‘Oriyomi is an unsung hero who has not been duly celebrated for his immense achievements and innumerable fruitful interventions. This may be chalked up to his modesty. Hamzat doesn’t go about blowing his own trumpet. He doesn’t go to the mountaintop to sing his own praises. He has no truck with the ego-vaunting and the personality-driven standard of a typical contemporary celebrity. Oriyomi just goes about doing good without calling attention to himself‘
MEN like Oriyomi Hamzat are a rarity. Looking for someone cast in Oriyomi’s mould is a Herculean task. It’s something akin to looking for a needle in a haystack. This claim may sound extravagant to those who don’t know the man. However, the ignorance of those who deem the assertion hyperbolic is pardonable if they know a version of the man: the broadcaster.
But to reduce Oriyomi to just a broadcaster is a great injustice and disservice to what he represents. Oriyomi is not just that bespectacled man, with streak of grey hair and a booming voice, behind the microphone in Agidigbo studio. He is bigger than that space. He cannot be confined to the newsroom. The Chief Executive Officer of Agidigbo F.M is that massive river that keeps gurgling and rippling, running unhindered everywhere to quench people’s thirst.
Oriyomi, a broadcaster of note, doesn’t see journalism as a profession which secures a meal ticket for him; he sees it as a calling. Though Hamzat has carved a niche for himself in broadcasting, he is comfortable in his skin in any medium he chooses to discharge his duties to humanity. He is a social crusader, journalist, philanthropist, humanist, activist, poet, administrator and many more.
If you want to know his worth as an administrator, just pay a visit to the Agidigbo F.M. Right from the gates of the compact architectural masterpiece you sense dedication. The serene atmosphere of the tidy premises tingles with palpable sense of duty. Every worker mans his duty post like a vigilant sentinel. Commitment. Dedication. Passion. Professionalism. Everything runs like a clockwork. No room for shoddiness.
It is a testament to his liberal nature that he does not micromanage the organisation. A humble man to the core, Hamzat does not overreach himself in the running of the station. Though he drew up the blueprint for the running and progress of the organisation, he knows it takes a sense of togetherness coupled with inventiveness, under a relaxed atmosphere, to realise dreams. Therefore, he doesn’t breathe down workers’ necks; he gives them the latitude to operate. The staff are a blend of youthfulness and experience. The youth inject fresh and contemporary ideas into the running of the organisation under the guidance of the veterans. Though Oriyomi delegates duties, he has the whip hand and he doesn’t lord it over his employees.
Hamzat is not ashamed to walk with the downtrodden. Unabashedly, he identifies with those dubbed ‘the wretched of the earth’. They troop to the premises of his radio station every day. He lends his voice to their grievances, outrage and frustrations. He brightens up the dark cloud hanging over their heads. He is a beacon of hope to the hopeless; Oriyomi, the generous giver, offers succour to the distraught and the helpless.
In a generation that has lost its humanity and sense of empathy, one whose ranks of people with social conscience keep thinning. Oriyomi has turned philanthropy into a lifestyle. He embraces it warmly. His arms are ever open, his heart large and breasts overflowing with milk of compassion. The broadcaster, through different empowerment projects, arms the poor with the pole to vault over the hurdle — a mountain of challenges stacked up against them by nature or poor economy — between them and their dreams.
…The humanitarian, philanthropist
ORIYOMI runs an orphanage in Ibadan but the place is not a home to the parentless alone; the broadcaster is an avid collector of strays. Whether in swaddling or tattered clothes, Hamzat picks them all from the streets: the rejects, vagrants and the destitute flung on the streets by the storm of life. The orphanage offers an anchor for the rootless too, so they won’t be uprooted and blown away. It also offers succour to delicate children with more spirit than strength, those stricken with diseases or haggard and pale with suffering. They are innumerable, yet Oriyomi ministers to their needs.
