The life of legendary broadcaster and music critic Mr Benson Idonije (aka Ben J) revolves round the media and music. He is an encyclopaedia of contemporary Nigerian music reporting, dating back to the early 60s at the defunct The Morning Post where he was a music columnist. Idonije, who will turn 80 on June 13, is a jazz aficionado. He speaks with Assistant Editor (Arts) OZOLUA UHAKHEME on his passion for music, his relationship with the late Afrobeat legend Fela Anikulapo-Kuti’s band, how he persuaded the musician to open an account and an office in the 60s, and the state of broadcasting, among other issues.
You came into print journalism after retiring from the FRCN. How was the flow from broadcast to print?
In broadcasting my major area was music, although in the end I went into the mainstream and I retired as Chief Training Officer (programme production) because I went into training and diversified. But as a major, music has been my turf. I worked in gramophone library, which is the repository of not just music, but all broadcasting materials. I read and listened to all types of music. I listened to all types of programmes – I started from there. In those days, if artistes were coming to perform, you had to be there. You don’t expect organisers to give you tickets as you must pay your way. But these days, you are given complimentary tickets and if you are not given, you won’t be there. You have to be there and when you come out, you do your story, which will be objective. Nobody paid for your ticket, nobody gave you dinner and when you come out of the performance, you will be objective. But these days journalists are pampered. Over time, I developed interest in dance and highlife. I went around with musicians and at a point, I took up a saxophone, and I tried to mess around with it. I only did the theory of music. So, it has to do with interest and I tried to update myself too. I read magazines and listened to radio a lot.
And that paved the way into print journalism after retirement? Yes, it was easy for me to come into print journalism because I have the residual knowledge and the experience was there. I was writing from the participant/observer perspective. I took part in what I saw, so it made it very easy for me. For instance, in the 60s, Fela and I used to go to Ghana almost every weekend either to enjoy ourselves or to listen to Star Gazers Band and interact with them before returning to Lagos. All that experience is what I fall back on when I write. So, travelling from here and there to listen to disco bands has to do with interest. You know that I write on Jazz and African music because of my interest. I will not say that I am a fine writer but I know how to put my message across and people enjoy it.
If you had not specialised in Jazz and music reporting while in the broadcast industry, what would you have done?
Well, if I had not done that, I don’t know what I would have done. I was lucky to get into it because it was all through The Guardian newspapers. When I retired from broadcasting in 1992, the last eight years of my career was at the FRCN Training School at Sogunle, Lagos. My experience was that of coordinating programmes for broadcasters all over Nigeria and even West Africa – some came from Sierra Leone and Gambia. I organised training sessions for them. So, this was what I did for eight years. At the end of these sessions, I would write reports about every student who did practical and theory. It was based on these reports that they were promoted. At the end, a friend of mine said these reports are standard and that ‘when you write nobody can fault them.’ He said now that I have retired, I should write for a paper to publish. He pestered me till one day I went to The Guardian newspaper to see the Editor Mr. Emeka Izeze. I was at the reception when Jahman Anikulapo passed by and saw me. Before then, he had wanted to interview me but did not work out.Apparently, Jahman loves music seriously and he is a jazz devotee and he was very excited to see me. He took me straight to Emeka’s office and that was how I started writing for The Guardian. I was given a column to write and it was a challenge. So, I had to do it well as it was a new turf. They had high expectations of me and that was how it started.
How will you recall your interaction with music icons, such as the late Fela and the late Steve Rhodes?
Well, with Fela Anikulapo Kuti for instance, you know that I managed him from the beginning. Not just as a paid manager, but I organised the man. I did what even his parents could not do. I tried to organise him to be steadfast in his career. I tried to assist him form a band, assembled the musicians. All this was because he was a good musician and playing music that I loved. So, I had to promote him and his art. I promoted him in many ways, even with my column in the Morning Post. I had a column in the Morning Post as early as 1963. I had a column every Friday and I used that to promote Fela. So, my interface with him was that of love for his music. For Steve Rhodes he was a fine player. He was a good music director and an impresario. He was responsible for raising the standard of the NBC Dance Orchestra. Before independence, there was a radio band called NBC Dance Orchestra.
