This is a lesson of life from Yushau Shuaib to all campus journalists.
I doff my brows for a distinguished Public Relations Practitioner in Nigeria, Yushau Abdulhameed Shuaib. I have been accused several times on campus of being a critical radical campus journalist, who does not know how to compromise saying the fact and nothing but the fact. Now, I have come again to say some facts about the iconic Public Relation Practitioner and to reveal some lessons of life that all Nigerians must learn from his life and style. But then, I will agree that my mouth may be too stinky for me to cut a cola nut and share it with anyone, and whenever I speak with my malodorous mouth, I fart some unpleasant odour of facts and truth to the nose of crime perpetrators. Those facts are what the evil-minded ones will always want to trample at all costs.
There are thousands of birds in the bush but the peacock seems the best. There are countless and numberless of Public Relation Practitioners in Nigeria but Yushau Shuaib seems to be distinctive and exclusive. Let the village rats hear and tell that of the city, I do not intend to use high-faluting phraseologies to paint his personality with hyperbolic words of aggrandizement, but to express my encounter with the encounterer of the spymaster, Yushau Shuaib.
I have met him before knew him and I have known him before I met him. Yes, I have met his public relation crusading towards peaceful coexistence in Nigeria and read some of his thought provoking write-ups that engineered the castigation of injustice, sycophancy and hypocritical hypocorism before I met him mano a mano. Moreover, I have doctored and mastered his just published book titled” Boko Haram Media War: An Encounter with the Spymaster” and I have read the front and back of the book which unveils some open secrets about Yushau Shuaib and his charismatic profession. I deem it germane to share some of my experience with him so far.
However, since ‘experience is a hard teacher because she gives the test first, the lessons afterwards’, lend me your ears and let me whisper some lessons of life from Yushau Shuaib to all want-to-be journalists and writers.
Lesson number 1: Dream while you work; don’t dream while you sleep and snore. Thousands of students dream and have mountainous aims to become icons in the future. Many want to become iconic journalists, writers and what have you in the nearest future, but only very few of them work as they dream, they rather sleep and wait for faith and fortune of God to come. I will affirm that efforts of man corroborate with his fortune and fate. Why don’t you learn from Yushau Shuaib who was inspired to be a Public Relation Practitioner during his university days? He did not only dream, he worked towards his dreams by engaging himself in campus journalism actively, in spite the fact that he studied Mass Communication. Tell yourself today that “I can do it” and you’ll see yourself doing it.
Lesson number 2: Let your passion overshadow your interest in journalism. It’s said that passion is the only weapon a journalist has over evil-crafters. Many people have interest in good things yet, they are not making it. What they lack as I have confirmed before I affirmed is passion, commitment and dedication. Kenneth Blanchard had rightly differentiated between commitment and interest saying:” There is a difference between interests and commitment. When you are interested in doing something, you only do it when it is convient. When you are committed to something, you accept no excuses, only results “. The secret behind the success of Mr. Yushau Shuaib in his profession is his passion and commitment that overshadow his interest for his PR job. He said in one of his words” Writing is my hobby, PR is my profession”. Make your passion your profession today and you will enjoy your life tomorrow.
Lesson number 3: Prepare to fail in life so as to succeed in the long run. One of the problems of the want-to-be writers is that most of them are afraid to fail, they are afraid to write something that may provoke jest. But then, a cradle that is afraid to fall will fail to walk. Failure is inevitable in life, the path to success is always full of torments and failure. That is why Dr. Taiye Solarin said: ” May your road be rough this year”. Behind any successful man, there must be a failure. Yushau Shuaib faced many challenges in life as a writer and as a Public Relation Practitioner. The adage that says there is no sweet without sweat and no paean without pain is a fact that must be told. Series of Awards and glory which has been recorded in the book of history for Shuib is traceable to lots of persecutions and failures he has encountered. It is very important to note that ” failures and mistakes can be a bridge not a barricade to success”.
Lesson number 4: Be brave like a lion; be fearless even to kill insane Lion. So many people know the truth but to say it is the problem. Braveness is the quality of a successful one. It is good to be like a dove but to act like a lion. A brave person must be able to do things that are as risky as attempting to kill an insane lion. When Yushau Shuaib wrote a thought-provoking essay and was told to apologize for saying his candid opinion. He declined and he was forced to resign prematurely. He was brave enough to stick to his wording and stand by it. Shuib, the PR Lion himself said:” Dasuki attempted to influence my return into the civil service but I was reluctant. I had decided to rather work for the government but not inside government so as to enjoy my liberty of self-expression and doing what I like rather than being another subservient civil servant “. I wholeheartedly agree with what he said because it is better to be a Lion for a day than to be a Sheep forever. Long ago, people would say wealth lay in Lion’s mouth, but now wealth lies in its intestine. So he who will kill the Lion must also be a Lion.
To cap it all, Yushau Shuaib is a mirror of greatness to all infant journalists, writers and Public Relation practitioners. As he grows, he trains and empowers youth who are willing to follow his path. He is a personification of simplicity. Shuaib is not like the well-fed who do not care if others are dying of hunger. Nevertheless, it is possible to have pages without history, but it is impossible to have history without pages. Those who made pages in the book of history are those who have served selflessly, those who did not only grew but grew others. John Ruskin said:” True leadership always begins with servanthood, while selfishness always ends in self-destruction. Yushau Shuaib is not just PR Practitioner; he is a lector and mentor for thousands of people in Nigeria.
Adeyemi Ibrahim Olarotimi is a student of English from the department of Modern European Languages and Linguistics, Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto, and the President of the National Association of Campus Journalists, in the Same school.
