Oyo: Exit of a media guru

When the cold hands of death snatched another media titan on Wednesday October 1st, it was the beginning of another nightmare for practitioners of journalism in this country. The death is coming at a time when the journalists were yet to come to terms with the tragic exit in September, of Dimgba Igwe, Vice-Chairman of […]

When the cold hands of death snatched another media titan on Wednesday October 1st, it was the beginning of another nightmare for practitioners of journalism in this country. The death is coming at a time when the journalists were yet to come to terms with the tragic exit in September, of Dimgba Igwe, Vice-Chairman of the Sun Newspapers.  Dame Oluremi Oyo was an extra ordinary professional who transversed all the rungs in the journalism ladder – from the reportorial cadre to executive administration, Remi saw it all!
I first came across Remi Oyo in 1991. I had traveled to Liberia to interview Charles Taylor when he was the rebel leader of the National Patriotic Front on Liberia (NPFL).  While in Liberia, Mr Bola Lawal, the Chief Press Secretary to Major General Ishaya Bakut, the then Field Commander of ECOMOG, gave me a letter for Mrs Remi Oyo – then of the Internations Press Service. When I met her at her office at the National Arts Theatre Iganmu – Lagos, she was very business-like and highly disciplined. Always decently dressed in formal attires with her legendary low cut hair. I doubt if Remi ever did any weaving on her hair in her entire adult life. Business like, with stallion might, Mrs Oyo worked her way – yes – worked her way to the very pinnacle of her chosen career.
One thing stood her out far from the maddening crowd – She was a woman who demanded high professional and moral standards from every one relating with her.
She was a very compassionate woman who had no patience for sentiments of religion or tribal affiliation. To her, everybody is a person of merit – until you proved otherwise. She had a rewarding instinct for merits but did not suffer fools gladly. She was highly impatient with slothfulness or even outright incompetence from her staff. She strove for the best. A few examples will suffice here:
At the beginning of the nomination process for President Goodluck Jonathan’s Presidential bid in 2010, Mrs Oyo was part of the scout that assembled a strategic media force for the campaign. Yours sincerely was part of the team and at various meetings of the task force members, I could not but marvel at her manifest determination to make sure the team succeeded. She did this by making sure that we got the critical tools we needed and was instrumental to the success of the team though she was not the chairperson.
During her time as the SA Media to former President Olusegun Obasanjo, Mrs Oyo had the reputation of being firm, fervent and fair in her dealings with the State House Press Corps.
She was formerly called the “goddess of villa” by those covering Mr President. Her managerial and administrative acumen were in full manifestation during her six – year, two – term tenure as the Managing Director and Chief Executive of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN). This is an agency she transformed from an old and conservative news dissemination organization to a modern agency she gingerly fine – tuned to a digital age.
It was at NAN that the “Golden Age” of her professional consummation manifested itself fully. So did her humanism. Mrs Oyo saw herself not only as the CEO of the Federal Government Agency, she proved to be a mother and mentor to many. She was an apostle of dignity and womanhood.
At NAN she was often celebrated for her insistence on decent dressing by female members of staff. She was always rummaging the news room ordering the ladies to cover up their exposed cleavages (and sometimes breasts). She would scowl: they are only made for your husbands! The news room would erupt into laughter and conviviality anytime she said this.
She gave fair and ample chance for all to demonstrate their work. She was always giving people an opportunity to show their worth. And once you impress her, she would jump for joy and celebrate you to no end.
Her employment and promotion policies were geared towards helping to make people prosper by earning a living.
I personally remembered the case of one young lady who was about to finish her NYSC at NAN. As we were about to board the staff bus that very day, this girl told me that that day would be her last day at NAN because she had finished her service. She also told me to pray for her to enable her get employment elsewhere.
Instinctively, I asked the lady: have you been to Mummy (we called her mummy) to tell her? She said no! I said go to her, introduce yourself and tell her you have finished your service and that you have come to say “Bye”. This lady did so. To her amazement that was the day she gave her a permanent appointment with the agency. Doing good comes to Remi Oyo naturally.
However, good things rarely last forever. Her last year at NAN was spent virtually in and out of hospital at home and abroad. When she eventually came to NAN for the send-off at the end of her tenure, Mrs Oyo had considerably emaciated and the toll of her sickness was all too evident. She was highly celebrated at NAN during that send-off and alas it proved to be a final one for her inside the NAN complex where she held sway for six years.
She is gone now, her works however live on in the memory of those who knew her. To live in the heart of those who love you is not to die. RIP Remi Oyo!!!
Onilede is of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN)