The eager and cheerful readiness with which many Nigerians rolled out the drums in celebration of the 80th birthday of Prince Henry Olukayode Odukomaiya a few weeks ago could not have come as a surprise to many. The Prince of Print, as the professional colleagues of the former Managing Director of Champion Newspapers Limited prefer to call him, is reputed for his Midas touch as far as founding newspapers is concerned. Most memorably, he was the midwife that saw to the birth of successful newspapers like National Concord and Champion in the 1980s. Of course, it is no mean feat that a young man whose hope of education was hinged on government scholarship later left his birth place in Odogbolu, Ogun State. to study in Lagos, Ghana, Glasgow and other parts of the world. There was so much to talk about when our correspondent, PAUL UKPABIO, met him at his Lagos home. Excerpts:
What is it like to turn 80 in a precarious environment like ours?
It is a lot of grace that I am alive. People say life expectancy in Nigeria is between 40 and 52. I feel that if one lives to the age of 80, then one must be a favourite child of God. So, I needed to show gratitude to God with a celebration at St Vining Memorial Cathedral Church, GRA, Ikeja. There was also a reception at the Civic Centre on Victoria Island, Lagos. I felt great to see the people that came around, and to realise that God has shown me great favour.
With aging comes gradual loss of memory. Can you still recollect your early days?
Of course, I can. For instance, I remember that I was born in my mother’s home town, Odogbolu. My origin is in Ogun State, Ijebu to be precise. My father was a teacher, so I started school early at the age of four. When my father was transferred from Odogbolu to our home town, naturally I transferred school too. The disadvantage was that the new school had just up to Standard 4 and one needed to get to standard 6 to be able to get into secondary school. I thought of going to Ijebu Ode, but he said I should come to Lagos to live with his youngest brother at age 10.
In those days, there were about seven secondary schools in the whole of Lagos. I attended CMS Grammar School. Then, there was Kings’ College, Baptist Academy, Methodist Boys High School, Methodist Girls High School, Eko Boys High School and St. Gregory College. So, I still remember things about my childhood.
At school, my surname was Oduko. But it was difficult to place. They didn’t know which tribe I came from. I couldn’t explain too. So, at home, my father told me the full name is Odukomaiya; his dad’s name. The Odu there is a deity. Our people started out worshipping deities before the advent of Christianity in 1842. So, the name means deity emboldens me. It was from that time, that I started bearing Odukomaiya. With that, it was easier for people to know that I am Yoruba. Within a year or two, my father and his siblings changed to the full name.
How come you embraced education so early in life?
By the time I was through with secondary school, the Ministry of Education had introduced the higher school certificate, and only a few schools were approved to run it. It was expensive and my father, being a school teacher, could not afford to keep me in one of those schools. So, he arranged with his friend, Chief Oluwole Awokoya, who was at that time the foundation principal of Molusi College in Ijebu Igbo. It is also the first secondary school in that area. Though he had a degree in Chemistry, he was the one teaching us English and Latin. He was a phenomenal creature. My three subjects then were English B, Latin A and Literature A. At the end of the day, I passed well and went to go and teach in a school. I had a good result but my parents couldn’t afford university education.
However, I got a scholarship tenable at the University College in Legon, Ghana. There I did Classics. I dropped out because at the end of Part Three, I was home on holiday teaching when I saw an advertisement in the Daily Times asking for a Reader/Writer. I didn’t know what that was, but I knew I was a kind of a writer. At least, that much I had been told. So, I applied. What was required was a graduate or one experienced in journalism with a minimum of eight or 10 years. I didn’t belong to any of these categories. So, I was surprised when I was called for a series of tests.
Were you eventually employed?
At the second test, the number had reduced from 32 to 14. Out of the original 32, 14 were graduates. seven of them had been dropped. There were still seven graduates to contend with and about five practising journalists. It was just two of us that did not belong to these other categories. We did the second test and, lo and behold, I was called for a third test. By that time, we had been reduced to three. All the journalists had disappeared. It was now opened to two of the graduates and me.
The editor of The Daily Times then was a Commonwealth scholar at The Fleet Street Institute of Journalism by the name Gaby Idigo. He was an Ibo man. He might have liked me, but he couldn’t have liked me if I didn’t do well. That he chose me at all showed that it wasn’t nepotism. I was given a chance. The person who was being replaced was a man called Imokhuede. He was going to the Federal Ministry of Information as a Director. He put me through to what a Reader/Writer was all about for about four to six weeks before he left. Incidentally, he also didn’t finish his course at the University of Ibadan.
What role did Alhaji Babatunde Jose play in all this?
