The legacy I want to bequeath as NGE president – Funke Egbemode

You emerged victorious as the president of the Nigerian Guild of Editors during the last election. How did it happen? I think I am the luckiest president of the Guild because my people just love me. I didn’t have to struggle very hard. They refer to me as their girl. And anytime I send messages […]

You emerged victorious as the president of the Nigerian Guild of Editors during the last election. How did it happen?

I think I am the luckiest president of the Guild because my people just love me. I didn’t have to struggle very hard. They refer to me as their girl. And anytime I send messages to them, I refer to myself as girl-servant. They supported me tremendously. Maybe because I have been around for some time, they treat me as one of the boys and never as a girl. I sometimes forget that I am a girl amongst them.

The NGE is an elitist body. It is not open to everybody. Editors are powerful people, so being the first amongst them means that I have to be humble. I can’t do frivolous things. And I do not take them for granted. 

You commissioned the Editors’ House in Lagos while working on the one in Abuja. How do you feel about such feat? 

Actually, I didn’t achieve it. My predecessors did the heavy lifting, but I was part of it all because I have been a member of the executive for a while. I served during the tenures of the late Remi Oyo, Baba Aliyu Dantiye, Adefaye, Femi Adesina, Garbadeen Muhammad. I saw how they ran the place. They conceived the idea of the Guild getting a secretariat. It was our first building and it was really a historical day for us. I was part of the people that looked for the property and raised money for it. We went everywhere, had a launch and solicited support at different levels. Fortunately for me, I was the president when it was commissioned. 

What plans do you have for the Abuja edifice?

It will be such a massive structure that the Lagos House will be like a kitchen beside it. However, presently, there’s no fund to make it a reality. The price of the architect alone is enormous. The edifice will have so many things that are lacking in the Lagos house. I would love to do the heavy lifting for the Abuja house, even if another president later commissions it. I hope to lay the foundation and start the building. 

What are the lapses you have observed in Nigerian editors?

I am worried. The biggest lapse is that editors work tirelessly and ignore their health. They do not attend their children’s inter-house sports or take their wives out. Editors don’t make plans for tomorrow. They give everything to the job without any plan for themselves. By the time they resume as editors, they are healthy, but by the time they are leaving the job, they have glaucoma, diabetes, high blood pressure because they are neither eating right nor exercising. 

In the next one year, I will do a campaign to ensure that editors begin to live while they work. That will be a legacy for me.

In the last few months, what I have been able to do is to get more editors involved in the affairs of their organisations. On my own, I have reached out to political leaders and those who can support us so we can begin to make provisions for life after the chair. For me, it’s very important that we have a united front as editors.

We are working on templates to ensure that an editor can retire and be a Dangote distributor. We will reach out to Dangote to ensure that. We have reached out to some state governments already for farmlands, and they have assured us that when we are ready, they will provide arable lands for us. We have commitments on our farmlands already. We will zone it and call it Editors Farm Estate. Another plan is that we will create a cluster of editors who want to do business. Editors should take advantage of the opportunities they have. 

Are there plans to organise a regular training for editors/journalists on building alternative means of income? 

We will organise trainings according to people’s skills. For those who plan to go into the academia, we are talking to the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS). The National Open University has just offered us a slot, saying we should forward the names of all our members who want to be examiners and markers. I don’t want to mark, but I won’t mind being a Dangote distributor. I am already a farmer. 

What do you think we can do to check the activities of fake journalists? 

When something is good it will be counterfeited. It is only an unsuccessful product that will not have a fake. The media has become so attractive and easy to enter that everybody is rushing into it. They call themselves citizen journalists. But there is no citizen lawyer, banker or engineer. The fact that you know how to use your phone or camera does not mean that you are a journalist. We have to start taking pride in what we do and stop giving attention to those who are trying to distract us.

Does it worry you that some media owners do not pay salaries for several months? 

It worries me to no end because I can’t work for free. The industry is in a bad shape. What is the publisher/media owner supposed to do when he is not making money? How will he pay? But there are those who are making money, yet they are not paying. I don’t know what to say about them because they have posed a hard scenario, and we can only continue to appeal to them. It’s really sad. It’s not easy to pay your bills when you are not making money. 

Would you say that is why some editors abandon the ethics of the profession in pursuit of money? 

As the president of the NGE, I have not received any complaint like that. However, there was a complaint we received few weeks ago, and we are working on it. The others that were reported to us are not our members, they are journalists, and the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) will take it up. 

In other climes there is insurance for journalists, what is the possibility of such practice in Nigeria? 

I think all media houses need to provide a safety net for journalists. My plan is that in the first year of my tenure there should be safety nets for editors. Insurance is one of the safety nets. It is one of the means of getting the best out of a journalist because he or she knows he is protected. I even think more can be done. 

What advice do you have for female journalists?

Don’t get entangled with a man who is a dream killer. Marry a man who will support your career. 

As a female journalist I don’t believe that men are not fair to us as some people say. I believe we are only looking for protection for our own lapses. The only thing that limits a female journalist is nature, not the editor. If a man submits the interview of a local government chairman and a woman submits the interview of a Senate president, the editor will definitely choose that of the woman. 

A woman should not allow anybody to box her into a corner by saying you should limit yourself to writing about food. Men eat more, why are they not writing about food? They are the ones who notice the miniskirts, they should write fashion. If an editor tells you as a woman to write about food, write it in such a way that nobody else will be able to do the job perfectly like you. Go and bring him interviews and write good features. No editor can resist a good story. Nobody will ignore an interview with Governor Akinwunmi Ambode just because it came from a woman. If he ignores it, take that same interview to another media house and offer them for free. And they will know they have lost something. Your gifts will make room for you.