Remembering David Odey: A Newsroom Colossus with a Gentle Touch (A Posthumous Tribute)

By Paul Dada

“Where are you?”

That was the question David Odey, my editor during my first stint at PMNEWS between 2006 and 2010, asked me over the phone one afternoon at about 4 p.m.

I told him I was already at home.

“Come back to the office. You left too early when your juniors are still working,” he said in his characteristically gentle but firm manner.

His tone was never harsh, yet it could be unsettling. On that particular day, it was even more so because I was feeling lazy and had no intention of returning to work.

Reluctantly, I left my house in Meiran and headed back to our office on Acme Road, Ogba.

When I arrived, I discovered why he had summoned me. He wanted me to write a feature story on Michael Jackson.

I was not pleased. We already had an Entertainment Editor and a full entertainment desk.

Why me?

Well, Odey had seen something in me. I eventually wrote what turned out to be a fine piece titled “The Rise and Fall of Wacko Jacko” or something close to that.

Looking back, that assignment was one of many ways David Odey, one of the best editors I ever worked with, helped shape my career.

I did not begin my journalism journey at PMNEWS. Before joining the newspaper, I had worked with a few fringe publications and had also served as a proofreader in a consultancy firm that specialised in text editing.

But it was at PMNEWS that I truly learnt journalism.

Odey valued precision and accuracy. Every detail mattered. Every fact had to be verified. Every story had to be thoroughly checked. Once he recognised your potential, he pushed you to make the most of it.

He entrusted me with responsibilities well beyond my rank.

When the late Lanre Babalola, our News Editor, was away on leave, Odey would ask me to step in temporarily.

His confidence in me extended even further. He turned me into an editorial writer, an experience that later proved invaluable when I became a member of the Editorial Board at Hallmark and Business Hallmark years later.

One memory remains particularly vivid.

As PMNEWS prepared for coverage of the 2007 general elections, Odey assigned reporters to various beats. Most journalists were paired with colleagues. The late Tokunbo Olajide and I were not.

“I didn’t pair both of you with anyone because I know you are the strong ones,” he told us.

Coming from Odey, that was high praise.

At times, he relied on me to help struggling freelance contributors. He would simply say, “Just debrief him.”

On other occasions, he would jokingly remark, “Make sense out of his nonsense.”

That was Odey.

He had a quiet sense of humour, though deadlines always came first. During production hours, there was little room for banter.

He was also a man of few words. Sometimes his instructions raised more questions than they answered.

He could tell you, “Something has happened at 10 Jimmy Street, Apapa. Go there.”

That was all.

No landmarks. No directions. No additional details.

One would think he assumed every reporter knew every street in Lagos. Yet you had to figure it out and get the story.

He also had a knack for calling when you least expected it.

One Saturday, I was at a church camp along the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway when he phoned.

There had been a pipeline explosion in Abule Egba and he wanted me there immediately.

I explained that I was outside Lagos and tried to avoid the assignment.

It did not work.

He insisted I leave and cover the disaster.

On another Saturday, he called with a familiar urgency.

“MD wants someone to go to Abeokuta now.”

The MD was Mr Bayo Onanuga, now Special Adviser to President Bola Tinubu on Information and Strategy.

The assignment involved investigating and reporting on the political crisis in the Ogun State chapter of the defunct ANPP. One of the key figures in that crisis was Ibikunle Amosun, who would later become governor of the state.

Although I was primarily a Metro Reporter, Odey and Babalola ensured that I was exposed to virtually every aspect of journalism.

I covered gang wars, building collapses, suicides, murders, rape cases, poor roads and traffic accidents. I also reported on politics, the State House, business, entertainment and crime.

They broadened my horizons and strengthened my versatility.

On Tuesday, I was shell-shocked when I received news of his passing.

David Odey died at the age of 63.

Yet death cannot erase his impact.

He lives on in my memories and in the memories of the many journalists he mentored, guided and inspired.

For those of us privileged to have worked under him, David Odey was more than an editor.

He was a teacher, a talent spotter and a builder of careers.

Above all, he was a gentle newsroom colossus.

Paul Dada is the Deputy Editor of PMNEWS