Opinion: Tolu Fatoyinbo and Jimmy Atte: Icons from an era of excellence By Is'haq Modibbo Kawu

Date: 2015-06-18

IT was on Monday this week that I read of the passing of Jimmy Atte, the former Executive Director Programmes at NTA, who was also one of the pioneers of NTA in Ilorin. Just before I commenced writing my column this week, I called Femi Ibrahim of NTA News in Abuja, to confirm the news of Oga Jimmy Atte's death. He affirmed that it was true. I had earlier decided to write a tribute this week to ToluFatoyinbo, the ace sports commentator, who was recently buried and to whom Kayode Soyinka and Fabio Olanipekun had written very sympathetic tributes, in the wake of his death. In 1985, the National Sports Festival held in Ilorin.

Tagged "KWARA 85", Radio Kwara was the fulcrum of the live broadcast of the games. And as we were preparing for the live broadcast of the opening ceremony, there entered ToluFatoyinbo! He was fresh from providing live commentaries for Nigeria's Golden Eaglets, who had taken the world by storm at the Under-17 World Championship, I think in China. He was the ultimate showman and while we had a rough introduction at the beginning, we would later work together as commentators, newsreaders and reporters during the festival, with Tolu Fatoyinboand the late Sebastian Ofurum, being the senior partners in our broadcasts. We retained a friendship and an affectionate respect into the future.

Tolu Fatoyinbo belonged to a distinguished cast of sports commentators that were trained in the rigorously professional traditions of Radio Nigeria, in those good old days.

He was as brilliant as he was meticulous in the preparations that went into his work as a commentator and it was a hallmark of the work of the masters: from Ishola Folorunsho through to Earnest Okonkwo and Sebastian Offurum, Kevin Ejiofor to Tolu Fatoyinbo, that they brought the events they covered into the homes of millions of Nigerians as they used words to paint pictures vividly for their listeners. For a long time, even when television began to provide live telecasts of football games, Nigerians would watch the events on their television sets but listen to the radio commentaries as accompaniment.

With Tolu Fatoyinbo's death, we lost one of the last great names and voices from a distinguished cast that made our lives so much better because of the way they touched our lives.

Similarly, with Jimmy Atte's death, we also lost one of the greatest practitioners of television programming that Nigeria ever produced. I think one of Atte's greatest abilities was to see and nurture other people's talents. I became a very famous Deejay on radio in Ilorin by the 1980s. After my shows, Jimmy Atte was one of those who would regularly call me to express appreciation of my ability. I knew he worked at NTA Ilorin, but we had never met, until one fine morning when he called as was his wont, but that day, he invited me to meet him at his office.

When I got there, he informed me that he had been thinking over a couple of months on how he could create a television programme around my ability as a radio deejay. He had finally worked out the idea and had invited me to work with him. I was pleasantly surprised and over the next couple of weeks, I went back and forth as we gave life to an outline of an idea that became a programme that I presented and was centred around music and musicians on NTA Ilorin.

That was the quintessential Jimmy Atte, whom I still think was the best DG NTA NEVER had and it was a great pity that the politics of television broadcasting did not allow him to reach the peak, that he so eminently deserved. But that did not dim his esteem as one of the greatest heroes of Nigerian television broadcasting! With Jimmy Atte's death this week, we have certainly lost a genuine Nigerian patriot who loved his job passionately as an expression of the love he has for his country. May God give the families and colleagues of Tolu Fatoyinbo and Jimmy Atte, the fortitude to bear their passing!

Source

 

Cloud Tag: What's trending

Click on a word/phrase to read more about it.

Hussein Oloyede     Bureau Of Lands     Olatunji Bamgbola     Ayo Salami     Iyabo Dupe Adekeye     Undergraduate Bursary     Razaq Atunwa     Agboola Babatunde     Rice Farmers Association Of Nigeria     Sadiq Umar     Emir Of Lafiagi     Lithium Deposit     Wale Oladepo     Saadu Alanamu     Sola Saraki University     Simeon Sule Ajibola     Nigerian Army     Ghali Muhammed     Ajibola Saliu Ajia     Folorunsho Erubu     AbdulHamid Adi     Tafida     Code Of Conduct Bureau     VADA     Madawaki     Ilorin Emirate Stakeholders Forum     Matthew Babaoye     Hamid Bobboyi     Ahmed Idris Mohammed     Kayode Bankole     Olanrewju Okanlawon Musa     Yusuf Babatunde Abdulwahab     Rex Olawoye     Erubu Oba Zubair     Saka Aleshinloye     Ariyo     Okala Baba     Gafaru Olayiwola Olorisade     NFAI     Adekunle David Dunmade     Oluwole Dupe     Folaranmi Aro     Adebayo Mohammed Kamaldeen     Boko Haram     Omoniyi     Mohammed Lawal     Kwara State Coalition Of Business And Professional Associations     Shehu Raheem Adaramaja     Budo-Egba     Asiwaju Bola Tinubu     Just Event Online     Ayeyemi Sulaiman     BECE     COEASU     Modupe Oluwole     Special Adviser On Digital Innovation     Alagbado     Abdulmumini AbdulRazaq     TETFUND     Oloyede     Moshood Mustapha     Oko     ASMAU PLAZA     Fulani     Popo-Igbonna     Babajide Ajayi     Gobirawa     Sheikh Ariyibi     Yusuf Amuda Gobir     Femi Agbaje     Baaziki Sulaiman     Abegunde Goke     Federal Allocation     Facemasks     Bola Sagaya     Egbejila     Dan Iya    

Cloud Tag: What's trending

Click on a word/phrase to read more about it.

Ahmed Shuaib Buranga     Kishira     Women For Change And Development Initiative     Sanitation Exercise     Saduki Lafiagi     Volunteers Of Ilorin Community And The Emirate     NTA Ilorin     Christian Association Of Nigeria     Sherif Shagaya     Valsolar Consortium     Samuel Adaramola     Shururat Olatinwo     Oniwa     Kazeem Oladepo     Ubandoma Of Ilorin     Kwara Metro Park     Dogara     Bello Taoheed Abubakar     Olaiya Victor Mobolaji     Ita-Nmo Market     Aliyu Kora Sabi     Makama Of Kaiama     Jumoke Monsura Gafar     Agor     Abdulmajeed Abdullahi     Kamaldeen Ajibade     Solomon Edoja     Akorede     AbdulHakeem Ajibola Akanbi     Ilofa     Muslimah Entrepreneurship Forum     Oke-opin     Amule Elementary School     Ajike People Support Centre     Sebastine Obasi     Kwara State Government     Bolaji Nagode     Ayinde Oki     Olofa Of Offa     Femi Oladiji     Alfa Modibbo Belgore     SWAN     College Of Education     KWASEIC     Abdullahi Biffo     Offa Descendants Union     Lola Olabayo     Salihu Jibril Garbi     Bolaji Gambari     Sola Saraki Educational Foundation     JAAC     Adewuyi Funmilayo     Shuaibu Yaman Abdullahi     Muhammed Akanbi     Bashiru Makama     Sarkin Malamai     Erubu Oba Zubair     CACOVID     Baaziki Sulaiman     Maigida     April 11     AbdulRazaq Jiddah     Alapado     Sardauna Of Ilorin     Afeyin-Olukuta     Umar Yakubu Jaja     Forgo Battery Company Limited     Yakubu Dogara     Harmony Holdings     Matthew Babaoye     Funmi Salau     Zulkifli Ibraheem     Shehu Salau     Bature Bello     AbdulGafar Tosho     Rafiu Ibrahim     Marufat Oladosu