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.

Yakubu Danladi     Gbenga Awoyale     Abatemi-Usman     Omotosho     Chief Of Staff     Yomi Adeboye     08001000100     Elese Of Igbaja     JSSCE     Saheed Popoola     SAPZ Project     Zaratu Umar     Col. Taiwo     AbdulQowiy Olododo     Issa Baba     Oju Ekun Sarumi     Hijab     Binta Abubakar Mora     Simeon Sule Ajibola     Sheikh Hamzat Yusuf Ariyibi     Shero     NIPR     Dagbalodo     Ayinde Oki     Tafida     Local Government Pension Board     Kayode Laro     2023 Elections     Ilorin Emirate Stakeholders Forum     Salman Alada     Flights To Ilorin     Oko-Erin     Esuwoye     Aso Ofi     Oluronke Adeyemi     S.O. Opowoye     Kwasu     CCB     Victor Gbenga Yusuf     Alfa Modibbo Belgore     Abdulwasiu Bolaji Adeyi     Yinka Aluko     Aliyu U. Tilde     Saka Isau     Arca Santa     Yahaya Oloriegbe     Clara Nwachukwu     Nigeria Governors\' Forum     Habeeb Abdullahi Al-Ilory     Awwal Jawondo     Taibat Ayinke Ahmed     Gobir     Yakubu Dogara     Offa Descendants Union     Mahee Abdulkadir     MalHub     Kale Ayo     Is\'haq Modibbo Kawu     Obasanjo     KWASAA     Minimum Wage     Sidikat Akaje     Suraj Tunji Oyewale     Amuda Musbau     Tsaragi-Share     Abdulbaqi Jimoh     Razaq Ayobami Akanbi     Code Of Conduct Bureau     A.G.F Abdulrasaq     Chemiroy Nigeria Limited     Kwara State Television     Roseline Oni Aremu     Iyabo Adisa Ibiyeye     Ganmo Power Sub-Station     Law School Scholarship     Moses Afolayan     Abubakar Atiku    

Cloud Tag: What's trending

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

Just Event Online     Awwal Jawondo     Junior Secondary School Certificate Examinations     Simeon Ajibola     Owo Arugbo     Babs Iwarere     Valsolar Consultoria     Olatunji Bamgbola     Muhammed Taofeeq Abdulrazaq     Prince Sunday Fagbemi     National Party Of Nigeria     Kwarareports     Government High School Adeta     Olayinka Oladapo Jogunola     Obuh     Wahab Agbaje     Sodiya     Sobi Hill     Bamikole Omishore     Kwara Metro Park     Saadu Yusuf     Ganiyu Abolarin     Bibire Ajape     Salihu Jibril Garbi     Yusuf Abdulwahab     Amuda Bembe     Ghali Alaaya     Bolakale Kawu Agaka     Sulu Babaita Isiaka     Wahab Kunle Shittu     Ministry Of Women Affairs And Social Development     Oba Abdulraheem     Mohammed Kamaludeen     Offa Descendants Union     Diagnostic Centre     Idris Garuba     Abiodun Abdulkareem     Imodoye Writer’s Enclave     Abubakar Atiku     Gaa Olobi     Omar Gambari     Muhammadu Gobir     IFK     Ndakene     Adamu Ibrahim Sabi     Ilesha-Baruba     Chemiroy Nigeria Limited     Oba-Solagberu     Farouk Salim     Rachael Obisesan     GRA     Aliyu Umar     Ajakaye     MATTA Girls Foundation     Ahmad Olayiwola Kamaldeen     JAAC     Senior Ibrahim Suleiman     Labour Party     Kwara-SAPZ Project     John Obuh     Usman Yunusa     Ahmad Lawan     Lithium Deposit     Adedeji Onimago     Galadiman Ngeri     Noah Yusuf     Col. Adedipe     KWASAA     Mufutau Olatinwo     Abdullahi Imam Abdullahi     Ayinde Oki     Kwara State Health Insurance Agency     Makama     Garba Dogo     Bello Abubakar     Iqra Books     Abubakar Abdulraheem