Deliberately, I skipped publication of the fifth part of this series. It will appear on my Facebook page (John Olufemi Kusa). It continues my responses to Mr Osadolor’s assumption that publication of this series in this column is an abuse on a health platform. The skip is to enable urgent address of other weighty assumptions, namely that:
1) Femi Kusa was an Editor of The Guardian who could not write an EDITORIAL OPINION and NEVER wrote one
2) FEMI KUSA was intellectually incompetent to be on THE GUARDIAN’S Editorial board, that he often attended editorial board meetings only to be at sea, correcting errors in current editions of the newspaper and would occasionally wake up to make contributions which were at variance with the flow of thought. When I read that, it reminded me of a former Nigerian president who was so hard of hearing that if you said “GOOD MORNING” to him, he could reply his second marriage took place in 1985. Such was the hilarious atmosphere Mr. Osadolor said Femi Kusa generated at editorial board meetings that many, if not all, of the editorial board members made a gossip stock of him.
Wherever Mr. Osadolor situates FEMI KUSA, he was always as an object of gossip. If Mr. Osadolor always was a constant factor in those gossips, he must be a gossip. We should have ideas of what gossips are like. If time and space permit, we should soon find him and someone else gossiping about FEMI KUSA at a hospital where Mr Alex Ibru was taken after he was shot and, before then, at the Sheraton Hotel, Abuja now (Abuja Continental) when the editors of The Guardian and Mr Alex Ibru lodged, preparatory to their meeting with Gen. Sanni Abacha.
GOSSIPS
My understanding of gossips is that they are dwarf human spirits who envy giant human spirits for inner treasures of the latter beyond their reach. Emanations from the superior persons scorch or wear them during any inward encounter. None of us can stand before a person of higher etheric vibration than ours and be indifferent to him or her. We are either attracted to that person through a longing for something more sublime than is in us, or we are repulsed if we are unable to appreciate sublimity. If we doubt existence of the aura or emanation, what shall we say of healing through the laying of hands, in which the healer passes animistic energy to another whose energy is down, like an active battery jump starting a flat battery? The Lord Jesus displayed this in the healing of the woman “with the issue of blood” when he asked… Who touched me, for I perceived power go out of me? Energy outflow brought Lazarus back from the dead, as it did Jairus’s daughter. Peter raised Tabitha as Paul did Eutychus. The transfiguration reveals emanations. Inwardly diminutive Kings shiver before inwardly mightier slaves. The Biblical Joseph was gossiped by his brothers because of his majesty and sold into slavery. Goliath succumbed before shepherd boy David, whose aura unnerved King Saul. The gossip, envious and hateful, can be destructive through slander, and may even murder the person he fears or unsettles him.
I will address the aforestated assumptions of Mr. Osadolor in the context of the start-up history of The Guardian, which he did not experience. Our forebears say: BI OMODE O BA BA ITAN, A BA AROBA; AROBA SI NI BABA ITAN. (Children predated by history can learn history from oral tradition; indeed, oral tradition is the father of history).
A START-UP ACCOUNT
Externally, The Guardian personified a beautiful kingdom in which harmony prevailed. In nature, beauty and harmony are inseparable. Within The start up Guardian were two kingdoms at war. Later, ethnic relationships are rivetted through the fabrics. I will discuss this in relation to the newsroom and the editorial board, the two kingdoms.
As stated earlier in the series, Mr Alex Ibru wished to set up a small-scale newspaper. He spoke with Mr. Segun Osoba, as he then was, who was at The Daily Times. Mr. Osoba invited Mr. Lade Bonuola to be Editor. Mr. Lade Bonuola invited Femi Kusa to be Assistant Editor. When Mr. Osoba had to manage the Sketch or The Herald, Mr. Ibru invited his senior at Ibadan Grammar School, Dr. Patrick Dele Cole, to replace Mr. Osoba. Dr. Cole had been brought to The Daily Times by Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo following his military government’s seizure of 60 percent of the newspaper’s shares to oust Alhaji Babatunde Jose from the chairmanship of the Board which he held concurrently with the office of Managing Director. Dr. Cole brought his friend, Dr. Stanley Macebuh, to The Daily Times. Dr. Macebuh tried to introduce American type of Editorial Board but the Editor, Prince Tony Momoh, resisted it. In the American system, a board, not the Editor, decided and wrote editorial opinions, whereas the Editor did in the British system operated in Nigeria. Once, Dr. Macebuh invited me to his office to ask why I edited his article. I was Deputy Production Editor. I had heard stories about what one may call “a struggle for power”. He reasoned with me. Even if he had done otherwise, I would not have changed my decision because I reported directly to the Editor.
