I was at Court One of the Ado Ekiti High Court on reportorial duty when the Speaker of the Ekiti State House of Assembly, Rt Hon. Friday Aderemi and others led by heavily armed policemen in an armoured vehicle, came to submit a petition to the Chief Judge, Justice Kayode Bamisile for the impeachment of Governor Ayodele Fayose. It was in October 2006 and Fayose still had about six months to complete his four- year term. Things began to move very fast as a political crisis engulfed the state.
Speaker Aderemi moved into the Governor's Office and announced some appointments while Deputy Governor Biodun Olujimi also laid claim to the Ekiti State Governorship position at the same time. Those of us working with Governor Fayose at the Government House were afraid and puzzled because we did not know his whereabouts and nobody was talking about him.
The grapevine was however awash with tales of armed soldiers everywhere. We also heard that some kitchen cabinet members of Mr Governor had been picked up in a midnight raid by security operatives.
Then the order came from Abuja that gave the power to rule Ekiti State for six months to a retired General from Ogun State, Adetunji Olurin.
It is customary at the Broadcasting Service of Ekiti State BSES, that a change of government at the state means a change of beats for reporters embedded with the Governor, Deputy Governor, Speaker, Wife of Mr Governor and other beats considered as juicy.
So, when Fayose's term ended abruptly I knew my time was up as Government House reporter but I did not receive the memo that redeployed me to the Desk as Editor until retired General Adetunji Olurin's arrival in the state.
His appointment followed the declaration of a State of Emergency in the state by President Obasanjo. A state of emergency in the political setting means that the legislature has been suspended for as long as the emergency lasts. The House of Assembly shut down with immediate effect and any matter requiring legislative attention like the Budget goes to the upper chamber of the National Assembly - the Senate.
I was in the entourage of the top government officials and journalists that welcomed Olurin at Akure Airport and our convoy drove straight from Akure to Ido Ekiti, to the Olojudo palace where the new helmsman paid courtesy visit to the aged monarch.
Not until when we were back at the Government House in Ado Ekiti did I learn that the trip to Olojudo was a mistake due to the misinterpretation of what the Sole Administrator really wanted. I learnt, he asked to be taken to the oldest monarch in the state but he really meant the most senior grade A monarch.
Before the end of the first week of his rule in Ekiti, General Olurin revealed his military nature to the Protocol department when he complained that his podium was without the Sole Administrator's crest. Scolding the career officers, the Sole Administrator reminded them that he had been Military Governor of Ọyọ State, a state much bigger than Ekiti State. He then gave an ultimatum of two days for the Crest to be produced or else heads would roll at the Protocol and Government House departments.
I packed my bag and baggage from the Governor's Office during the second week of the Emergency rule in Ekiti State and returned fully to my station to assume duty as News Editor while Mr Jide Ogunluyi was deployed to replace me at the Government House.
Within my first month as Editor, a Business News Desk was created by the General Manager, veteran broadcaster, Dr Segun Aderiye and I was seconded to head the new sub-department. Our schedule included preparation of core business news which I edited and presented live daily on our major news bulletins on radio and television and on weekends on the news department's television flagship news programme - the Breakfast Show.
In the Business News bulletins, I daily brought listeners on radio and viewers on television up to speed on the exchange rate of the naira, to other currencies particularly, the US dollar, the British pound and the EU Euro; performances of quoted companies on the stock market daily as well as the current prices cocoa and other produce at the commodity market and trading on the global crude oil market.
"You and the Stock Exchange", a daily 5 - minute live programme on radio was also introduced by me at the request of the Director of the Programmes Department, Mr Soji Adedokun with the approval of the Director of News, (Ọga Nath) Mr Nathaniel Kehinde Adeyinka.
Still on business reportage at the BSES, I co-anchored "Enterprise Today" a weekly 30 minute business and entrepreneurship promotion magazine programme. This was sponsored by an independent producer from outside. We launched the programme as Enterprise TV but the body regulating the broadcast industry in Nigeria - the National Broadcasting Commission NBC, wrote to warn that we cannot have another television inside EKTV and gave us the option to either scrap the programme or change its title.
We changed the title from Enterprise TV to Enterprise Today, built a customised studio set and the programme achieved immediate acceptance and it boosted the revenue of the BSES during the four quarters or so that it was on air. A segment of Enterprise Today featured many successful entrepreneurs and industrialists from within and outside the state, who appeared live on the programme to share their business acumen.