•Recalls conflict with Adeniran Ogunsanya as Jakande’s spokesman
•Says I know Lagos like lines on my palm
Prince Bayo Osiyemi, former Chief Press Secretary to the first civilian governor of Lagos State, Alhaji Lateef Jakande, was known to be very close to the Second Republic politician until he passed on in February 2021. The former CPS, nicknamed the Charming Prince, spoke with VINCENT AKANMODE about how he derived the sobriquet, his childhood, how he got attracted to Jakande, the genesis of his career in journalism and other issues.
How do you feel clocking 75 in a country where life expectancy is just about 55 years?
I feel good. I feel great. I feel God’s grace all over me. Otherwise, I would not have been able to attain this new age. Like I was joking with some visitors earlier today that there was a song rendered by the president of my church a few days ago which honestly captures everything about me. The song is essentially about thanking God that untimely death is not my portion. The song tells that I am enjoying tremendous goodness of God.
What are the childhood memories you cherish?
They are many. For instance, when I was in primary school, I loved to play football. The kind of ball we as kids were playing then was called “felele”. I was so skinny that any time I was on the field, people were always afraid that they would break my bones. Ironically, I was the one breaking bones. That is one memory, and I carried that to the secondary school in Ibadan.
Another childhood memory is during traditional festivals like the egungun (masquerades). Our parents would not allow us to go and witness these things. But somehow, I would break free from the house and go to watch those things. Many times, people would come to our house later in the day, saying ah, we saw your child following egungun yesterday. Of course, I would deny it. But it gave me tremendous joy. Thank God, I never suffered any injury following the masquerades.
Another experience as a child was when I was asked to go to an institute to study the Quran, because my parents were Muslims. There were stages, and I read to a point that chickens were slaughtered. I moved from there to a stage where they were to kill rams to mark my progression in the Quranic study. But my maternal grandmother being a church woman snatched me from my parents so I can live with her. That was the beginning of my journey into Christianity.
How has that shaped your philosophy about life?
I love people. I love to be with them and also to help them. I have assisted a lot of people in various areas of human endeavour. Of course, a few of them have turned round to betray me. But I don’t have any problem with that. It makes me to get stronger. And the betrayal of a few turncoats will not deter me from continuing to help people, because helping people is my passion. I have resolved that till the end of my life, being blessed by God, I will continue to be blessing to other people.
You later chose to become a journalist. What informed your choice of profession?
It all began in my secondary school days. I was very good in English Language, and I was always going with our football teams all over the Western Region. Anywhere we played, like the Government College, Ibadan, Olivet Baptist High School, Oyo or Baptist High School, Iwo or Fatimah College in Ikire, I would report on the football matches and bring them back to school in Ibadan for the education who did not have the opportunity to witness those matches. We had someone then who was related to Lateef Abass, the then Sports Editor of Daily Sketch. He was encouraging me by publishing those reports. And that was how my love for journalism began.
Of course, because I was interested, it was when I was in school that I decided to get close to Alhaji Lateef Jakande, who was then the editor-in-chief of Tribune newspaper. At that time, they were publishing from a mud storey house somewhere in Adeoyo area in the heart of Ibadan before they finally moved to Imalenfalafia in Oke Ado.
That means your relationship with Jakande began while you were in secondary school…
Indeed.
You later became very close to him when he became the first civilian governor of Lagos State. What was the attraction between the two of you?
I think I was destined to be close to him, because apart from journalism, Alhaji Jakande had no time for niceties. If you met him on the staircase and greeted him then, he might not even acknowledge your greetings. AlI he was interested in was for you to report and report the events.
In my initial years in journalism, I was only very good in reporting, and he made us to go round all the beats. I was on the social beat, covering Bobby Benson and his son, Tony at their hotel at Igbobi (Lagos). I was going to Alagomeji to cover Fela. I was going also to the same neighbourhood to cover Ebenezer Obey at his Miliki Spot and at the Q-Club nearby, where I was also covering king Sunny Ade. So I became friendly to so many musicians.