The ace broadcaster once narrated how he literally prised a precocious child away from the vicious grip of his mother. According to him, the mother had lost her maternal instinct to her struggle, or “hustle”, to use the popular parlance, for survival on the street. He added that, as expected, she was a compulsive consumer of marijuana and other hard drugs. From Oriyomi’s graphic description, when at “work” the woman is a throwback to — and a female version of — Sango; she belches out smokes like a busy chimney. He added that he was with the boy one day when they met the mother on the street but to his surprise the woman couldn’t recognise her child or pretended not to.
Today, Oriyomi has nurtured and transformed him (the child) from that imp of a child, born into squalor under pall of marijuana smoke and reek of alcohol, into a forward-looking mathematical prodigy. The mathematical prodigy had A1 in the dreaded subject (mathematics) both in WASSCE and NECO.The guy is just one of the hundreds of children in Oriyomi’s custody. To be sure, this is purely a yeoman’s job. He collects no dime from an individual or enormous grant, fund or endowments from a national or international organization committed to a similar cause.
This may seem an easy task but you get a clearer understanding and better appreciation of his efforts when you put in perspective how we all got to this side of the metaphysical divide. Humans are born blind and bare. Blind. Eyes staring but unseeing. Gauze of flesh spreads across pinky eyes. A baby, a bundle of joy and promise — gifted to man by nature or providence if you like — always in need of nurture and guidance to grow into adulthood. Humans also come to the world bare. Unclad and vulnerable like a tendril desperate for support and protection.
It is safe to say that our existential struggles are geared towards overcoming these two congenital deficiencies — nakedness and blindness — in their manifold manifestations. Parents of means find raising a child a joyful and pleasant responsibility. The experience is not the same for poor parents; for them raising their offspring is a burden. But someone like Oriyomi sees taking over the responsibility as his lot. He takes up a child who is as crude as common clay from the street and polish them until they become as smooth and attractive as marble. Can’t you see this, no doubt, is no mean feat? Yet, the child of Hamzat is not tired of bearing others’ burden, he is ever ready to stiffen his sinews to do so.
…The activist’s relentless battle to get justice for Tmothy Adegoke
‘Oriyomi, the activist, was no obscure broadcaster before the ugly incident of Timothy’s death but handling the matter and hammering on it tirelessly has redounded to his fame. He is now a household name even beyond the shores of the country. From Europe to America, from Asia to the Antarctica and the rest of Africa, Oriyomi is seen as the face of the struggle to secure justice for the deceased chartered accountant and father of three. He is also seen as an archetype of justice and a go-to journalist for the oppressed. Some Nigerians in the diaspora have even banded together to form Oriyomi fan club.’
A MAN of many interventions, nothing is too scary or sacred for Oriyomi to investigate. He beams his searchlight into political, social and religious institutions. He exposes evil, impunity and societal ills. His interventions are boundless and boundaryless. The most recent of such interventions is that of Timothy Adegoke, an MBA student of Obafemi Awolowo University, who was allegedly killed at the Hilton Honors Hotels in Ile-Ife sometime last year.
When the news of Timothy’s death first broke, it was a case discussed in hushed voices amongst people. Nobody wanted to take it up because of the clout and cat’s cradle of connections wielded by the owner of the hotel, Rahmon Adedoyin, who isn’t just a billionaire but a prominent chief in Ile-Ife (he has reportedly been relieved of the title by the Ooni of Ife). Spineless journalists crawled back into their trenches, unprincipled ones went for the brown envelope stuffed with goodies fat enough to satisfy their greedy bellies. It was only Oriyomi Hamzat that had the nerve to take up the case with no strings attached. He has since been squealing for justice for the deceased. Hamzat has turned ‘Justice for Timothy’ into a mantra and a battle-cry in the legal fight against a well-known powerful man.
Oriyomi, the activist, was no obscure broadcaster before the ugly incident of Timothy’s death but handling the matter and hammering on it tirelessly has redounded to his fame. He is now a household name even beyond the shores of the country. From Europe to America, from Asia to the Antarctica and the rest of Africa, Oriyomi is seen as the face of the struggle to secure justice for the deceased chartered accountant and father of three. He is also seen as an archetype of justice and a go-to journalist for the oppressed. Some Nigerians in the diaspora have even banded together to form Oriyomi fan club.
