In this interview with AKINLOLU ABAYOMI, Mr. Tunde Bakare, a veteran journalist, explained the reason for coming up with the WhatsApp group in question and also touched on other issues. Read on…
You are the brain behind The Tabloid, which is arguably the most popular WhatsApp group in the Kwara state political circle, what were the factors that actually motivated you to come up with such an idea?
I think it is important to make a distinction between the Kwara tabloid forum and the Kwara tabloid as an offline publication. The Kwara tabloid forum is an offshoot of the Kwara tabloid publication. Yes, you can say that I’m the originator, it actually started in Abuja about 12 years ago and it just came but I can’t say exactly how. I just decided that I wanted to do something on my own and since my interest has always been in journalism, I like to string words together to make meanings. I like to express myself in whatever way I’m able to. I just decided I needed to do something and I narrowed it down to Kwara state. I wasn’t going to pretend to be national or international, that was how it started in a nutshell. I started it from ground zero. I didn’t start with any money. It even started from my kitchen at my Kubwa, Abuja residence. That was how it started. No encouragement, no nothing, no money.
Well, when you talk about the Kwara Tabloid forum being the most popular WhatsApp group in Kwara state, there could actually be more popular ones that me and you are yet to know about them. You possibly got to know about our own because you are a member, and let me make something clear, I didn’t start the WhatsApp group with the intention of being in competition with anybody. We just needed a platform to express ourselves. Let me tell you the story, I think it was during the 3rd or 4th of our annual event on that very day, one of my mentors, Chief Lanre Ogundeji expressed a need for us to start a WhatsApp group so that our awardees will have a platform to continue to interact. So, it was actually intended to be a forum for present, I mean our awardees. It wasn’t meant to have more than 50 members but somehow it got to the knowledge of the public.
When the public got to know about the existence of the forum, more and more people were coming and they had to be added. We hadn’t any other option than to add them.
The Kwara tabloid offline most of those who bought into it then are Abuja-based Kwarans, we also circulate the publications mostly in Abuja and environs. So, those were the ones we started with when it was expanding and because we already had relationship with them. Most of them agreed to be added to the WhatsApp group and stayed and most of them are still with us. That, in a nutshell, is the long and short of it.
It’s surprising how it became a platform that featured ‘political discussions’ because it was just meant to be like a social forum. But I think it featured such a thing because we started when electioneering was about to start, politicking was then in the air. Some of our members who are politicians as expected, presented their views through the forum, and, of course, you know that political views will result in heated debate and argument, however, the maturity with which issues were handled may have actually made it popular.
The WhatsApp group is peopled with political figures and top personalities, how do you handle pressure that has to do with removal or presence of new faces?
That is unavoidable, even up till now, there are always pressure on us saying this man is not saying the right thing, lt us do this and that. Interestingly, if we had agreed to remove all those we have been asked to remove, there will be nobody left. What we have actually tried to do is allow people to express their opinions. Whatever your opinion is, it’s welcome but we encourage people to discuss issues in a way that will not offend anyone and when there is a ned to caution people I will personally telephone such a person and urge peace, patience and tolerance
What is your philosophy of life?
Asking about my philosophy of life is, I don’t think I have any strange or special thing about philosophy. I just want to be happy and make as many people as possible happy. Let’s just say I believe in live and let’s live. Somebody once asked me ‘what makes me happy?’ And I said when people tell me ‘Thank you’. These days, quite a number of people say ‘thank you’ to me. So, I think I’m happy.
Kwara Tabloid organizes public lectures annually to give inquisitive minds the needed opportunity to proffer solutions to challenges facing the State of Harmony and the country as a whole. Has this really been helpful in any way?
Yes, we do organize annual public lecture at which we try to recognize and thank some of our people. I think what has sustained that is because, one, we do allow people to nominate for us and justifying the nominations. How many people do I know personally? Very few. That’s number one. Number two, I don’t go all out to look for only those who have deep pockets, if you assess some of the people that we have honoured, there were instances that I had to personally squeeze out bus fares for them to come. Number three, because we don’t attach or request our awardees to pay anything even those that can do such with ease. And then we try not to say the best in this, the best in that. No. We have five categories. Builders and leaders and revolutionaries, scientists and thinkers, heroes and icons, artists and entertainers. You see, so if you fall into any of these categories and we have reasons to celebrate you we are not going to ask you to pay in any way. Back then, before now that printing has become so expensive, we used to publish offline editions, commemorative editions of the Kwara Tabloid awards ceremony. But we found out that it was challenging to print the quality and the quantity we want. And then, at the end of the day, from sales and advert, we were unable to make N2 million. Such a loss. We had to stop that. So, we don’t publish anymore.
