After about two years in the saddle as Ondo State Commissioner for Information and Orientation, Yemi Olowolabi was recently redeployed to the Ministry of Culture and Tourism.
Unlike many others who didn’t know the real Yemi Olowolabi, I received the news of his reassignment with great excitement. While it is true that he has spent nearly two decades in the business of media relations and political communications, Olowolabi actually started from the Arts.
I’m a living testimony of his creative ability. He taught me journalism. He mentored me in the appreciation of arts and crafts.
From his early days in TELL magazine, he had carved a niche for himself as a consumate reporter of Culture and Tourism. From 1991, when he was first assigned to Arts beat of TELL, Olowolabi grew steadily in appreciation and analysis of the various forms of arts, travelling wide, far and near in search of nature’s beauty and man’s ingenuity.
Soon, he rose to an enviable height, as the
the Art Editor after taking over from Dayo Ajigbotosho when the had moved on to ICAN, as their Corporate Affairs personnel.
I first met Yemi Olowolabi during my internship in TELL. I grew under his watch and he groomed my interest in the arts especially whenever we went to cover exhibitions and dramatic presentations. Among those of us initiated by Olowolabi into poetic reporting were Adejuwon Soyinka, now an Editor in British Broadcasting Corporation, (BBC), Olusola Fabiyi, Abuja bureau chief Punch and Olukorede Yishau, Associate Editor of The Nation. I remember how Bose Bakare, another intern would always propel me to be alert whenever I followed the boss to any Art or Cultural event, his closest underling.
In those days, we would resume at the National Theatre, Iganmu and close at French Cultural Centre, Ikoyi. I still remember those names: Steve Ayorinde, Olayiwola Adeniji and Jahman Anikulapo all of the Guardian newspapers arts desk. I remember Sina Oladehinde and Wale Olo-Lanre of Nigerian Tribune. They were names I knew whenever I accompanied the boss to arts events.
Olowolabi’s finest crafts are tributes and book reviews in TELL, where he spent most of his journalistic career and became a specialist; reporting Art and Culture until he was elevated to the apex editorial cadre, reporting Politics and Economy.
He took the crafts to event coverage when he founded Red Carpet TV about ten years ago. Stories in Red Carpet are easily distinguished by poetic diction and vivid visuals.
Just like his colleague in Lagos, Steve Ayorinde former Commissioner for Information who was later redeployed to the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, the arts world is waiting for Yemi Olowolabi’s earnest turnaround of Ondo State’s sleepy culture and tourism landscape.
