The trio of Soni Irabor, Labaran Maku, and Yayaya Beina, at different times served in different positions of authority. However, not much has been heard about them in recent times. Where are they now? IDACHABA SUNNY ELEOJO asks.
Soni Irabor
Soni Irabor is someone whose name would not be common on the lips of the age called the millennials even though he is not someone that can be branded an ‘analogue’ man. This is so because this former broadcaster with the Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria (FRCN) now into private broadcasting and PR is someone whose voice is no longer popular in the present times, but was a household name in the 80s. In Radio Nigeria Ikoyi Lagos where he and the likes of the late Zakari Mohammed, Mani Onumonu, Sidney Ufeli and Jones worked, he was particularly noted for his regular Monday morning programme called Radioscope that was a delight to many listeners across the country. Since he went into retirement, it was alleged that he and others who made Radio Nigeria thick left with the goodwill the station once enjoyed as not much of his likes were left behind to do what Soni and others were doing. He studied Mass Communications at the University of Lagos and later trained as a speech trainer with The Radio Deutsche Weller (The Voice of Germany) equivalent of the Voice of Nigeria. Beside this, he holds a certificate in Leadership and Governance in Media and Communications from the Pan Atlantic University. He has handled many media and PR assignments like OAU and ECOWAS Heads of Government Conference and many corporate events since he began his private media practice. According to a social media blog, Bella Naija, “Soni as his friends like to call him began his career with the Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation as a junior announcer in 1977 and served for a year before proceeding to the Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria (FRCN) as a senior announcer/newsreader in 1978 where he rose quickly to hold positions such as controller presentation trainer, marketing manager and assistant director, marketing. He left the corporation in 2000 to start Ruyi Communications where he made the transition from his successful career as a public servant to birth his famous Soni Irabor Live programme that ran on Television for a while before becoming a radio talk staple where he has hosted leading public and business figures.” Apart from this, not much has been known about him again.
Labaran Maku
Mr Labaran Maku is the former minister of information and national orientation between 2010 and 2015 running from the administrations of late Musa Yar Adua into Dr Goodluck Jonathan. Prior to this time, he was the deputy governor to the late Akwei Doma of Nasarawa state when the former was governor. He had also served as information commissioner in that state before he became a deputy governor. After he left office as minister in 2015, he tried unsuccessfully to win the ticket of his party Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on which to contest the governorship seat of his state, but for political reasons, he was denied the opportunity, a development that made him to decamp to the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) with a view to realising the ambition, but all to no avail. In an interview he granted a few years back, he was quoted as saying that because of his acceptance by his people, he does not need any political structure to become the governor of his state, According to him, “When Governor Tanko Al-Makura won the governorship election on the platform the defunct Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) in 2011, the party was new and had no structures. In 2019, voters would look at issues and what candidates have to offer. This talk about structures is diversionary,” he once said. As information minister who took over from Dora Akunyuli, he inherited a number of projects like ‘Do the Right Thing’ slogan and a number of others.
Yayaya Beina
Malam Yahaya Mohammed Beina aka (Zimbo) is the former campaign director to Senator Mohammed Ohiare in 2003 and 2007 respectively. Born on Christmas day into the family of Isah Lawan Beina, Ahogadi in Okene local government area of Kogi state in 1951,
he had his primary and post primary educations respectively in Okene and Kano and later graduated from Kaduna Polytechnic as a civil engineer in 1977. Thereafter, he did his one year compulsory National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) scheme in 1978. Beina began his career in 1979 with the now rested New Nigeria Newspapers Limited in Kaduna before he went into politics in 1982 briefly and contested for a seat in the old Kwara State House of Assembly under the platform of the defunct Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN), but was allegedly rigged out just before the 1983 coup. He returned to the civil service in 1985 before he retired in the year 2000. In New Nigerian Newspapers, he worked in Lagos and Kaduna offices and rose to the position of property manager between 1979 and 1982 before his retirement in 2000. He was generous to both his family and general public, especially orphans where he gave special attention to orphans, sponsoring many orphans to study and graduate in various fields like Engineering, Systems Analysis, Nursing, Accountancy, Law, among others. As one of the elder statesmen from Kogi Central senatorial district, many had come to him for blessing and endorsement in the past. He has however not been readily seen in any gathering within the state in the recent past.
