Oyoze Baje @70: Tribute To A Defender Of Nigerian Project

 By Charles Okoh

To attain the age of 70 in Nigeria at a time when the life expectancy of Ni­gerians is about 55 years is worth celebrating. To attain the Biblical three score and ten, in a country where the stress lev­els seem permanently on the in­crease and other attendant stress­ors seemed arrayed to snuff out life from the people is more than enough reason to celebrate and give thanks to God Almighty.

It is not often that people get celebrated while alive. It was the famous Nigerian musical icon Pa­toranking who insists that he is celebrated in his hit song in local lingo; “Celebrate me, now when I dey alive…”

For veteran journalist and cel­ebrated newspaper columnist, Ayo Oyoze Baje, who turned 70 years on Wednesday, February 8, it was an opportunity to celebrate a journalist who has remained undeterred and undaunted in his resolve to constantly lend his voice to the voiceless.

Baje, a multi-talented, versatile and award-winning journalist, the National President of Guild of Public Affairs Analysts of Ni­geria (GPAAN), a group recently accredited by INEC to observe the general elections. He is also the Chairman of Oyoze Creative Concept, a Lagos-based Media Consultancy, publishing and Mo­tivational Resource outfit.

Baje, who became popular for being a panelist/consultant on the history-making Galaxy TV Editor’s Forum for over 10 years, has been active with his writings for over 50 years. These span the genres of poetry, short stories, novels, plays and motivational works. In fact, his poems on the state of the nation were pub­lished in the Poem-of-the-Week column of the Nigerian Herald from 1978 to 83 and compiled into the collection, titled: ‘Petals and Thorns-Truth and Blood.’

Apart from being Nigeria’s first food technologist to prac­tise fully as a veteran journalist, he happens to be one of the few with two weekly col­umns – Drumbeats, on topical issues and Food and Beverages, which has been on for over 20 years.

That began with Business Times (now defunct) in October, 2001 and has been pub­lished in other publi­cations such as Inde­pendent newspapers, Foodbusiness Inter­national, Milling and Baking and Healthy Eating Magazines. It currently runs in Busi­nessDay on Sundays.

Oyoze Baje, the media ambassador to the increas­ingly popular XtraLarge Farms Ltd has consulted for different organisations. These include Healthy Living Media, Palm Groove Lagos; Bells University of Technology, Ota; the Associ­ation of Travels and Tourism Writers Organisation of Nigeria (ATTWON) and SSACTAC, the Union arm of Nigeria’s Maritime industry that honoured him with Comradeship in 2018. That was in recognition of his intellectu­al contributions after delivering annual lectures on maritime and leadership issues to the members for 10 years.

He attended both the Roman Catholic and Anglican Prima­ry Schools (1959-1966) in Ob­oroke-Ihima, Okehi L.G.A. before Ochaja Secondary School, Ocha­ja (1966-1970); Titcombe College, Egbe for his Higher School Cer­tificate (1971-72). He is a graduate of the University of Ibadan with honours degrees in Botany (B. Sc. Hons., 1976), Post Graduate Diplo­ma and M.Sc in Food Technology( 1982 and ’83), respectively.

After serving his NYSC Pro­gramme in Edeki Grammar School in Bendel State (now defunct), he spent 20 years as a secondary school science teach­er and administrator beginning with Govt. Secondary School, Ag­bamu, Kwara State; Govt. Girls Secondary School, Obangede as well as Abdul Aziz Attah Memo­rial College (Kogi State).

After contributing opinion es­says to different newspapers from 1999, he veered fully into journal­ism beginning with The Daily Times, Plc in April, 2002 where he rose to become the Editorial Page Editor (2003-2007), and later, Marketing Manager (2007).

Subsequently, he became the Man­aging Director/ Editor-in-Chief of Strata Media, pub­lishers of Food­Business Interna­tional Magazine (2007-2009) before joining Daily In­dependent newspa­pers as an in-house Member of the Ed­itorial Board (2009- 2011).

Amongst his published books are: Songs of a Dove (poetry, SMO Aka Press, Benin City, 1982),Lust for Power (play, Erudite Consult, 2001), Shadows of a Queen, and Stay by your Wom­an (Hints, Thrills and Boom novels, 2002 and 2003). His unpublished novel, ‘Our Women’s Anger’ is currently being worked on to be converted into a Nollywood mov­ie by the Department of Theatre Arts, Alex Ekwueme University, Ndufu-Alike, Abakaliki, Ebonyi State.

Others include ‘How to be a Successful Student’(Motivation, Oyoze Creative Concept, OCC, 2013) and ‘Drumbeats of Democ­racy’, a selection of his opinion essays for over 40 years on how to achieve good governance in Nigeria (OCC,2018).

According to the world-re­nowned poet and President, PEN International, Nigerian Chapter, Mr. Folu Agoi, Drumbeats of Democracy is a colourful parade of lucid prose with fine poetry, a testament to Ayo Oyoze Baje’s creativity and the power of his pen”. Indeed, many of his essays have warned against the current sordid socio-economic and polit­ical state Nigerians have found themselves in, years before they happened!

On his part, Razaq Malik Gbo­lahan, another award-winning poet has this to say about the po­ems, Petals and Thorns: “Your poems dazzled me with the lin­guistic brilliance/dexterity that you deployed so beautifully, de­spite the themes of post-colonial disillusionment that are evident throughout the collection. Read­ing your work, the plights of the common man become more obvi­ous and pronounced”.

His awards include clinch­ing the best student in WAEC/ OL for Ochaja Sec. School (1970), winning the AbdulAziz Attah Memorial Scholarship Award   (1971) for his HSC, Quill Books poetry, Harlingen Texas, USA(­for his poem, ‘Mother at Child­birth’, 1989), Nestle Plc Nutrition Award,(2003),Peak Milk First Golden Pen Award(2004) and NB Plc Award(2010).

Apart from creative writing, his hobbies include fine art, ad­miring the beauties of Mother Nature, traveling, writing of songs and the invention of Oyoze Maths Games in 1982 currently being worked on for an app.

Oyoze, the son of a famous farm­er and philosopher, Elder Sadiku Umeche Jatto and the mother, a cloth-weaver and trader in food products, Madam Awawau Ormeyi Sadiku hails from Oboroke-Ihima, Kogi State. He was married to Prin­cess Medinat Baje (now of blessed memory) and blessed with four children – Jimmy, Oiza, Joy and Sunday Oyoze Baje.

*Okoh, an editor with Daily Independent is a commentator on public issues