That was in-house?
Yes, in-house. But, the musicians were selected from all over Nigeria. Chris Ajilo was the leader of the band. Even some Ghanaians were there like Sam Plange. That was how my love for the music started- to learn to co-ordinate and direct a big band.
You were still in broadcasting then?
Yes, I was in broadcasting then. I joined broadcasting in 1957. I was listening to him while at Ibadan. I started from engineering and I loved what he was doing, so with Steve Rhodes too. I loved what he was doing and he kept it up till he died. Remember that in the later years, we were all together at the Great Highlife Party. He was always there to see what they were doing. He was interested in highlife and all types of music. So, for these two icons, the interface was one of love for their music and their art.
Even after Fela’s death, you still have intimate relationship with the family so much that you are always at their major events. What is the bond?
Fela was a rare musician. There can never be another Fela. Since he died, nobody has matched his musical competence. The fact is that we started as friends and what brought us together was Jazz and love for the same music. We interacted and we moved together and were like brothers. He was able to create for himself a sound identity that has become world beat. It’s unimaginable. In fact, what he has done is not even appreciated in this country. It is better appreciated abroad. His music was a new music – Afrobeat – it was the new music for the entire world. In the last Felabration, there were musicians from all over the world who played different types of Afrobeat and they owe it to Fela. So, my association with Fela is beyond manager-musician relationship. It was a love for what he did.
If Fela were to be alive, are there some things you would have told him to do right considering his weird image?
Musically, you can’t fault Fela. He was reaching out to higher levels of creativity all the time. But in his attitude and way of life, I mean… For instance, before he died, I wanted us to (when we started making money) open a bank account and rent an office. If he were still alive I’d like to talk to him about that. He didn’t believe in opening bank account. He believed in spending the money. He didn’t believe in renting an office where he could meet with clients. He believed in clients coming to his house and meeting with all the girls and everybody.
You mean he did not separate his work from his personal life?
Yes. If he were alive, I would continue to tell him about all this. But as far as his music was concerned, he was a great act. He would have gone beyond that. He said he was playing classical African music and equating classical music with African music. The way Beethoven and other classical are being respected was how he wanted African music to be treated.
Was Fela’s songs put in notes?
Whenever he wanted he scored his music before he played. Although they would not put scores in front of them before they played, but they had done a lot of rehearsals, they would have memorised it and would play it from their heads. But, basically he scored his music before going to the studio to record it. He scored every piece of his music.
How was the public acceptance of Fela from his first major hit Jeun Koku till his new generation songs on activism?
With Jeun Koku he knew he had gotten a lot of acceptance. He knew he had hit and he had gotten what he wanted. He knew he had gotten his breakthrough. All he had to do was pattern his work after Jeun koku for a long period, but after then he upgraded. He upgraded with Zombie and Yellow fever. He was no longer on the level of Jeun Koku and Black man’s cry as he went to the level of classical African music with Beasts of no nation in 1986.
Activism was part of it. But, he was using his music as a vehicle to pass across his message. His message was on top of his music. It is the message that people wanted to hear. But I am more particular about the music machine that propels the message. That machine that propelled the message was jazz, which is not easy to play. That’s why I have always advocated that to be able to play Afro beat you must be a jazz musician. You must have leanings towards jazz. So, that is the reason why a lot of bands cannot play Afro beat today.
Talking of Afrobeat musicians of today, do they have the craft like Fela?
They are just singers! Forget about those computerised music; let’s talk about live bands. They find it difficult to get there. The likes of Femi and Seun – well you know these are his children and they are close to him and are drawing inspiration from their father. But, beyond that no other musician can render Afrobeat songs. Unless they are able to play jazz and they know what jazz structures are, and not only that, they must have the talent. It’s not enough to be able to play Jazz; you must have the talent. Fela had the musical knowledge, ability and talent. That is why he was different.
