It was a colourful event as top and seasoned journalists from within and outside Oyo State left their various stables and locations and converged on Ibadan, last Friday, to honour one of their own in the pen-pushing profession, Bamidele Johnson.
Journalists are not generally known to gather in a cluster to unwind, relax or socialise. They are rather always busy, in pursuit of news items to satisfy the cravings and yearnings of members of the public for up-to-date information on sundry issues.
It was, however, a different ball-game entirely as Bamidele Johnson, a renown journalist and popular social critic, succeeded in drawing out the de la creme of newshounds from their cocoons and gathered them together in Ibadan, last Saturday.
The pen-pushers not only dropped the air of seriousness attached to their profession. They also displayed the human essence in them all, socialising and exchanging banters at the gathering.
The occasion was the burial reception for the mother of Bamidele Johnson, the late Mrs Gbadero Adenike Johnson, who transited from mortality to immortality on 2 January, 2024 after spending an eventful 82 years on mother-earth.
A funeral service was earlier held for the late Màmá Adenike Johnson at Eleven 24 Hall, Irepodun Street, 7-Up Bus Stop, Monatan, Ibadan. Her remains were subsequently interred at St. Stephen’s Anglican Church Vault, Inalende, Ibadan.
From the funeral service and the interment, all roads led to the expansive Apex Event Hall, situated at the American Quarters, Yidi, Agodi Gate, Ibadan, where guests were royally treated to sumptuous meals and varieties of drinks.
Resplendently dressed in a sky blue agbada with a matching cap, Bamidele Johnson was on his feet, shuttling between attending to the guests at the ground floor and to his friends from the pen-pushing world who were specially seated at the gallery inside the Apex Events Hall.
The event was very eventful, drawing out the best of humanity, spiced with endlessly rib-cracking jokes and banters, from the newshounds who, at their witty ends, honoured one of their own with their presence.
It was, indeed, a befitting burial for the late Màmá Gbadero Adenike Johnson and a glorious day of honour for Bamidele Johnson, amid banters from his journalist-colleagues present at the memorable event.
With the convergence of the top and seasoned pen-pushers who added spices to the funeral reception at Ibadan on Friday, without any iota of doubt, ilé ni Màmá Bamidele Johnson lọ tàràrà.
