By Rhoda Olorunfemi
Journalists have been advised to emulate the spirit of hard work and passion for their career as exhibited by the late photojournalist, Adeyinka Adeparusi who died in Abuja.
This call was made by some of the dignitaries present at the Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism (WSOIJ), located at the Nigerian Institute of Journalism (NIJ), Ogba, Lagos, where tribute was paid to the late Adeyinka Adeparusi, was said to be humble, hard working and passionate during his life time as a journalist.
Simon Ateba, Publisher, thesimonateba news, said, He knew the late photojournalist as a very humble, jovial man, who knew his onion.
“I met him once when I went for a week’s training at Ikogosi, Ekiti state and we spent some time together because we were selected for it. I didn’t know him at first not until he was introduced to me by a friend as one of the award winning photojournalists in Nigeria and in Diasporas.” Adding that, “he was also easy going and didn’t make noise about what’s done.”
Ateba enjoined everyone to emulate the late Adeparusi and focus on what is to be achieved instead of making noise about irrelevant things.
Gbile Oshadipe, a Photographer and a former Editor at the defunct 234Next Newspaper, said, memories are hard to keep and in time fade to nothingness. In order to preserve memories of the former award winner, family and friends and acquaintances should retrieve pictures of his past and put them as memory so that generation to come can have access to it.
“Yinka Adeparusi made his feat when he went to Niger-Delta to do an investigative story, what he will be remembered for were the impression he changed and images made available. He felt no pain and had a passion for what he was doing. All should be put in remembrance,” Oshadipe said.
Cordinator, Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism (WSCIJ), Motunrayo Alaka, said, the Adeparusi wasn’t just a photojournalist but also a journalist. His journalistic trait became visible when he did his first feature story about the Niger Delta area.
“He wasn’t just a journalist but he wrote with a difference, he saw the need to be a journalist and he took the chance at Niger Delta. He saw himself getting better without seeing the barrier,” Alaka said.
Oluyinka Adeparusi was a photojournalist and cinematographer who have won various awards in the cause of his career. He won the best photojournalist in 2011. And he worked with various media organisation like National Mirror, New Age Newspaper and Punch Newspaper.
He died on thirteenth of November when left his resident in Abuja, with a report has it that he died on the spot a he was hit by an upcoming bike.
A non-journalist, Beatrice Adeparusi, and sister in- law to the late Adeparusi, said she never knew accompanying Adeparusi to the airport to meet his brother would be their last contact.
According to her, “I remember telling him to buy me a gift while coming back of which he eventually did by sending me a wrist watch, even my six year old daughter asked why her uncle should die.”
She encouraged everyone to do whatever they are doing well, whatever their hands find to do especially as journalists.
