It’s occurred to me more than a few times that many visitors to this blog do not check out who’s behind it although a picture, taken two weeks before the blog took off does indicate how the person looks. That picture was actually taken on March 13 at a small birthday luncheon at Ibadan’s famous Davis Hotel and my favorite Iyan (pounded yam) Place. I’m sure you must say, ‘no wonder, the mirthful look! By the way for the information of those who do not live in Ibadan or are not familiar with the boutique-type hotel, it ranks as one of Nigeria’s better inns – intimate environment, lots of retro photographic work of artsy types like Fela, Satchmo, Billy Holliday, Sunny Ade, etcetera general good service. And I’ve seen restaurants at many “5-Star” hotels where the services and food call for instant investigations of who awards Nigerian hotels their stars.
Since this Blog posted ABOUT on April 19 – 100 days ago – only 121 viewers have checked out ABOUT me while “Nigeria’s new ministerial list portends a future that is Nigeria’s immediate past”, posted on June 22, a mere forty-seven (47) days ago, has already attracted two hundred and fifty-six (256) viewers. Meanwhile, little Ms. Saheela Ibrahim, the 15 year-old Nigerian girl who’s headed to Harvard this fall after picking the college out of the thirteen top colleges that gave her admission, had her story posted here on May 6 but now ranks second on the all-time highest viewed essays; two hundred and thirty (230) visitors have already checked out her very heartening story although our Little Miss beats everybody and every topic hands down in the Search Engine terms, having garnered thirty-five (35) while Late Ulli Beier is second with thirty (30) and Emotan is third with twenty-seven (27).
While I’m very pleased and excited at these figures, I’m representing an updated write-up ABOUT me for those who are new and those who may have missed the Widget in the header, or those simply busy folks who haven’t had the time to check it out.
Thanks for stopping by,
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I entered journalism as a National Youth Service Corps member at the Daily Sketch,Ibadan after earning a college degree in Business Administration in 1975. I rose to Features Writer and later edited the Women Affairs section, a Sunday double-page spread at the paper before embarking on publishing and editing Emotan, A Woman’s Magazine in 1977 following in the footsteps of pioneering “Woman’s World” by the Daily Times of Nigeria and “Modern Woman”, published by late Chief Bisi Onabanjo whose pen name, Aiyekoto, still brings memories of fearless journalism to older Nigerians like me. Late Toun Onabanjo, also of blessed memory, edited “Modern Woman” after graduating from the University of Ife.
I’ve authored fiction and nonfiction publications, including biographies of my late father, J.F. Adamolekun of Iju in Akure North; Oba Samuel Adenle I, an Ataoja of Osogbo who was my father-in-law and whose biography I co-wrote with my spouse. [Both parents are of very blessed memories.] I’ve written non-fiction, including a collection of short stories,” Deeper by a Tear.”
The weekly essays have apparently gotten me my most fans: a weekly Sunday column, first for The Comet on Sunday, a paper that – with the daily – later metamorphosed into The Nation for which I maintained the weekly essays for the Sunday edition of the paper for about nine years altogether before saying goodbye to readers on Boxing Day, December 26, 2010 reproduced here on July 7: “Letters to my niece: the writing life and saying goodbye.”
Using old tools for a modern endeavor, I got most of my initial readers from the hundreds of names on my sort of rolodex: email addresses and telephone numbers of readers who, at one time or another, reached out to me about what I wrote or just to say hi. Now, with that chore of devoted readers are those who come here through different routes.
This blog was conceived and registered in June 2010 after my youngest child stayed up nights reading old Emotan issues. She suggested I upload all old issues- ads and all – to a website so that others, now and in future, can have access to them. Since I had informed her I was thinking of stopping the weekly essays because I had started to repeat myself a whole lot in the unchanging political situation in Nigeria which I had found myself writing on even though I was ill-equipped for the job and had always wanted to write on Society, The Arts, etcetera – she told me it would be a good vessel to continue to contribute to discourse on Nigerian affairs ONCE IN A WHILE!
With my decision early in January this year to support the candidacy of retired General Buhari for the Nigerian presidency, I started thinking of getting started on the blog and even by March when I made the public declaration of my support for Buhari in a comment in The Nation on Sunday on March 20, I was still putting off getting started. It would not be another week before I decided the Blog would be my medium for most personal opinions on the elections while I would keep blogging for my popular website for Nigerian political affairs, Sahara Reporters. And so, ready or not March 29, the birth of emotan.wordpress.com arrived; emotanafricana.com would take a little longer before I changed domain name although I still blog with WordPress.com
I’m passionate about books, politics, various sports and the arts, especially Music and Literature. Huge Nigerian parties? I pass as often as I can.
I’ve been married to Dr. Depo Adenle, a hydrogeologist for – must I say this and be dated – over forty-one years and we have four children and six grandchildren. In this age of the Global Village, Depo and I have found that we can function and even thrive in many societies, especially those where most things that remain challenges in Nigeria are taken for granted but the human need for rootedness rears its pretty head often enough to remind us that we do feel most at home in two places in the world: Ibadan, Nigeria, and the Greater Washington, D.C. area of the United States!
Essays on this Blog with my by-line reflect my opinions on but comments by readers are presented unedited and represent the personal opinions of the bloggers.
Updated: Ibadan, Nigeria. August 7, 2011.
[First Issued: Ibadan, Nigeria. April 19, 2011.]