BECAUSE YOU STOOPED TO PROFILE THE ATLANTIC
(For Gbenga Omotoso)
Because you stooped to profile the Atlantic
You are eminently placed to speak for the Lagoon
Having given all to the newsroom
You are beckoned for the mission for a Greater Lagos:
Decked in accolades and golden plaques,
You are the stable stone that has gathered moss.
In the service of your cherished calling
Your eyes were allergic to colour riots
You gave a voice to the North and South
You did not project the city at the expense of hamlet
Because you believe humanity is supreme,
The Limpopo and the lake secured space on your cover page
Because you tarried in the Editors’ coven
You became a factory for Nobel hands
Under your patient tutelage,
A thousand of dreams were hatched into cocks
Scores you took as greenless horns
Have blossomed into giants in the media globe
If an error ever beat your trademark eyes
It could pass for style in the media school
Witchcraft editor,
You invoked the lead from unlikely beats
Hooked on human angles
Your riders were sweeter than Mirror’s leads
Only sloppiness saddened you
You could be shockingly at war with factual holes
Caring for intro and bent on depth
Every inch in the emeritus’ guild:
Because you tarried and triumphed in the newsroom
You became a story upon yourself.
I bear testimony to the largeness of your heart,
To your tested faith in mutual smiles
When salaries came early
You topped our rents with your widows’ mite
When the pay boarded a snail’s cab
You stewed our bread from your private pot.
Had I not straddled Lagos on peeling feet
Before you paved the way for my maiden car?
Ijora may have moved on
But the deed is eternal in the memory of The Comet:
Because you had stooped to conquer the Atlantic
You are eminently qualified to speak for the Lagoon.
And because you tarried…
Gallant at The Guardian
Consummate at Comet
Knight of News at The Nation dear:
Because you stooped to profile the Lagoon
You are eminently placed to speak for the Lagoon.
