‘I became a journalist by accident’

You started the journey that brought you to your present position as a journalist some years back. How did it start?I will say, I became a journalist by accident, in the sense that my disciplinary background was a degree in Political Science which I got from the University of Ibadan in 1987.  I graduated with […]

You started the journey that brought you to your present position as a journalist some years back. How did it start?
I will say, I became a journalist by accident, in the sense that my disciplinary background was a degree in Political Science which I got from the University of Ibadan in 1987.  I graduated with Upper Division and this earned me the best graduating student prizes in that department and the entire faculty of Social Sciences, which comprised of other five departments in the university.  I did my National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) in Akwa Ibom State.  
We were the first set to serve in that state after it was created. After this, I was thrown into the labour market.  My desire was to become a professor of Political Science. I had actually projected that by the time I would be 35 – 37, I should have become a professor.
When I graduated I knew the tradition then was that most universities would celebrate their best, so I went to see the head of my department  to tell him I wanted to be retained so that I can do my master’s and PhD, as well as stay quietly in the university and do research.  
But he shocked me when he said I should go to Kwara State where I came from to pursue my academic ambition. I summoned up the courage to tell him this was the university that produced me and I thought I could stay back while lecturing to pursue my academic ambitions there.
He said, no, insisting I should go to Kwara to do it. If I knew what I know today, I would have sought the intervention of a higher authority to come to my rescue but I didn’t know anything about godfathering. I took it philosophically and went out of the place.  Out of annoyance I decided I would go for my master’s degree at the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU). OAU gave me admission immediately while I was rounding up my NYSC but my parents told me I needed to slow down.
Not because they  didn’t like or celebrate me  but because they needed to take care of my other siblings studying in the college of medicine at the University of Ibadan and another sister at Ahmadu Bello University. They advised me to pick up a job to assist them in training my other siblings.

How did your career in journalism start?
When I finished my NYSC I went back to Lagos looking for job here and there.  I went to The Guardian newspapers because I have always seen a role model in Dr Adinoyi Ojo Onukaba.  He was one of those young men who were very intelligent and making waves in our area then. When we were in the college we heard of his exploits and he was leaving when I was entering. Because he was a journalist, I said let me go to the Guardian to see him if I can also become a journalist.  
But he told me I have to go and freelance for some years before I could become a full staff.  He was ready to help, but that was not salutary for me as young man that was looking for money quickly from salary to help my parents. I decided to move to Kano where I had an aunty who was well-connected to top military brass and other VIPs who come around to visit her.

