He entered sports journalism as Sunny Ojeagbase (SO). Later, he signed off as Sunny Obaju-Ojeagbase. Finally, he became Emmanuel Sunny Ojeagbase, which boasted the prefix of Dr. and Pastor.
Same man. But different stops in a colorful, eventful and fulfilling career. Each name could track the different spots on his life’s journey: from the humble beginnings to its towering and victorious end.
Exit a distinguished trail-blazer, in Nigeria’s sports journalism; and an entrepreneur that kept on renewing his niche and mentoring others till he drew his last breath.
SO had done sports stringing for Herald (Ilorin, Kwara State) and New Nigerian (Kaduna), as a career soldier. But he joined Daily Times after he quit the Nigerian Army in 1979 as a corporal, after 10 years as a serviceman (1969-1979). In 1980, he would join Sunday Concord (now defunct) as sports editor.
But it wasn’t until 1983, when he joined The Guardian, that not a few noticed his talent in delightful prose, gifted to the service of radiant sports reporting and analyses. Indeed, though The Guardian itself was something new and fresh, not a few confessed SO’s crisp-and-sweet prose, on the sports pages, often determined how far they would plough into the other sections.
He was The Guardian sports editor, yes. But under his charge was a constellation of star writers, who would later go on to make own marks: Michel Obi, Chris Okojie, Trigo Egbegi, Sam John, Ikeddy Isiguzo, among others. SO and crew must have positively rubbed on one another!
But the restless entrepreneur in SO would too soon quit The Guardian to set up Sports Souvenir (SS) in 1984. The earliest memory of SS was a brood of youths hawking this all-sports paper with reddish logo, during popular matches at the National Stadium, Lagos. There were even claims that SO was among the hawkers of its earliest editions!
SS, Nigeria’s first truly all-sports weekly, was no soaraway success. It wasn’t Nigeria’s first sports weekly per se: that glory belonged to Sporting Record of the Daily Times stable. The key difference, however, was that SS reported sports qua sports (with an overwhelming local content to boot) while SR reported sports only as adjunct of pools betting. It took a hard-headed entrepreneur to figure out that sports journalism niche and effectively plug it.
But SS would pave the way for the Complete Communications Ltd (CCL) sports titles, where SO came into his own: Complete Football (a monthly sports magazine, later all gloss and colour), Nigeria’s first all-football magazine; Complete Football International (another monthly that tracked the exploits of Nigerian pioneering professional footballers in Europe and South America), International Soccer Review (ISR).
In 1995, SO would introduce Complete Sports, a sports daily that blazed the trail for other competitors, including major newspaper stables. Again here, SO opened another vista in the Nigerian newspaper market: daily sports splashes, as competition against their mother stables, which nevertheless still retained their tiny sports sections.
Kunle Solaja, another Nigerian sports journalism great, in a most fitting obituary tribute, named many others that SO mentored, during his CCL season: Mumini Alao, Simon Kolawole, Tunde Sulaimon, Ehi Braimah, Ejiro Omonode, Taye Ige and Frank Ilaboya — all of them powerful voices in Nigerian journalism, in sports and outside of it.
Without junking his sports niche, an older Ojeagbase would found the Success Attitude Development Centre (SADC), which published Success Digest. In his new role as business coach, he would mentor hundreds of other compatriots, showing them the way to success in business, via ethical and clean practices. He ran SADC with his widow and life-time business collaborator, Pastor (Mrs) Esther Ojeagbase.
SO himself would later be ordained a pastor. He would also be honoured with a PhD, on account of SADC and his entrepreneurial coaching. In his younger days, he had attended the University of Lagos, Akoka, where he had earned a diploma in Mass Communication.
The lesson from SO’s life is clear: with focus and diligence, a humble birth is no barrier to greatness — and you need not be crooked to soar and succeed. That sweet memory should comfort his family and friends, even as they deeply mourn his sad passage.