The term signature is deployed in six senses. The first sense is as one's name written by oneself. The second sense is the act of signing one's name. The third sense is as the characteristic expression of a process or thing or the characteristics that give an object, or a piece of information, its identity. It is the third sense that concerns us in this post.
The shape of a Coca-Cola bottle, that hour-glass figure, is its signature. In essence, a person's unique style or approach to do in a task or performing a role can be his signature. For example, can you think of the films die hard without a Bruce Wilis or Terminator without Arnold or Indiana Jones without Harrison Ford. A person's voice, his manner of laughing, walking, talking, writing or presentation can be his signature. For instance, the authorship of the Book of the Hebrews has been agreed to be distinctly Pauline i.e. possibly written by Apostle Paul because of strong evident similarities with the other letters written by the Apostle.
You can never confuse a Shakespeare with any other playwright. You can never confuse a Soyinka with Achebe. God himself signs off his work with a unique finger. The Egyptian Magicians shrieked "Oh Pharaoh, this is the finger of God" - the divine signature.
In today's world, it is also common to hear of 'digital signature', a unique trail of passage that occurs digitally. We have also heard of ' genetic signature'. In money laundering schemes, perpetrators are tracked through the 'money trail'.
Whatever it is, writing software programmes, scam plots etc, there is always something unique that marks your trail or typifies your signature. You will always leave a trail. Everybody leaves a mark, a unique signature.
It is such a trail that Frank Olize has left in two memorable episodes of Newsline. Does anyone remember him? "This was the time when the only TV station was NTA, and the options you had were NTA channel 10, NTA 2 channel 5, NTA Ibadan, and surely NTA channel 7. That was a time when Frank Olize of “Newsline” was more popular than today’s Frank edoho of “who wants to be a millionaire” (who doesn’t)".
The first memorable episode for me concerned his man on the street coverage of the money ritual incident titled "Hold Ya Own". This was the period when whole "penis" or "balls" in the scrotal sac were disappearing at will through mere contact on the sidewalk. During this period, men go about with hands in the two pocket. One on the staff of office, the other on the two soldiers. There were all kinds of stories spawned then. One guy claimed that a woman had touched him and he could not find "his own" again, the woman must return it and he must "test it" on the woman that it is still potent! Nigerians. There was another story where the returned "staff" was alleged to be that of an albino! Na wah o
The second memorable episode was when Frank decided to evaluate Naija men's tolerance and willingness to forgive should their wives, girlfriends, mistresses or lovers be found "in flagrante delicto" i.e. compromising situation with another man as in one on top of the other. What will Naija men do? One of the men that chose to oblige Frank said he had better not go there. Another said that all he knows is that "person go die" whether na him or the man or the woman is not sure, but someone go die sha". And on and on like that.
Do Nigerian broadcast platform still parade rare breed presenters of this nature anymore? All is see are these peripheral and non-idealistic presenters/reporters who have absolutely no clue how to put their feet down in journalism. With the new breed springing up from all angles of Nigeria, I’m yet to see that outstanding/unique presenter that stands out. Well, even if they do, we hardly watch local stations these days. Our people can tell you the demographic distribution of New Jersey than the name of their local council chairman. Na wah o!
The government is in no way helping the younger generation in their pursue of their dream(s), instead, they are more interested in renaming Academic Institutions, assisting the rich, embezzling and all sorts of insane and irrelevant activities … Sighs… Guess I’ll have to make another write-up for that because its another ”Tori” entirely.
Frank clearly left his mark, a unique signature on that programme. This is not a tribute to him but a blast from the past in doing whatever your hands findeth to do well… DO IT.
lovely article
ReplyDeleteThanks a lot, pls also remember to share.
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