To write exclusive stories while she was a reporter, Bosede Olusola-Obasa, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, of 1st Royal Character & Values Limited (RCV), shared some insights in her contribution to OUR PUNCH YEARS book recently published.
The former Senior Correspondent, Saturday Punch in her chapter titled What kept me in The Punch for fourteen years among others shared how getting results for the stories she did was crucial to her.
I did some crazy things to get some stories done. I will share some of them. In 2009, The Saturday Punch team under Editor Joseph Adeyeye decided that we should do a piece on policemen who escorted trucks and I was asked to handle the story. Part of my strategy to get as close as I could to their modus operandi was to get a policeman to tell me how they did it. I then went to the police post somewhere in Lagos. I acted as if I was from a company that needed an escort to convey some goods somewhere, and without much ado, I got the nod of the two officers on duty.
The arrangement was fixed, I even got their names. When the story was published, I had my heart in my mouth but felt good at the same time. I recall that a senior colleague and former employee at The Punch– Mr Gbenga Osinaike, called the newsroom on Monday after the weekend that the story was published, advising me not to include my by-line on such “dangerous” stories in the future. And I could have been hurt. Days after, a colleague, Mr. Simon Utebor, told me that one of the policemen mentioned in the story lived in his house and had asked after me. He said the policemen were raining curses on the writer and had organised a vigil to pray against her for trying to expose their deeds. Well, my confidence was that I stood for the truth.
In 2013, I was told about the poor state of the lecture hall at the Nigerian Law School, Lagos. Students were fainting because of suffocation. I notified my Editor, Mrs DejiFolutile about it. She assigned me to do the story. I got the story and inside photographs of the lecture room because I posed as one of the Law School students. I had to take that risk to establish the allegations that I heard about. I went there in a white shirt over a black skirt, typical of a Law School student. I easily gained entry, did my story, and left quickly before I could get into trouble. Although the story was again termed “an embarrassment” to the management and many past students of the school, my joy was great a few months after when I went back to cover an assignment in the same hall. The air-conditioners had been fixed and working perfectly.
To read her full chapter and that of 37 others, contact Lekan Otufodunrin @ lekanagency@yahoo.com
