For 37 straight years, Bala Suya was a torn in the flesh of the Hausa community in Sabo involved in the daily business of roasted meat delicacy popularly known as SUYA business in Ibadan.
Aside from the fact, he blazed the business trail at the tender age of 17 years when he was seconded to 2 Simeon Adebo NUJ Iyaganku GRA by Sehinde Dagunduro/Bolaji Kareem-led exco after being introduced by the 3-man Committee Chief Correspondent of Radio Kaduna, Hadj Gambo Ibrahim; Sola Akunuli of the Sketch Press Limited; and Mr. Oladejo Idris, the NUJ Treasurer, in 1987. The young Gambo at the time was financially mobilised to start the business. The fact was that NUJ wanted a relaxation centre; this compelled Exco to give seed money to start up the business with the sum of 3k to buy a ram and flag off.
The business of roasted beef thrived within a space of time to stop journalists and friends from the rigour of going through Dugbe-Ekotedo-Adamasingba’s traffic to get Suya in Sabo.
The entertainment writers on the Sketch and Tribune desk then, Messrs Wale Ademowo and Abu-Satar Ahmed, and a few others promoted Bala’s enterprise with their incisive write-ups beyond what it was then in the state to attract patronage across Ibadan and its environs. Late Ibadan businesswoman Hadja Suluat Adedeji made him more popular as she engaged Bala’s services in all her ceremonial activities. Through this, Bala became a sought-after Suyaman among Ibadan elites. If you live within the South-West axis, rather than visit Sabo for Suya joints, you can be at NUJ Press Club. Other social clubs around Iyaganku GRA, Ringroad/Oluyole Estate, and Oke-Ado and Onireke areas of the city—Bala Suya—were a sure bet that cannot be ignored. The talk of the town then was Bala—balangwu, a ram version of the streak beef sticks.
Bank officials and the Lebanese community became interested in the roasted beef barbecue offered by the Press Centre, which became the first point of contact for staff and friends in this area after office hours.
Bala delicacy is a joint venture for the Oke-Ado Motor Dealers group, and this prompted the then NUJ Chairman, the late Dapo Aderogba, and his Secretary, Lekan Awoyemi, to add Mofola Bar in Basorun to open an outlet at the centre to run the Press Club moribund bar, and this again added to the clientele list and literally brought our colleagues from the NTA and BCOS Ile-Akede and Information Ministry close to join the centre crowd.
With Bala and Uncle B—cool pot. The business thrived, ushering a few journalists and friends in the Army, police, and plainclothes security agencies close before paramilitary groups such as Road Safety, Immigration, Customs Prison, and others joined and became members and patrons of the club. Labour movement activists like Late Comrade Lumumba Oyebola, elder brother to the former Daily Times Editor, Areoye Oyebola, Laoye Sanda, and NANS leadership from the University of Ibadan shifted base to the Press Centre from Comrade Dr. Ola Oni’s corner in Bodija to rendezvous at the Centre. Barrister Gbenga Awosode and Moshood Erubami influenced the NLC under the leader Comrade Isiaka Ibrahim in the state. They encouraged its members to patronise and have tactical meetings at the NUJ facilities to discuss its offerings.
One of our former military governors/administrators, the late Colonel Sasaenia Oresanya, made it a duty to sneak in every weekend to interact with journalists. When he ended his state tour, he introduced his successor, Late Major-General Abdulkareem Adisa, to keep the weekend camaraderie with journalists. Bala Suya continued throughout his period, and the fellowship flourished.
Bala Enterprise spread rapidly to other NUJ centres in Osogbo and beyond. The late Bala influenced a few of his apprentices to relocate to other NUJ centres to ply their trade. To date, Bala Suya remained the cheapest you could get anywhere in Ibadan.
To a few journalists covering the prank games, your only insurance/insulator to shield you from the queries at home was to arm yourself with the sticks of Bala’s suya. When the home front soldiers noticed these sticks, your storylines instantly became a bailout; otherwise, you are on your own—OYO.
Bala mi-nana, as I usually call him—the Press Centre Community miss you, but we take solace in God that you lived a fulfilled life in your way. Rest in peace… Bala.
*Lanre Ogundipe, Former president of the Nigeria Union and African Union of Journalists writes from Abuja.
