I know I won't get the opportunity to write another tribute, so may as well spill it on here.
I was a rudy, incredibly unattractive young boy who had just left his village and found his first job as a Telex/Radio Operator in #RadioKano (then Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation, NBC) when President Shehu Shagari was visiting on a campaign train to Kano.
Back in those days, reporters depended on radio operators to get their stories to the NBC headquarters in Lagos. I remember Andy Anarado (where are they now?) was head of the NBC team covering the visit - all the way from Lagos fa. Anarado was a REAL gentleman. He had the voice of Frank Sinatra on air and carried himself with simple sartorial elegance. He loved the small 'Over-Over' boy while some of the local reporters in the Newsroom with nothing but the same school certificate I had looked down on the rest of humanity as if we were children of a lesser God.
Mr. Anarado was quick to file his reports. Because he treated me like a King, I also took his despatches like real job. Back in the day, as Bros Andy (Folajimi Iyeku) would testify, I was a stormy petrel who could disappear and reappear at will - enjoying the freedom of a teenager earning money and savouring the freedom of his teens. Where money was available, alcohol was not far from Magwan Water Restaurant to Criss Cross Hotel or Premier. Yes o, in Kano, Ibrahim Taiwo Road - Oh Hisbah!
From the first day of their tour, I was savvy enough to know from the bulletin what story would make Lagos happy without the endorsement of Mr. Gregory Ebosele Eromobor. They would say back then that I took initiative - a very big word! I just had to see the bulletin to pick what story would be best for either the evening headlines or the morning's bulletin. I would have sent them to Lagos by the time my Oga started looking for 'that radio boy' to come and send the story to Lagos!
This was my first taste of #journalism and what it looked like. Andy Anarado would return from the campaign train and give me a special dispatch as well as a special - something! With his generosity, Premier Hotel's sumptuous meatpies never gargled through my throat better with ACB - any cold beer. Even if they make pies like those, I won't be allowed to eat them now!
I never got to meet Alhaji Shehu Shagari personally, but I wouldn't forget how his visit opened my eyes. After that visit, I remember asking Oga Mike Ogugua Ndu what I needed to do to become a journalist because I had always loved writing. It was he and Ameen Farouk and Hussein Nabi Tapchi others who advised me to seek further education. I had no clue that there was a journalism school in Lagos, so I enrolled with the Trans-World Tutorial College in New Jersey, Esplanade, Britain - too much address for a correspondence college where I was to graduate with a Diploma.
When I left Radio Kano after the first #Maitatsine riots of the 80s, I had acquired the first tool for a career in journalism...but for Kano's ethnic policies that saw Radio Kano absorbing the boy I trained into the newsroom and leaving me with the radio. (Oh memoirs if I live to write one).
Not discouraged, I would go from Radio Kano to work at Samadi International Nursery/Primary School (memoirs, memoirs) - Steve Okunola Ola-King. Long story short, I believe that Shagari's visit helped me hone my skills in journalism. I dreamt of being on the presidential press corps and flying all over the world although that didn't happen until much later.(Memoirs).
I am happy to be alive and practicing today and to report the passage of Alhaji Shehu Shagari, aka Shamgar the son of Anat (Professor Godspower Oyewole's prediction in 1983). Glad, not because he died, but because he died in ripe old age.
One of the Shagari babies of that era was to be a Special Adviser at the NASS while I was CPS there. Painfully, this gentleman died before we had time to bond better but left me with very painfully good memories.
Life offers us just a few opportunities to impact on our surroundings. General Muhammadu Buhari overthrew Shehu Shagari but his regime found nothing against the man. It is a strange coincidence that he would be the mourner-in-chief at the man's janaiza. May Allah grant Alhaji Shehu Shagari jannat firdaus.
I should thank him for service to the fatherland. His nation and for the visit that inspired something good in a little teenager who was basically searching for a meaning in life. I hope I've inspired someone too when I'm dust!
RIP Alhaji Shehu Aliyu Usman Shagari.
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