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I read you very often

Published by The Nation on Sat, 15 Jun 2019


Columnists are not the toast of many people anywhere. You know why' It is just their fate to be lampooned now and again by those to whom truth is an anathema. It is not their tenses they detest, nor their raison detre they abhor. They are simply loathed because such people prefer privilege to principle and unrighteousness to righteousness.But which columnist cares' So long as your writings conform to all known and unwritten laws of fairness, propriety and good sense, sentiments be damned as columnists survey their environments to deliver fair comment and run hilarious and informative commentaries on topical issues of the moment.Of course, and to be sure, not all readers of a column are myopic and jaundiced-eyed not to appreciate good and sensible writings when they see them. Which delights any worthy writer whose sole aim is to advance the cause of good order in any society.Like the quintessential judge, for a columnist to be respected and admired, he must be versed in the law, be sober, objective, analytical and just in his interventions, such that at the end of the day, the writer is not judged harshly by sane and objective minds.To the extent that he is human, this columnist tries to be himself; true to his conscience and his omnipresent God, and to earn his place in this land, as did William Neil Connor, the great British columnist of his time known as Cassandra in Europe.But is it quite necessary to blow ones trumpet' I dont think so, although some disagree when they say, If you dont say you are, nobody will say thou art. Occasionally, you are made to feel so human in whose veins blood and water also run.When one of the brightest and best journalists we have in this country, Ajibade Fashina-Thomas had cause to commend this column about one year ago, I felt like asking myself: so you are already being assessed'Then he gave this testimonial: If a man involved in the hurly-burly of Nigerias politics can still make time to write a weekly column that is unputdownable, then such person must be a f(our)oreman. Bayo, you are.He should know, because septuagenarian Jabby, who himself ran a witty column in the years of yore as Pop Pry before he rose to become the superintending General Manager of the defunct DAILY EXPRESS newspapers at Apongbon, knows a trick worth two in the business. His is a voice that cannot be dismissed with a wave of the hand as far as newspapering and column writing are concerned.Then the clincher. One of the most critical and heavily criticised public figures in our clime had a short telephone conversation with me on Monday, and after complimenting me, declared: I read you quite often. That was worth more than a gate in gold. And it is gladdening that of the 87 weekly columns that had appeared in frontline newspaper, The Nation, since July 22, 2017, I had received far more accolades than brickbats from the low and the high of the Nigerian society.I cannot explain beyond the fact that I have always kept close to my chest the cannon of the journalism profession that facts are sacred; comments free. Beyond that, if I had been slashing of fist and poetic in motion in my writings, as the greatest of all Nigerian sportswriters/columnists, Bonar Ekanem once described Cassius Clay before he transformed to Muhammad Ali, the worlds greatest boxer ever, the reason may be in the genes. Like the Yoruba say: Abinibi yato si ability, meaning it is inborn.Of course, Im not one to dispute that. Not when Im mindful of what one of the best educationists to come out of Aworiland, Chief J. O. Odeyale, father-in-law of loquacious politician Ebenezer Babatope, wrote in my testimonial on my passing out of Methodist High School, Ibadan in 1968, that Bayo is a budding writer.To those who the cutting edge of my scathing criticisms had hit, I plead for their understanding. Im too rooted in my belief in good order and progressivism to bother about who my writings displeased.
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