In the spirit of the season….
By Gboyega Okegbenro
Two important and esteemed gentlemen in my life, Gbenga Bakare (extreme left) and Segun Adenuga, 84 next 17th January, celebrated an unplanned reunion, 28 years after, in my office in Lagos last Monday.
Adenuga has not set his eyes on Bakare since tha latter relocated abroad in the summer of 1996.
Apart from being longstanding sports media colleagues, the three of us share an umbilical cord rooted in our common heritage as alumni of that great media citadel, Punch Newspapers.
Truth is, both Gbenga and I didn’t meet Adenuga, fondly called “Baba Anene” in Punch. But we encountered him on the job in those giddy news-hunting era of the ’80s and ’90s when we all swarmed on different angles, offices, venues, holes, nooks and crannies of the then sports city “hunting” for scoops to fill our various pages and air time.
As many of the guys on the beat in that era would attest, Anene was and remains a profound resource of everything vital and developmental on the job, with pin-point dates, records, pictures and full data as it happened dating back to pre-independence Nigeria. Indeed, he is till date an encyclopaedia of every major development and actors in the sector, not only in Nigeria but West Africa, Africa and the world.
Adenuga, a founding reporter when Punch started in the early seventies, left before I joined in 1983 whilst Bakare joined long after I moved to the late Dr. Clarkson Majomi’s The Mail in 1987.
Gbenga, who now lives in Atlanta, is home for christmas and chose to reciprocate my visit to his base last year while Anene was on a routine, fatherly long-time-no-see stop-by in my office.
To the glory of God, the day turned out to be one well spent, full of banters, reminiscences and deep wishes for a truly recalibrated and great Nigeria.
May the good Lord hear our prayers.
Nigeria shall surely rise and fulfil its globally-acclaimed potentials, in the mighty name of Jesus !!!
Merry Christmas and Happy 2025 y’all !!!
…. Culled from his Facebook timeline.
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