A former governor of Ogun State, Olusegun  Osoba, has described fellow veteran journalist and colleague, Lade Bonuola, as a serious minded intellectual and meticulous person.

Mr Osoba spoke on Thursday at the launch of a book, ‘LADBONE: a life in print,’ and the ‘Living Archives’ initiative, organised by the Center for Journalism Innovation and Development.

The launch was to honour and celebrate the 80th birthday of Mr Bonuola, who started his career in Daily Times in the 1970s, and also made his mark at The Guardian, Comet and Compass newspapers.

The book had several accounts of some of his colleagues about their various encounters with him while working together at different newspaper houses.

Mr Osoba, a former chief executive of newspapers such as Herald, Sketch, and Daily Times, recalled his sojourn in journalism and his experience working with Mr Bonuola.

Speaking as the chairman of the occasion, Mr Osoba said, “Only two days ago, we celebrated 40 years of the assassination of Dele Giwa, and the attendance was as huge as we have today. Bonuola started in Daily Times on February 9, 1971. I was deputy editor of Sunday Times, and he was my sub-editor. Every Saturday was always a serious war between me and him. Bonuola came in, a very serious character, meticulous, with too much attention to details.

“He will want to mark everything. I will keep telling him that I have a deadline to keep, the paper must be out. If we produce the best paper but it’s not out, you’re a failure. In fact, I may even want to slap him. He will continue to edit and edit, get the grammar, spelling, semi-colon, colon, comma. I said look, I know in our younger days in school, we did clause analysis. So, I said Bonuola, why are you bringing me back to my days in Methodist Boys High School, where I was trained to do clause analysis? 

“I know that he’s very serious minded and an intellectual. I decided that him and I should start a newspaper. We first of all, registered The Voice. Unfortunately, I was appointed the managing director of Sketch, so I couldn’t continue with Alex Ibru, the newspaper that I thought we were going to start. In between, he changed to The Guardian, but Alex kept saying that this is my idea, and I must drive it. 

“I said look, if you want a good editor, that will do a good job for a new newspaper…. Alex wanted a serious minded…I said the best editor will be Lade. I then recommended Lade Bonuola to be the first editor of The Guardian, and he did a very good job. He created a standard that others started following, and of course, with his very good friend, Femi Kusa.”

Mr Bonuola, in his speech, recounted his successes and challenges during in his career as a journalist, including the government’s illegal take over of the Daily Times.

Mr Bonuola said, “When they took over Daily Times, I took the federal government to court to challenge the takeover. I said the federal government has no right to take over private property.”

He appreciated his colleagues for honouring him by attending the event, and those who contributed to the book.