Putting it nicely, Aparutu is the Yoruba word for a joker, a clown. In August 1986, when I first arrived at the wooden, fabricated office of PUNCH in Kudeti, Ikeja, Lagos, for a vacation job, that was how the editor then, Alhaji Najeem Jimoh, referred to me: Aparutu.
He wasn’t being mean or harsh. That just happened to be one of his favourite words. And maybe I looked the part, too. Skinny and frail, I was only a part two student of Mass Communication at the University…
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