It was very early in November 1978 when Chief Bayo Fadoju, my former HSC classmate at Ijebu Muslim College screamed at me on the corridor of Daily Times office at Kakawa Street Lagos: “Lucky Star, where have you been? Oga has been looking for you for days now. You must come with me to his office”. It was like a marching order. Chief Bayo Fadoju was a Director at “’John West’’; a Media Conglomerate owned by Alhaji Lateef Jakande a highly venerated journalist and first African to chair the reputable International Press Institute,[]IPI. He was also the Editor-In-Chief of the “African Newspapers Nigeria Limited” [ANN].
A man devoid of ceremonies and preambles, Alhaji went straight to business. “Tola, I want you to go to Ibadan and take over Tribune from Mr. Labanji Bolaji who has just resigned. I am sure you know I will be running for governor of Lagos state. You are in charge now.” He allowed me the luxury of seeing his lips open, a smile of some sort, which he sparingly gave. He did not even allow me to say a word. In March 1974 he had sent for me in the like manner offering the position of Executive Secretary of IPI [Africa]. I had just assumed office as Africa’s first newspaper Ombudsman in the Daily Times. I told my boss Alhaji Ismail Babatunde Jose, unarguably the father of modern Journalism in Africa, who just waved Jakande’s offer aside and instructed me to decline it. I sensed Jakande didn’t want a repeat of that.
He gave me a sheet of paper, ushered me to a room and asked me to write whatever I wanted: salary, housing allowance, car, etc. I handed the sheet over to him and he simply wrote approved and appended his signature.
It was when I arrived Ibadan that I found that the “African Newspapers of Nigeria Limited’’ was the parent body of the Nigerian Tribune which allowed the newspaper to run like a semi-autonomous body. I was introduced to a fairly elderly gentleman Mr. Oni who was named the Managing Director of ANN. Another person Mr. Bakre, who adorned his neck with a glittering gold chain was introduced as General Manager of ANN. I took a look at him and remembered he once came for interview for the position of Editor Daily Sketch where I was Deputy Chief Executive and Editorial Manager and came last while veteran journalist Dayo Duyile came first and got the job.
I phoned Oga Jakande and told him I found the office unsettling. “This is not what you told me sir” I was emphatic but respectful.
“I can assure you Mr. Oni will not interfere with your job or your staff. Bakre has nothing to do with Editorial matters or the entire Publications department. Oni and Bakre have responsibility for marketing, procurements and administration. You run your department, promotions, appointments and running cost for your staff, their claims and general welfare are all in your hand.” The man of few words wished me good luck and bade me goodbye.
I needed to give this background to situate the editorial independence which Nigerian Tribune titles enjoyed during my watch which I believe was the tradition even before I mounted the edifice. Nigerian Tribune was the company. It was the face, body and soul of the company and it enjoyed unfettered freedom from its owners.
From all available records, which could be corroborated by Chief Bayo Fadoju who also had supervisory role at ANN as Jakande’s representative and Mr. Banji Ogundele who was a fiery and incorruptible Sunday Tribune at the time, Tribune was selling 28000 copies per day in 1978 but by June of 1979, sales figures had exceeded 280,000! Many factors were responsible including the busy political atmosphere, but the most outstanding was the motivation given to the editorial staff at all levels from editors, Daily, Sunday, Iroyin Yoruba, and Sporting Record, to the lowest rung of the editorial ladder. Next to motivation was the rejuvenated firepower of dedicated well-honed columnists: we had uncompromising Banji Bolaji, mature Agboola Sanni, Alfred Ilenre, Bimbo Awofeso, ‘Ink in my Blood’, and external columnists like Wunmi Adegbonmire ‘Omo Ekun’, Lamidi Adesina, the iconic Tai Solarin . Justice Adewale Thompson and a few others. News and Features desks were equally of highest standards. Photo editors were ubiquitous and their products were of high quality. Tribune editorials were as engaging and awesome as they were when Alhaji Jakande led the pride and the legends like Ojewunmi bestrode fearless journalism world.
Mr. Peter Apesin, a long-serving and loyal Editor of the Tribune, displayed rare leadership and enjoyed maximum support from the entire editorial staff including the computer and graphic units. He was succeeded by Banji Ogundele who handed his own baton at the Sunday Tribune desk to Jide Pinheiro [who now adds Fadugba to his name]. Jide Pinheiro was a distinguished expert at newspaper layout and graphics. Simply talented in that realm.
I must emphasise that no one, not even the founders of the Tribune breathed down on the Editorial autonomy of the paper. We held daily editorial conferences and independently took decisions on what to publish or not publish. Even the governors who won elections on the platform of the Unity Party of Nigeria, Africa’s best organized and best disciplined political party founded and led by the owners of the Nigerian Tribune did not enjoy any immunity from the paper. When the Ogun State Governor Olabisi Onabanjo of the “Aye-Kooto” column fame was adjudged by our paper to have crossed the red line, he was fired by our punchy and irreverent editorial. Governor Onabanjo had harassed the opposition Party, the National Party of Nigeria, NPN, which incidentally was the ruling party at the centre, for supplying tanker loads of water to water-starved citizens of Ogun State. He even locked up some vendors!
