Battle Lines: Adventures in Journalism and Politics by Olusegun Osoba; Diamond Publications Ltd, Lagos, in association with Safari Books Limited, Ibadan; 2018; 341pp
By Uzor Maxim Uzoatu
This book begins with a bombshell, thusly: “I was a marked man. Death hovered over me like the sword of Damocles. I did not know a price had been put on my head. The best sniper in Nigeria leading a death squad made up of General Sani Abacha’s elite Strike Force, a team of efficient and ruthless killers trained in Israel, North Korea, and Libya, had been detailed to eliminate me.”
The man did not die. He lived to write this compendious memoir, Battle Lines: Adventures in Journalism and Politics. Olusegun Osoba still lives, an icon of journalism and politics. Many young Nigerians celebrate Osoba as a two-time Governor of Ogun State but the man has other ideas, as he writes: “Reporting is my life. For me, to be called a reporter is the greatest accolade.”
The great man has literally seen it all in Nigeria, and he lays it bare here: “This is my story, this is my song.”
The dogged journalist in him makes him start his story at the height of suspenseful tension when he had close encounters with death during the General Sani Abacha dictatorship of the 1990s. His house was invaded, ransacked, set on fire, and he had to go underground periodically and was arrested and detained.
Born in Osogbo, the capital of today’s Osun State, at the time of “Ogun Hitila – Hitler’s War”, Osoba was the son of a UAC worker from Abeokuta in modern-day Ogun State. He was a childhood master drummer and was a paperweight boxing champion at age 10. Educated at Methodist Boys’ High School, Lagos, he became the team manager of the school football team that won the Zard/Principal’s Cup in 1961. He was recruited by the Daily Times in 1964 after passing his A-levels. Even as he nursed the ambition of studying law, Alhaji Babatunde Jose “put to rest the idea” by nominating the young Osoba to study journalism at the University of Lagos. He got further training through the prestigious Commonwealth Press Union, Fleet Street, London.
It was Osoba who discovered the dead bodies of Prime Minister Abubakar Tafawa Balewa and Finance Minister Festus Okotie-Eboh after the January 15, 1966 coup. Osoba shone brightly while reporting the Nigeria-Biafra war. He broke the news of the 1975 coup that ousted General Yakubu Gowon in the controversial absence of the then Daily Times editor Areoye Oyebola. Osoba’s appointment as editor somehow led to the protracted Daily Times crisis. He replaced the legendary Abiodun Aloba, aka Ebenezer Williams, as General Manager of Herald newspapers in Kwara State. He continued his crusading journalism at Sketch in Ibadan. He made a second missionary journey at Daily Times as the Managing Director in 1984. It was while the civil war raged that Osoba met the Customs lady, Beere Aderinsola Osoba, who stole his heart and became his formidable life partner.
Chief Obafemi Awolowo had a soft spot for Osoba, and even in death remains his abiding hero.
The annulment of the June 12, 1993 election won by “large-hearted MKO Abiola” brought out the fighting fire in Osoba and led to the birth of NADECO. The accusation that he betrayed Frank Kokori was cleared when the NUPENG leader published his memoir 23 years after. Osoba was among the Southwest governors done in by then President Olusegun Obasanjo. There is an Addendum in which Osoba rebuts the charges against him by Afenifere leader Chief Ayo Adebanjo in his memoir Telling It As It Is.
Osoba earns his pride of place as a facilitator of the emergence of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
Battle Lines: Adventures in Journalism and Politics by Olusegun Osoba is a vintage triumph.
Uzor Maxim Uzoatu is a renowned poet, journalist, and author.
Ayodelé is a Lagos-based journalist and the Content and Editorial Coordinator at Meiza. All around the megacity, I am steering diverse lifestyle magazine audiences with ingenious hacks and insights that spur fast, informed decisions in their busy lives.