Back to broadcasting. You were in the training wing before you exited. Now, looking back and comparing radio production and programming, how will you rate what is on air today?
Well, I will say that broadcasting has improved in the sense that broadcast materials are quite available. There is internet where one can draw information and more educated chaps who have ideas are going into broadcasting. What is lacking is the ethics of the profession. The professionals are not drawing enough from the materials that are available.
But there is a code of conduct?
Sure. There is a code of conduct!
And there is a supervisory body?
It’s the NBC
Is it forthcoming?
Well, I don’t want to …. (laughs). I leave that to you. I heard some of them have brilliant ideas. They speak good English but you find that the code of conduct is not adhered to by practitioners. They are not drawing from the information on the internet that we didn’t have. You can find almost all the information there. Their programmes are not deep and researched. Broadcasters go on air and unable to say much. Their philosophy –more music, less talk is okay. But, in as much as you don’t need to bore your listeners with talk, if your talk makes sense, your listener will enjoy you. If you are waffling that’s when the listeners will tune off. These days you find that all the programme production points are no more there. Like in those days, you would find feature programmes, documentaries, magazines on radio etc. Now, they are no more there. You won’t even find radio drama.
In terms of information and education, how strong is radio now?
Programmes like features, documentaries and magazines started disappearing long time ago. It all started from the proliferation of electronic media.That simply means radio is not strong in the two areas.
Was proliferation a wrong step in the right direction?
It was supposed to be a right step but a lot of them felt that they have to cater for their overhead. So, they feel they can operate the way they like. That is why the NBC cannot bring them to order. There are videos that should not be broadcast, they call them NTB videos – Not To be Broadcast videos. A lot of them still go on air. There are records that should not be played. There is the language of broadcasting. You talk to people the way you talk in everyday life. But all those have been forgotten. In those days, everything you hear from the radio was sacrosanct. You learn from it. These days, you can hardly say so.
If you are given the task of re-jigging the broadcast content and quality control, what will be your first step?
Well, my first shot will be training programme. I’ll teach broadcasting in all the formats from the talk, to the interview, the magazine, the documentary, the features and drama. I’ll teach all these formats because those are the things that happen in radio. Even in the television, we’ll get them know how to perform because through teaching, you are telling them what to do at every point.
How about regulations?
I’ll teach regulations and the ethics too. What is happening is that even the people that are at the helms of affairs are not doing enough. Those days you record one programme it could be music, or magazine. The programme team would sit down and listen and make pronouncement on it. If that happens every week or every month, things will change. Unfortunately, people are doing commercial broadcasting. Everything goes. All we need is to make money.
Is that a revenue challenge?
Sure. But you see, you can’t run away from the ethics of the profession. BBC taught us broadcasting and up till today it is still holding to those ethics that they started with.
What is your assessment of the media especially art and culture reporting?
In those days there used to be investigative journalism. But it got to a point where not much of this can be found in most media content. I think it is a general problem. It affects all the spheres of our endeavours. Money came in with the oil boom and it is still affecting us till today. You discover that people could influence you with money and get their stories published. And if you didn’t make money, you didn’t look well and you didn’t buy car, you are considered not a successful journalist.
So that’s where it started. It has caught on so much that it is difficult to reverse. I think that’s the genesis of this whole mess.
What is the way forward?
There is a way out. What you are doing in ‘Midweek Life Magazine’ in The Nation newspapers are serious minded art and culture stories. I read your stories religiously– they are issues based. I also read Akeem Lasisi, he is very serious. And Chuks Ohai too is doing well. I respect all of you. You see, if there can be more art writers like those mentioned above, I think they will set the pace. But, what I think we need to do is to hold seminars maybe once or twice a year and compare notes and discuss the essence of serious journalism. And what the Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism is doing is also helping matters. For instance, I thought it was a joke, four years ago, I received an award from them for serious journalism and a few others too came to receive. These are the things that can encourage these journalists. They know that if you get an award for something you stand out. Maybe he will be encouraged. But as I said, financial considerations have ruined everything. It has come between journalists and their career growth.
