Nigerian journalist, Yinka Fabowale, to release book reliving thrilling newsroom career

Yinka Fabowale, one of Nigeria’s most accomplished journalists, has presented the world with a book detailing the experiences and challenges of an African journalist rising from rookie to veteran in the face of daily risks to life and career.

The book, “A Reporter and His Beat”, tells the story of a Nigerian journalist on duty in the military and democratic eras. It offers unique and realistic lessons to reporters, journalists and scholars as it points out the differences between journalism in theory and in practice.

The new book, according to Mike Awoyinfa, a former MD/Editor-in-Chief of The Sun Publishing, is “a tapestry of captivating stories, pedagogy, moral treatise.”

“This book is worthy of admittance to the growing corpus of sublime literature and will definitely enrich the perspectives of policymakers, scholars of communication and journalism, development studies experts and anyone interested in the range of subjects it covers,” Mr Awoyinfa adds.

Abiodun Adeniyi, a professor of Communication at the Baze University, Abuja, says by writing “A Reporter and His Beat,” Yinka Fabowale, has scored the goal of a true professional.

“The professional needs some detouring to document travails, travels, tests, and triumphs, not just for the younger practitioners, students, researchers, neutral readers, and much else, but also to relieve the self of the inner burden to give back, by sharing life’s lessons from a personal prism,” he says.

Giving an inkling into the kind of accounts readers should expect, Dare Babarinsa, co-founder of TELL weekly newsmagazine in the Foreword to the book, said Mr Fabowale “was on the beat when General Sani Abacha and his goons were on the prowl and journalism became one of Nigeria’s most dangerous professions.

“Now that Nigeria is enjoying civil rule, Fabowale is reminding Nigerians about those heroes and heroines who paid the price so that our country can enjoy freedom from military rule and dictatorship. This is a book of history, of journalism, and a testament about courage and determination. The style is mellifluous and accessible, flowing with the milk of humanness and the penetrating surefootedness of a seasoned athlete.”

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Ahead of the book’s presentation in Lagos, Fabowale’s former colleagues and bosses in the Sun Newspaper, The Guardian, Tell Magazine and friends in the media, have continued to express hearty views about the book, betting that the book will be gold in the readers’ hands.

Tony Onyima, a former managing director of The Sun Newspaper, where Mr Fabowale worked as Assistant Editor/Bureau Chief (Southwest), says that besides being an indigenous contribution to journalism knowledge, the new book “is a first-hand recollection by an infantryman whose exploits on the beat are legendary.”

On the book’s writing style, Lola Fabowale-Male, a Canada-based policy analyst, said: “Yinka Fabowale frankly, humorously, and humbly reveals both the glittering side and the seedy underbelly of Nigeria’s Fourth Estate”.

Lade Bonuola, former managing director, The Guardian, expressed delight at the author’s picturesque renditions of accounts, which comes with the accustomed enrapturing prose Mr Fabowale is known for