We met again at The Guardian where he was Executive Editor, an American title which gave him control over a non- executive editor. The brief Mr. Bonuola gave me months before the start-up of The Guardian was for me to knock out a NewsRoom that would make the newspaper second to none in the country at its debut. This included a study of the weaknesses of news reports, news rooms, and cutting edge techniques for the upcoming newspaper. The Guardian’s newsroom was designed on a Beat System, against a News Editor’s Diary System in most newsrooms. We were to have no News Editor at start-up. I was to train greenhorn reporters who, within three months, would be full-fledged reporters. I was to develop a reportorial style second to none in the country that would make The Guardian rank among the best five well-written newspapers in the English speaking world. I was to double as News Editor and Assistant Editor and produce seven titles in one week after debut of the Sunday title to test waters. On top of these, only two persons were to re-write all the news reports of every edition. This was to uniformise the style and set a standard for our greenhorn reporters. Those two persons were Mr. Bonuola and Femi Kusa. Mr, Bonuola soon retired, called up by other exigencies. We often set tables as beds at night as we slept in the office. We had about three sub editors in place of 10 and only one newsroom typist, Mr Ganiyu Lawal. As many as 10 reporters may be sighted on a queue before me waiting for their copies to be re-written wholesale. Initially, we printed at the sketch in Ibadan and, later, at The Punch where we also sometimes slept. Some of the young men and women brought new briefs at nearby Oshodi market to change old ones. Local food canteens nearby cooked for us. Dr. Macebuh, never a reporter or a newsroom manager, once exclaimed that the dedication to duty was “beyond the normal call of duty”. He was veering towards the conception of DUTY AND LOYALTY in creation which demands CONVICTION in, AND LOVE for duty. DUTY and LOYALTY are inseparable where the worker is not a mercenary merely working for the pay.
Mr. Osadolor was not part of this experience, nor was Mr. Izeze. Loyal and dutiful reporters fluttered, swinging in joyful activities, their joy ascending in humble gratitude as a genuine song of praise to the Throne of the Almighty Creator for the privilege of being partakers in this event. Inwardly diminutive ones resorted to subterfuge and the rustic, gossip mill which became clumps of personel, like disturbing clumps of blood in blood circulation. They were not peculiar to The Guardian. They are everywhere. In the church, in the military, in the public service etc and in other countries. They remind the inwardly attentive person of THE LAW OF ATTRACTION OF HOMOGENOUS SPECIES which compels birds of a feather to flock together or invites us to mention our friends so we can be told what we are.
EDITORIAL BOARD
Dr. Macebuh assumed full control of the board. He was a fine writer. He brought in some of his friends from the United States. They included Dr. Onwucheka Jemie and Chiweizu. I was glad to meet with Chiweizu, whose book, THE WEST AND THE REST OF US, I read at Nsukka. My senior by two years at Ibadan boys High School in 1963, Dr. Yemi Ogunbiyi, was there. So was Prof. Femi Osofisan. Ditto Dr. Edwin Madunagu . Dr. Olatunji Dare came on sabbatical and stayed on. There were accomplished gentlemen such as Ordia Offeimum, Sully Abu and Sonala Olumense. Then, there were visiting academics from the universities. Mr. Ibru injected Oba Festus Adesanoye and politicians such as Alhaji Shehu Musa, John Oyegun, Aliyu Dasuki.
Dr. Macebuh conceived the editorial board as the think-tank of The Guardian, and saw reporters as less intelligent as its members. The board was conceived to supervise the line editors and editor! Hitherto, Mr. Bonuola had been designated Associate Editor to diminish his status as editor. An editorial board member controlled the Business Pages. They were the least competitive in the market with publications sometimes three weeks stale! The least paid person on the Editorial Board earned more than Femi Kusa, the Assistant Editor who did all the “monkey work” from Sunday to Saturday. One of my professional juniors employed by Dr. Macebuh and sent to work with me as a subordinate earned more than I did. Inauguration of the Financial Guardian and Lagos Life took some of us by surprise. Both titles had drooped wings at the outset. The Editor of Lagos Life, being a photographer and not a journalist, the paper developed reportorial problems. To salvage it, a cub reporter I was training was taken from the newsroom without notification of the Editor and made Assistant Editor. This made her become superior to her trainers!
What Mr. Osadolor may not have appreciated was that the Editor was not subordinate to the chairman of the Editorial Board after the exit of Dr. Macebuh, or to the Editorial page Editor. The Editor could reject an editorial opinion, could edit it and often edited it since, before the Law, he was the one actionable for the content.
Regarding whether Femi Kusa could write editorials, I have suggested he read editorials on Christmas, Easter etc and assessed the stamp on them. What point would I be making by writing editorials, anyway? That I should write because Andy Akporugo said I couldn’t and his ethnic minions were trumpeting him? I had been Secretary-General of the Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE). I was in Abuja to be honoured with the fellowship of the NGE as one of its two new Fellows (Nduka Obaigbena of THISDAY newspaper was the other), when The Guardian wrote an editorial opinion that the NGE Executive which made the awards was a wishy-washy one! Interestingly, the same committee gave Mr. Akporugo the NGE Fellowship the following year and it was not a wishy-washy committee.
