•Kolawole Olawuyi Photo: Sun News Publishing

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His entire life, just like the programmes that elevated him to stardom, was clothed in an intriguing garb of mystery. And his death is no less mysterious. Even now, many days after his demise, the yet unanswered question on many lips is, what really killed Kolawole Olawuyi?

Olawuyi, renowned broadcaster and creator of the popular programmes, Nkan Mbe and Irinkerindo Akolawole reportedly passed on last Friday at a private hospital in Lagos. No one, however seems to know the exact ailment that took the heavily moustached broadcaster’s life.

On Sunday, as news of his death spread like wild fire, thousands of his fans had trooped to his house in Egbeda to confirm the news. Others had merely dismissed such ‘rumour’ with a wave of the hand, asserting that Kola could not die.
“I don’t believe what I have just heard. I just pray that it does not become reality,” a housewife, Mrs Kuburat Sanni, had told Daily Sun on Sunday.

Indeed, Kola Olawuyi was not your everyday broadcaster. His programmes were unique in many respects. Aimed at exposing activities of evil men and women in the society, Olawuyi’s programmes were (and still are) very popular, especially in the South-West, where he got them aired on many TV and radio stations. Imbued with an uncommon courage, the Ibadan-born broadcaster literally treaded where angels would cringe in utmost dread.

In the course of investigating stories, for his programmes, Olawuyi had no qualms accosting and exposing suspected killers, witches, ritualists and others of their ilk. One of the last episodes of his Irinkerindo, aired every Friday night on Gateway Radio, Abeokuta, featured the confessions of a man who reportedly escaped from the den of ritualists.

The man claimed there were about 500 persons still detained by the ritualists at an underground estate located in the bushes off the Benin-Ore expressway.
Born to Pastor Williams Inaolaji Olawuyi and Alhaja Olawuyi in Ibadan, Kola’s passion had always been for journalism. According to him, he had seen journalism as a tool with which God planned to use him to change the society.

With an HND from The Polytechnic, Ibadan, Olawuyi commenced a programme, entitled, Iriri Aiye, on FRCN, Ibadan in 1982, The programme featured human angle stories that touched the heart and exposed atrocities committed by man against his fellow man. His big break came in the late 80s when he exposed a certain “man of God” who claimed to use black eggs to perform miracles. During the programme, the “prophet” was exposed as a fraudster who had conned several people with his miracles. The man was picked up by the police, tried in court and subsequently jailed.

That programme, alongside other equally controversial editions, would soon pitch Olawuyi against some powerful forces in the society. He was reportedly warned several times to “take things easy” by the FRCN management, but he wouldn’t bulge. He was eventually relieved of his job at the corporation.
But that wasn’t the end. In fact, for Olawuyi, his sack became a springboard that catapulted him to higher grounds. Not long after he left Ibadan, he founded his own outfit, Kolbim Communications Ventures and went into private practice.

He still continued with his programmes, but now on a larger scale. Apart from syndicating it on a number of radio stations in Yoruba-speaking parts of the country, Kola also added a television version of the programme. His name, hitherto restricted to the hilly terrains of Ibadan, now became very popular across the South West. He also went into publishing, creating the Mystique magazine, which was aimed at non-Yoruba speakers. The magazine however could not survive.

Olawuyi, before his death, succeeded in creating a mythical air around himself. Fellow broadcasters testify of his aloofness. Though an independent broadcaster, Olawuyi was not in the league of the Freelance and Independent Broadcasters Association of Nigeria (FIBAN). He hardly attended social events, and not many people knew he was even suffering from any ailment. Even a simple fact as his age is still wrapped in mystery. While everyone agreed he was in his middle or late forties, not many knew his exact age. The actual date of his death is also a mystery, just like the cause.

Predictably, different tales have been spurned concerning the real cause of his death. Some claim he fell ill three months ago after ordering that a tree in his home be felled. Others claimed his death was a result of a story he did concerning a ghost town in Benin Republic.

The pastor of his church has however denied that his death had anything to do with his programmes. Pastor Emmanuel Adesan, of the Marvellous Tabernacle Parish of The Redeemed Christian Church of God where Olawuyi worshipped before his death said the late broadcaster died because it was God’s appointed time for him to depart the world.

Because of his daring deeds that exposed men with evil minds, Olawuyi was believed in many quarters to belong to some powerful cult. He has consistently denied this however, saying he did not possess any extraordinary powers.

His teachers at the University of Ibadan, where he was pursuing his Masters degree in Communications and Language Arts, described him as gentle, humble and very committed to his studies. According to them, the news that he is no more is still too strange to be true.
Many others would be wondering if the death of this man with a heavy moustache will be the end of his programmes.