)
O
h, what a night it was! A night that was my biggest night as a journalist. A night of knighthood and tributes. A night that gave me the assurance that in choosing journalism, I chose the right profession. A profession God chose for me from the early beginnings. An Olympic night it was indeed. And there at the Banquet Hall of Sheraton, Ikeja, I stood on the podium like an athlete who had just won a gold medal in the Olympics of life. Tears welled in my eyes. Tears of joy. The emotion was too powerful. Now, I know why athletes cry when the flag is unfurled and their national anthem is played in a rare moment of history and accomplishment. From far and near, from the past and present, they came to honour me. Inside that hall gathered the crème de la crème of Nigerian journalism, editors, past and present, hall-of-fame journalists, my colleagues from the Concord Group and Weekend Concord days, my colleagues from The Sun where I once served as the pioneer managing director and editor-in-chief, commissioners and special advisers representing the governors of Lagos, Delta, Ogun, Osun, Kwara and Ekiti States; my colleagues from the print and electronic media, my friends from the corporate world, my lord bishop and pastors, my family and loved ones, my fans and readers. Aremo Olusegun Osoba, one of Nigeria’s finest journalists and a consummate reporter was the chairman of the occasion. And on the high table was Dr. Doyin Abiola, the woman who gave me the chance to edit the Weekend Concord, an idea which she originated and asked me to captain into roaring success. And the rest, as they say, is history. My friend and brother, Dimgba Igwe had planned a dinner of 100 Mike Awoyinfa friends but it turned out that more than expected, people came, overcrowding the place. It became inevitable that some people just had to be turned back, something for which I
apologise. It was a night that far exceeded all our expectations. There were tributes upon tributes, with speaker after speaker describing Mike Awoyinfa as thorough-bred professional who changed the face of journalism in Nigeria with his human angle approach to journalism. We give God all the glory! It was not all praises. For Dimgba Igwe, it turned out to be Mike Awoyinfa’s Day of Judgment. He had not come just to praise Caesar but to tell the world about Mike Awoyinfa, the bad boy who used to sleep out on Thursdays in the days of the Weekend Concord, pretending to be doing “production night.” As a biographer, Igwe says he believes more in the white man’s tell-it-all style than the black man’s praise-singing biographical style. But then, Igwe also said some nice things about me for which I am thankful. He went into the deep recesses of my past to recapture things, some of which I had even forgotten. Beware of your closest friend who knows too much about you, especially if he is also a writer! I thank Mr.
Igwe for hosting me to a night of feasting and tributes and thanksgiving to God for the 60 years of adventurism in journalism. May I use this forum to thank everybody for all the nice things said about me during this period of my 60th birthday celebrations. I hear there will be a Mike Awoyinfa Colloquium on Tabloid Journalism on August 15, organized by City People magazine. Thank you Seye Kehinde, a young man who has also blazed a trail in Nigerian journalism, for this surprising honour. My dearly beloved, I thank you all for your gifts, for your tributes, for your prayers and your good wishes as I move into another phase of my life. For those who are not yet 60, I pray that you will reach 60 and far beyond. The bullet of the enemy will not hit you. I thanked you all at Sheraton and I am thanking you again. In my thank-you speech, I ended with a note from Steve Nwosu, the journalist who survived a bullet in the head. Shortly after reading my column on him last week, he sent me this moving text message: “The night I was shot and I discovered that I was alive, I knelt down to pray, but just did not know what to tell God. I simply cried. This morning, when they brought a copy of The Sun to me, I felt the same way. I don’t always know how to say thank you. But I have managed to ask God to help me say thanks to you, and everything that is anything to you.” *** Beloved members of Press Clips Pentecostal Church, there were tributes from people in high and low places, but perhaps, the most outstanding came from the no-non-
sense Governor of Lagos State, Babatunde Raji Fashola which was read at the Sheraton the venue of the 60th birthday dinner. The Fashola we all know is not a politician who plays with his words, but a principled man of integrity, a great leader and an achiever in our great nation. He is a man I have great respect for and to think that he equally has respect for me is a nirvana. I will keep this message, frame it and hang it on my wall as my national honour: “TRULY A LEGEND”—A TRIBUTE TO MIKE AWOYINFA AT 60 The measure of a man’s worth must surely be the legend he becomes in his lifetime, his ability to reinvent and keep reinventing himself and in the legacies he leaves behind when he eventually meets his maker. Over the last few days, I have read with interest and admiration, how journalist after journalist; themselves of no mean repute, have showered acclamations on you as their boss, friend and brother. Every tribute I have read, recounts in enviable glowing terms how you influenced, mentored, taught, encouraged and acknowledged. How you were generous with your praise and unafraid to share the spotlight. This speaks to a most uncommon largeheartedness that is probably the most compelling reason for you had such a positive impact in your chosen profession; and on your superiors, peers and subordinates alike. Those of us who are not of the journalistic bent also have our own story to tell. How you singlehandedly shaped our appreciation for weekend journalism when you headed the Weekend Concord newspaper and quite literally laid the foundation upon which the magazine-like newspaper that sits so well on a relaxed Saturday morning or Sunday afternoon, was built. Of course, since our paths recently crossed, I have had the privilege of observing your skills at close quarters. Truly, I testify to your professionalism. On behalf of my wife, Abimbola, I wish you a very happy 60th birthday, many happy returns and many more years of literary excellence. Happy Birthday! Babatunde Raji Fashola SAN Governor of Lagos State
Ramadan Talk Prophet Muhammad said: “One of you will not have (perfect) faith until he desires for his brother what he desires for himself.”
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