As Legendary Broadcaster, Cyril Stober Takes A Bow

I grew up watching the 9:00pm news on NTA every other night as it was a sort of ritual for my Dad. Unless you were no longer interested in watching television, the only programme you could watch in my house by 9:00pm was the Nigerian Television Authority network news.

As a national television station, NTA had many newscasters but only few stood out for me. Eugenia Abu and Cyril Stober are the only ones I can still remember from that era.

Growing up, I used to think Mr. Cyril Stober's name was Christopher because of the brilliant way he pronounced his name each time he was signing off. He pronounced his name and surname as though it was just one name. So, it is no surprise that no one knows him as Mr. Cyril or Mr. Stober but simply Cyril Stober.

In the broadcasting world, there are two veterans whose eloquence I always make a reference point and there are Sadiq Daba and of course, Cyril Stober. The former who also worked at NTA for over three decades is synonymous to 80s' drama series, Cock Crow At Dawn and recently, Kunle Afolayan's feature film October 1.

Sadiq Daba

I met the bespectacled Cyril Stober times without number through our Hitachi TV and he is undoubtedly a legend.

Just through that Hitachi TV, all I could see was a gentle, refined, well educated, articulate, handsome, eloquent and brilliant broadcaster who loved his job and made it a career.

Like Sadiq Daba, Cyril Stober also spent about three decades at the Nigerian Television Authority until his recent retirement which has just became public knowledge.

The living legend is currently being honoured as tributes pour in on social media. On my part, all I can simply say is: "Thank you Sir. God bless you and your family too."