Folu Olamiti: Salute To A Mentor Extraordinaire !! By Prof Adeolu Akande
Folu Olamiti: Salute To A Mentor Extraordinaire !! By Prof Adeolu Akande.
Salute to a mentor extraordinaire.
Several weeks ago, I visited a beloved mentor at home. When he told me he would turn 70 in November, I was shocked. As I left his house and made my calculations backward, I was struck by how fast time passes. Reporters and staffers in his Sunday Tribune office had planned a surprise birthday celebration for him in 1991. That was 30 years ago! Mr Folu Olamiti is 70!
I first met him in 1988. I was a postgraduate student at the University of Ibadan driven by my passion for journalism and the pressure to seek funding to pursue the programme. I had drafted a piece I thought would be suitable for publication. I had overestimated the price the article could fetch, but after meeting Mr. Olamiti, I still went away confident that if I could write regularly, I would be fine. At N10 per published article,I was hopeful about eking out a living with a sizeable number of publication.His demeanor was quiet, but he was warm. An exceptional journalist. Over time, he made me a regular contributor.
In 1990, I was hired as a Social Science editor at Heinemann Educational Books on a monthly salary of N700. My responsibilities were desk-bound and I felt bored. I approached Mr Olamiti for work and he promptly acceded. No letter of introduction or test was needed. This was how my formal training in reporting began. It came with a salary of N580/month, which was N120 less than what I earned at Heinemann. Yet, I was deeply grateful to “the People’s editor”, as we fondly called him, upon joining the Sunday Tribune family.
His journalistic instincts and keen ear for news were nonpareil. There was a weekend when the reporters lamented a lack of news. Olamiti spontaneously came up with a story about the new price of a brand new Peugeot 504 car.The screaming headline was “Peugeot 504 now N81,000”! . It was a hit that provoked several newspaper editorials and cartoons.
He remains one of the most well-connected people I have ever met. He knows everyone worth knowing in Nigeria. Whenever he sends you on an assignment, he hands you a long list of people who can help you accomplish it. And these people are spread out all over Nigeria.
His office was a newsroom of its own. With a quick tap of his old telephone, he was able to confirm any story. He was a boss who introduced you to the most influential people in Nigeria. He could go to the ends of the earth in search of a story.He was a master of exclusive stories.
When you returned to the office after an assignment, he would ask you what was the news in what your host said. Of course a reporter in training would most likely have missed it. He would bang on his table and let out a hearty laugh. “This is the story!” he would thunder. And you would marvel at how that did not occur to you.
We had many disagreements. As an idealistic fresh graduate of Political Science grounded in the theories of Karl Marx, Engel, Frantz Fanon etc, I held opinions different from his on many occasions . Sometimes, he denied us the opportunity to pursue certain stories. When I recall many of those encounters today, I shudder at the thought of the things he knew but could simply not tell when he laboured to convince us to drop some story lines. O ni oun ti oju agba ri ti o fi ko wole!
Among those he mentored and whose careers have prospered are Segun Olatunji and Edward Dickson (who in succession became Managing Directors of the Nigerian Tribune), Dele Momodu, Yinka Adelani, Seye Kehinde, Laolu Akande, Wale Adebanwi, Bode Opeseitan, Festus Adedayo, Bare Ayankola, Modupe Asenuga, Lasisi Olagunju,Tinu Ayanniyi, Dapo Ogunwusi, Yinka Olujimi, Wale Ojo-Lanre, … I could go on and on.
May God bless him and the generations after him.
