How does Precision come into the Hand of God in Journalism ? One may ask.
It is like the promise or covenant which God gives ; it is purified seven times and re-purified in the fire of fulfillment seven times.
Conversely, It is an open secret , for instance, that my brand of Journalism practice goes beyond one which fulcrums on mere western paradigm .
This had become apparent since 1989 when I won my first Best Reporter of the Year award, and after which the then Cross River State University, Uyo,( Department of Communication Arts) invited me to contribute a chapter to a journalism textbook which was then on the drawing board .
It was after I submitted my contribution that God, during my journey into trance,revealed to me the secret of Journalism, where-in, His breath exuded into the documents while it translated to my first Journalism textbook titled:" JOURNALISTS AND THE HAND OF GOD.
Precisely, the message in the Book of Revelation in the Bible, Chapter four put it most succinctly :
" After this I looked, and, behold, A DOOR WAS OPENED IN HEAVEN ( emphasis in capital letters is mine ) and the first voice which I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me; which said, COME UP HITHER AND I WILL SHOW THEE THINGS WHICH MUST BE HEREAFTER. "
No doubt, the Hand of God has been working for me in the profession, knowing full well that in the business of Journalism, which is geared at ensuring good governance, whatever door government is trying to shut for selfish end, is the same door that journalists set out to open up in the interest of the public.
Let me confess here however that until April,14,1994, I didn't know that midwifery is an office with its own door, and that only the HAND OF GOD opens and closes the door as He chooses.
Conversely ,when a new King over Egypt which knew not the Biblical Joseph ascended the throne, it was his plan to kill all male children of Hebrew and upon which he recruited midwives detailed to carry out the dastardly act.
King Pharaoh resultantly gave them the order :" When ye do THE OFFICE OF A MIDWIFE , to the Hebrew women ,and see them upon the stood, if it be a son, then ye shall kill him, but if it be a daughter then she shall live ."( Exodus 1:16 ) Today April, 14, 2024 ,I am happy to recall that God, on April, 14, 1994, intervened in opening the Door of the office of midwifery for my wife, Prophetess Idowu Deborah Fagbola who gave birth to Kayode John Fagbola, now marking his 30th birthday today.
How did it happen ?
My wife had in 1994 kept shuttling, time without number, between our Ring Road Ibadan residence and Punch's Oke-Bola-based hospital, anticipatory and preparatory to her time of delivery in which the arrival of the expected child was mysteriously delayed.
On the afternoon of this April 14 ,1994, Mummy ,was still in the usual protracted labour when the Lord inspired me to go to the family altar where we always prayed to God ,giving me His gentle instruction that I should fill up the hand bell there with water, bless it and give my wife to drink .
Barely twenty minutes after she took the water, she put to bed effortlessly right in our three-bed room flat.
Hallelujah, Kayode is a child of prayer and indeed an answer to God-inspired prayers. It was shortly before his birth that Punch Management approved for me a car loan with which I bought my first car, JETA.
The second precision to this Miracle birth which heralded the arrival of my car was that it revealed the potency in Precision Journalism in which we scoop out big news through subjecting statistical data into intelligent and intelligible interpretation .
Mrs Christie Ohuabunwa , who was on the Crime Beat, being our Amazon Crime Correspondent, had stormed the news room one afternoon with her usual exclusive stories.
When I demanded from her the source of her stories, she yielded to me two heavily bound books of Crime statistics which she got authoritatively from credible source.
After she had exhausted her write-ups from the documents, she yielded the books to me, on request, and for three months, I locked myself up in my office, being the Acting News Editor of Sunday Punch,interpreting the statistics of crime intelligently and intelligibly.
For a whole quarter of the year, 1994, the statistics of various crimes in Nigeria by Nigerians from 1950 to 1994 were speaking to me while I plotted data of crimes which lay in the kitties of both Federal and State governments in Nigeria. The result was fantastic !
The Sunday Punch under the supervision of my Editor, Godwin Nzeakahnnamdi, alias Ogbefi was for the period commanding frontline respect in the market with the newspaper becoming an instant sell out. At one of the board meetings presided over by our actuarial and mathematical Chairman, Chief Ajibola Ogunshola, my editor gladly presented my case for a car loan, based on my excellent performance while the request was granted instanter.
The Hand of God in Precision Journalism is indeed fantastic.
OLALERE FAGBOLA REPORTING
