One of the best tributes you may read anywhere on TheNews Magazine’s Founder and Senior Special Adviser to President Tinubu on Media, Bayo Onanuga
Even the boldest have their limits, but not Mr. Bayo Onanuga. Intrepid? Definitely. Frigid? Occasionally. Reckless? Well, you decide.
Take this: in the early 2000s, armed robbers trailed him home to Mojisola Estate in Ogba. He’d just driven in with his brand-new Skoda Octavia and was about to shut the gate when they pounced, guns drawn. They wanted the car. They demanded the key. What did Oga do? He flung the key into the dark, watched them scramble for it and bolted into his apartment.
They fired a shot. Missed. By some luck or, as office conspiracy theorists claimed, some potent Ijebu “jazz”. Tosh. He lived to tell the tale. Before then, he’d dared the homicidal Abacha regime with no little spunk. No need going over that era. I told him the robbers could have killed him.
“If they were going to take the car or my life, they should work for it,” he replied.
I went slack-jawed. This was not bravery, but something in the Marvel Comics universe.
Now, about the frigid side. His face often carries the emotion of a brick wall. He can move through a room like a silent drone. No smiles. No small talk. No sign of habit. But beneath the cyborg exterior is a man of habits. Not all enjoyable. Chief among them was supporting Arsenal.
At a point, he walked into the office, deadpan, and declared he’d stopped watching their matches live because they were trying to give him a heart attack. Henceforth, he said, he’d watch re-runs if they won, which was not often back then. He’s probably watching again now that Arsenal looks a lot less like a clown college.
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I suspect he would have loved to celebrate this birthday with a Premier League title, but my Liverpool ruined that dream. Call it payback for those cover stories he made me write.
Despite the stoic exterior, he can chat and for long. If he arrived at the office and someone offered to carry his bag, he’d politely refuse. If all seats were taken and someone stood up for him, he’d stay standing for an hour rather than take the offer.
Not exactly a joker, but a great sport. But you can joke with him, and he’ll enjoy it. Authority, yes, but of the quiet, principled kind. So here’s to Mr. Bayo Onanuga, Tobias to the deep circle, Baba Ijebu to the lto the wider one. Once again, happy birthday, sir.
And Babajide Kolade-otitoju, kindly take your flowers from Goodluck Ilajufi Ebelo
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