For being a believer in Oliver Napoleon Hill’s principle of ‘whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve,’ that which saw him achieving his life ambition of becoming a lawyer notwithstanding what appeared insurmountable challenges; for being all his life everyone’s idea of a God-fearing man, every junior civil servant’s idea of a model in service and every senior civil servant’s idea of a man of integrity; for being the pioneer mouth-piece of the National Judicial Council and serving in the capacity for 22 unbroken years without blemish; for being a man of many parts: historian, journalist, lawyer, public relations guru, exceptional administrator, evangelist, amongst others; for his meritorious service to the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) where he and Kalu Otisi in Abuja and Kayode Williams in Lagos, blazed the trail for the reportage of court proceedings and activities of different levels of court for the broadcast media industry in Nigeria, during which he was serially recognized by the TV authorities with letters of commendation and for his flexibility to adapt and effectively manage the information portfolio of the NJC under ten separate administrators and legal personalities including Chief Justices Muhammadu Lawal Uwais, Salisu Modibo Alfa Belgore, Idris Legbo Kutigi, Aloysius Iyorgyer Katsina-Alu, Dahiru Musdapher, Aloma Mariam Muhktar, Mahmud Mohammed, Walter Nkanu Onnoghen, Ibrahim Muhammad Tanko and Olukayode Ariwoola, Barrister Oye Adesoji Oluwadare, LL.B, BL, B.A (History), is our ICON for the week.
Born on September 16, 1964, in Ibadan, the capital city of the present day Oyo State in South-West Nigeria to the family of late Pa Joshua Oye, a successful information manager and Madam Felicia Oye, a successful primary school teacher, both from Ekiti State, the young Adesoji Oluwadare Oye, started his elementary education at the age of five in Ibadan. Specifically, Soji, as he is popularly called, attended the United Missionary College(U.M.C) Primary School, Oke Ado, Ibadan between 1969 and 1975. Upon successful completion of his primary school education, he gained admission into the prestigious Christ School, Ado Ekiti in 1975. Shortly after his admission, his parents who were based in Ibadan, moved to Akure in Ondo State after the creation of Ondo State on February 3, 1976 from the defunct Western State. Adesoji was in Christ School until 1980 when he successfully wrote and passed his O/L West African School Certificate Examination (WASCE). Upon completion of his secondary school education, he secured a job with the Ministry of Works and Housing, Ondo State in 1981. He worked there for almost two years when he gained admission into the Federal School of Arts and Science Ondo in 1982 for his Higher School Certificate education. He was in the school between 1982 and 1984. He thereafter gained admission into the defunct Ondo State University in the year 1984 where he read History. The University has since been renamed Ekiti State University (EKSU) after Ekiti State was carved out of the former Ondo State on October 1, 1996.
Although he was already an History graduate, Oye said “All my life, I wanted to read Law but I was not admitted for Law. However, when I finished my degree programme in History, I told my father that I would like to go back to the University to read Law. But my father said he had no objection to it if only I would do the programme on my bill. He told me that my siblings were also waiting to go for higher studies.” Adesoji had to forget about his ambition to read Law, although temporarily, since he had no money at the time to pursue it.
Immediately after his NYSC programme on the defunct NTA Abuja Project, Soji Oye was retained by the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) in Abuja where he started as a generalist reporter covering the judiciary, the Nigerian Police and religious bodies.. The authorities of the NTA later sent him to TV College in Jos for a Certificate in Mass Communication. As soon as he completed the programme, he was assigned to cover the Judiciary beat in 1990.
“Although, I was already covering the Judiciary alongside other beats before I went for training in Jos, the Management formally told me to focus on the Judiciary beat. At that time, reporters were reluctant to cover the beat. But as soon as I was assigned to cover the beat fully, I was all over Abuja courts. I would move from the Supreme Court to the Court of Appeal, the Federal High Court and to the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory on daily basis, covering their proceedings and activities and file my reports. It wasn’t long before commendation letters started flying my way,” he recounted.
Soji Oye, as he was popularly called, was the only NTA reporter covering the judiciary in Abuja then while Kayode Williams was covering the same beat in Lagos. Mr Kalu Otisi was later transferred to Abuja to join him on the beat.
“Between 1990 and 2002 when I covered the beat, some of the reporters from other media houses who covered the judiciary beat with me were Mr Adebayo Bodunrin of the AIT/Ray Power, Mr Andrew Orolua of The New Nigeria, Mr Rotimi Fadeyi of the Punch who was later relieved by Mr Tobi Soniyi, also now a lawyer, Lemmy Ughegbe of Vanguard who was also later relieved by Ise-Oluwa Ige now a 2016 PhD degree holder from the prestigious University of Ibadan in Communication Studies with specialisation in Legal Communication, Mr Emmanuel Onwubiko of the Guardian, among others. Lanre Adewole of the Nigerian Tribune also joined the beat in Abuja shortly before I left NTA.
Meanwhile, after almost a decade on the reportorial job, Soji Oye, a firm believer in the principle of ‘Whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve,’ began to think of how to go back to school to fulfil his ambition of becoming a lawyer. He eventually applied for the Law Programme and got admission sometimes around 2000.He had started the Law programme when there was an opening at the NJC for Chief Public Relations Officer.
By a turn of fate, Soji Oye later moved his service from NTA to the National Judicial Council as its pioneer Chief Public Relations Officer in 2002 during the tenure of the second longest serving Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Muhammadu Lawal Uwais. His experience as a judiciary reporter and his ability to accurately report the court proceedings assisted him to get the job which was hotly contested for by nine shortlisted applicants.
His words: “By the time the advertorial came out for the position of Chief Public Relations Officer of the NJC, I had covered the judiciary for well over a decade. I was fortunate to be shortlisted. However, on the day of the interview, shortly before they started calling us in, one of the nine shortlisted applicants announced to us that we had come to waste our time because he was going to get the job, being Justice Uwais’ cousin. I was angry with the young man. I told him he should have kept that information to himself instead of discouraging us. I, nonetheless, told him that he knew a mere mortal but that some of us knew God. Thereafter, we waited for our turn. When I was eventually invited in, I committed all to God. As I entered the Boardroom where the interview panel chaired by Hon.Justice Belgore who later became the Chief Justice of Nigeria sat, all of them on the panel chorused: Soji Oye, NTA News. The rest is history. I came atop. I got the job.
“After I got the job, I drove to Sheraton one day with my official car with NJC Plate Number. When I came out of the car, one of us who attended the interview with me saw me and ran to me, saying: ‘Eh, Soji, you got the job? Can you still remember what you said to that guy boasting, trying to spoil Justice Uwais’ name? I am very happy you know God and that you got the job,” he reminisced, adding, “Much later after I had been signed on, I was told that one of the reasons I was shortlisted for the job was because I popularised the courts in Abuja and their activities with my reports then in NTA.”
Like his father who started his career at the Ministry of Information in the defunct Western State in Ibadan and retired as Chief Information Officer in Akure, Ondo State, Soji Oye grew on the job to become full Director of Information at the NJC before he retired in September 2024 in Abuja.
Before he retired recently, he had effectively managed the Information portfolio of the NJC for 22 years under 10 Chief Justices of Nigeria. In fact, he was still in service when the incumbent Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Kudirat Motonmori Kekere-Ekun was elevated and presided over the meeting of National Judicial Council (NJC), as number one judicial officer in the country.
Soji Oye has a wife and blessed with children, one of them also a lawyer.
Oye has received various Awards in appreciation of his contributions to the society
