Chief Dipo Onabanjo revealed, He won’t forget day Nnamdi Azikiwe ordered my arrest, charged me to court

Chief Dipo Onabanjo , 75 , was a photojournalist with the Daily Times of Nigeria in the 1950 s when the profession was not popular. He shares some of his time on the job and life experiences with Ademola Olonilua

What influenced your decision to become a photojournalist at a time when the profession was unpopular ?

When I was in school, there was a man called Shittu who worked with the Daily Express . At the time I knew him, I was in the boarding school at Ijebu Ode but I always saw him whenever I came to Lagos for my holidays . Anytime this man went to work, I always noticed the way he carried his camera bag passionately and the next day, I would see the photographs he took on the pages of the newspapers with his by - line . I became very fascinated and I promised myself that when I left school, I would become a photojournalist like that man .

At a point in my life , I met a man who worked in the Daily Times of Nigeria , Ajibade Thomas , and he handled a page called Saturday Highlife for the newspaper; so whenever they had an event , he would ask me to accompany them so that I could take good photographs . All this while, I was still in school but every time I sent my photographs to the Daily Times as a freelance photojournalist, they were always published and this made me very happy seeing my photographs and name on the pages of the newspaper. When I left school, I applied to a news agency,
International News Agency and was employed . I worked there for a while before I left the organisation for the Daily Sketch newspaper.

After working for the Daily Sketch
briefly , I left the newspaper house for the Daily Times . I gained employment at the Daily Times in 1972 through Chief Olusegun Osoba and when I got to the Daily Times, within three months they began to send me to high priority events because my photographs were always rated as the best . When I joined the Daily Times, I met about 15 photographers but within three months, I was ranked higher than those I met in the organisation . Fortunately for me , there was a coup in Cotonou , so Osoba asked me to cover the events happening there . I was able to get good photographs and when I returned to Nigeria , I remember that he gave the photograph’s by - line , ‘the man at the hotspot . ’ I remember the events vividly because it was Mathieu Kerekou that was the head of state at the time in Porto - Novo . As a photojournalist, I was able to meet him.

How were you able to meet the head of state as a ‘ photographer ’ from Nigeria ?

What actually happened was that Kerekou invited some journalists from Paris to interview him, so I joined them. The security officials thought I was part of the team from Paris and they allowed me into the venue. I joined them while they were interviewing Kerekou and I was able to get the best photographs.
During the coup, they had damaged some parts of the state house and some menial workers were fixing the damaged places so after we had finished the interview with Kerekou, I put my camera under my cloth and disguised as one of the menial workers .

I carried some building blocks with them so that I could take some outside shots before I left . I got into the country with a dispatch rider on a motorcycle. The man was afraid because the border was closed, so we had to enter the country through the bush path at Idi Iroko. After I had taken good pictures , I found a way to give them to my dispatch rider who brought them straight to Lagos for publication.

There was no internet while you were an active photojournalist , describe how the job was in those days .

In my time , we did not have digital cameras or the internet, so what we did was to have dispatch riders who moved around in a brand of motorcycle called , Vespa . We would take pictures , write the captions of the photographs and give them to these dispatch riders who would either help us deliver the film to the newspaper office or develop the pictures before delivering them to the office.
When you informed your parents that you wanted to be a ‘ photographer’ , how did they react?
My mother wanted me to become a lawyer due to my outspoken nature . Even as a pupil , I was an outspoken radical. I was so popular when I was in secondary school that I was known by both my seniors and the principal.
I was given the nickname , ‘the man that runs the town . ’ I was very popular when I was in Ijebu Ode Commercial School . My mother was so convinced that when I left the school, I would study law but I was not interested in that profession because I was so much in love with photography. I felt that it was my calling. Being a rascal , I left the house when my parents did not want me to become a photojournalist.

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