Kola Olabisi, Pioneer Managing Editor Of Osun Defender, Is One Plus Today

By Ayobami Agboola

Kola Olabisi, the pioneer Editor/Managing Editor of Osun Defender Newspaper based in Osogbo, the Osun State capital, has added another year to his age today.

The renowned print journalist who had worked at various times in various capacities at the defunct Concord Press of Nigeria Ltd and Daily Times of Nigeria, has contributed to the body of journalism knowledge through the writing of a book, ‘GUERILLA JOURNALISM: THE OSUN DEFENDER EXAMPLE’.

The author/journalist successfully piloted the affairs of Osun Defender newspaper right from its inception for 11 and a half years without blemish.

He played a prominent role in the protracted struggles by Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, former Osun State governor, now the Interior Minister, to wrestle the state from the jigsaw of the reactionary group under the sacked administration of Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola, the then governor.

It would be recalled that the Modakeke-born Olabisi was copiously shot at in front of the Aregbesola Campaign Office, Osogbo, on April 7, 2007 by political thugs suspected to be acting for the PDP but was unscathed by divine intervention.

His vehicle in which he was during the shooting operation was bullet-riddled and it subsequently became a quasi-museum that attracted so many sympathisers for days.

The attack on Olabisi came exactly seven days to the election that enthroned Aregbesola as the governor of the state.
The author/journalist who was a former member of the Osun State Broadcasting Corporation (OSBC) Board was also a member of the OSBC Interim Management Committee (IMC), and the Treasurer of Ife-Ijesa APC Senatorial District.
He is the current Media Consultant to the Osun State APC Chairman, Prince Gboyega Famodun.

In his birthday remark in Osogbo today, Olabisi said, he was grateful to God Almighty for sparing his life, that of his heartthrob, Olamide, and those of his children.

In his words: “As the son of a peasant farmer who was manufactured and coupled in the village, we were not used to attaching special importance to birthday celebration until when I got mixed up with the larger society.

“I am grateful to my parents for begetting me and raising me with necessary functional educational attainment, enviable cultural values and qualitative attributes needed to co-exist and function effectively in the society.

“Once again, I am also thanking God that my blood was not shed as a prelude to the governorship election of Aregbesola of April 14, 2007”, the Modakeke-born author/journalist stated.