The Soft Issue
August 2017
Cover
“Then when I came to school, I was close to
the SU, and I was the kind of person that likes
listening to gist. I was like, why not blog on
campus?
desperate need for a "Linda Ikeji-like"
contact on the University of Ilorin
campus. This Ikeji-like person would
publish stories from the government
house on his behalf. He would pay for
this role.
"Do we have anyone like this in the
University of Ilorin?" Lade had asked
herself. And this fundamental question
would be the death of ladesinmi.
blogspot.com/ and the birth of the
now heroic ladesignatory.info/. While
ladesignatory was in its nascent stage,
Olorundare was learning furiously:
from news writing to blogging itself.
Her journey into blogging proper has
just begun.
"Then when I came to school, I was
close to the SU, and I was the kind
of person that likes listening to gist.
I was like, why not blog on campus?
Anything that happens in the school I
will transform them into news, post it
on my blog, like press releases from
student union, I will rewrite stories
from Punch, breaking news etc."
She kicks off almost instantly,
thanks to her background in Mass
Communication. Apart from her
extensive campus contacts who
feed her with scoops, her success
is not unconnected to her flair for
recalibrating frigid stories into ones
that would warm their way into her
audience's mind. This has since
gotten her under intense fire from
her colleagues, students of Mass
Communication, who believe she is
not a journalism purist. Her justification
is often that she is a blogger and that
much of all those ethical concerns are
not really binding.
Earlier this year there was an increase
in mob action on campus. The
university students, frustrated from
losing their valuables to thieving
students, decided to take laws into
their hands. They became extra
vigilant and always on the lookout
for suspicious movements. On this
day they had managed to catch one
unfortunate fellow, suspected to be
a thief. Ladesignatory was there to
report the incident. She took photos
of the victim, his face marked by
distress. There were other visible
faces in the photograph, their faces—
even if not clearly distinct from that
of the suspect—betraying excitement
for the justice they were serving the
suspected thief. The particular post
would later spark outrage among
her fellow students because she had
apparently thrown caution to the wind.
They argued that she ought to have
blurred the faces of the people in
the photograph (anyone in the photo
could be mistaken for the suspect).
Also, that she ought not to reveal the
face of the suspected thief, because
he had not been tried in court. This
debate would trend on the group chat
throughout the night, everybody’s
blood was hot. Even if she took down
the photo days later the animosity
against that particular post still
lingered.
"Before I started blogging or mass
communication, they [bloggers] don’t
really follow all the ethics. Even all
these media houses don’t. So many
times you see they don't blur people's
faces. The only one that has a lot of
issue is objectivity and fairness to both
parties. All other issues I try as much
as possible to manage it... Everyone is
entitled to his or her own opinion."
30
She is notorious for sending
broadcast (BC) messages. At first,
her BCs irritate. But gradually
it starts to become one of
those things one expects every
morning like breakfast, only this
time it is food for thought.
Ladesignatory is an information
behemoth on the university
campus. In less than eight
months of operation, the blog
has become well known.
Consistency. Grit. Juice. These
are the things that have gotten
her this far.
A particular incident which
sealed Ladesignatory into the
mind of people was her hoax
about the SU PRO. She had
circulated the information that
the PRO was expecting triplets
outside wedlock. The University
of Ilorin community, yearning
for gists like this, immediately
gobbled it and the story went
viral. For three days, people
kept asking for an update of
the story. This was so much for
a story conceived on the idea
of ego-testing and influence
measurement. The sheer
number of calls the union PRO
received as a result of that
post was enough to confirm
that Ladesignatory was not
something to be messed with—
her story spreads like wildfire.
In fact, she is the only blogger
that posts information about the
university on her blog. Where
others are terrified of running into
trouble with the school authority,
Olorundare is there in the
the
LENS