Nigerian Tribune was where it all started for me. If I were some motivational speaker or pop star, I would say that I arrived Nigerian Tribune in June in 2011 as a bright-eyed 22-year-old Youth Corps member with nothing in my pocket but dreams and hope. However, I am not one, but the point still has to be made. I mean, I knew I wanted to do something tangible with my life, become a respectable member of the society and build a solid career path out of something, with the proverbial sky as my limit. How to get there and become that someone, I had no clue.
I remember walking into the newsroom after my onboarding and seeing the “main journalists” and Editors of the Saturday Tribune desk hard at work. I recall having the feeling that the next year was my blank slate to write as much as I wanted and be everything I wanted. But this is a major newspaper house that boasted very established professionals. What place would I have here? I remember also self-doubting. As I interacted with fellow corps members on the team and hearing their experience, it was clearer in my mind, that the path you wanted at the media house, was yours to make or mar.
Lawrence Amaku was my “buddy” (that corporate speak for a more tenured colleague who helps you learn the rope at your new job) but it was Mr (now Dr) Bayo Alade (I hope I recall his name correctly) who first passed a news article to me to read. “O ya corper, come and read this and check for the grammatical errors”. While I read the article, I wondered to myself if that was all it took to be an editor. My doubts however were soon cleared after Mr Alade returned my supposedly “edited” piece for me to study his own line edits and understand what the expectations were for subsequent times. That was one of the first lessons and gifts I got at the newspaper. The opportunity to apply myself and learn while being coached — if I wanted. This was a gift I received with open arms. Thirteen years later, navigating a career path on a different continent, it is one I still seek out and appreciate in my line managers.
A few weeks later, there was a downpour in Ibadan and attendant flooding that had damaged properties and taken lives in its wake. I was asked to go and write a feature story on the impact of this on the zoo at the University of Ibadan. It was another colleague, Lawrence Amaku who went with me to show me the ropes and coach me on what sort of questions I needed to ask for the responses I needed. Despite owning a brand-new Bachelor of Arts degree in English Language (from a better university than the former), it became evident that some skills were the best learned on the job.
It was at Nigerian Tribune I learned the invaluable lesson of speaking up and sharing my thoughts at workplace meetings. I could not just be brave or audacious in front of or behind my computer screen. I learnt to pitch stories, give my ideas and perspectives to other people’s stories as well. At some point, I was fascinated that these grown adults and remarkable professionals wanted to hear what a shiny new graduate like me had to say. It was the same feeling I had one afternoon when Mr Debo Abdulai, the Sunday Tribune Editor at that time, asked me what my experience of Ibadan had been so far as a youth corps member. As I described and talked about it, he challenged me to write it, saying if I wrote it as well as I described it, he would publish it. I did and it was published, and the city roared nd the rest they say is history. I recall Mr (now Dr) Lasisi Olagunju (who I feel honored to call a friend through the years) walking into the newsroom and reading out loud the article. It was very validating. In the months that followed, he would challenge me to write different articles.
In part, this might feel like a belated vote of thanks. I guess somehow it is. But that’s not the story. The story is in the lesson. At Tribune, I was seen, mentored, given opportunities and validated. For me as an impressionable young woman starting out her career with only a university degree in her pocket, serving at the Nigerian Tribune gave me confidence. It made me fearless. It gave me wings and made me realize that I really could become whatever I wanted.
Like I said at the beginning, Nigerian Tribune was where it all started for me. This is because, I left after one year with clarity and knowing that whatever life’s path held for me, I was definitely going to be working in communications for the rest of it.
Yvonne Chinyere Anoruo was a corps member with the Nigerian Tribune from July 2011 to June 2012. She now works in Marketing Communications in Ontario, Canada.
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