‘In my days, we detested brown-envelope-journalism’

How  was it like been a journalist in your days?Most of my youthful life was spent in journalism. I started life as a journalist and rose to become an editor. I later became a publisher of my own magazine called Business Today. The reason for my interest in journalism is what I still pursue today […]

How  was it like been a journalist in your days?
Most of my youthful life was spent in journalism. I started life as a journalist and rose to become an editor. I later became a publisher of my own magazine called Business Today. The reason for my interest in journalism is what I still pursue today as I am in politics. And that reason is to create a society that is, if not just, but very close to being just. In those days, especially in the 70s when we entered the journalism career, more than 70 per cent of journalists would refuse brown envelope.
I remember when a top Northern politician came to Jos while I was working with Nigerian Standard, I also used to work for News Agency of Nigeria then. He shared money at the end of a press conference at the Press Centre in Jos, which is very close to Hill Station Hotel. Myself and few other people just walked out and refused to collect the money from him. I was a reporter then. That politician came and distributed money. He spoke on few things which he said shouldn’t be published.
Though we didn’t have money, but we didn’t want to be involved in that kind of thing. But today, I think if you don’t pay, some newspaper houses or reporters will not publish your interview. We like to make friends with big men like journalists all over the world. But it is not on the basis of ‘money for hand back for ground’. That wasn’t the practice then. There has been several other cases before that. So, I’m saying that people can still do their job. I also know some journalists who swear to deal with some individuals with their pen.
You don’t do that kind of thing. I see journalism as a full-time profession. It is not a trade union. I used to be chapter official of the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ) in Jos. I remembered that Tony Momoh became the Minister of Information shortly after I became an official of NUJ. He tried his best by insisting that the NUJ was a professional body and not a trade union. If you are a professional, you must be guided by ethics. You hardly can bribe a doctor to do an operation.
So, why should you bribe a journalist to write a story? If journalists want to hold their heads high, if they know that they are in a professional job, political parties shouldn’t tell journalists what to put and what not to put in the newspaper, radio or television.
I remember what happened during the recent Ekiti State governorship election between former Governor Kayode Fayemi and the incumbent Governor ,Ayo Fayose.  There was a television outfit that was deeply involved in that election. But when Rauf Aregbesola won in Osun State, the station did not announce the results until the following day. Other media houses took the news of Aregbesiola’s victory…This same station also refused to immediately take the news on the collapse of the stand of the Transformation Ambassador of Nigeria (TAN) in Minna. What I’m saying is that television is an on-the-spot medium.
You don’t wait to go to bed like newspaper houses. The news is spontaneous. I think we should clean our houses. If you don’t have a clean journalism profession, change becomes difficult, governance becomes difficult. Once government officials continue to buy and pocket journalists, our troubles will continue unabated. Government people will continue to trample on our rights. The job for which we are trained to do will suffer. We are trained to mould the society.
We are opinion moulders. We must always look at the way our country will be better by alerting people of bad practices in the society. So, I want to believe that since I couldn’t do it as an individual, I know that if there is a change, this will be addressed. For instance, we have had the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in power for 15 years. They appear to enjoy what is happening. Journalists must put an end to this.    
When I chose to withdraw from active journalism, I came into politics and I thought it was going to be easy to further that zeal. It has not been easy. But I know that there are still upright people in journalism. Look at late Dimgba Igwe and a few of them, there are still people in journalism who are straight. I believe that more and more people will turn a new leaf.
 
How do you feel when you realize that journalists are not doing their work just because someone refuses to give brown envelope?
It is saddening. I’m not condemning journalists. You see once a journalist is always a journalist. I also still look at things from my journalistic experiences and life. Whenever I experience that kind of thing, I just laugh. I know that, if for instance, I couldn’t change it because I’m still within, but now that I’m outside, I try to think that if, for instance, there is a change of leadership in Nigeria, a new creed of accountability, anti-corruption, you will find out that whatever permeates the journalism profession can be addressed. But I don’t think it will work by mounting the podium or the pulpit to preach anti-brown envelope in journalism. I know that if government changes, officials of government change, the society will change because journalists are also members of the society.
 
Apart from working with News Agency of Nigeria and Nigerian Standard, which other media organization did you work with?
Well, I left News Agency of Nigeria as a correspondent in Bauchi. I worked in Jos and Bauchi. I also worked with Radio Nigeria. I was editor 1 in Radio Nigeria. All my life, I have been a reporter until I became a production Editor. Then, they used to have production editors in newspapers. I don’t know the situation now that everybody has his laptop. Every page passed through me when I was production editor in Nigerian Standard. After that, I set up my own advertising company called Business Communication Limited. From there, I was appointed commissioner. Then, my political career began.