His adaptive genius has always served him in good stead in his investigative works. A man of the people, apart from being personable, Hamzat understands the lingo of the street and the argot of denizens of the dark enclaves. This does not, however, mean that he runs with the hare and hunts with the hounds. He always makes his position on issues known by nailing his colours to the mast. No obfuscation. No prevarication. Ever firm and fierce, he is not afraid to be a lone ranger in his pursuit of a cause as long as it lifts humanity. In all his dealings, Hamzat is above board. He will neither sacrifice his integrity on the altar of pecuniary gains nor mortgage his conscience. His reputation is too dear to him to barter it for a plate of porridge.
A typical Ibadan man. Oriyomi is an adept deployer of words. Hamzat can use words to bemoan and to bewitch; he can use them to seduce and sting. He is also capable of dressing up a barb in a garment of banter. Ask Rahmon Adedoyin who has been at the receiving end of his caustic and abrasive wit and he will show you bruises and weals incurred from the broadcaster. So biting was the lash of his tongue that the loyalists of the Ife-born hotelier once filed for a court order to restrain Oriyomi and save their man’s skin. He, however, deploys all the weapons in his armoury during his many interventions to unearth the truth and ensure justice and not to denigrate or dehumanise.
His love for language is not questionable. He has demonstrated this in many of his programmes on Agidigbo F.M. The poet in him was let loose in a threnody he composed for Timothy. He pushed the Yoruba language to its expressive limits. He evoked the memories of Timothy’s earthly sojourn, invoked the ancestral spirits of Eruwa, he summoned and conjured with enchanting words the seven hills (believed to have become deities) encompassing the town and implored them to seek and secure justice for one of their descendants.
When we talk of heroes, our minds readily hark back to men of medieval times as depicted and romanticised in movies. Men of brawny build and towering stature . Primitive men who settled scores by spilling gore. Gladiators who took sanguinary delight in swashbuckling. Those who measured their achievements with the number of scalps in their attics. Brutalised men who felt no compunction when the brain tissues of the enemy slid and dripped down his back. Brutes who wouldn’t hesitate to draw blood with the swift thrust of the sword.
Oriyomi is no brute. He is no gladiator either. Generally speaking heroism may be all that and more. But in simple terms it means courage, bravery and gallantry. It’s not always about blood, violence and death. It’s self sacrifice that may not necessarily lead to “self liquidation” or martyrdom. Going by this simple definition, Hamzat is a model example of a true hero. He has earned his stripes in the field of journalism and social activism. By sacrificing his precious time and hard-earned money he has saved souls and promoted positive causes.
But Oriyomi is an unsung hero who has not been duly celebrated for his immense achievements and innumerable fruitful interventions. This may be chalked up to his modesty. He doesn’t go about blowing his own trumpet. He doesn’t go to the mountaintop to sing his own praises. He has no truck with the ego-vaunting and the personality-driven standard of a typical contemporary celebrity. Oriyomi just goes about doing good without calling attention to himself.
…The hard-crack journalist, who ‘cheats on troubles’
THE journey has not always been smooth. It’s been a bumpy ride for the intrepid journalist. Power and the powerful are not always happy with him. They often see him as a threat and a torn in their flesh. In 2017, Oriyomi found himself in the eye of the storm. The Oyo State Government under the leadership of the late Senator Ishiaq Abiola Ajimobi ordered his arrest by men of the Department of State Security. They accused him of sending his guys to secretly bury the corpse of one of his foster children.
While the ordeal lasted, the state machinery was oiled to churn out disparaging and bitchy rumours from its mill. Henchmen went to work, sycophants whetted their unctuous tongues to lacerate and malign the broadcaster’s reputation. The objective was to cut Oriyomi down to size. And even some journalists —members of Oriyomi’s professional guild who ought to voice their solidarity for him — were not left out of the campaign of calumny. These professional colleagues of Oriyomi’s saw him as a rival. They were of the opinion that he was outshining them by staying too long in the limelight. They saw the predicament as an opportunity to destroy him by permanently sending him into oblivion.
