By Gani Kayode Balogun Jnr.
2022 is turning out to be a year of new beginnings. Long term Kings climbing into the rafters, long term technocrats retiring from active service.
For Ademola Osinubi, lawyer and former Aviation correspondent, former Editor, former General Manager, all of The Punch, retires today as Managing Director/ Editor-in-Chief of Nigeria's highest circulating newspaper.
For almost fifty years, Mr. Osinubi bestrode The Punch, and by extension, the media landscape like a collosus. He was there during the good times, the bad times, the really really bad times, and then the great times.
He was the face of arguably the most successful newspaper company in the country for such a long stretch that it seems impossible to picture The Punch without Mr. Osinubi.
The Punch redefined journalism and media management in such a manner that it became, without apology to any other newspaper, the standard in which newspaper administation are judged.
A newspaper that started as a tabloid with the unforgettable page 3 girls, managed, under the leadership of Chairman Ajibola Ogunsola and Chief Executive Ademola Osinubi, to transform itself to a serious hard hitting newspaper, leading the media challenge of the political status quo.
It doesn't matter whether it was a Babangida or an Abacha, an Obasanjo or a Buhari, The Punch pulls no punches when it comes to defending the common good.
It paid a heavy price for its principled stance, including proscription and perennial harassment, especially during the famous face off of the 90s.
But it also reaped bountifully from the fallout, moving from the highest circulating newspaper to one of the highest advert generating media houses.
Mr. Osinubi's belief that a worker deserves his wages was evidently not just a slogan as the company started paying the highest salaries in the industry, with an annual increase across board.
Under his leadership, the company also pioneered all colour printing, which is different from spot colour, moved into a befitting edifice along the Lagos- Ibadan expressway, acquired what is considered the best printing press that money can buy, and maintains its stranglehold on the media landscape.
It is not all smooth sailing however, Mr. Osinubi, an introvert, as well as the board, operated a black and white administrative policy when it comes to rewards and punishment.
This led to high turnover of staff , since the system rewards abundantly but also punishes severely.
In fact, there was a period in the mid 90s, I do not know about now, that the staff dreaded what is known as the "message at the gate".
What this conjured was the if on the final Friday of the month you were not told by the gatemen that you have a message, it meant you still have a job in the company.
I once witnessed a circulation van driver who came in, I think from PH, who was escorted by the security guards to collect his belongings, and then handed his sack letter.
How can I forget a high ranking Management staff who was still at a senior manamgent meeting while his sack letter was already waiting for him at home!
I once asked Mr. Osinubi about his management style. He told me, in a rare moment of candour on his 50th birthday, that when he became GM and things were looking extremely bleak, he had a choice of either becoming a hard nosed, no nonsense captain of a distressed ship that must stay afloat or an amiable leader that will go down with the ship.
But despite his public personae of a recluse, no nonsense boss who adheres strictly to the rules, he also have his humane side.
When Punch gave the advert department the target of generating one billion Naira for that year,a figure that was until then seemed impossible to meet, and which a lot of people in the company thought was impossible and was just an excuse to sack the department, Mr. Osinubi assured us to just go and do our best, and that he had our back.
We met the target with three months to spare.
Mr. Osinubi is both a mentor and a terror to everyone. Not the one to hide his feelings or suffer fools gladly, he will drum into your head that for every action there will be consequences.
A phrase that had stuck in my brain anytime I embark on anything.
Now that Uncle Demo is leaving Punch after almost fifty years, it would be interesting how the new MD, Adeyeye Joseph, would move the company forward without his mentor serving as a safety net.
These are troubling times for the industry and the time honored answers no longer solve the new threats.
The jury is still out on Mr. Osinubi's tenure. But one thing is certain: Nobody can query his commitment to the newspaper, which he joined as a boy right out of secondary school, and which he left as a Billion Naira Enterprise.
I wish Mr. Ademola Osinubi, Solicitor and Barrister at Law, Media Consultant and a fellow table tennis enthusiast, the very best in his future endeavors.