Jide Ojo at 51: The story behind the glory

It’s my birthday. Hurray! I give glory to God for the grace, mercy and opportunity to celebrate another date of birth alive and in good health. I am not ungrateful of divine favour that has made me to emerge from a muddy background to becoming a notable newsmaker. In my short life, I have gone through trials and travails. I have contemplated suicide when I was failing English and Mathematics examinations in a record four times before making it at the fifth attempt (1985 – 1990). My family was so poor that even poor people in the neighborhood were calling us poor. While others were born with silver spoon, I was born with no spoon at all, not even a wooden one.

My father was a primary school teacher and retired as a village headmaster in my hometown, Ile-Ogbo in Ayedire Local Government of Osun State. Mum was just a petty trader. My family migrated to Ibadan about 1964. Going to school was stressful. It was education with tears. I have to walk kilometers to and from school every day and used the same uniform from Form 1 to Form Four in my secondary school. .  We are a family of seven.  My parents and five children all cramped into ‘a room and parlour’ at the best of time and one room at other times. As cheap as cost of living is in Ibadan.  my family could not afford basic needs of life. It was a miracle I escaped having kwashiorkor and ulcer. Yet to the eternal glory of God, in spite of the deprivation and miseries, I was never on admission at hospital. My successive failures to pass all my West African School Certificate Examinations left me depressed and despondent. I lost self-confidence. My maternal uncles at some point nudged me to go and learn a vocation and I was enrolled as an apprentice to learn Refrigeration and Air-conditioning mechanics for three years. 

Getting admission to study Mass Communication at Ogun State Polytechnic (now Moshood Abiola Polytechnic) in December 1991 was a tug-of- war. Not even my score of 204 over 300 merited me an admission because I am not from Ogun State. It took pressure from some well-meaning individuals to ensure that my name eventually came out on the Discretion List with a stern warning to pay the tuition of N510 within 48 hours. Thanks to my uncle, Elder M. A Oyeniyi who bailed me out. Crossing to University of Lagos after a semester in Ogun Poly did not come on a platter as well. I had issue with my JAMB combination and had to write for change of course from English, Faculty of Education where JAMB posted my name to Political Science, Faculty of Social Sciences. In UNILAG, I went through thick and thin. No money to buy textbooks or reading notes from lecturers. To feed, I depend on support from uncles and some of my working classmates.

I eventually graduated in Political Science in 1996 with Second Class Upper. I was posted to Delta State for my National Youth Service. During the service year I emerged as the Editor-in-Chief of our Magazine called “Corper Courier”. We produced two editions within the year of my service. My place of Primary Assignment was The Pointer newspaper. At the end of my service year, I won Delta State NYSC Honours Award. Thereafter, I applied for my Master’s Degree programme at University of Ibadan and was admitted. I finished the programme among the top three. I applied and got admitted for my Doctoral programme. Unfortunately, I pulled out in 2002 when job pressure in Lagos did not allow me to cope.

In the course of my Master’s programme, God raised  a couple of people for me as destiny helpers. First was a friend, Suberu Oluwasegun Joseph who introduced me to another Godsent, Mrs. Rachel Modupe Okegbola who was then a staff of Centre for Development and Population Activities (CEDPA). It was through her in 1999 that  I got shortlisted as one of the resource persons headhunted to train the then newly elected chairmen and councilors of the 774 Local Government Areas of Nigeria. The training was funded by United State Agency for International Development Office of Transition Initiative (USAID-OTI). I trained the political leaders alongside three other team members – Mrs. Toyin Niran Onisile, Hajia Raheemat Omoro Momodu and Adisa Olaide Leo. In April and August of 1999, we trained in 10 centres in eight states i.e. the six states of the South West (Lagos, Ogun, Oyo, Ekiti, Ondo and Osun) as well as Kwara and Edo States.   Among the dignitaries I was privileged to train then include His Excellency Otunba Christopher Adebayo Alao-Akala who from being chairman of Ogbomoso North Local Government at that time rose to become Deputy Governor and later governor of Oyo State. The other person is Senator Ganiyu Olanrewaju Solomon who at that time was the chairman of Mushin Local Government Area of Lagos State and later became a Distinguished Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

Today I have a working career that have spanned over twenty years. I have worked primarily in the development sector for both national and international NGOs and today I am the Executive Director of OJA Development Consult, a BRIDGE Facilitator and a Fellow of Chartered Institute of Leadership and Governance. Above all, I am a culture ambassador,  an author with three books, newspaper columnist with The PUNCH, a blogger and one of the most sought-after Public Affairs Analysts in Nigeria. My media career started 30 years ago, precisely October 1990 when I began writing for newspapers. To date I have written about 1,500 published articles in 27 newspapers, namely: The PUNCH, The Guardian, THISDAY, Daily Trust, Vanguard, Leadership, Blueprint, Nigerian Tribune, Daily Independent, The Authority, The Sun, Daily Sketch, Daily Champion, Peoples Daily, Abuja Enquirer,  Premium Times, The Cable, Newsdiary Online, Order Paper, The Compass, National Mirror, Post Express, Weekend Classique, National  Concord, Next 234, Third Eye, AM News,  

I am a regular analyst on the following (16 television and 25 radio) broadcast media: Nigerian Television Authority, Arise TV, Silverbird TV, African Independent Television (AIT), Channels Television, Peoples TV, Independent Television (ITV), Galaxy Television, Kaftan TV, TV 360, Signature TV, Clearview TV, Roots TV, TSTV, SABC and Broadcasting Corporation of Oyo State. In addition, I have been on Oluyole 98.5 FM Ibadan, Pensioners FM 106.7 Ibadan, Hit 95.9 FM Calabar, Faaji FM 106.5 Lagos, Rhythm 94. 7 FM, OGBC 2 FM Abeokuta, Vision 92.1 FM, Love 104.5 FM, Ray Power 100.5 FM, Hot 98.3 FM, Radio Nigeria Network, Kapital 92.9 FM, Voice of Nigeria and Rockcity 101.9 FM Abeokuta. Furthermore, I have been on West Africa Democracy Radio Senegal, Kiss 99.9 FM, WE 106.3 FM, Greetings 107.5 FM, WAZOBIA 99.5 FM, Cool 96.9 FM, Armed Forces Radio 107.7 FM, Human Rights Radio 101. 1 FM, Nigeria Info 95.1 FM, Invicta 98.9 FM Kaduna, and Premier 93.5 FM Ibadan.

When I look back at my decades of struggles and how I have overcome that to become a near celebrity today I give glory to God. I thank the omnipotent for more years of happiness than sadness, more years of health than sickness, more years of charity than  destitution, more years of success than failures, more years of wealth than  penury and the attainment of everything that qualifies a man to be regarded as a success, I cannot but be very grateful to Almighty God.

As I mark my fifty first birthday today, I say without equivocation that my major achievement lies not in my financial resource but in my intellectual resource. My intellectual property viz. three books, 13 chapters in books, published commentaries, archived thoughts in various storage forms remain my most treasured accomplishments for those opinions will live longer in the minds of people than any other worldly achievements.