How did you get the Triumph newspapers’ job?
I was frustrated at home because I was not doing anything and my aunt was also feeling it for me. One day, the Managing Director of Triumph Newspapers, late Dr Madaki, a very good man came to visit my aunty and my CV was brought out as usual, because it was always given to whoever came around. This man was highly impressed, having discovered that I won academic prizes and he decided that this talent must not waste. He said, I should go to Triumph newspapers the following Monday and meet the editor of its daily, Alhaji Garba Shehu, who became the president of the Guild of Editors and senior special assistant to former Vice President Abubakar Atiku.   
Garba, being a likeable and brilliant young man interviewed me and found me feat, even though I did not have the disciplinary background in journalism. Because of my performance, he felt that what I needed was tutoring. Within three months they assessed me and found me feat to stand on my own.  
They sent me to Kwara State as the state’s editor to reopen the office that was shut down for some time before I was employed.  After some time, I performed credibly well there, because there was a monthly assessment that time for all reporters of the newspaper and I was always coming on top with another correspondent, Ike Abonyin.  Then there were people like Dantiye who become president of Guild of Editors after  Garba Shehu and current NUJ president, Garba Muhammed and Ali M.  Ali, the chief operating officer of Peoples Daily newspaper. These were my contemporaries in Triumph.  Within a year and half in Kwara State they decided there was need for me to go and clean up the aviation beat in Lagos State.  Apart from the State House, another most visible point was the VIP lounge at the airport.
All the top brass, the heads of state, governors, ministers and top government functionaries were always passing through the place and any serious newspaper must have its correspondent as member of the League of Aviation Correspondents to get hot stories. I was transferred there from Kwara where I was practicing but I didn’t like this. While going I cried because I was operating from a very quiet environment; I didn’t like the bustling and hustling in Lagos.  
I wanted to remain quietly in Ilorin. As a matter of fact, I was setting out to realize my ambition of becoming a professor because I had already applied for my MPA but before the admission was out I was transferred to Lagos. Something happened; the young man on the beat in Lagos, a colleague who is now late, was not happy that I was transferred to take over from him and decided to fight back.
He was much older than me and he said I should go and appeal that I didn’t like Lagos and I went to the headquarters in Kano.  I was going to tell the management that I was not going and let them leave me in Ilorin even though my colleagues in Ilorin were telling me it was a good posting. I refused but as I was climbing the stair case I met the radio man who was always taking our stories, he used to call me Shakespeare because of my choice of words when I write stories. I told him I wanted to go and tell the management that they should leave me in Ilorin.
He was angry with me and said, ‘you this mumu boy, what is wrong with you? They posted you to go and meet your destiny, don’t you know Lagos is a juicy place, what are you getting in Ilorin?’ And he shouted at me, ‘stupid boy get down.  
Don’t go to anywhere go and resume in Lagos.’ He was like an uncle to me. So as destiny would have it, I landed in Lagos and just as he had predicted, there was a complimentary ticket for my colleague to go on Hajj. The Nigeria Airways was still operating then and used to give sponsorship with estacode, but this time around it brought ticket without estacode, so my colleagues threw it on the floor that they were not interested. They were already pampered. Coming from a rural area, I regarded a ticket to overseas as very important and I quickly grabbed it.
I went to take N13,000 from my monthly contribution to embark on the pilgrimage. That was a big money then, in terms of the exchange rate in 1991. That was the breakthrough for me and I never looked back after that. Afterwards, I made other trips to Brazil and the Nigeria Airways was always sending us on training. To me it was like meeting destiny because if not for the posting I wouldn’t have got the peck of office I was getting then. Apart from Aviation, I was covering health, crime and other beats.  We were very few in Lagos and the South-West zone covering for Triumph newspapers, so we had a very big task in our hands.

Why did you quit journalism to pick a job in the ministry of health?
I was beginning to be comfortable and enjoying my beat but I still had my eyes on the need to realize my academic ambition, so I quickly enrolled at the University of Lagos. There was hostility among colleagues. Some of them didn’t want to go forward and because of this I was expelled from the League of Aviation Correspondents and to a large extent I was deprived of so many privileges that members enjoyed. The place was made very hostile for me. My colleague who left the place did not help matters because while he was leaving he had his own men whom he sold the dummy to that I actually uprooted him.  
They made the place very uncomfortable for me and I was alienated except one or two other guys who felt concerned that I did not deserve the treatment they were giving me and this was how I became friend with Dr Isiaka Ali-Agan former editor of Herald. He is now an aide to the First Lady. The other one is Titus Agbo. Two of them stood by me and said, no Abubakar did not deserve this treatment. I knew why they were hostile and it served as a tonic and energizer for me and I redoubled my efforts to get my master’s degree.  I had to run here and there for assignments and was also attending classes. At the school level, I had lecturers who were as well hostile to me because I was always coming late to class but they didn’t know my predicament and thought I was an unserious student. With the hostility at my beat I felt it was time to leave and I started looking for job.
Luckily for me, I had a cousin who is working at the Federal Ministry of Health, who gave me an idea that since I have been covering Ministry of Health, I could use my contact because they would soon be opening a new agency called NAFDAC. This was a privileged information for me and decided to leverage on it.
Eventually, I got the job and was placed on level 9 but it was getting too cold for me because I was used to active journalism, where I could move around and meet with movers and shakers of the society.