Akeem Lasisi is a popular journalist whose interest in the arts is, perhaps stronger than his flourishing journalism career. In this interview by SAM NWAOKO, the performing poet speaks a bit on his life as a journalist.
Each one of us in the journalism profession started out somehow. How did your journey in the profession start?
Interest and passion led me into the media world. When I was in Jos, Plateau State for my national youth service, although I was a teacher, I developed interest to write for the newspaper. My byline first appeared when I started writing articles for The Standard Newspaper in Jos. I’m a literary person and even before that time I had been writing poetry, short stories and other genres. So that was my first appearance in a newspaper. My journalism started largely by passion and by interest.
Did you tailor your education towards this?
I didn’t go to school because I wanted to be a journalist although there is a connection between my course of study, English/Yoruba in the College of Education and later at the Obafemi Awolowo University Ile-Ife, English/Education. I didn’t do those courses because I was dreaming to become a journalist at that level. I just found myself in that area, also due to the fact that I wanted some things from that area too. I can say that it was journalism that came to connect with my discipline. So, I didn’t study Mass Communication but I read English.
When would you say you fully got into the journalism mix after the Jos experience?
Interestingly, I started in the real sense of professionalism at the Sketch Newspapers in Ibadan. That was on my return from NYSC in 1993. I joined Sketch as a proof-reader although I was also writing. Unfortunately, it didn’t last long because the June 12 crisis came and the newspaper house was closed. When that happened, I needed to find something else to do, then I left for Lagos. I started teaching English and Literature in Lagos. Four years after, I got employment again as a proof-reader in The Diet Newspaper established by Chief James Ibori. Diet later became Daily Independent. I was then combining teaching with journalism work. Eventually, when The Comet was established came, I got employment there too but no more as a proof-reader but on the features desk. The teaching now eventually stopped. From there, in 2001, I left for The Tempo and the News as a staff writer. 2003, I moved to The Punch where I was in various desks. It was at the Punch that I had my longest work experience as a journalist – 2003 to 2018. In 2018, I decided to leave because I wanted to do some other things. All along, I have been a writer and more importantly, I’ve been a performance poet. I’ve been doing this almost since my graduation so I wanted to explore more of that. I also got involved in education by running a small neighbourhood school with my wife. I left because I wanted to create time to do the other things I love to do. However, when I was leaving the Punch still said instead of leaving completely, I should retain a column I started in 2016 which is language-based – Punch English.
You must have done some stories would you recall that gave you some mileage and recognition…?
That would be difficult to enumerate because of the multiplicity of what one has done. However, when we look at as feedback there are some things done, like interviews, which people had spoken about in appreciation. Some had said it was a story or interview you did for me in a particular time that changed the course of their business, career or even life. There was a business outfit in Lagos I wrote about. I felt I was just doing my work but years later, the proprietor of that business started using that as a standard for any other person who would write about the business in terms of impact and so on. Also, just this year, there was a photo exhibition centred on the achievements of Governor Babajibe Sanwo-Olu in Lagos State. There a very popular virtual artiste heard my name and he came to me and said a lot of good things I did for him when I was in The Comet. It’s been so long that I can’t even remember. Some would say my story helped them to get visa and such feedback. In Punch, I moved from one desk to the other. I got notorious while in The Punch because I was doing “News behind the News”. It is news but we dug deeper. It was not the modern times gossip kind of stuff. News behind the news was my very first beat and I took over that beat from Funsho Aina, who is now doing very well in MTN. That time, I became very notorious. There was no social media and the concentration was still largely on the traditional media. Many of the stories then became controversial and were discussed widely.
What about the flip side, the ugly experiences?
We also had some challenging, near-death experiences. For instance, it was God that saved one of my colleagues, Vincent Akomode who is still at The Nation now and me during the Shagamu riots. We were doing live features and we ran into soldiers who aimed at shooting at whoever that defied their curfew. We ran into them and I wouldn’t know whatever force that made them hold back from shooting at us. They didn’t and I wouldn’t know whatever it was that stopped them from shooting. It could only be God.
I also remember another occasion in which God saved me. There was a notorious land-grabber in Mushin, Lagos. There was demolition going on in remote parts of Lagos that time and I was covering and exposing it. This notorious land grabber now invited me to come to their office in Mushin. When I got to his house, they were upstairs but something just warned me to go back. The voice warned and said ‘please go back’. Only God knows the plan they had for me that time. It was a very spiritual thing.
Then also, my coverage of Ken Saro-Wiwa’s symbolic reburial will always be emotionally touching. It was gripping and the memory is always there. There was also the Jesse pipeline fire incident. I went to that forest of tragedy. Some of those things remain in my memory.
You seem to have a good rapport with some of the people you worked with?
I worked with some really fantastic editors who really helped to enrich and enlarge my journalism scope. Although Sketch was really brief, but I remember some people who helped, like Mr. Amala. At The Diet, I had some too. It is not that someone would sit you down to teach you, they would just take you through the class without walls. I recall Mr. Emma Anya and Mr. Eto Omosegba. The two of them were fantastic, extraordinary subeditors. That time, sub-editing was a major desk. If there is any advice I want to give as far as media practice is concerned, despite the fact that economic situation has shrunk many of our newsrooms, there should be a way of bringing back the sub-editor. You need a sub-editor/proof-reader; it is still needed in the newsroom. In many cases, we have neutralised it and scrapped it and this is really affecting the quality of work in the newsroom. When you employ young journalists and they don’t have the benefit of someone nurturing them at that level, there would be gaps. In The Comet, I worked with a very fantastic editor, Mr. Gbenga Omotosho. The help one got from working with such individuals really went a long way to establish my feet in many facets of my life. The person I will refer to as my best editor on the features desk, who would always add value to your story, is Mr. Laide Sokunbi. We worked together at the Comet. If you have an editor that adds value to your story, you are a very lucky journalist because it is your byline that people would read.
In The News/Tempo, one thing I gained from there is confidence. You know they graduated from guerilla journalism, so the envir0onment gave me courage to go after any story. To survive in The Punch, you need to go the extra mile and I thank God I was able to survive there. I cannot possibly list all the numerous fantastic individuals that positively impacted my journalism career.
READ ALSO FROM NIGERIAN TRIBUNE
