‘Being an OAP is a thankless job’ Jacob Akinyemi Johnson says

By Olamide Jasanya

While some bother about the fame and insecurity attached to their jobs, popular O.A.P, Jacob Akinyemi Johnson otherwise known as JAJ Tha Meccadon has revealed that the thankless nature of his job is his major challenge.

He disclosed this during a recent interview with City People magazine where he stated his love for his job but mentioned his dislike for its thankless nature. In his words, ‘I thought and I still it is a thankless job, because a lot of broadcasters in those days never really made money compared to other broadcasters in other parts of the world, so if you are not careful, you will really have nothing to show for it…’.

He spoke further on how he began his romance with broadcasting which he describes as a accidental, ‘Accidental in the sense that broadcasting was just something I planned to do for a short period. Funny enough, I was trying to get someone else on radio, I went with someone who desperately needed to get on the radio to an audition and I also auditioned as well and from then, things started happening…I never imagined at that point that I was going to stay on for so long, but the rest is history’, he said.

Asked if after 25 years in the business, he would like to do something else, the veteran broadcaster replied, ‘No, not anymore. I can’t do anything else, anything else that I could still do, would be broadcast related because that is what I am trained to for, it’s what I have the experience for…so this is a field that I belong to and I can’t go out of it except I want to make a 360 degree turn and become a politician and I don’t even see that as feasible.’

Joseph Akinyemi Johnson started broadcasting at the age of 10 for a primary school programme and presently occupies the position of General Manager, Creative Development, Silverbird group.