Thompson Oyatu is a veteran journalist in the best sense of the word. His by-line is popular across a stretch of newspapers dating a long way back in time. Early in life, he dreamt about having a place at the Editorial Training School, Adeoyo, Ibadan. He was overly delighted when it happened. He worked under the canopy of the Tribune newspapers for one full year, under the auspices of the Allied Newspapers Limited, publishers and printers of Mid-West Echo, Benin. His first article was published in 1960, and his by-line continued to appear in the pages of the paper until 1963 when he moved over to join another paper, the Mid-West Champion.
He was employed as a reporter, and is quick to remember George Izobo, Alfred Ileri, and Ben Lawrence as his colleagues in the Mid-Western Region then, even as he remembers Ika Yakubu as Editor of the Mid-West Champion. The paper was owned by Okotieboh, the first Finance Minister who was killed in the 1966 coup. Living along his Idahosa Street residence in Benin right up to 1964, Thompson recalls the topical political issues of the day, especially the Mid-west Plebiscite of 1963 which endorsed the creation of the Western Region.
In 1966, Thompson moved over from the newsroom of the Mid-west Champion to the Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation (NBC), as a Correspondent. He recalls that his fellow country man, Albert Alali, was a sub-editor at the time. Two years later, in 1968, Thompson moved up north and joined the New Nigeria newspapers, working closely with Adamu Ciroma, editor of the paper, even as he worked hand in hand with James Omajuru, regional editor.
‘The Mid-Western region was invaded by Biafra, so I moved from Benin to Lagos’, he recalls. In 1969, the political tension in the country reached fever pitch, and Thompson Oyatu felt obliged to join the Nigerian Army. Until 1977, he served as the pioneer Public Relations Officer, Second Infantry Division, Army Public Relations Department. Recruited into the media arm of the force, Thompson was in the crew that started a magazine called the Second Division Mirror. He also wrote speeches for his garrison commander, Colonel James Oluleye.
Thompson recalls that, in the days leading to the outbreak of the civil war, he designed and printed the first fliers with the message: ‘To keep Nigeria one is a task that must be done’. These fliers were randomly distributed in rebel held areas during the war. He also helped to prepare emblems for the army.
‘I was Officer Commanding Army Public Relations Department 7 Infantry Brigade, Nigerian Army, Sokoto. I served under Brigadier General B.M. Usman. I was a Staff Sergeant holding the office for a Major. I supervised pay parades. In short, I was the image maker of the army. I wrote for discharge in 1977, and was posted back to my mother unit in Ibadan. I requested for voluntary discharge. I went on terminal leave on 16 June 1977, and that saw me out of the army’.
Carrying all his experiences of the war in the ink of his pen, Thompson Oyatu promptly joined Tribune newspaper after that. His first assignment came as a test. He was to interview the maverick Afro-beat musician, Fela, whose fame was just on the upswing. Oyatu saw it as a big assignment and went about it that way. He located Fela and held the interview, then he went about conducting an elaborate vox pop among students of the University of Lagos and Yaba College of Technology, about Fela’s music and person. That was not enough. Oyatu went as far as the University of Ibadan and Ibadan Polytechnic, touting the same questions.
That has always been Oyatu’s strong point: investigative journalism. He never saw a stone and failed to look under it. In his search for the next story, he had a habit of sweeping under the proverbial carpet. ‘I was known for digging up scoops. I got an award for that from Lateef Jakande’, he recalls. ‘The prize money at that time was ten naira. It came as a big boost to my career in journalism’.
In 1978, Thompson crossed over to Daily Sketch. Again, he displayed his predilection for going after exclusive stories. His major accomplishment on that beat was that he reported the great flood of that year, and brought into special focus the students of the University of Ibadan who drowned in it. His report got the government to consider a canalisation programme that would help to save five thousand houses stretching from Agodi to Egbeda. He left Sketch as Regional Editor.
In 1980, Thompson Oyatu gravitated homeward to The Nigerian Tide in Port Harcourt where he was engaged as an Assistant Editor. He quickly emerged as Government House correspondent and, for the next two years, interacted at close quarters with Chief Melford Okilo, Governor of Rivers State. In February 1982, Thompson left for Radio Rivers as Senior Editor, and reunited with his long-standing associate, Albert Alali, who was in office as General Manager. Putting heads together with Alali and Matthew Mieseigha, Manager News & Current Affairs, Oyatu originated Spotlight, a long-running political commentary on Radio Rivers. ‘Spotlight was my baby. I also anchored Around Nigeria This Week as well as Today In The House. In short, I covered the Assembly effectively’.
Then trouble came knocking. Thompson Oyatu brought A.A. Akene, a gubernatorial candidate of the UPN into a media collision with Okilo, the incumbent NPN Governor. Alali and Mieseigha were queried for insolence, and Oyatu was fired. That was in 1984. He became jobless from then on till 2004 when he joined New Waves, the Bayelsa State newspaper. In the intervening period, Thompson offered editorial consultancy services to the first private newspaper to emerge in the Niger Delta, namely Independent Monitor published by the late journalist, Evans Osi.
In 2002, Thompson picked up courage and established The Verdict, his own newspaper. It came out twice and folded up, but not without delving into a sizzling political controversy. ‘I had no money’, he says. ‘But it offered an opportunity to give an incisive report on the death of Marshall Harry, the blame game between Dikibo and Odili, and to pontificate on the OBJ conspiracy’.
On 28 May 2012, Thompson Oyatu left the services of the Bayelsa State Newspaper Corporation on grounds of age, but he was still strong enough to proceed to Izonlink in October 2013 where he served as editor until January 2014. ‘I changed the template, conceived better stories, and helped to increase the circulation and readership of the paper’. It is a claim that cannot be disputed, stemming from Oyatu’s instructive assessment of the Bayelsa media.
‘The press in Bayelsa has been dormant’, he says. ‘There’s been too much compromise. Government has virtually pocketed the press in Bayelsa. What obtains is what you might call stipend journalism. Very few papers take the government to task. I am all for a more vibrant press. As for radio and television, they are praise singers’.
Thompson’s estimation of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Bayelsa chapter, is also worth repeating. He believes that the leadership of the body under Tarinyo Akono was well guided. ‘When a leadership is vibrant, there is a tendency for that organization to be threatened. Akono told Governor Timipre Sylva to his face that he was not performing. He made statements indicting government about the epileptic power supply, and the excesses of Famou Tangbei. That is the kind of forthrightness expected of the profession’.
Born in Ndoro, Ekeremor local government area of Bayelsa State, on 25 September 1945, Thompson Ojobokeme Erikake Oyatu attended American Baptist School, Sapele, from 1950 to 1954. Then he proceeded to Washington College of Commerce, Warri, where he studied from 1955 to 1958. He is a product of the School of Journalism and Television, Berkshire, England, where he trained from 1967 to 1969. In later years, he undertook a comprehensive course from 1972 to 1974 at the Nigerian Institute of Journalism (NIJ), Lagos. Even at his age, he still doesn’t mind going for the next story.
Thompson Oyatu was recently recognised for his enduring labour and his lifelong interest in journalism. On 14 February 2026, the old soldier was one of five octogenarian journalists who went home with a jumbo cheque for five million naira, courtesy of Ovieteme George, the famous journalist from Arise News stable who played host to one hundred retired journalists in Bayelsa, with support from Tantita Securities.