Again, I was asked from there to move to the airport. Those were the years when the VIP Chalet at the old Ikeja Airpoŕt where reporters were cramming themselves up ; it was a very small place during the Gowon era, but we had a very good time there.. There were people like the late Alhaji Kola Adeshina, Dapo Aderinola who I understand is a pastor in a church in America with whom we covered the beat together. Of course, I was also taken to the labour beat when labour leader Michael Imodu, all his other contemporaries like Haruna Adebola and others held sway.
Later, I became sports correspondent, and it was there that my proficiency blossomed to the extent that I was head-hunted to join the broadsheet Daily Express at Apongbon where its general manager Jibade Fashina-Thomas first gave me the opportunity to run a regular sports column. That was my first breakthrough in column writing.
When Nigeria was to host the All Africa Games in 1973, Daily Times being the flagship of Nigerian journalism, decided to look for the best sport reporters in all other newspapers to join its own team headed by the late Solomon Babtunde Osuntolu alias ESBEE; CTokunbo Fasogbon, and the rest of them to remain the best in sports coverage. So I was invited to join the Daily times and I became one of the journalists that covered the All Africa Games at the National Stadium in Surulere (Lagos). I covered the courts as well.
So through Jakande, I was able to go through the whole gamut of journalism practice. Later, which I made to include feature writing, which i detested initially because I found it difficult. But with Jakande, nothing was undoable. So we were meant to be writing editorials. And when I became the editor of Lagos News on Acme Road in Ogba (Lagos) and later its managing editor, I was made to be writing editorial opinions for the newspaper on occasions that Jakande was not around or was too busy to write leader opinions. Honestly, I think I was well baked. By the time I moved from Tribune to Daily Express and later to Daily Times, I was already a well known name in the Nigerian media.
How did you become his Chief Press Secretary?
I think that during those periods that I mentioned earlier, Jakande had noticed certain things in me which I did not know. So when he now decided to run for the governorship in Lagos State, he invited me to come and join his campaign team as his main press officer. I was a bit hesitant because I had a secured job in Daily Times and venturing into an uncertain terrain was not what I was enthusiastic about. So why would I go into an unknown world, particularly when I didnt know that he might not win the election. However I sought the counsel of prominent politicians in Lagos who had the experience to know which person was able to win the election. I consulted the late leader of Afenifere, Chief Abraham Adesanya. I consulted with the late Alhaji Ganiyu Olawale Dawodu and his friend Hon. Ojekunle Pereira of the state House of assembly and my late uncle, Senator Olabiyi Durojaiye. All of them encouraged me to take up the job.
Jakande just took special interest in me joining his team. So when he saw that I was still hesitant, he called his director, Chief Bayo Fadoju, to go and issue two-month salary cheque for the Daily Times in lieu of notice. Of course, when he did that, there was no more place for me to hide; I decided to join his team.
So we went through the electioneering campaign together. It was a most gruelling electioneering ever. Due to him, I can claim today that I know Lagos State like the lines on my palm -either on land or on water.
As his press secretary appointed in 1979 at the age of 29, I tried my best to give Alhaji Jakande a very good press. Every of his activities, I covered with a small team, feeding newspaper houses with credible, reliable and authentic news about the electioneering activities of Alhaji Jakande.
Interestingly, his main opponent in the opposition Nigerian Peoples Party, Chief Adeniran Ogunsanya, started blackmailing the media that they were partisan because Jakande was a fellow journalist. My reaction to that was to come in strong defence of the media; that the truth of it was that Alhaji Jakande was on the field every day campaigning while he was campaigning once in a week or once in two weeks. Was the press supposed to report his inactivity?
So, how easy or difficult was it to work with Jakande?
I just thank God that I survived working with Jakande. The man was a slave driver, so to say. He would not spare anybody from being stretched on the job. Of course, even he was stretching himself. He would show you how to do it. We were in it together. In fact, working with Jakande made me to develop ulcer, because we would come to work at about 7 am and until about midnight, there would be no time for us to go and eat. So we were always living on biscuits and sweets. Eventually, I developed ulcer. That ulcer, although now cured, made working with Jakande unforgettable. But every bit of my time with Alhaji Jakande, I am full of gratitude to God and to the man.
