Finishing well: The Osoba example

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By Yinka Odumakin

Aremo Olusegun Osoba is known as one of the most celebrated journalists of the old era alive in Nigeria today. He was a hardworking and very mercurial practitioner of journalism and media manager who brought great panache to the industry in his active years in journalism.

He was editor of Daily Times, the medium by which anything newspaper was called in the rural communities in those days. His days as the Managing Director of Daily Sketch still remain indelible.

He was one of the few media gurus who worked closely with the sage Obafemi Awolowo and were like ex-officios of Papa’s political establishment. The first-hand information acquired in the process has made him an archivist of a sort for that movement and at every critical moment when the falsifier of Owu goes on his a historical vogage, Aremo is always on hand to flog him with the merciless rod of truth.

The latest was the foul yawning of the Ebora on the making of a Yoruba Leader. By the time the grandmaster waded in, the boisterous general literally “pick am for race” has been unable to “dey kampe” again. May the tribe of Osoba never go into extinction.

It is the tragic twist to our political trajectory that has pushed the kind of values Osoba represents in Yorubaland to the background while elevating the weird mercantile politics of strange children.

For a while many thought Aremo had also surrendered his conscience at the altar of Baal in Bourdillon in the years he had to be pragmatic and play what Yoruba call, ‘we eat what is available if what we normally eat is no longer in supply.’

But that phase did not kill the innate and essential Osoba and the Don was not totally at peace with him. He was however tolerated because he brought on board what all the heist cannot buy: a good name and historical links with the legacy they are appropriating.

I recall one meeting a group I belonged to had with the former AD governors in Lagos years back. It was so enervating as Osoba went down historical lane to draw from his witness to progressive history. When it appeared the husband of Beere was becoming the toast of the day, the Don also tried to chime in. All he could say was that he was part of those carrying crates of Coke to Ikenne when the progressives were meeting in Awolowo’s residence.

There was a mild drama at the inauguration of Governor Ibikunle Amosun when he was being sworn in 2011. The seat next to Amosun was tagged for the Don until a former Governor went there and put Osoba’s name where they reserved for the Don, muttering “even in Ogun state”!

I knew from that day that it was just a matter of time. The rest, as they say, is history. It got to a point that Aremo could take it no more and he had to pull his supporters out of the ACN/APC.

They moved to the unknown SDP and campaigned like never before in all nooks and crannies of Ogun state. There wasn’t much electoral dividend to all the efforts, given the sham nature of our electoral process.

They were up against the most sophisticated rigging machine the south west has ever known in history. A machinery that ensured those who had packed out of government houses months before elections returned with landslide. Those who were owing salaries for months were waving brooms in victory in celebration of the conquest of our people.

But Akinrogun has carried himself graciously ever after. He has not displayed any streak of opportunism as he goes on his life at peace with his conscience and God.

His group lost the elections but they won their dignity. Aremo today is in a better stead than those who won elections but didn’t win power.

There comes a time when a man should know that what is left is not worth having. Aremo knew that moment and that is why he has finished well even if he ends his political career today.

* Culled from http://dailytimes.com.ng/finishing-well-osoba-example/