Thread by @toluogunlesi

“When IBB decided to work with the IMF, it meant that we had to devalue the naira... I remember... that day the policy took off, the naira which we were buying at 80 kobo to a $, fell to N3.32 to a $ on the 1st day, which was a depreciation by over 300%.” thecable.ng/obaigbena-i-ca…

“That was how I got introduced to Time Magazine whose biggest market then was Nigeria. They used to publish 150,000 copies weekly, selling Time Magazine in Nigeria.” thecable.ng/obaigbena-i-ca…

// Amazing. @TIME once used to sell 150k copies weekly in Nigeria?!

“At the time, Nigeria was going to celebrate its 25th Independence anniversary, I proposed a major special edition on Nigeria at 25, which was perhaps the most successful special section we did. We actually had to plan for it ahead & incidentally, HoS at that time was @MBuhari.”

“I used to travel abroad to visit, which led to me becoming friends to Chief M.K.O Abiola from plane rides,we used to enter British Caledonian Airways then & fly into London together. We did not need [UK] visa then; all they did was stamp your passport on arrival at the airport.”

“Eventually when Awolowo died, we were the first to know. So I remember we just bought three 504 cars for THISWEEK. So I deployed a team led by @TunjiLardner to go and cover it and we covered the Awolowo series. I remember that edition, ‘If not me who?’” thecable.ng/obaigbena-i-ca…