Kogiflame
Y.J Itopa
His Excellency, Governor Ahmed Usman Ododo’s approval of my Appointment as the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Graphic Newspaper Corporation was first broken to me amidst my colleague Journalists and friends by his able Head of Service, Mr Elijah Adeiza Evinemi in his posh Kogi State Secretariat Office, Lokoja.
Few days after, in the Office of the Head Office again, I was given my Letter of Appointment to go and sit in the saddle of the foremost Print Media House in the State. The lofty letter of the Appointment was dated 19 June, 2024. But the necessary documentations at the Kogi State Civil Service Commission stretched my resumption date to July 1st, 2024.
I have since started learning the ropes. And very fast, as the terrain is not quite unfamiliar to me. Inadvertently, what was meant to be a simple and quiet Resumption became a blaze of colour and a convivial event as colleagues, friends and a throng of admirers insisted they must accompany me to the new office.
There, adherents of different religions spoke in a rare unison as they offered prayers to the Almighty God, who we humans worship in different ways but for the same aim to protect, preserve and encircle me with coils of successes in the new Office.
Up till now, I am yet to fully unravel the mystery behind this uncommon show of love. And my mind began to argue with itself: “Is it this ‘small me’ that these Good Samaritans from a Samaria called Kogi State have trooped out to see with their eyes of bliss, celebrating Itopa like a just and splendid king returning from a quashed exile, am I more than who I think I am? Well, it is them, only them who can tell the world the charm and holiness they have beheld in this ‘small me.'”
In response, I racked my brain, trying to pluck suitable words or phrases from its mouth to express my feelings. And the only tidings I heard were: “Gratitude to God, Gov Ododo and the Good Samaritans.”
Truly, my brain is right to call for Gratitude. if not only gratitude, what else do I have in huge quantity to pay their indebtedness? I have neither gourd of gold nor sack of silver to say to them: ” I offer you this since one good turn deserves another.” Not even a piece of bronze I have on the rack of my hut.
As for the Almighty God who had sowed the seed of my Appointment in the good heart of Governor Ododo, using many hands some of which were seen on the dais and some veiled at the corridors of Power, which measures of gratitude from me can be enough for Him? None.
Even if I turn all the strands of hair on my head plus all the sands of the ocean and all the leaves of the trees of the earth to gratitude, I will still say my mouth is not wide and pious enough to thank God for sewing this gorgeous attire, and asking ‘this small me’ to wear it to the arena of Journalism and Media Management zenith.
But come to think about it, which mortal can have enough mouth to appreciate God for all the things He has done for him in this world, both in his hours of laughter and sorrow? Which man? Yet to show gratitude to one’s benefactor is beneficial. My people, the Egbira of Kogi Senatorial District put it succinctly.
” Avo Eri ee si hu evacha ni which when roughly translated means he who goes back to say to show gratitude to the man who had feasted him the previous day will not go back without been given the left over keg of palm wine from which he will drink again.
Almighty God, the Judge who silently passes thunder-voiced verdict, it is only You who can thank Yourself on behalf of Man. Yet, I have come back to say thank you for sowing the seed of my MDship of The Graphic Newspaper in the heart of Governor Ahmed Usman Ododo, using multiple hands, both the seen and the veiled.
I am on my knees, with my hands raised, palms wide open towards your celestial abodes behind the visible sky, thanking you for everything you have done for me from my skull to my sole. Going back to show gratitude to one’s benefactor can attract additions as I said earlier.
I therefore now climb the rooftop of The Graphic through the ladder of my maiden Nightingale with YJ Itopa back page of our Paper to express my deep gratitude to His Excellency, Governor Ahmed Usman Ododo for considering me worthy of the eleventh headship of the foremost Media outfit of the State.
Your Excellency, as I have earlier promised you through your Commissioner of Information, the very able Evangelist Kinsley Fanwo, I and the other family members of The Graphic will not fail to justify this confidence you have reposed in me.
