Craze for byline kept me in New Nigerian for 30 years

How did you start your journalism career with the New Nigerian newspaper? I took up appointment with a lawyer; unfortunately I cannot remember his name now. His office was in Kakuri area in Kaduna. I was receiving one pound as salary.  He recognised my output because I used to read newspapers a lot. So, he […]

How did you start your journalism career with the New Nigerian newspaper?
I took up appointment with a lawyer; unfortunately I cannot remember his name now. His office was in Kakuri area in Kaduna. I was receiving one pound as salary.  He recognised my output because I used to read newspapers a lot. So, he got his friend to introduce me to the editor of NNN, late Razak Aremu, who was a very jovial person. When he saw my expertise on the typewriter and my ability to decipher some writings and even make corrections, he said I would be a good reporter.  When he heard us talking about a match played a day earlier, he told me to write a story on it and that was how I started. The following day my byline was on the story and I was happy. He told me to go to Ahmadu Bello Stadium and cover a football match the following day and that was how my journey into journalism started.
 
How was your first day on the job like?
It was really an experience. I didn’t feel free. No identity card was given to me. I just went to the popular stand and then found my way to the grandstand and I later came back to the office to write the story. During that period you start as a lineage reporter, then a freelancer and later a permanent staff.  As a lineage you get two kobo per line of any story. The more the line in your stories, the more your income. You would submit your claim form to the editor to crosscheck and endorse for you to go to the accounts and collect your money. That was when NNN was in its heyday. I met senior colleagues like Nda Isaiah (father of the publisher of Leadership Newspaper, Sam Nda Isaiah), Yakubu Ali was features editor and later chief sub editor. Steven Bamidele, was sports correspondent and later chief sub editor. Late Alhaji Muhammadu Turi was the editor, and Alhaji Mamman Daura was the managing director. I did not meet the first Managing Director of the NNN, who was an English man called Charles Sharp. I worked under Clement Nda Isaiah who was supervising the sports desk, while Ndanusa Alao was the sports editor. I started work in 1978 and I got an identity card and a full staff. The salary was N300.
 
Were you contributing to other beats?
In the sports section, you are the reporter, proof reader and the editor at the same time. Sport is a specialized reporting. You look for sporting events and do the story, but the management sometime tells you to go and do a piece. But we do contribute to other sections. It depends on your versatility and time.
 
Was there Nigerian Union of Journalists at the time?
There was NUJ of a sort.  Only one man, Jola Ogunlisi was the custodian of NUJ. If he was not there the national convention would not hold.  He was a staff of the NNN in Lagos office then, it was a Lagos affair. It was sectional before it became national.
 
What remarkable thing happened to you as a journalist?
When Colonel Abdulmuminu Aminu was the Military Administrator of the old Borno State, he loved football. One day, he was watching football in Ahmadu Bello Stadium in Kaduna and he sent one of his aides to call me to the grand stand. When I met him, he asked if I’m John Fwah.  I said yes. He then said he was inviting me to Borno to come and break the fast with him. It was exciting to me. I went to Maiduguri and when I got to the Government House gate, they welcomed me. I spent four days there.
He said they were doing a tree planting campaign and that I should do a feature on it. He introduced me to the permanent secretary in the Ministry of Agriculture and other personalities as his special guest.
 
Was there any sad incident while you were on duty?
One occurred when I went to Ahmadu Bello Stadium Kaduna to cover an event. The guest of honour was the then Governor of Niger State, now the Emir of Suleja, Alhaji Awwal Ibrahim. A policeman came to tell me that he wanted to talk to me. I signaled to a friend who was also a journalist to follow me. When we went out of the stand the officer said they wanted to talk to me at Magajin Gari Divisional Police Office. I told him I was still working that I would meet him later, but he insisted I followed him. So, I went with him in my car. My colleagues told the photographer to follow us. While in the DPO’s office the photographer went to the NNN office and told the editor, Turi Muhammad, about what happened. They asked one policeman to follow me to the office to confirm whether I was a staff of the newspaper or not. The editor confirmed that I was a staff. Later the Investigating Police Officer told me I resembled somebody they were looking for. He said that was how the police work.
 
Why did you refuse to accept offer made to you by other newspapers?
Many came looking for me. But NNN was a household name to be reckoned with then. I didn’t want to leave the newspaper. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), came looking for people in the New Nigerian, but I refused to join them because they would not publish the reporter’s byline. But I later regretted not joining NAN because those who accepted their offer have risen to the managerial cadre now and some had even retired and got their entitlement and they are now living well. Indeed, I regretted working for the New Nigerian Newspapers. My gratuity and reunion for 150 months has not been paid. I thought I would retire there and be happy but that didn’t happen.
 
What would you say is the problem of NNN?
 It started when the Federal Military Government took over NNN from the northern states government. The mistake was that they did not make it an arm of the Federal Ministry of Information as they did the Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria (FRCN), and the Nigerian Television Authority  (NTA) among others. Before the takeover, the northern states government were contributing financially, but when the military tookover, they stopped. The sad event was when the 400 pensioners went to court asking for their gratuity. They were paying without the increment at the federal level. No kobo was given to anybody in the name of gratuity.
 
 Can the NNN be revived?
Northern states governments now have their own radio, TV and newspaper. The development in the print media has left NNN far behind and most likely dead. Many are now reading online. The market has overtaken it. NNN has a commercial printing press, if that section alone is owned by an individual, it would have been functioning. But the machines are rusting by the day. Like the textiles the machines are being overtaken by modernization. This thing cannot happen in the southern part of the country. NNN is gone for good. It’s sad.
 
How true is it that some people left the NNN accounts department for the newsroom?
I will not mention their names, some of them are people you may know.  They left their departments and became journalists over night because they wanted to make money, not knowing that journalists do it for passion.
 
What is your advice to the upcoming journalists?
Some are surprised to see me still practising with the Standard Newspapers. Some are just for the spoils of the profession. They are lazy because they just copy speeches and passed it, leaving away the valuable information. They just name the personalities not the news action and even side attractions. They don’t like feature articles. If they hastily file in the news they can also follow it with a feature later for the benefit of the readers.
 
Is any one of your children practising journalism?
No. I don’t want to force any of them to be a journalist, but one is reading newspapers from cover to cover.