Mr. Akporugo said I could not write. He was a visiting member of the Editorial Board in a self-created capacity as REPRESENTATIVE of the Ibru family. Ask Mr. Bonuola: both men rose to their feet one day in a shouting match, each asking the other who bore responsibility for the paper. Members of the board froze in embarrassment. That was Mr. Akporugo for you. Jobless, distracting, embarrassing, raising ethnic tensions and pardon my language SHAMELESSLY hungry for authority.
Long before the visit to the earth of Haley’s comet in the 1980s, I had become interested in COMETS. During my youth service in 1977, I learned about THE GREAT COMET, which was heading for the earth from the same origin as THE STAR OF BETHLEHEM. When I began to write about HALEY’S COMET, with intent to distinguish it and its effects from THE GREAT COMET, Mr. Akporugo spread word in the gossip mills that I was plagiarising, but did not say who or what. Nevertheless, his rustic followers followed him. Even when astro physicists from the University of Lagos visited us to applaud the publications, they would not relent. Even when my office staff showed them my manuscripts in 2A exercise books, they did not relent. What do you do but ignore their stupidity and obstrusiveness? Did Mr. Akporugo not hiss up when I began the reporting of NATURAL MEDICINE in a section of the paper to align The Guardian with a United Nations declaration endorsed by Nigeria that member nations upgrade their alternative medicine systems? Did he then not oppose my frequent feature of Jobelyn, a Nigerian star multi-purpose plant medicine formula, which is world renowned today?
In the section I skipped today for my Facebook page, I mentioned the possible anchorages of us humans in the ethereal spheres of existence where, as on the earth, there are villages, towns, cities, slums, luminous gardens and PRINCIPALITIES of which some christians are aware. These include but are not limited to regions of darkness and damnation, lands of shadows, lands of twilight, regions of light and Paradise. There, no one can rise beyond his level. When you can guess where anyone is anchored and that both of you are incongruent, there is no need to “drag” anything with such a person. If I worked everyday of the week about 11am to about 3am, sitting through no fewer than six meetings, including three to train greenhorn reporters to become full-fledged reporters in three months and editorial board members work three days a week and closed by 5pm daily, write an opinion article and perhaps one or two editorials in one week, why should I add to my burden by “struggling” with them to write editorial opinions just to prove a point? Wouldn’t that be stupid of me?
SHAKING LIKE A LEAF
Mr. Osadolor cited no fewer than three instances to suggest I am a simpleton, not man enough within and fade off in the face of adversity. Yet, he was the one who fled to Somolu immediately Abacha shut The Guardian. Mr. Akporugo fled to Mushin in the home of a reporter I would not name here. Maybe he was unaware that I provided Mr Ibru a “human shield” when he lay in coma in an ambulance outside the hospital and a particular car was roving around the area, perhaps on a reconnaissance operation. Mr. Osadolor said he and Mr. Izeze were in the hospital. Apparently, they heard of the shooting before I did but did not inform me or could not reach me. It was Mr. Debo Adesina who telephoned me. I do not remember if we went to the hospital together. Mr. Ibru’s body was pale and darkening. Mr. Adesina noticed that a car had been driven around several times, perhaps by a person on reconnaissance checks. I reasoned that, if he was an assassin, he would not strike with a crowd around. I saw Mrs. Maiden Ibru upstairs, briefly, and hurried back. Chief Segun Osoba, Mr. Edu and their friends were in the lobby downstairs. Later, Mr. Adesina and I left for the office.
I will mention this aspect of his story in the office after I address the incident at the Abuja Hotel in which Mr. Osadolor said I tried to hide my identity because I was afraid of Abacha and his men. First, maybe he forgot that it was Mr. Ibru, who suggested, after we had announced our arrival to Abacha, that it may be better for us to return to Lagos unannounced. I replied that it was “too late” that we were already in the lion’s den. He said that, in fright, I checked in as JOHN, instead of Femi Kusa, and he and Mr. Izeze exchanged glances and laughed. Mr. Osadolor probably does not realise he is always dragging Mr. Izeze into his gossip conversations. It reveals him as a person who cannot keep secrets, who does not wish to be caught acting alone. I checked in, really, not as FEMI KUSA because that is my work name and not official name. My official name is JOHN OLUFEMI KUSA. I was born and christened at baptism as BABATUNDE OLUFEMI KUSA, the middle one my baptismal name. In 1966 or 67 when I was baptised as an adult by Rev. Earl M. Fyne at Olivet Baptist High School chapel, Oyo, I adopted JOHN because that apostle’s gospel touched me. That is the name you will find in all my certificates, employment letters and other documents. Secondly, which five star hotel will accept a single name from a lodger? Truly, gossips cannot inherit Paradise, because they will destroy the peace, bliss, harmony and beauty there!
