By LEKAN OTUFODUNRIN
At the Media CEO Workshop organised by the Channels Academy with the support of the United States Diplomatic Mission in Nigeria I’m attending in Lagos, former U.S. News Executive Stacia Philips who is the trainer, asked participants to recall their first media job.
She explained that our recollections should remind us that though we are media leaders today, we all started down the ladder like our reporters and should support them to grow in our careers as we did.
Though my first media job that lasted a few months was as a reporter at The Contractor Magazine in Lagos, The Punch where I worked from 1987-1999 was my first ‘real’ journalism job. I started as Ogun State Correspondent in Abeokuta before I was recalled to Lagos in 1991.
Last Saturday, I was in Abeokuta to facilitate a Media Seminar for Parish Reporters by the Catholic Church and stopped by at my former Abeokuta office. Though The Punch had since had another office, the former one is still retained along with The Guardian Newspapers.
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Seeing the imposing office building still intact reminded me of my early reporting years when I send stories to Lagos through telephone or radio phone by dictating every word to radio room staff who writes them on paper and submit to the news editor!. It was the pre- Internet and mobile phone age.
It’s a long time back then when I usually look forward to seeing my stories published with my byline Lekan Otufodunrin, Abeokuta.
I’m grateful to The Punch for the opportunity of starting out in Abeokuta. Later at the 3rd Media Leaders Conference organised by The Journalism Clinic headed by Mr Taiwo Obe also held in Abeokuta, I met the editor who hired me at The Punch, Alhaji Nojeem Jimoh and we spent time recalling unforgettable moments of working at the newspaper.
I joined The Punch when I was 23, today I’m 61. I thank God for seeing me through this far. Through the years, the Lord has indeed been faithful. I return all the glory and adoration to him.
