By Jide Babatunde, Deputy Head, Graphics

It was in 1990 that, as a fresh-faced young man, I got a job at Vanguard Media. It wasn’t new to me because whenever my dad sent my brother and I to buy newspapers on Saturdays, I always found a way to sneak in Vanguard as part of the bouquet. I really loved the paper, so you could imagine my delight when I had to work there.

When I got employed, I was taken around the premises by one of the graphic artists, Eugene Ossai. At the Sports desk, I met Coach (Onochie Anibieze, Saturday Editor), who was at the time a senior sports reporter. He looked at me and remarked with a mischievous smile, “Do they allow 16-year-olds to work here now?” The whole desk burst out in raucous laughter, and I managed a sheepish smile before I was ushered out. But, I must admit, I always looked younger than I was, even though I was taller than most at six feet tall.

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By and large, I was enthralled by the experience and knew I would enjoy myself in my dream job. In those days, graphic design was done with a knife, glue, ink pens, and pasteboards, as it was all manual. I had to be taught the basics because all I knew back then was what I was taught in school, and that was to draw and I did have a stint in the Cartoon department in 1994 but due to a shortage of graphic artists I had to return.

I remember my first graphics crew with my elders: Mr. Mufu, the head of graphics, a very nice and funny man; always making us assist him by cutting out badges for his Igbowa-Ikosi town club. There were also Duro, Tony P (who always looked out for me like an elder brother), Tony U, Friday, and my best friend Kako (Eugene Ossai), whom I mentioned earlier.

In the years that ensued, I’ve played important roles in the different products that Vanguard created, such as our evening paper, the Daily Mirror, where I worked with the editor, Gbenga Adefaye, who later became the GM and Editor-in-Chief. I also worked along with the late Azu Akanwa, Sam Ojame, and Big Victor Omeregie, who were all great with jokes; they used to have us rolling with laughter during each production.

I then moved on to designing the front pages of our weekend papers for Sunday with Fola Arogundade as editor and later Kunle Oyatomi. I did this in the company of my best friend, Dada Adekola, Cartoon Editor, for almost 20 years! We found the most ingenious way to work and have fun at the same time by going to a place in Kirikiri called Berger Suya to buy, yes, you guessed it, suya. We would leave our phones behind, so no one would be able to contact us while we were on our tryst and return to the office to drink tea, eat suya and bread while doing our night’s work, and I did this consistently even when I was on leave.

In 1998, I also worked with Ikeddy Isiguzo, the multi-talented sports guru, as a member of the SportsNow team of Vanguard’s defunct all-sports newspaper, where I worked as Head of Graphics with deputy editor Demola Olajire, sports reporters late Eddie Akalonu, Mr. Akosile, Joe Apu, late Henrietta Ukaigwe, and late Richard Animam. I remember when we were producing the very first edition of SportsNow; we spent two days in the office. The editor’s wife sent him a change of clothes from home because he had been wearing the same clothes for two days, but she sent him a white shirt without a pair of trousers because she forgot that he wore native attire when he left the house. Everyone laughed when he related this to the team!

Over the years I’ve worked in this company, it became more like a family business than a strict workplace. It’s been a beautiful place to work, even though we’ve been through a lot of travails and bumps in the road, but all in all, it has been a good experience for me. 

I have had so many beautiful and painful memories like losing colleagues, which in life is inevitable. Memories from this company could possibly fill a book, but going down memory lane, it’s been a dream for a boy to work in the place of his dream.

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