In the book, Undaunted: The Journey and Lessons of 20 Years of Media Practice, Adebisi Adetunji, presents a memoir about her 20-year stewardship in the Nigerian broadcasting industry. I the book, she regales us with details of her sterling career as a trainer, social behavior change communication professional, and award-winning producer with expertise in radio programming, content creation, and education and development sectors.

This15-chapter book, published in 2022 by Nostalgia Press and Crown Delight Communications, throws up the issue of clashes between career projections that parents make for their children and what the children turn out to prefer. 

For the author, to excel and stand out, you must go the extra mile and out-of-your-way, even though it will cost you sacrifice, time and resources. She counsels practitioners in her industry, to strive to pursue excellence always, stating that digging deep to find one's strength, concentrating on it, building it, and harnessing it will enable one to produce the wow content.

The Buhari in Us is Abdullahi Haruna’s audacious text of his celebration of President Muhammadu Buhari.

The Buhari in Us is a collection of articles previously published in national dailies, blogs and social media platforms about Buhari. It was published in 2019 by Entourage Publishing, and it is an unpretentious elevation of President Buhari as a true democrat and anti-corruption Czar. In the book, Abdullahi, an unrepentant follower of the president, acknowledges the fact that Muhammadu Buhari is perceived differently by different people across the Nigerian and global spectrum, but for him and his cohorts in the pro-Buhari movement, Buhari ‘is a phenomenon, a movement and an ideology. His ideological values are ingrained in his policy direction, decisions and approach to handling national issues.’ He insists that Buhari is an enigma and hero worth studying, emulating, and celebrating for his integrity, accountability, sincerity and simplicity which he describes as virtues rarely found in leaders of today.

The book, The Buhari in Us, is a 112-page, 41-chapter musings of a core Buharist, and nationalist, who believes that Nigerians have allowed their faulty premises to misdirect them into misreading the pleasant personage and good intentions of the president. He challenges the society’s one-sided appreciation of Buhari while the extravagant and inexplicable lifestyles of other fellow Nigerians are unquestioned. So, he asks us to peep into the personal discipline, austere nature, Spartan life, balanced leadership, and contentment of the man. This is because, for him, these qualities strongly impacted on the health of the nation under the astute leadership of Muhammadu Buhari. ‘As it is, the man will be named on the top list of those who rescued Nigeria from the grips of looters and retired those who arrogated to themselves the landlords of Nigeria.’ 

In this edition, I present my review of Wanderer Cantos, a collection of poems by Remi Raji. Published in 2021 by Noirledge, Wanderer Cantos is the seventh book of poetry by Professor Remi Raji-Oyelade.

A perceptive reader will immediately sense that the poet persona in this work is in perpetual motion. Also, a recurring metaphor in the collection is that of death and scattered carcasses in lands where the people are conquered collectively and individually drained and dismembered and death is dished out by instalment.

The collection, Wanderer Cantos, is a great work of art, a montage of colourful words deployed with candour and a testament to the poet's power as a wordsmith. Remi Raji, with this work, continues to consolidate his status as a strong voice on the continent and globally as a multiple award-winning poet. The 68 poems in this collection are intricately woven, and delightfully rendered. The collection successfully showcases Remi Raji as a master of the art, and a wordsmith whose artistic dexterity is deeply influenced by his eclectic mind. 

Listen and enjoy this poetic edition!

The book, Yanju Adegbite: His Story, a biography written by Abimbola Lagunju, and published in 2022 by Berlitser Books, in Ibadan.

It tells the story of the quintessential broadcasting great, Mr. Yanju Adegbite, and lays out the circumstances of his birth, his family history and other details. The book also discusses his faith, especially how he got born again after so many years of groping in the dark.

In the book, we read about Yanju Adegbite’s professional and personal passion and his somewhat unplanned but providential opening of the radio station where he worked as a studio manager on 16th October 1974. Other exploits like his opening of three broadcasting stations owned by Oyo State as the first face and voice are recorded, the famous combination of Yanju and Adeola on the D&Y Connection Show which made its debut on Easter Monday in 1985 and stayed there for the next five years until Adeola Alagbe retired. Other highlights include his partnership with the great Alex Conde, among other things.

Dotun Oyelade Reporting… Memoirs of a Newshound is written by Prince Dotun Oyelade, and published in 2022 by Current Incorporated.

Dotun Oyelade’s  sterling career as a journalist, reporter, and media manager spans over four decades. And in this book, it is fitting for him to dig into his rich professional shelf and produce this equally rich recollection of that brimming career. So, in the preface to the book, Dotun Oyelade writes that the book 'should serve the purpose of encouraging broadcast journalists, and those aspiring to be, to further improve their trade by learning from the little efforts of reporters like me and using them as a fillip to excel in their chosen profession. This book is equally targeted at broadcast media practitioners in the practical excursion of their assignments.' And he delves into this business from the beginning, even attempting, but not afraid to be controversial and audacious. 

October Blues by Obiageli Iloakasia is a poet’s lamentation about a nation that eats its youths, and the poet has intricately expressed her pain about a promising nation which has lost its sense of direction.

Obiageli Iloakasia tucks in 121 poems, all intricately arranged into four thematic sections. And the free-flowing verses are a testament to Obiageli’s knack for exploring diverse aesthetic forms to deal with contemporary issues about Africa, and beyond.

In this edition, I feature the collection, a woman has many names, a debut work by Karimot Olabisi Odebode, published in February 2022 by Noirledge, Ibadan. The work is a clear testament the Karimot’s strong advocacy in the gender space. In the 107 poems (spread across five sections) in the collection, the reader encounters the poet in her elements as an award-winning performance poet who deploys her poetry to advocate for gender equality and a sustainable world.