That wasn’t the turning point in my life as a journalist, because I had not undergone any training in the field then. There was no opportunity to acquire training in journalism except on the job. But something happened that changed my life at that time. The European Directors who owned the majority shares in The Daily Times decided to change the editorship of the paper. They brought in somebody who was the regional representative in the North. They brought in Alhaji Ismael Babatunde Jose. He replaced Garby Idigo as editor. He was a deeply religious man; a Muslim. Garby Idigo was a freethinker but a practising Christian. Idigo was sent to the East as regional representative, which was not a promotion. The appointment of an Editor took me unawares and I wasn’t sure whether I was going to remain there or not. I thought to myself that well if the new man does not like my face, I would have lost one year, but then I could always return to Ghana to continue schooling.
But lo and behold, he didn’t dislike me. He told me he had gone through my file and wondered why I left school without completing my studies. He asked what my ambition was. I told him to be a lawyer and become a lecturer. He insisted on knowing why I left school. I had to tell him that the salary of a Reader/Writer was more than that of my lecturers in Ghana and even in Nigeria. He told me that I must have been myopic; that I thought of the present and not the future. He was disappointed but he didn’t leave me to myself. He wrote to the Directors in London and asked them to find an institution for me, where I could study journalism. He must have been their favourite anyway.
The reply came. The only place where I could get to study Mass Communication was in America. But, of course, they were not thinking about America. So, Alhaji Jose asked me if he should go ahead and pursue a place for me in Glasgow Royal Polytechnic, which meant that the three years I had spent in the university would be equated to the year period for the National Diploma, and the third year would amount to the year of industrial attachment. But he reminded me that I was going to be learning something different. I told him that I was capable. I decided that London would be a lot of distraction. I chose Glasgow.
What happened when you returned?
I was appointed the Chief Sub Editor; a clear departure from Reader/Writer. Another person had been employed to replace me there. I was given core editorial assignments and core journalism duties. About a year later, there was an advertisement that newspaper houses should nominate their staff for a nine-month course in the training of journalism teachers. I was nominated by The Daily Times. At that time, Alhaji Jose had made up his mind to set up a journalism institute in The Daily Times for internal training. On return, I understudied an Australian who was in charge of training for six months. After that, he was sent back to England, and I was appointed the first Nigerian Editorial Training Manager. It was under me that the first graduate trainees were recruited. Areoye Oyebola and Oladipo Ajayi were among the first set.
Tell us about your journey to the top position at The Daily Times
In 1969, I was at a seminar in England when I got a call from Alhaji Jose, who had moved from the position of editor to a director. He told me I had to come back that weekend. I was afraid, thinking that I might have been reported for a bad conduct, but he told me not to be afraid. He told me that afternoon, a meeting of the board of directors took place and that I had been appointed the next editor of The Daily Times. I lost my voice, so he asked me, ‘Are you alright?’
The news was beyond my expectation. He told me that God would give me the courage and ability to weather through it. I thanked him. I had to return home despite the one and a half months that remained to complete the seminar. I was made to start work the next day: May 4, 1969.
What was it like to be an editor in those days?
I enjoyed my position as the editor. It might not be the most powerful position in the organisation, but the editor carried the glory of the newspaper, and most things were referred to him. I did it for three years. Editors in The Daily Times then did not last for too long. My immediate predecessor was Alhaji Alade Odunewu, who was there for two years. His own predecessor was Peter Enahoro, who was the youngest to be appointed an editor. He was in his 20s. I became editor at the age of 35.
What were the challenges you faced?
I was much younger than those I was heading, and much younger in the profession. It was my twelfth year in journalism. I did not have any doubt about what I had to do.
What happened after you became the editor?
I was later promoted the as Deputy Chief Executive of Daily Times, having nothing to do with anything editorial. I was in that position until the Army came and took over the organisation in 1975.
Did that affect you in any way?
It eventually did because of an outcome of internal discord in The Daily Times . After Gowon left, The Daily Times was taken over by the military government without any money being paid to the shareholders. The military thought that if the set of journalists there then could be at loggerheads with their bosses, then they could also be a thorn in their flesh. We, who formed the group that confronted the management, were the first set of casualties in 1976.
What did you do then?
I moved back to my house. I set up a press at home. I had goodwill. At Flour Mill, I was given haulage and distributorship.
You later met Chief MKO Abiola. How did that happen?
That was what I was doing until one day I got a call from Chief MKO Abiola of blessed memory. He told me that he wanted to set up a newspaper and that someone had given him my name. He wanted me to do a feasibility study. I didn’t know what a feasibility study was. He told me that it is a document that he as an entrepreneur would need to enable him set up a newspaper that would compete with the best in the land. I didn’t go to any business school, but I told him I would try. By the time I finished and presented it to him, he declared, ‘Egbon, this is an essay!’ He told me that within a week, he would convert it to a feasibility study.