Was there an occasion where you had to quarrel?
Not at all. In fact, because of the man’s proficiency and his authority in journalism, I saw him as a demi-god that I worshipped, and I did not leave any room for him to doubt my ability or to want to do away with me. And that was why from Day 1 on October 1, 1979 till the military struck and arrested him at Lagos House in the wee hours of December 31, we were together. When he was locked up, I still stood by him, defending him even in prison. At a time I became a target of security operatives. There was a time I was running from Lagos to Ibadan. Nigeria was still safe then. So I could leave Lagos at 7 pm to go and sleep in Ibadan. So even if they came at night, they would not meet me at home. So it was a great experience working with Alhaji Jakande.
You have been part of successive administrations in Lagos State after Jakande. How so?
Jakande was an uncommon person. He came into government to disabuse the minds of people that people in the media are only good at criticising. So he came into government to prove that journalists can be doers, and he came into government prepared that he was going to achieve specific things within a four-year period of one term. And all his developmental projects were executed and completed in four years and three months before the military struck.
Of course, I was a willing learner. So I thrived because in journalism they say you must know something about everything. So I involved myself in every aspect of governance from conception to completion. And if you were a successful worker under Jakande, you would be a sought after resource person by any administration that wished to be as successful. Of course, I particularly kept the Jakande image alive in work ethic to the extent that 40 years after I left government in 1983, I returned to Alausa to become special adviser to Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu in 2019. Of course, asking me to assess myself in the Class of 2019 to 2023 would be unfair. It is the governor that I served that will be in a damn good position to say whether I was good and effective as his Special Adviser on Chieftaincy Matters. I also believe the majority of traditional rulers in Lagos State, I related with while in office should also be able to talk whatever I had on the job. Now I am out of office, but I am still politically active.
How did you come about your nickname Charming Prince?
My friends gave me the name. I did not know I was that charming until a senior of mine who is an engineer, politician and philanthropist spoke about it during my 70th birthday at the Sheraton Hotel in Ikeja. He said because I was so attractive, with a commanding height and all of that, any time I entered a gathering, those who were there with their wives would hold close them so that they would not be distracted from them because of the man that is just coming in. I think the nickname stuck because of such perception.
Your good looks in those days must have attracted a lot of women to you…
That would be expected. But I never lost my head and I never lost focus. That is why I was able to maintain a steady and responsible home.
But some hearts must have been broken…
I was not aware of any.
So what did you see in the woman you eventually married in 1976?
It was divine, because I had other ladies who were all over me. But the very first day I met this lady, may God bless her soul, I knew that she had all the qualities of a good wife. She was caring and disciplined. She was a symbol of fidelity and she was imbued with Christian values. Throughout my turbulent years in journalism, on one occasion I was detained by the Gowon regime, and during my political activities, this lady was with me all of the time. She was my prayer warrior. May God continue to rest her soul. She died when we went for holy pilgrimage in Israel in 1995.
I also thank God that the wife I married now is also God’s gift to me. With Christ in our lives, we are very happy.
Did the removal of the speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly recently come to you as a shock?
As a normal human being, I was shocked to learn of it but then in politics, the possible and the impossible do happen. I regard political activities as one in which the good and the bad go together. That is my response to your question, and I would not go beyond that.
What message do you have for the nation’s leaders, particularly President Bola Ahmed Tinubu?
Well, I am happy that we have a President who prepared himself for office, and knew what he is going into government to do. Without permitting any distraction, he should pursue his mission as faithfully as possible from Day 1 in office. That was what Alhaji Jakande did, and that was why he achieved in four years and three months what several governments put together could not achieve. Tinubu is a student of the Jakande political philosophy, going by his exploits as governor of Lagos State. I believe that improving on that philosophy is going to make a great impact on this country. He only needs to be given the chance. I believe in his ability to turn things around for the country.
