Bashorun Dele Momodu is easily the most talked about Journalist in Nigeria today. He is not just a Reporter, he is also the Publisher of Ovation International, a magazine that has given publicity to people from all over the world, mainly in Africa. He is one of the most criticised celebrity journalists in Nigeria because of his constant engagement with current topics and discussions. Recently, he was criticised for videoing Senator Dino Melaye’s extravagance life style without asking Dino for his source of income. And that generated a lot of sparks on the social media space.
A few days back, he was a guest on City People Instagram Live Chat with the Publisher, SEYE KEHINDE and he reveals why he does that. He also reveals what differentiate him from other journalists. Below are excerpts.
I’d like you to start by telling us how you have enjoyed journalism? What do you make of the profession? And how have you been able to grow to this height?
I like to tell people that I came into Journalism by accident. More out of joblessness. My original dream was to be a Teacher, probably marry a Teacher and live happily ever after because I was surrounded by teachers. My older brother is a Professor of Physics. He retired from Ife. He got a PhD from Standford and my older sister, Fesisara, was also a teacher; her husband was a school principal and I grew up with them. I worked in the university library at the Hezekiah Oluwasanmi Library in Ile Ife in 1977-1978. So I was surrounded by scholars, the people I grew up knowing and seeing as celebrities were lecturers. I have been a lecturer myself from 1982-1983 at the then Oyo State College of Art and Science where I was teaching Yoruba and Literature in English. So that was my dream. I wanted to be a teacher. I love to impart knowledge. People have always seen me as someone who has the capacity to influence young people even as a young lecturer. I was only 22 years old when I started lecturing. A lot of students who were not taking my subject used to come just to come and listen to my raps. I was very popular in the school; everybody wanted to be in my class. So that was my dream. I had a first degree in Yoruba studies so there is no way I would have thought I’d be a writer in English but I went back to do my Masters in Literature in English. The first Nigerian ever to ever attempt such and it was quite audacious and the department of literature weren’t going to give me the opportunity because they felt that how can someone with a first degree in Yoruba come in to do a Masters. As a matter of fact they sent me back to do some prerequisite subjects at the undergraduate level and I didn’t mind. I humbled myself and went back to do so but within weeks they realised I was ahead of the class. So they gave me an extension, so I was able to now concentrate on my Masters programme proper. I did that between 1986-1988. I started looking for a teaching appointment. I tried the Colleges in Ikere, Ekiti, Ife but there was an embargo placed on employment by the military during those days. So I became very frustrated. When I was working at the Motel at Royal Limited, I met a journalist from Lagos called Olukaba Asidimeyin Ojo, now of blessed memory. He had come from the Guardian Newspaper to cover the Olojo festival and that was how we became friends. So when he was going back I told home that I had robust knowledge of Ile Ife having been born and bred in Ife and that I could give more insight about the Olojo festival and he said why not? Between me and my friend, Kwesi Samson, we sat down together and we wrote our first article on the Olojo festival published by the Guardian newspaper. So that was the beginning of my romance with writing. Even at that stage, I didn’t think I was going to be a journalist. I started looking for a job with any publishing company like Evans in Ibadan. So that was my first instinct, that I should go and work with a publishing firm. Again, I still couldn’t get a job that is why I say that my journey into journalism was by accident because it wasn’t planned. Again, I believed in the word destiny, so I think I was born to be a journalist unknown to me. I was born in a prayerful church and a prophesy came out and said that if I survived before my 7th birthday I’d be famous but I didnt know where the fame was coming from because my family wasn’t a privileged one but God clearly had a plan for me. So when I couldn’t get a job, Olukaba came again for another Olojo festival and said I should come if he can get me a job at the African Guardian since I was about to finish my Masters. I said I wouldn’t mind because my mom who was a stark illiterate was getting old, so I went to Lagos in 1988 and Olukaba took me to the editor of the African Guardian, Nduka Irabo. And when I met him he said he couldn’t give me a job. I was so disappointed and frustrated and before then I had started writing articles for Guardian and Sunday Tribune. The Guardian would pay N25. I would wait to publish four then I’d travel from Ife to go and collect ¦ N100 but the for me I didn’t mind. It wasn’t about the money but preparation for me. I wasn’t paid by the Tribune and I didn’t mind. My own was that people were noticing me and then one day, boom Kunle Ajibade wrote an article which catapulted us straight to the top of the media. So when I got to Lagos I was already known and when I couldn’t get a job at the Guardian, Onukaba suggested Concord and said I don’t want Concord and this is a story I like to tell everyone that people should not judge anyone unfairly. What I’d read about Abiola, that he was a Muslim fanatic, so I was coming with that bias but there