ODE To Tonikan Onwordi My God Father.

This is a re-run.It was first published on Facebook on November 14,2010.I just felt like sharing again because something similar just happened to someone I know - Persecution on the job,the disgrace,the pain,,Hell no!.

PLEASE READ.

  ''I was bored after my NYSC and to while away time,i became actively involved in what i term 'Yoruba-ish' gossip.my friend Sandra and i would gossip about anything and everything until one day,i looked at her and decided i needed to get busy with my life and time.In front of me was an old copy of hints magazine and as i flipped through the pages i saw an advert for writers and a number to call.

TONIKAN ONWORDI

 My friend urged me to call saying''Stella if anybody can write,it is you''.she said this because she had seen how hungrily i would pick up a pen and paper and write..I could write about anything and everything.

Back in the days when i was a teen,my friends and foes got a 'taste' of my pen.if i needed to say anything,i would write pages and pages of letters,and some people used to wonder where i found the time and energy to write..some friends would see me then and if i had anything that looked like a letter they would beg''Stella please i hope that letter is not for me,wetin i do again?''..others would say''i hope that stinker is not for me oh''.

As i grew up,i lost some good friends for writing my mind,i didn't know how to mince words when i wrote and even if i wrote in the baddest of English,i still managed to pass on my point-whatever it was!.

.....So,i took Sandra's phone and dialled the number on the hints advert for editorial staff,some guy who identified himself as Tonikan Onwordi picked up the phone and heard me out..I told him that i wanted to become a writer and he told me to come over to the office two days after the call.

Two days later i stood in front of the twin duplex that housed Hints magazine and its staff in Ojodu,Berger and excitedly i was ushered into the editorial room--a room which stood dilapidated,worn out,dirty and unfriendly..

 Tonikan tall and in his element came out to shake my hand and say hello.we got down to business.

I was sat down,given a piece of paper and a pen and asked to write down what i thought of the room in which i was sitting.

I looked around me,sighed and thought 'here goes Stella,you are gonna do in yourself again by saying the truth'.

I had two options,one was say what i thought they wanted to hear,that the room was nice,comfortable and likeable or to tell him what a heap of rubbish they were holed up in and how much i wanted to run back to the comforting arms of outside.

I did one of these two things and i told them their room was dilapidated,run down and needed a paint job.The air conditioner was too loud,was running water on the dirty rug.......e.t.c. I handed some guy called Terh Agbede what i had written and with abated breath I waited.

In the time i waited,i had made up my mind that i didn't want to become a writer anymore,the environment i was seated was a dream killer.

I woke up from my thinking dream and right in front of me stood Tonikan with a big smile on his face,he looked like he didn't want to smile but the smile refused to be pushed back.

He smiled and smiled and smiled and told me to come back in a few days....

  One thing happened though,as he smiled and i looked at him,i knew as the Editor of hints then,that he would give me the job.i didn't know why he was smiling but i saw naked shock and trust in those snaky eyes and as he smiled our bond was formed.

.(OK,i found out years later that he was smiling because i had written a below the belt and they couldn't believe my guts).

One thing led to another and i got the job..i became a writer with hints magazine,i brought in my knowledge of what i could write and my knowledge of 'yoruba-ish'kinda gossip.

A few weeks after i got in,Tonikan sold out as a writer and got a plum job with a bank,he took his knowledge with him and even took Sylvester the computer guy along.LOL

In the short time i had known him,i liked him.he was a comfortable guy to talk to and he was always relaxed,always laughing and never had a bad word to say to anyone...thus he became my godfather.

When he left and i tried my best to cook up 'fake'love stories week in,week out.oh cooking up those stories was easy for me and everyone else who worked there.

The silent godfather,the one i looked up to,I would pick up his old write ups and devour his writing pattern,i would say to myself ''Stella Toni is child's play,you need to give him a run''.

I also became a part of the company gossip team,some lady Deola and i would gossip our hearts out,she would begin the topic anyway but we would gossip about everyone even up to the gate man at the gate.We would gossip and she would go back to those we gossiped about and say ''Stella said........''.

She would cook up a good story and look like an angel and I would sit innocently not knowing she was setting me up. 

