When the Chairman & Editor-in-Chief at Gaskia Media Limited, Mr Dare Babarinsa was asked what has been the most memorable interview he has conducted in his over 40 years of journalism practice, he said he has had good and troublesome interviews.
In the interview published in Anything and Everything Journalism by the Publisher/Editor-in-Chief of YES INTERNATIONAL Magazine, Azuh Arinze, Babarinsa opted to tell an old story of when his former boss at Newswatch Magazine, the Late Dele Giwa sent him to interview former President Olusegun Obasanjo.
The former military Head of State and former Civilian President is not the easiest person to interview based on the experiences shared by journalists who have interviewed him.
Only a few are known not to have gotten him get him angry and paid for it in the way he chooses to respond.
Babarinsa, former Co-Founder of TELL Magazine got him angry and had his precious tape recorder seized. Read the details of the encounter in the excerpts from the book.
“So I went to Obasanjo, and we did the interview and the interview was on millionaire farmers – big farmers in Nigeria then. He had retired as Head of State and had now become a farmer.
“Then I asked him about the Land Use ACT. If you remember, Obasanjo was Head of State when he promulgated the Land Use Decree. So I asked him, did you promulgate this decree so that you will have access to land? He got angry with me and seized my tape recorder.
“It was an interesting encounter. I begged him and begged him but he did not release my tape. So I went back to Newswatch and I wrote my story.
“When the story came out, he called my Oga and said that your boy really tried. I had been faithfully reported. Since that day, I have been close to Baba Obasanjo. I’ve interviewed him more than 20 or 30 times since then.”
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