is a Yoruba saying that says if the Imam is very hungry even if he sees a monkey, he’d eat and that was my situation. I was desperate to find a job and so reluctantly I went to Concord Newspaper unknown to me that’s where my destiny was waiting for me. That was the first day I met Mr. Bayo Onanuga, Senator Ojudu, they told me the editor was out and in the meantime we were all discussing. Then when the editor came and I went into his office and introduced myself and he was like the same Dele Momodu and I said yes. I then told him I needed a job and he said he’d give me one right away. I thought he was kidding and this is another good story. And Mr. Louis Obi lectured me. He said do you know why I’m giving you this job immediately? I said don’t know sir. He said for him, he would rather employ a good and gifted writer than employ someone that went to journalism school. I said I thought that your priority were those that went to those schools. He said no, he said a good writer can turn a small story into a big story but the sole called professional journalists will see a good story and will not recognise it, if he recognises it, he will not know how to craft it into a beautiful story. He said with your educational background I believe you’d be able to write good copies for us and I need people who can write cover stories. That’s how I started. I begged me to give me two weeks and he asked how much I’d like to collect and I said I wouldn’t know. But he insisted so I said if I could get ¦ 700 a month and he asked me would that be a total package but he said what you are asking is ¦ 8400 a year, I’d give you ¦ 9000, that’s how I got a job. So I begged him to let me go back to Ife to tell my mum that I’ve found a job and his next question is where would I stay. So I had to contact a few friends during that journey and I got Bimbo Ajiboye who I stayed with in Ebute Meta. From there I got another friend, Mr Segun Adegbesan, who was working in Gani Fawehinmi’s chamber and he brought me to his house and I started staying with him for some time and I was just squating about. To cut the long story short, that’s how I came to Lagos.
Working in the Concord is a serious journal, it was more intellectual in disposition. I worked from May 1988, then suddenly in February I was told that I was being transferred to another paper and I was like so soon and they said yes that my MD, Dr. Doyin Abiola, has an idea for a weekend paper and he said they should poach people from different departments and I was the one they picked from African Concord and I went to my editor and said I didn’t want to go to a weekend paper and that I considered it a demotion. The editor told me that he had no choice and reluctantly I agreed and joined others at Weekend Concord and the first task was to go and look for a earth shaking story. He said the first story needs to make so much noise. He called it a scoop and that was when I heard the word. He said I should go to the forest, the wilderness and come back within a week or two with that story. I started wondering and in the process I started writing the names of people who can generate such stories. The important thing to note here is that you need new news makers for you to get earth shaking stories. The news maker maybe a saint or a sinner. The most important thing is you must get your story. So I set out and eventually I stumbled on Mrs Laide Soyinka, she was the librarian at the Ogun State University in Ago-Iwoye. So I went there and told her I wanted to interview her about her marriage to Wole Soyinka and she agreed. Not only did she speak to me extensively, I also got the pictures of their wedding. I don’t think any newspaper had ever seen that picture and to say I worship Soyinka would be understatement. So when I came back to Lagos I told my editor that the allowance he gave me was too small and that the story I had deserves a better allowance and he was like let me first see the story. When I dropped the story on his desk, he was dancing. And that’s how we launched the Weekend paper. We serialised the story for weeks and during that period I approached their son, Ilemakin, to speak about his mom and dad. So the first three weeks I was the cover of a brand new, earth shaking weekend paper and that was how I became a star.
Infact, between that March and May I was given a double promotion. I started from staff writer, I skipped senior staff writer and went straight to literary editor. I was that hot. Six months after that I became a news editor so that made me number 3 in hierarchy. It was unprecedented. So months after that, my good friend and sister, May Helen Ezekiel had left her job as the Editor of Quality Magazine and started a new publication called Classic. But she had a trasition period between that job and the new publication, so she was writing her column. She saw my attention to details and the way I was editing her column. So she approached me that she wanted me to join Classic. She made me an offer I couldn’t resist, that offer made me the highest paid editor in Nigeria. I was so close to my editor so I took the offer to him and he told he himself won’t refuse the offer. Money wasn’t what cliched it for me, it was what he said. He said you have already reached your peak at Concord so soon and unless you kill both of us to go higher and as a young man, when you are young you can still take risks and I know you Dele, if anything goes wrong, you can look for a job. That was how I went to Dr. Doyin Abiola and told her. She didn’t like it but she said she won’t stop my progress and asked if I wanted more money and I said no that I wanted challenges.