Oriyomi was detained for weeks. But “truth, they say, “is like oil; no matter how much water you pour on it, it will always float.” The truth eventually surfaced and it became clear that Hamzat was arrested, not because he was a criminal but for his investigation which exposed the maltreatment of the state’s civil servants by the government.
It was obvious the government of the day hated his gut and the prickly obduracy he brought to the discharge of his duty. They wanted to break his will and blunt his rapier-sharp tongue but in the long run, Oriyomi was vindicated and the public erupted in joy.
Reacting to that phase of his life Oriyomi shed light on what happened prior to his arrest. He noted that he had hosted separately and jointly, groups of retirees from primary and secondary schools. The broadcaster added that the retirees had come to show their grievances over backlog of unpaid pensions and gratuities years after they left service. The retirees said their entitlements were “hanging somewhere in the hands of those who are supposed to pay them.”
As reported by an online news medium, Premium Times, Oriyomi said, “Every time when they come to me, I feel their pain. I feel the fact that some of them have kids who look up to them. I feel the pang of their frustrations; the fact that they are still responsible to their families, friends and relatives”.
He continued, “Some of them started businesses before leaving service with the hope of falling back to such business when they retire by eventually funding them with their pensions. Today, those businesses have ceased to exist because pensions and gratuities which they’re expecting aren’t flowing in. Eventually, they’re left with nothing.”
He stressed that while this was going, groups of lecturers of colleges of education in Oyo State were also reaching out to him over their unpaid salary arrears.
“I presented their case based not just on their complaint but also after in-depth investigation into the matter. I conducted the investigation both covertly and overtly, directly and by proxy, gathered facts and inferences even when these concerned people do not know about it. I did not go on air to discuss their plight until I was fully satisfied that they were right,” Oriyomi told Premium Times.
Vintage Oriyomi – friend of the masses and people-certified ombudsman who never drops an iron visor over his probing gaze and pretends nothing is amiss when those in authority abuse the people that put them there and refuse to be accountable
However, as if the challenges of that year were not enough, barely three years later, Hamzat’s broadcasting studio went up in flames. Equipment worth N100m got consumed in the ravaging inferno whose cause is not known to date.
Sad but undeterred, the broadcaster remained unbowed and irrepressible. Oriyomi, the enigma, weathered the storm. He always does. Maybe the secret of his usual triumph over trials and travails is locked in his name. For Oriyomi when roughly translated means a child destined to cheat death even if narrowly. Someone who always escapes evils by a whisker. Perhaps that’s why Hamzat, like a proverbial cat with nine lives, always rises from the ashes of tribulations much to the chagrin of his detractors. He is simply irrepressible.
Irrepressible he is but not irreverent or irresponsible. He always gives honour to whom honour is due. He sings praises of those in power when they deserve it. He doesn’t go out to cause or court trouble. He is a troubleshooter. Oriyomi does not want to be an enemy to those in power or anyone at all.
In Fact, the broadcaster doesn’t hide the fact that he is an intimate friend of the sitting governor of Oyo State. He, however, said he won’t hesitate to tell the man wielding the lever of power the unvarnished truth if situations call for it. He noted that the number one citizen of the pacesetter state has a good heart and a listening ear. He stressed that he regularly makes his reading of the public pulse known to the governor by giving tongue to the thoughts of the masses.
No doubt, this paradigm of integrity and diligence deserves more than perfunctory accolades or muted celebration. He deserves more than this piece even. For all he has done for humanity, for his daring interventions in the affairs of others. A festival of songs ought to be organised solely for him, to praise him to the skies. He also deserves a festschrift in his honour, jealously preserved for posterity to ponder and pore over in many moons to come.
*Kolawole is a Lagos-based journalist.
