Wole Falodun now
A former correspondent of the Radio Nigeria, Ikoyi, Lagos, and the Daily Times, Wole Falodun, has urged the Lagos State Government to fulfil the promises made to him after he became blind in 1995.
PUNCH Metro learnt that Falodun, who was the writer of a popular column, Waka About, in the defunct Lagos Weekend in the 1970s, went blind after a surgeon in the Lagos Island General Hospital made a mistake while treating him (Falodun) for glaucoma.
Our correspondent gathered that Falodun, a former secretary of the National Youth Council of Nigeria and a former Publicity Secretary of the Christian Association of Nigeria, had gone to the hospital on July 7, 1995, and was attended to by one Dr. Orekoya.
It was learnt that Orekoya, who fled the country after the surgery, operated on the right eye instead of the left eye, resulting in total blindness for the journalist.
It was gathered that Falodun, who wrote an appeal letter to the Lagos State Governor, Bola Tinubu, on May 21, 2001, was invited on February 19, 2002, for a meeting with the governor.
A copy of the minutes of the meeting held with Tinubu, which was sighted by our correspondent, stated that the former governor promised that the state would take care of the veteran solely on humanitarian grounds.
Tinubu reportedly added that the government would not accept liability arising from the negligence of the doctor, but would assist financially with Falodun’s upkeep and the education of his three children through the “state scholarship board and other convenient options”.
Our correspodnent gathered that the Waka Aboutcolumnist, however, had yet to enjoy any of the government promises.
Speaking with PUNCH Metro on Friday, 73-year-old Falodun, who urged the state government to fulfill the promises made to his family, talked about some of his experiences as a journalist.
He said, “I started with Radio Nigeria in 1968. There was just one broadcasting house at that time and it was in Ikoyi. Anything that was aired there was heard all over Nigeria. My midget was as large as a speaker. It was carried on the shoulder, and it used 10 batteries.
“In 1971, I became a columnist for the Daily Times. I was also the Secretary of the NYCN, and we presented the report which laid the foundation for the NYSC scheme to General Yakubu Gowon in 1972.
“The column was published in the Lagos Weekendtitle and known as Waka About. I was then under an editor, Dipo Ajayi.
“The column was such that my identity was not disclosed. By the standard of that column, the writer was a riff-raff; somebody who slept under the bridge because that was the image I assumed.
“I was thought to be someone who was living under the Yaba Bridge, but the things I was writing were facts. There was a Yoruba monarch at that time, who married two wives that were daughters of the same parents; the column brought it out. Anything that happened in Port Harcourt, Sokoto and any part of the country could be reported by the column.”
Falodun added that his identity was eventually disclosed after he got married.
He said, “I was staying in an apartment in the Somolu area, and there was a next-door neighbour that usually hurried to buy the Lagos Weekendbecause of the column. He would call me, saying, ‘This man don write again o’.
“I pretended as if I did not know anything, and we would laugh together. There was also someone in our area that pretended that he was the Waka Aboutcolumnist. But on the day I got married and my identity was disclosed, he left the area.
“It used to be a Friday publication, and it had a logo of legs in big boots and a shirt that did not cover the navel. It was a satire of things that were happening in Nigeria. It was written in pigdin.”
On his blindness, Falodun said he had not been contacted by the government since 2001, when he met the then governor for asistance.
“I had glaucoma, and I needed to do surgery in 1995. Olagunsoye Oyinlola, who was the then military governor, wanted me to go to Israel to do the operation.
“But I chose Nigeria out of patriotism. But then, the doctor made a mistake during the surgery.
“He ran away the same night, knowing the implications of the damage. I had had this condition since then. It disrupted my career, and I could not engage in active service. I met ex-Governor Tinubu in 2001, and he made a number of promises which have yet to be fulfilled.
“I want the compensation from the government; I cannot do anything because my eyes have been ruined. I have children in schools. My philosophy of life is to live for God, and I don’t want to be buried with any decorated coffin or with a noise-making ceremony when I pass on.”
Source: punch
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