What was your first job as a journalist?
I worked with Vanguard Newspaper in Nigeria between 2013-2016
What does it mean to be a journalist?
A journalist must have an alert and ordered mind. People trust journalists with facts, either the ones they give them or the ones they receive from them. All journalists must aim for accuracy. Without it trust and audience will be lost.
Journalists should always have a notebook or recording device at hand. Contemporaneous notes are essential when it comes to compiling a report.
The journalist needs to stay alert and use their imagination to build a mental picture of what people tell them. They must learn to visualise the story.
How do you prefer to be pitched on stories?
I prefered to be pitched via email
Did you work for your high school newspaper? If so, what did you do there?
I contributed to several campus columns of newspapers like Businessday and vanguard
What story are you most proud of writing or working on?
My interview with veteran journalist, Mike Awoyinfa
What advice can you offer to aspiring journalists?
Good grammar, punctuation, and style aren’t good enough. A journalist’s skills must be impeccable. Once you commit yourself to journalism, you will not be able to read a simple paragraph without analyzing its structure. You will never go to a movie without examining key scenes to figure out why they worked. It’s maddening but fantastic, because if you’re doing these things, you’re stretching yourself and your work will improve.
When you're not at a computer, where are you most likely to be?
I will be watching movies