He told someone to take me to a site around the domestic airport. It was a big place with warehouses. He later asked me if it would be appropriate to convert it into a newspaper company. I told him that some part of it would have to be converted to offices. He said he was aware of that. He converted my essay to what he needed, putting figures where appropriate for staffing, salaries, and so on. I went back to my former employers to get all that. He told me to go to England to get machines. I got the names of those that we were using at The Daily Times, but he wanted something better than those ones.
He, being the President for Africa and Middle East for ITT, had influences here and there. They had a depot in London, America and other places. By the time we got to London, he had someone to take us to newspaper equipment manufacturers. The ones that I wrote, from what I was given at The Daily Times, which was the only newspaper that I had known, were considered inferior. We bought them and arrived after two weeks. He said that we should start to recruit staff. That was the first time he offered me a job. He said if he was the President of Africa and Middle East for ITT, he didn’t have any doubt that I would manage the organisation well, being three years older than him. I thanked him for the appointment and opportunity. If he had asked me about salary, I would have under-priced myself.
How did Dr Doyin Abiola come into the picture?
A few months earlier, a newspaper abroad had just appointed a woman as an editor. Abiola asked me if we could experiment same thing in Nigeria. Then, Dr Doyin Aboaba had just returned from America with a Ph D, and was working with The Daily Times as Features Editor. Her first degree was in English. He asked me if she won’t be too arrogant. I told him that I would not feel intimidated, that I was heading towards that too before I derailed. We invited her to ITT office. There she was asked why she was not teaching. She replied that she wanted to practise what she studied. We asked further about what she was doing in The Daily Times . Her answer was encouraging and her name was penned down as editor.
There was another writer at The Daily Times by name Dele Giwa. We invited him over because Chief Abiola said he wanted to start two newspapers together, the Sunday and the daily. He made his jet available for us to travel around the country to interview those we needed. The first person we appointed after the two editors was Mike Awoyinka. He studied Mass Communication at the University of Lagos and he had Second Class Upper. We poached here and there.
Would you say that Concord newspaper a success?
Yes. At that time, it was better than The Daily Times.
Did you have a robust relationship with MKO Abiola all through?
I would not be saying the truth if I told you that. His senior wife proved to be an obstacle. She did not know the type of person I was. She clashed with me concerning money and her husband had foreseen all that. You know the bank has what it calls mandate. The first mandate was MKO himself signing alone, while the second was two directors. That is, the Managing Director and the Finance Controller who happened to be an engineer from the University of Lagos. Not too long after we started, the senior wife created an office for herself and called herself project director. Who was I to say no? They owned their money. She made sure that it was far from the editorial and very well furnished.
Was Dr Doyin Abiola married to Chief MKO Abiola then?
Could it be that she felt a relationship was brewing between Chief MKO Abiola and Dr Doyin Aboaba, the editor of the newspaper?
That is correct. Because one of the accusations by Simbiat was that I arranged a rival for her. That was not true because I only employed Doyin. Abiola was a rich man and also a Muslim. He was free to marry as many wives as he could afford to maintain. It had nothing to do with me. Where we clashed was the issue of money. She had it easy with a younger brother of Abiola who signed some questionable cheques before they got to my table.
I asked him, ‘How come you signed these?’ He had no answer. And they were about three or four cheques for millions. I asked who the suppliers were and he claimed not to know who they were, but that he saw the goods. I told him I wasn’t going to sign based on his testimony because nothing was supplied. So, the game plan collapsed.
They didn’t expect me to be so high handed, but I had been high handed from The Daily Times. She tried other methods to win me over, but I would not budge. I don’t want to say all other things because she and her husband are no longer alive. But this I mentioned even before she died. In any case, that Abiola’s younger brother is still alive.
At what point did you leave Concord?
I left Concord after she (Simbiat) brought a band of thugs to beat me up in my office. They were about 10 thugs, and they were saying to me in Yoruba, ‘Se owo e ni? Ti oo ba fe k’a gba owo, aa le e kuro nbe ni ((Is it your money? If you don’t want us to take money, we will remove you from there). She planned it when her husband was not at home. After I was beaten up, I resigned.
That same day, someone, probably Abiola’s younger brother or his driver, reported what happened to the editor. Chief Abiola called me and said he was going to return home, and I told him not to come back unless he had finished what he went to do there. He told me to come to England for treatment, but I declined.
Four or five days later, Abiola came back. I still was not going to the office. He came, prostrated and begged me. I was humbled by this. That put me in a fix because I had made up my mind not to go there again. At least I honoured him by going back to pack my things and resign properly after getting him to see my point of view. I was not going to cause a conflict between him and his wife, more so when his wife and her family were the ones who assisted him to rise to where he was. I took a powerful delegation led by my uncle who was a traditional ruler at that time. He gave my uncle a huge sum of money, and even though there wasn’t anything like that in the condition of service, he gave me two years pay.
