By Kunle Ajibade
In this revelatory and candid memoir, A Reporter and His Beat, Yinka Fabowale, who has spent more than 30 years in print and electronic media, writes lucidly about his eventful years as a journalist in Lagos Horizon, The Guardian, The Comet, The Sun, TELL, and Space FM, where he has worked after his graduation from the University of Ibadan and the Nigerian Institute of Journalism in Lagos.
He gives detailed accounts of his rigorous but very rewarding practical apprenticeship under some hardcore, no-nonsense professionals in Lagos Horizon and The Guardian; the lessons he learnt all the way from his highly and lowly placed sources and the events he covered.
He shows that what makes a great journalist is not just the theory, but the liquid and solid experiences in the field.
Even when some parts of the memoir are dark and scary, particularly at all those moments when he was face-to-face with death in his quest for truth and as he bore witness to crimes against humanity, Fabowale makes them bearable to read by lacing them with humour and wit.
In telling the story of his journalism career, he brilliantly tells some juicy stories of politicians and politics, trade unionists, human rights activists, helpless farmers, the precarious existence of everyday people, and some desperate crooks, etc.
This book is not the first draft of history —it is history itself. At a time when good journalism is hard to come by, A Reporter and His Beat is reporting in its excellent form. The book is eloquently compassionate, warm, and engaging.
Yinka Fabowale’s passion, his daring, relentless diligence, integrity, modesty, empathy, maturity, and remarkable sense of higher purpose are on full display in this book.
•Ajibade is the Editor/Director The NEWS/PM NEWS