How an abandoned baby, taken for dead, bounced back to life and grew up to become a successful journalist: Story of Gbenga Onayiga

A veteran and successful Nigerian journalist, Otunba Gbenga Onayiga, was no doubt a miracle child, who at birth was thrown into a dustbin, having been presumed dead by his family. The situation was worsened by the hard and harsh experience his mother faced: she laboured for eight days before his delivery.

In this extensive interview with Penpushing (an online newspaper), the life and times of Onayiga were made writ large by the veteran journalist himself.

At 63, Onayiga has cause to happily look back, actually number his days and apply his heart unto wisdom by being grateful to God. He narrated the circumstances of his ecustential birth and trajectory in life. He recalled that information relayed to him on his birth, while growing up, was astonishing.

He added that his mother went through life-threatening labour and everybody around her had given up on both mother and baby.

Advertisement

The retired Director of the Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria(FRCN) and a frontline member of the “Penpushing platform” said, as of the time of his delivery at Igbotu town in Ese-Odo local government area of Ondo State, there was no maternity home or any medical facility to attend to her expectant mother.

He said when her mother went into labour, traditional birth attendants, Christian and Muslim clerics were contacted to, at least, save the life of his mother, adding that as fate would have it, he was given birth to on November 23, 1959.

The former Vice-president of Nigeria Union of Journalists(NUJ) said after his delivery, and because of the stress his surviving mother passed through, those in attendance were of the conviction that he was a stillbirth, and subsequently deposited him in a basket and thrown into a waste bin.

That was a summation of how the beginning of his life was framed by the hands of the grand Architect of the universe.

The report by Penpushing added further perspectives that captured his adulthood in a journey of reminisces. It quoted Onayiga, who maintained that his 34 years in journalism had been challenging and rewarding, to have said that “as fate would have it, a woman identified as Iya Pupa arrived the scene about 20 minutes after I had been abandoned in the waste bin.”

The lucky Onayiga was said to have recalled that Iya Pupa was told that the baby was a stillbirth, but even at that she insisted on seeing the bin where the purported corpse was deposited, adding that as at the time the elderly woman got there, army of ants and other insects have already covered the body which they turned to prey.

He said that Iya Pupa, noticing that the baby was still warm and breathing faintly, immediately sent for sand and a local leaf from a nearby stream; with which she scrubbed the body of the baby.

The former Chief Press Secretary to Minister of Petroleum Resources in 1996 said that to the amazement of those within the vicinity the baby responded to life, adding that that was how he cheated death, stressing that it was Iya Pupa that God used for him, and would remain grateful to the woman.

‘That was how God used the elderly woman to bring joy and celebration to the riverine community. So, you can now appreciate the basis for the special bond between my late mum and me. I was a miracle child!’, Onayiga emphasized

“I am a child of glory and destiny; I found favour in God and men. My bosses and colleagues took interest in me and they encouraged me, notwithstanding the challenges I encountered along the way. Indeed, I have told some friends that I will like to remain a journalist if I happen to come to the world again.

Onayiga, who is now a grandfather, is a graduate of Nigerian Institute of Journalism (NIJ), Lagos, and holds a Bachelor’s degree in Journalism through distance learning. He also holds a degree in Political Science from the University of Abuja.

The cerebral media professional equally attended courses in Journalism and Public Relations at reputable institutions in Great Britain, the United States of America (USA) and International Public Relations course in London where he obtained a Diploma in Public Relations.

Onayiga attended a certificate course in International Oil Supply, Transportation, Refining and Trading from the high-profile College of Petroleum and Energy Studies, Oxford, United Kingdom in 1997 among others. (Culled and adapted from Penpushing)