I LOVE HIS VIEWS. AN AREA BOY IN MEDIA. DR DELE SOBOWALE

JUST AN AREA BOY IN MEDIA
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“Presido, what are you? Economist? Philosopher? Journalist?or Activist?” 
“Hit them from where you are; never look for a different position or opportunity”. Former Senator Javits of New York in  the United States, 1970.

Dear reader(s) you have asked a question that has been asked of me several times. Let me start the new year by answering it simply, briefly, and, above all, truthfully. Yes, I read economics and I even hold an MBA because early in life I wanted to join the rat race for wealth. But, even while studying economics, I came across a statement that has shaped my life by one of the world’s greatest economists. Alfred Marshall, 1842-1924, the father of classical economics had pronounced that: “The economist like anyone else must concern himself with the ultimate aims of man”. That prescribed an activist role for a professional economist. But, my earlier excursion into management spanning several years with multi-nationals, breweries, pharmaceuticals and later rice growing, milling and marketing provided no joy. I was making money just for myself and family and that was unrewarding.

 Then I remembered one encounter with my father before he died when I was under eleven. He had set for me a difficult arithmetic test which boys over fourteen could not solve. I laboured with it for several hours and then presented him with my answer. He looked at it; then looked me straight in the face and told me: “Ojuoto (that was my nickname derived from the part of LagosIsland where I grew up), you are wrong”. I started to apologise. Then he laughed and said to me: “Never again apologise for doing your best and when you think you are right, stick with your position. As it turned out you have solved a problem which fourteen and fifteen year olds could not solve”.

 He went further, he advised me to get as much education as I can in life. “But when you have acquired it, share your knowledge with others. You will help our country”. That also prescribed an activist role, which at eleven did not fully register.

 Then came the challenge of compiling the VANGUARD BOOK OF QUOTATIONS. I must have read over 6000 books and several thousand magazines, manuscripts, all the copies of READER’S DIGEST, I could find. What didn’t I read? Philosophy, history, more economics, anthropology, sociology, psychology, loads of literature and God knows what else. I did it with one aim in mind –to share the knowledge as Daddy had said. Daddy died a few months after that test, but like Marshall, he had given me an assignment which could only be discharged if I got into the media.

 So, when the opportunity came, I jumped in, even though the total salary and entitlements at VANGUARD were not up to 40% of what I was earning in private companies. I believe that to deliberately turn your back on wealth is always a philosophical decision. I have not lived as well as I once did. But, I am happier doing what I am doing now.

 Finally, I once met Senator Javits of New York at a seminar on Civil Rights in New York City. Concerned with the injustices to Black Americans, I nevertheless felt hampered by the fact that I was not an American citizen. How could I fight the American elite on its own soil? Senator Javits solved the problem for me with those immortal words. I returned to Boston and waged war on the white power structure along with the young Americans of that era. Now I am in Nigeria waging war, in the media against the political elite which to me, with few exceptions, are a bunch of miscreants who we must eradicate. In the end, I am just an Area Boy in the media fighting for the underdogs as best as I can.

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“NO DELE SOBOWALE, YOU ARE NOT AN AREA BOY IN THE MEDIA BUT IF YOUR VISCERAL SENSE OF PATRIOTISM AND SEMINAL PONTIFICATIONS THAT COMES ONLY WITH ABEGNATION AND LUCUBRATION HAS ANCHORAGE IN “AREABOYISM” THEN THERE IS SOMETHING IN AREABOYISM TO BE COMMENDED TO OUR LEADERS AS A DESIDERATUM FOR LEADERSHIP. RIDE ON SIR AND GOD BLESS YOU”. Hon Patrick Obahiagbon, House of Representatives, National Assembly, Abuja.