So I told May Helen to give me two weeks to prepare. I got six cover stories ready. I wanted to make sure as an editor that I won’t have to depend on someone else. I like to take full responsibility for my action. So I had six solid cover stories ready that even if the reporters try to sabotage me because I am new, I was ready to survive for at least one and a half months. That was the beginning of my journey to celebrity journalism.
How did all of these prepare you for the bigger challenge that came after that?
Well, I survived 16 months as the Editor of Classic. What I discovered was that the bigger I became, the bigger my challenges and the bigger the jealousy from people. If nobody is talking about you, it means you are not there yet. I started facing problems and I started stepping on toes and people will call my boss to report me and I had to cover my boss. I don’t like offending people, I just give information to people and I don’t pass judgement. And that is when I made that decision.
What do you make of the recent criticism that came your way with the Dino Malaye and other exclusive interviews that you’ve had?
Oh, I’m not new to criticism. As a matter of fact, if a story is not controversial it’s not likely to sell or get attention. The best stories in the world are controversial. Nigerians are yet to come to terms with democracy. Nigerians are not familiar with the requirements of democracy maybe because we’ve lived too long under military dictatorship. Democracy teaches you to be tolerant. Chief Abiola used to say, everyone will have their say and few people will have their way. So for a journalist, your job is to get the raw news, don’t embellish it and don’t deliberately slant it to injure anyone. Journalists and lawyers are not far apart. Anyone accused of any misdemeanour is presumed innocent until that person is found guilty. That’s the responsibility of a journalist. Your job is not to go and interview someone and when you come back you put words that the person did not tell you into the story.
My access to people was another thing. Access is your biggest asset as a journalist. The first biggest problem I had with Ovation was about 21years ago when Abacha’s daughter got married. when I got that invitation I was shocked, this was a family that forced me into exile. Again my Christian background immediately came the fore. The way I relate with people is that I forgive my enemies. First I thought it was a trap then I realised that their father was dead and they did not have that power again. So I went. I was interested in the house because they called it the house of gold and that nobody knows where Abacha was buried. We just knew that they bundled him on a plane from Kano and like a Muslim burial we thought it was done. But nobody knew he was buried in a beautiful mausoleum nobody ever had the picture. I went there. I covered the wedding. I met Mrs. Mariam Abacha, she was very fantastic because when God turns your adversity into positivity, you can only thank God because what if I had died? So we came back with a very beautiful edition of the wedding. Ajayi sneaked into the backyard and saw where Abacha was buried and took pictures of it. I immediately took the films from him and left. We published and all hell broke loose. A friend called me and said they have decided to boycott Ovation and I said let them boycott it but for me I’d still be faithful and loyal to journalism. Journalism entails that if somebody kills my mother, I must still report it that’s why you’d see journalists interviewing Osama Bin Laden. If a Nigerian journalist ever interviewed Osama Bin Laden, they would kill him saying he’s a terrorist. That was the situation I found myself and I couldn’t be bothered. I’m a fatalist, I leave everything to God and would you believe that was the first time Ovation Magazine sold out and do you know why? All their friends bought the magazine and all their enemies wanted to see what was inside. And that’s one lessons I learnt that if you do an objective story and you leave the judgement to your readers, you’d always sell out. So that was my baptism of fire but we survived. Some abused me from then till now. Then we did the Babaginda weddings and they still insulted us. Then were planning to do what we call the boss newspapers which we are still doing now and we are doing well, it’s an online newspaper. I remembered the theory of my boss, Mike Awoyinfa, that any publication must start with a bang. So we were looking for that story that we will use to launch it. So I had the idea and we were waiting for that big story, then it landed. When suddenly I was in London and I heard the news that police had arrested Mrs Allison Madueke. I was very interested immediately in pursuing the story since I was in England. I believe I was close to action. As a journalist, your first instinct is that you want to get a story that everyone will like to get. So I started pressing buttons and eventually I located her. At first I was told she said no because I was one of those that chased them out of power and that I’d be biased. And I told my contact to tell her that I wasn’t a vindictive person. I’m not going to bastardize or embellish whatever she says. So reluctantly she agreed to meet with me and to cut the long story short, I got the exclusive interview. I was firing her questions and she answered and five years I’m still waiting for her to be prosecuted but no concrete evidence. But after publishing I got abused again but that is the success behind my story. When I write my biography, people will see how I built my life. I was very fortunate. I had the most important thing, contentment. I studied my mentors and I lived my life very humbly and modestly. So I went to Dino Malaye’s house and asked him to take me around his house and he did. So I asked him if I can turn on my Instagram live and he took me around and after that, wahala. It’s also like that when I go to cover weddings too. They leave others that attend the wedding and they hold the camera man only.