I exactly know the kernel of this mandate which is clearly to disseminate the programmes, policy thrust and other activities of your Government in a most coherent, convincing and precise manner to the good people of the State and through feedback mechanism furnish the Government with the pulse of the people which could be praises for spurs and, or admonishions to encourage you to rescind certain decisions taken by Government, the resultant effect of which if heeded, will ensconce the State in the upper part of the comity of the States of the Federation.
Your Excellency, the above I would do exactly. And to achieve the objective, I am ready to be the proverbial akerikede, the bird, who says it can turn itself into pieces and get dissolved in the soup if only to be the sweetest bird that ever existed. And truly, according to the Egbira hunting and fable lore, Akerikede is the sweetest of all the birds in the forest.
Apart from Governor Ododo, I am also indebted to his Cabinet members and all other stakeholders in the Government. A tree cannot make a forest as the saying goes. The good news we hear about Ododo’s Administration today is not being made possible without the quality pieces of advice from his liutenants. I am one of the beneficiares of those pieces of advice. Please, have my gratitude-filled silo hoisted in your compound
As it happened and still happening, quite a number of good men and women are still expressing lovely feelings about this appointment.
My town’s umbrella Organization, Ihima Welfare Association (IWA), ably led by Mall. Bello Abubakar sees my appointment as one of the best recognitions the Governor had accorded the community.
IWA aside, Ihima Elite Initiative, a group who for years have been complementing the Health-giving efforts of the successive Kogi State Governments by gathering at home from within the country and the diaspora to offer free medical treatments to hewers of wood and drawers of water in their Community.
They filled their basket of patriotism with kind words and sprayed them like perfumes on me, filling the air around me and The Graphic Newspaper with beatific scent. It is indeed a new era for the Kogi State Media outfit. IEI, I express my sincere gratitude to you and my many other supporters.
In fact, people that described my being appointed by the people-friendly Government of His Excellency Ahmed Usman Ododo as a round peg in a round hole are just too many to mention individually for appreciation.
Among them are the league of the Ihima Traditional rulers led by His Royal Highness, Ohi of Ihima and the Chairman of Okehi LGA traditional Council, Dr Lawani Foundation, my 1986 set of class mates from Government Secondary School who called from within and outside the country to congratulate me and many others who daily stream to The Graphic premises to pay courtesy calls to me, turning the Media stable to a Mecca of sort.
The list as I said is endless. But let me thank my brother and the Okehi LGA Caretaker Chairman, Hon. Monday Eneji-Amoka (a.k.a,Odu) and his entourage who accompanied me as I came to resume Office. Although, the cerebral former Aide-de-camp to Adams Oshomhole while the latter was the Governor of Edo State, Mall Haruna Yusuf could not make it to Lokoja the day I resumed office, he came all the way to Lokoja the second day to show his love and support to a brother. To Mall Yusuf, I remain grateful.
Gratitude can never feel a basket. I thank the Executive Secretary of Kogi State Emergency Management Agency (KOSEMA) Hon. Muktari Atima for the props he generously provided to make my Resumption event on 1st July,2024 a huge success. The support from my uncle and former Clerk of Kogi State House of Assembly, Alhaji Ibrahim Isah-Amoka and his De Greater Height Front (De-GHF) group members is monumental and I cannot jump over their love.
The first Special Adviser on Media to our former Governor Yahaya Adoza Bello and later his Director of Grassroots Mobilisation and Sensitisation, Ministry of Communication, Alhaji Abdulkareem Abdulmalik, I thank you immensely for writing to the Governor to commend and thank him for my appointment. I will work hard to justify your belief in my abilities as you said, flattering me.
For my friend, brother, confidant, the immediate past Chairman of Kogi State NUJ and General Manager of Prime Fm Radio Station, Adeiza Momohjimoh, to him I will not say thank you. My grace and grass is his and his mine except the ” juicy fruits in the other rooms,”(Apologies to the Former President Muhammadu Buhari.)
