Nigerian President, Muhammadu Buhari, has congratulated the multi-talented journalist, Tola Adeniyi, who turned 75 today.
In a statement by Femi Adesina, Special Adviser to the President (Media and Publicity), Buhari said Adeniyi made writing look so fluid and easy through his column, ”Aba Saheed” which was a compelling read.
Buhari noted that Adeniyi made his name in Sketch Newspapers, Nigerian Tribune, Daily Times of Nigeria, and many others where he held top editorial positions as Editor-in-Chief/CEO.
The president equally saluted the business savvy of Adeniyi, which led him to found the Canada Africa Chamber of Commerce in 1996.
“I wish this irrepressible writer and columnist good health, longer life, and greater contributions to our dear country,” he said.
Adeniyi is a highly respected journalist, a prolific writer, and a workaholic when it comes to writing. He is reputed for writing about 16 articles a week for different newspapers and that is why he is described as Akogun Adeniyi.
Beside writing, Adeniyi is also an actor, dancer, and dramatist.
In an interview he once had with the Guardian newspaper, he said: “Writing comes to me easily,” he says. And when he writes, he hardly does a re-write. The first draft is as good as publishable. He was like Meyer Berger, the New York Times’s prolific reporter, who once interviewed 50 people in a day, returned to the office and wrote a story of 4,000 words in two and a half hours with not one word of it changed, the article reads.
But it was not Berger that inspired Aba Saheed. Rather, it was D.O Fagunwa, one of the most imaginative writers of Yoruba ancestry. “At 14, I travelled in a lorry to Ibadan barefoot to see Fagunwa,” he recalls.
“I saw him at the then radio broadcasting station. In fact, I dedicated my first poetry to him.”
Another inspiration was Tai Solarin, one of the fearless human spirits that ever lived, he remarked.