Why did you have to work for another wealthy man, Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu?
(Laughs) Would you work for a poor man? Iwuanyanwu didn’t have as much money as Abiola, but he had enough money to float a newspaper. I had become addicted to journalism, so whatever else I was doing was only to pass the time. When the opportunity arose again, I took it. First of all, the person who brokered a meeting between Chief Iwuanyanwu and me was one of those whom I had employed at National Concord. He had become an editor there and was nominated for the job of Chief Press Secretary to Babangida. That was because Abiola and Babangida were friends. I had left.
He recommended me to Iwuanyanwu who sent for me and made me the Managing Director. I spent seven years there because the man completely trusted me and had confidence in what he called my transparent honesty.
Whose relationship did you enjoy most?
To tell the truth, it would be Chief Iwuanyanwu, even though we parted on a sad note.
What sad note?
That was because I stepped on his corn unwittingly. I did not know the source of his income or wealth. I knew he had a contracting company, and beholden unto the military. It was after the 1993 election which was won by Chief MKO Abiola. I had sent a northern minority reporter who was the political correspondent and a member of the Editorial Board of The Champion to Abuja. The city was in its early years then. He was sending stories to me, which I was publishing. There was one which landed us in trouble. The story was true. I have since learnt that it is not everything that is true that needs to be published (laughs).
What was the story about?
The story had to do with the European Commission and the American government that wanted to place an embargo on investment and all financial resources belonging to members of the Supreme Ruling Council of Nigeria, because they were the ones that advised Babangida to annul the election adjudged to be free and fair. When the story was published, by 2 pm, Chief Iwuanyanwu and two of his directors stormed into my office. He summoned the whole editorial department and laid me bare before everyone. He said that we exposed the story. He did not say that the story was not true, but that I should sack the reporter. I told him it was unethical for me to sack the reporter because I gave the approval for publication and I was the one to be sacked. I told him no reporter has right to put story on a paper. That I did.
Do you know who that reporter was? He is our today’s Minister of Information (Labaran Maku). He said if I chose not to obey, that would be another offence and he would still sack the reporter. I wrote the letter and then he sent me on suspension with full pay. But it was about eight months to the expiration of my contract. I went home. Three days later, I wrote a letter to him, telling him that I was surprised that despite the high regard and admiration I had for him as a fair-minded person, he did not give me the privilege of being heard even in private. It was a long letter.
Did he acknowledge the letter?
He called after four days. He said, ‘Henry, I got your letter.’ He said if he was a person of that nature, he would have torn the letter and would have denied himself the opportunity of reading it. That he read it the previous day and felt somewhat guilty. He said he was not totally fair to me. He said he would like to call me back after a month. I told him my terms of contract would expire soon. I told him he laid me bare in my full nakedness and if I went back, people would say that I had gone to him to beg. They would not know that he was the one that begged. It was when he heard the word begging that he stopped. He was shocked that I could use such a strong word. So he said okay, we are still very good friends.
Not long after I left. Labaran Maku later became a commissioner in his home state, Nassarawa. And after the end of the first term of Abdullahi Mohammed, the governor then chose to replace the Deputy Governor with Labaran Maku who became the new Deputy Governor of Nassarawa State.
How about your family?
My first wife was a journalist. We had four children. One thing led to another and we could not agree. I took her to court, had a divorce and then I remarried. I couldn’t think of myself remaining single for the rest of my life. At that time, I was about 51. My children were taken away by their mother. The court shockingly granted her custody. The first one, who was a medical student, was 22. The second one, who was a law student, was just a little under 21, and the third one, an Insurance student at the University of Lagos, was 19. If they had been wiser, the two older ones would have chosen to come back to me.
Any regrets?
My greatest regret is that I’m the only one of my mother’s 10 children alive. It is not good for someone to be alone. I grew up to know just two of my siblings, and they were both female. It was because of the death of my last sister that my dad advised me to get married. That was why I married early. Left to me, I would have loved to enjoy bachelorhood.
What would you say about your longevity?
Well, my grandfather lived over 100 years. My grandmother died at 95. My own father died at 82 while my mother died at a young age of 48.
Are there friends you still move around with?
Yes and no. My high school classmates used to have our monthly meetings. At a time we were 65. Now, for about one year or so, we have not been able to hold a meeting because we have dwindled to only eight and just four of us are in Lagos.
What is your lifestyle like?
I do not undergo rigorous exercise. But I do daily physiotherapy. That is because some seven years ago, I tripped at the premises of a bank. I did not even report to the bank management. It was when I got home that I realised how serious it was until it led to my being hospitalised at Igbobi. Somehow, I am better now. I thank God.