The entire working Journalists in the State as led by the humble State Chairman of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Comrade Seidu Adamu, I greet you. You have widely reported my Appointment news as the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of The Graphic Newspaper Corporation, flying the good tidings over boundaries and to even the distant land of the spirits like birds or winds disperse the seeds to the far-flung part of the earth.
How can I thank you enough? The rabbit would have loved to serve his guests with hot pounded yam but the mortar couldn’t just enter the rabbit hole. Please, bear with me and eat the meal of my gratitude with relish. Let me at this juncture thank The Graphic Newspaper Corporation family for the warm welcome they all accorded me upon my resumption, I start from the large hearted James Oyewole, my Executive Editor, the dutiful Corporation Secretary Peter Otaro, the ardent Suleiman Ahmed Tijani, the Director of Finance and Account, Mrs Bolanle Inubiwon, the woman who went with me to dig a deep pit to bury the hatchet, letting bygones be be bygones, the graceful Grace Kato, the peaceful Josephine Ali, the unassuming Adukwu Aruwa, the able Abdul Aji, my friend and other members of the Paper.
How many names of The Graphic family can I mention except to say that you are all wonderful people. Please oblige me your corporation to collectively move our Paper to higher heights. Before I am found guilty of not thanking my wife for keeping the home front blissful for me, let me thank Muslimat Ometere-Itopa of Radio Kogi for always being behind me. You are beautiful and delightful.
Now, the elephant in the room. The man for whom I worked for over 8 years as Spokesperson without blemish, former Deputy Governor of Kogi State, His Excellency Phillips Salawu, Ph.D, was the earliest to write a Commendation and Gratitude letter to the Governor for appointing his former Chief Press Secretary as head of the State Print Media House, attributing generous words like “principled, integrity, native intelligence, intellectual rigour, capacity” etcetera to me.
Your Excellenceny, thank you for finding me deserving of those prizes ; the decorations will spur me to brace my self for this new responsibility. Be assured.
If I want to carry gratitude to every household of the Good Samaritans, the song bird will not stop singing. But as Chinua Achebe would say, ‘to every one his due.’ I great you all.
All said and done. The basking in the uphoria of the new appointment is over. And I will have to set down for the business of the newspaper Management and editing. A certain fear is yet lurking somewhere in my mind. Its name is the fear of failure, a fiasco. And it is sending shivers down my spine. In what way will I handle this job such that I will not let my supporters down?
Yet, I have a dream as Martin Luther King Jr would say. I have a dream that His Excellency, Ahmed Usman Ododo, the Executive Governor of Kogi State who graciously gave me this appointment will not make me a farmer without farming implements; the hoe and the cutlass.Ododo will never make me a hunter without a bow and quiver of arrows, I have a dream.
I have a dream that if Governor Ahmed Usman Ododo is a god in the governance firmament of Kogi State, his Commissioner for Information and Communications, Evangelist Kinsley Fanwo, whose Ministry is the Supervisor of The Graphic Newspaper Corporation is my own Chief Priest through who I shall carry all the worries and troubles of this Paper to the shrine of the god.
I have a dream that our able Commissioner will never fail to oblige The Graphic its passionate appeal to draw the attention and focus of the god to the plight of the Paper and return it to its old glorious days when Kogites living in other States of the Federation weekly trooped to newspaper stands to buy The Graphic Newspaper, describing it “The Letter From home.” I say I have a dream that with Governor Ododo, people will no longer disparage The Graphic Newspaper as the shadow of its former self.
I have a dream that as the dream of The Graphic Newspaper Corporation family comes to pass, The Nightingale will sing melodious songs of the distant past, today and tomorrow. Yes! The song bird will sing good governance performance for Governor Ahmed Usman Ododo and his Administration, ensuring that the children of tomorrow hear it, glue it to their memory and tongue singing it to their children who will in turn sing it to their own children to hear and show eternal gratitude to Ododo for being the merchant of the governance that positively impacted on the lives of the citizenry; the Governor who lifted the masses of the people from the abyss of disillusionment. I have a dream.
