Daily Independent (Lagos)
9 October 2008
opinion
The recent demise of Olayinka Babasanya Craig, otherwise simply known as Yinka Craig, is a deadly blow to the journalism profession. It is especially so to television broadcasting.
Yinka Craig in his life time was renowned for creating and producing television programmes, and most of the ideas he was associated with have transformed into programmes which remain life-long television classics. They include Newsline, which he pioneered with a co-presenter and later Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) spokesperson, Patrick Oke. The idea of Newsline was to produce a lighter, humorous, witty, and a society-reporting version of an otherwise politically and socially hard bulletin .
Rather than have their Sunday nights filled with harassing and unsettling reports of socio-political crime and misdeamenours, viewers of Newsline had a magazine package of people, places and events such that their minds could behold some silver lining in a new week. Both Patrick Oke and Yinka Craig had taken their viewers to the nooks and crannies of the country where viewers had learnt of cultures and traditions which they never thought had existed around them. Such TV programmes as Newsline were so tailored as to suit different characters of presenters in a manner that showed flexibility and adaptability. Presenters like Frank Olize, Ruth Benamaisia, Sienne Allwell-Brown, Abike Dabiri, Maudelyn Park and Kehinde Young-Harry adapted to presenting the programme without a hitch.
Television sports journalism or broadcasting, otherwise known colloquially as ,sportscasting., was a major familiar turf of the late Yinka Craig. A very amiable character, he did not have airs or ego problem in sitting down to review matches or athletics with members of his age group like Segun Odegbami, Ayo Ositelu, much as he was at home with younger presenters. Younger generation of sports broadcasters like Deji Omotoyinbo, Charles Anazodo, etc must have learnt the ropes from the camaraderie Yinka Craig brought into sports broadcasting and analysis.
Again, when the need to have 24-hour television broadcast came up and a breakfast programme AM EXPRESS had come on agenda, Yinka Crag was a foundation team member. Together with Sadiq Daba, he was very much at home with the likes of Marian Arthur (now Marian Anazodo) and Katherine Edoho. Even viewers were aware that the age gap between him and his younger colleagues was remarkable, but Yinka Craig managed it so well as to employ it to bring up his younger colleagues.
A versatile TV journalist, Yinka Craig.s midnight pastime of browsing the net and discovering the latest inventions in information and telecommunications technology has led to some sub-programmes of the AM EXPRESS, in which viewers are treated to the latest menu in the world. While those latest discoveries are downloaded from the Internet, the well crafted feature-narrative essays written on them and read in form of laced voice-over makes such programmes viewer-friendly having been sufficiently localised to sustain interest.
Television broadcasting is an aspect of broadcasting where individual practitioners offer themselves to the viewing public as role models. The practice itself demands being constantly in touch with the audience in terms of body language and personality. When a television broadcaster now adds a touch of amiability, the audiences fall in love, not only with the broadcaster, but also with the programme and the station. Yinka Craig, to his numerous audiences, was a superlative embodiment of these qualities.
To those who benefited immensely from his regular feature of practitioners of herbal medicine, Yinka Craig was a consultant of some sort. Through invaluable pieces of information accruable to the audience of his programme on herbal medicare, many people have had their health restored.
It can therefore be rightly stated that television broadcasting in the hands of the Yinka Craigs of this world, rightly fulfill the role of education, information and entertainment. Whilst he educated on the latest technology in information and telecommunications, he informed on the way out of your health problems and also entertained you with the latest development in the sports world.
Yinka Craig had a pride of place as compere or co-compere. In dinners involving top government functionaries and diplomats, the voice on the microphone was usually his. It was not about hustling for the money accruable from such event as he did not betray such a character trait. His intellectual capacity, fluency, and sense of humour, among other virtues, qualified him as a distinguished practitioner of his profession.
Nigeria will miss Yinka Craig. The media will miss him. The consolation, however, is that what used to be his profession is one that enables a retrievable documentation of one.s life and times. Such would no doubt constitute a veritable point of reference for generations to come. It will also constitute a monumental memoir of this legendary broadcaster.
While we commiserate with his family and professional colleagues, we would like to recommend that the Federal Government immortalise his name in whichever way most befitting. In so doing, we would be passing on the torch of professional commitment to future generations.
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