Oh I forgot to say that after Toni left, Peter Okwoche the guy who now works at BBC became the editor,I didn't like Peter,I didn't like him because he made out like a good guy but 'gossiped' as well in his big office.....

So one day i got called into Chidinma Awa-Aguw's office...Madam Chidinma was the big Boss and also part of the gossip cartel,even though she pretended not to gossip. I saw pretty Deola sitting there and I went in smiling and said Hi to Deola '' who ignored my greeting and i was shocked.I thought to myself isn't this the Deola who just told me how one of the guys there was in love with her and i had told her plainly to chop him money make him eyes clear''?. 

 I was asked about all the things Deola and I had talked about and I sat there numb with shock because that was the first time gossip had come back to me painted in black.I couldn't defend myself and i was asked to go on suspension whilst Deola rejoiced.I was home for two weeks mourning my elder sister's shocking exit,I resumed after two weeks and Peter called me to his office and told me plainly to go home as there was no place for me there anymore.

He even advised me to go to ENCOMIUM MAG as they were taking in writers and he referred me to his friend Azu Arinze and promised to put in a word for me.I cried and cried and cried and cried because i had this big dream of becoming a big time reporter that would end up on everyone's lips the way May Ellen Ezekiel did.....In shock and in defeat,I vacated Hints premises,but before I left ,the evil man there Mr Cy,told me he still wanted me to continue writing as a contributor and that I would be paid.I needed the money alright and there was a fire in me that had been ignited,I couldn't stop writing..i just couldn't!.

 I cried because i had let Toni down,i cried because I had lost my good name and my character due to the frame up but as I left and I swore to move on and become someone bigger than all the idiots who had a hand in the frame up.I made a vow to make my godfather Tonikan proud of me..I didn't know how to start with this but I vowed.....I was hungry for intellectual revenge.

...So i went for an interview at Encomium and we were over 50 that came in,I saw the big crowd of hungry young people like me and I lost my confidence.we were asked to write REAL stories and we looked at each other and wondered how,especially as I was coming from a place where all I had to do was fake it and it got published..

After we all managed to write stuff,some people were eased off the large number and the next stage was the interview stage.

I walked into the editorial room and sitting before me was my ex boss Kunle and a host of others,even Mrs Ojo was part of the panel.I looked at Azuh and my gaze had the' 'hey don't forget Peter recommended me' look but Azuh looked away and I panicked.

After a series of questions,I was asked why I had left hints and I told them I was caught up in 'them say them say'.I was asked to go back to the corner outside where the others waited and in that moment,I hated Peter,Deola and everyone else at Hints who had put me in this position.

To cut a long story short,I was put on probation,became a member of staff some months later,almost had a convulsion when I saw my name on the editorial masthead and vowed never to let my godfather down again.

Well,its been and today i want to say a big thank you to Tonikan for giving me the opportunity and for believing in me over the years.

I looked in his eyes and I saw my dream alive.Today I celebrate him and I shout out a big Ntorrrr to all those whom the devil used to try and steal my writing dream.you see,I don't know if I could have been anything else.A lawyer maybe?A Doctor?An Architect?Nah,I think i was cut out for what I am doing now.....I still gossip though but I do it now with class and side eyes..LOL!

Peter Okwoche is now my friend and I love him to pieces.I dunno where the others have ended up but they are nowhere near me...I know Tonikan is proud of me and has told me so in no minced words. 

  Thank you to all the dream killers I met when I began my writing career,my thanking them is for helping catapult me into who I am today.(if you think I am nobody,please think again!)

This is an ODE to you MR TONIKAN ONWORDI,you believed in me when no one else did,when I didn't see,you saw.

.You rock....errrm,so do I.

Tonikan is on facebook,search for him and ask for any of his novels,maybe then you will understand this genius I speak of.....Mwah!

.

(forgive any errors,this was too long)

Dream killers exist everywhere and I just told you my story..you wanna tell back? did you manage to put your dream killers to shame or are they still laughing at you from the shadows?

*Yourba-ish gossip is no pun intended and is not directed at people from that part,it is just coined from a particular person we knew then from that tribe who was the queen of tafia..lol