I thought I would be killed in Sahara Desert, says Nigeria’s award winning journalist

You have won many awards. How do you feel about this? So far, I have won a total of 19 media awards. I am a two-time winner of the CNN African Journalist Award, a three-time winner of the Wole Soyinka Award for Investigative Reporting and inaugural winner of the ‘African Pulitzer’ (the FAIR African Investigative […]

You have won many awards. How do you feel about this?

So far, I have won a total of 19 media awards. I am a two-time winner of the CNN African Journalist Award, a three-time winner of the Wole Soyinka Award for Investigative Reporting and inaugural winner of the ‘African Pulitzer’ (the FAIR African Investigative Journalism Award). I am happy to win the FAIR award again this year. Last year in Burkina Faso, I won the 2nd Prize of the Norbert Zongo Award for Investigative Journalism. Now, that award almost made me weep; not because it was the highest award I have picked. My eyes watered because of the spirit behind the award. We may not know him well in Nigeria but Norbert Zongo is the Dele Giwa of Burkina Faso. Like Dele Giwa, who was assassinated by letter bomb, Zongo also met with a brutal end. He was abducted from a restaurant, together with his younger brother and his driver. The three men were taken to a dusty road, shot at close range and their bodies set on fire. Until his death in 1998, Zongo was a fearless journalist investigating the activities of President Blaise Campore’s younger brother. The chauffer to the President’s brother had been murdered by unknown persons and Norbert Zongo was working to unravel the killers when he too was killed. Till today, the media in Burkina Faso is fighting in their little way to bring the killers of Norbert Zongo to justice. The award is meant not so much to keep his memory alive as his brand of journalism. The Norbert Zongo story is something every investigative journalist identifies with. There is a spirit to every award and I find myself carrying the burden of each of the spirit of the 19 awards I have so far won. It is the burden of integrity; the burden of trying to be an agent of change at all cost. On some days, it makes me happy; on other days it makes me sad.

What motivated you to do the story of migration to Europe through Libya?

The awful thing about journalism is that it makes you see so many things you would not have wished to see. This job has taken me to different parts of the world and I feel deflated each time I see the sub-human conditions some Nigerians are living in foreign countries. I’ve been to Italy, UK, Netherlands, France, US etcetera.  I am told about a tiny Island country called Cape Verde. I’ve never been there but I gathered that the population of Cape Verde is not up to that of a local government in Nigeria. In one town in Cape Verde, the population is less than a thousand people. In this same town, you have many Nigerian girls desecrating the place. There is no industry in that country except tourism. Nigerians engage in ward acts at the beaches to entertain white tourists. The show organisers can employ only two or three girls but you find many girls begging to perform; not to be paid money but in exchange for food. In South Africa you find Nigerians selling stick meats on the street. One of them told me he sold off his spare parts business in Lagos just to come to South Africa. Two months ago, a Nigerian was found dead inside the tyre compartment of Arik aircraft upon landing in South Africa. Nigerians are being executed in Libya; many have perished in the Sahara while trying to cross the desert on foot; many have drowned in the Mediterranean Sea trying to cross from Morocco to Spain and hundreds of thousands of Nigerians are in prisons in different countries. Many are at a point of no return; they have no money to buy food let alone transport themselves back to Nigeria. When you hear these stories they sound like fables. People don’t believe it is true; that was why I decided to embark on the journey myself for 37 days across the desert and I came back with pictures and a long story titled Europe by Desert: Tears of African Migrants. I’m happy to be the first journalist to travel the desert.

What fears did you have when you embarked on this assignment?

I travelled across seven countries in the course of doing the story. My worst fear was how to survive the desert with little or no water. At a point, people began to drink urine. Since I was working undercover and travelling with notorious human traffickers, I also had fears of being discovered and killed. Along the way, however, I discovered other dangers like desert bandits who abduct female travellers and attack and dispossess everyone else. Because of rebel activities in northern Niger, there are landmines on some routes.

What were the shocking moments, and what went through your mind then?

They say it is a thin line between life and death. I saw that myself when we were attacked by rogue transporters who, on the pretext of transporting us to Agadez, took us to another place instead and dispossessed us. It happened in Gao, in Mali, the ancient city of Askia the Great. Because this place was so remote, I told myself: this is the end. Another horror I witnessed was watching a Nigerian girl in my group raped in the sand by Tuareg tribesmen who had just intercepted our truck. It happened in a desert town called Dirkou.

What encourages you to do investigative reports?

There is a saying that the reward for hard work is more hard work. Any hard working person – that is what he gets from his bosses: more hard work. Conversely, I can say that the reward for good investigative report is more good investigative reports. For my works, I have received commendations from the Nigeria Press Council and the Senate Committee on Labour; I worked closely with the EFCC under Nuhu Ribadu; I was trained on budget tracking by ActionAid. These institutional supports have encouraged me a great deal. Last December, I was at an event organised by the Wole Soyinka Centre. The British High Commissioner left his seat, walked over to mine and shook my hands.  What more encouragement can I possibly ask for?

How do you assess investigative reporting in Nigeria?

I would say investigative reporting in Nigeria is appreciably old but it is still tottering, unfortunately. Dele Giwa was killed in 1986, but how many Dele Giwas do we have in Nigeria today? The incentives are just not there. Investigative reporting is not properly funded. Investigative reporters need to be given discriminatory salary package because of the risk index attached to their work; they need insurance cover; they need hi-tech tools and modern computer applications to track crimes like money laundering.

What is the reaction of your wife and children when you embark on risky assignments?

My wife said she married me because of my brave journalism. Two children down the line, she is no longer sure. My children are too young to understand the kind of work I do. My wife; I only tell her where I am going to but not details of what I am going to do.

Which is the most risky investigative/undercover reporting you have done?

You go into an investigation and you come out; you can only talk about the dangers you encountered but what about other dangers that are there but God prevented you from seeing? So it is very difficult to say which was the most dangerous assignment. I’ve investigated the activities of tobacco smugglers across three West African countries but I would say the most risky is the desert story.