There was something good which Shagari’s Federal Government did, I think it was a foreign policy initiative concerning Ghanaian refugees which we applauded President Shehu Shagari for to the discomfiture of the UPN party leadership. Not a word of condemnation or query from the owners of the Tribune on the two occasions or any other.
We did not have to go to Ikenne or Lagos home of Chief Obafemi Awolowo and if Papa Awo needed to see any of us, believe it or not, it was usually more of request than instruction. And on such rare occasions, Pa Awolowo would be waiting to receive whoever he invited rather than keep us waiting before he showed up. That was the degree of respect, independence, trust and motivation and appreciation the editors enjoyed in those days, which, I have the authority to say, was lacking in the other so-called ‘independent’ newspaper establishments. I shouldn’t mention publishers who regularly treated their staff to deafening slaps. I would have mentioned their names when I was younger.
The Tribune enjoyed proper funding from the owners of the company. Any request for material or monetary requirement which would facilitate adequate and smooth performance was promptly attended to. Cars were bought for those qualified and generous allowances were given to staff who went on outside engagements.
The company employed the services of in-house caterer which greatly helped in saving man-hour and made life easy for the entire staff and management of the company. With Baba Ijebu’s Corner shop cum Beer-joint across the road, Tribune was the place to be, the conviviality was indescribable.
And if and when any editorial staff was harassed or arrested by the unabashedly partisan law enforcement agents, one was assured of the Company’s immediate response and rescue. Nigerian Tribune newspapers greatly improved the fortunes of the African Newspapers of Nigeria Limited in the two years I was the head of the arm of the parent company. It was without exaggeration the most prosperous of its life at that point in time.
ANN was able to revive the life of its moribund “Africa Press Limited”, the commercial Printing Division of the parent company. It was able to build a giant complex at Oluyole Estate, Ibadan, and relocated the APL thereto.
ANN was also buoyant enough to be able to buy a huge Generator to power our Printing Press and efficient enough to power all the air-conditioner units purchased about the same period of the boom.
I must pay tribute to Messers Banji Ogundele, Jide Pinheiro, Bimbo Oyefeso and a few others whose names I cannot readily remember, who constituted the Night Guard for our premises which in those perilous days was under credible threat of arson from the thugs of the Opposition political parties. My team would keep watch till about 12 midnight while Ogundele’s team would take over and keep watch till 5 in the morning before they went back to their houses to come back about 9 a.m. It was a huge sacrifice by the Editorial Staff made voluntarily at our own initiative and for the love of the company we served.
The editorial staff benefitted greatly from the policy I initiated which gave them 15% of any advertisement sourced by any of them. It was a great morale booster coupled with prompt and full payment of their travel expenses and claims.
On a personal note, I recall, with nostalgia, my weekly eight columns in the Tribune titles as my humble contribution to the enhancement of the company. I had “Tola Adeniyi” column every Monday, “Aba Saheed” column every Friday and “Till Death Do Us Part” column six days a week; Monday-Saturday without fail. I doubt if Alhaji Jakande sent in more than one or two, if any, editorials throughout my solid two years at the helm of editorial and publications department. My colleagues would testify to it that I wrote virtually all the editorials with inputs from our fearless columnists.
I was declared wanted twice: the first time I had a credible threat to my life as news reached me that ‘they’ planned to burn down my apartment within the 8-unit apartments I lived in with my family. We had to hurriedly vacate our flat and stayed a night at the residence of Professor Kayode and Mrs. Tola Oyediran.
The second occasion was when I dared ask Military Administrator Paul Tafa what he wanted to be remembered for after his government covered the entire landscape of Ibadan mega-city with heavy loads of offensive refuse. He instructed Alhaji Umaru Shinkafi, the State Police Commissioner, in writing, to ‘capture Tola Adeniyi dead or alive, but preferably alive, and cut off one of his legs and pluck one eye off his eye sockets so that he would know what he would remember me with’.
Even after General Emmanuel Abisoye, the General Officer Commanding 2nd Mechanised Division of the Nigerian Army persuaded me to come out of my hiding at Justice Adewale Thompson’s residence and effected a truce, Shinkafi still got me locked up with hardened criminals at the Iyaganku Police Station after some merciless beating!
Nigerian Tribune has found its voice again and today it is no doubt the most authoritative, most engaging, most awesomely fearless newspaper in Nigeria, thanks to its world-class intellectual columnists and committed management leadership. It is without a doubt the most daring and unrelenting campaigner for Good and Accountable Governance in Nigeria, the steadfast mantra of its founding fathers.
- High Chief Tola Adeniyi was Head of the Editorial/publications department of Nigerian Tribune between November 1978 and December 2, 1980.
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