Posted by By SEUN ADESIDA on
General Ibrahim Babangida has said that the death of Alhaji Babatunde Jose would not only create a vacuum in the Journalism profession, especially for upcoming ones, who should ordinarily see him as a role model, but has also thrown up a challenge to practising journalists nation-wide.
General Ibrahim Babangida has said that the death of Alhaji Babatunde Jose would not only create a vacuum in the Journalism profession, especially for upcoming ones, who should ordinarily see him as a role model, but has also thrown up a challenge to practising journalists nation-wide.
The former head of state, in a statement entitled BABATUNDE JOSE, PEN IS THE WEAPON signed by his media spokesman, Prince Kassim Afegbua. said the eulogies, obsequies and epitaphs that have watered the pages of newspapers in the last couple of weeks are indicative of the strength of character, strong personality, and deep level of influence of this exemplary role model who contributed his all in developing a very critical sector of our national life.
According to him, the ethical content of his deliveries, the investigative bent of his reportage, the flow of his discourse, his style of presentation and his deep knowledge of the diverse issues in the country were part of what made Alhaji Jose distinctive and impressionistic in his wonderful career.
The letter reads:
'For the past two weeks, I have tried to assume the right frame of mind to join millions of others to condole the family and pray Allah to grant him eternal rest, having been jolted by the sudden announcement of his demise. Even though he lived a fulfilled life and impacted positively on national life, the mere fact that he is gone to be seen no more makes the thought emotionally painful for me and my family. I maintained and enjoyed very good mutually beneficial relationship with Alhaji Babatunde Jose and gained tremendously from his wisdom and counsel during my regime as Military President of this great country, Nigeria. I had known him since the seventies immediately after the war, way back in Lagos as a young military officer. As an avid reader, I enjoyed his style and learned a few vocabularies from his presentations.
He was thorough in his production, used the right word to describe situations and left his readers spell-bound by his graphic presentation. His essays breathed life and it was easy to see the energy he put into them to make them usually signature-classic.
The death of this pacesetter must not go uncelebrated. Our celebration of this developer of the pen profession should start from the Media family and then government. It would not be a bad idea if the NUJ National Headquarters is named after him as part of our conscious effort to immortalize him. The Federal Government may also in its own wisdom name the Radio House; BABATUNDE JOSE HOUSE. This is one way to say thank you posthumously to a man who did his best to promote the fourth Estate of the realm.
His death has also thrown up a challenge to practicsing journalists nation-wide. It is a call to duty, to reason, to excellence and to factual reportage. Today media practitioners should borrow from the experiences of our own Alhaji Babatunde Jose in the course of doing their all important assignments of documenting history and reporting events. The nation stands a good stead to gain from such shared experiences in its march to fill up the opportunities of this information age.
On behalf of myself, my wife and my family, I wish to condole the family of Alhaji Babatunde Jose at this moment of grief. I also condole with the Media family over this irreplaceable vacuum being created by the death of this great patriot and nationalist. May Allah in his infinite mercy grant the family the grace of mind to bear with the pains of this great loss. May Allah grant our dear Babatunde Jose the benefits of al-janat. Amin.