The Soft Issue
Cover
August 2017
OMOLADE OLORUNDARE
By : Notiki Bello
The caller is unidentified . Omolade Abimbola Olorundare . 400L . Mass Comm . 13 / 52HN0 ××. The voice at the other end is shrill . Every word he belches into the phone is sinister . He knows all about her already . She is worried and immediately slinks out of her Trunil hostel . All her mobile devices turned off .
Things have not always been this way for the young blogger . In 2013 she was class representative of her level . She quickly became known among her mates for her unrestrained tendencies to burst into tears anytime soon .
By 2014 / 2015 her venture into politics had begun to harden her . She gradually became hard to terrify : hard to intimidate . Olorundare contested for the post of vice president of the association of Mass Communication Students ( AMCOS ) and won .
In spite of these drastic moves , she was lost among the hordes . Her 4-point GPA did not set her apart from the 35,000 + students on campus . Now , the young lady has distinguished herself , her name running on nearly everyone ' s lips . It is not politics that put her name in people ’ s mouth , but her mobile phone and internet connection . She is always online , scouring the web , and waiting to cast headlines that would hold you down .
During her internship with the Delta State University Radio Station in 2015 she began to develop a keen interest in blogging . Her interest did not quite kick off instantly . It started with an obsession for social media , first Facebook , then Twitter and Instagram . She created her first blog , a food blog , much later . She had co-run the blog alongside her friend . She would , after a year , found that her effort was not yielding the result she had desired . When she speaks about her food blog she does not have restraints . Oftentimes her sentences drag and melt into one another , coalescing into one long sentence .
" I got tired of food blogging because people rarely visit and most guys will actually tell me that Lade we can ' t visit your blog , it ' s just meant for females and I said OK . I still continued , but at least I stopped for a year ."
One year had past and she hadn ' t blogged at all . All of the time she was serenading listeners of the UNILORIN radio with her robust feminine voice . Then she secured a placement at the government house , Kwara State . She was working with the governor ' s media team when another opportunity to blog presented itself again .
One thing is certain about the young blogger : she knows when to give up and when to start a new fight . She is gifted with a keen sense of discernment . This attribute would later prove to be extremely valuable for her .
It was a fine day at the government office in Ilorin . Olorundare sat along with other
colleagues . They were to have one of their daily meetings . Their boss had mentioned his 29 the LENS