Gboyega Alaka x-rays why some state-owned newspaper houses, are fast fading into irrelevance.
TIME was when the Nigerian media space was powered almost entirely by state-government owned newspapers. Those were the days of The Chronicle of Cross River State, The Tide in Rivers States, The Observer in Edo State (old Bendel), The Herald in Kwara State, Statesman in Imo State and The Horizon in Lagos, to mention a few. Even the almighty Daily Times was largely federal government-owned; and yet they all thrived in a competitive environment that brought out the best in them. Curiously, these papers, despite owing their very existence to their states, still managed to practice robust journalism, deferring only on rare occasions to their home governments and generally upholding the ethics of the profession.
The end justification of this of course was that they all earned public trust and inevitably got huge public patronage that cut across states and ethnic divisions. It was therefore not out of place to see a Yoruba man from Lagos buying The Observer, or an Igbo man preferring to go for The Herald or even The Chronicle. Those were the days when papers like The Tide rolled out up to 800,000 copies daily, distributing to more than 300 locations across the country, and getting little or no unsold returns. Sadly, that is not the case any more, as those now look like the days of yore. Recent findings show that a good number of these newspapers have totally shut down, while the few that are still in existence are merely surviving by whimpers.
The Tide for instance now publishes only a handful of copies thrice a week (Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays), circulating only in a couple of South-South states outside its Rivers State origin, and generating little or no revenue. This greatly contrasts with good old Tide, which made waves for over two decades after inception in 1971, publishing two editions daily at a time, and circulating far and wide across the country. Of course the present situation has also meant total dependence on the government of the day and a major downturn of fortune for a paper, which only as recently as 2004 transited to colour in an attempt to meet modern trends, under its then new General Manager, Augustine Nwikinaka. It will be recalled that the Nwikinaka management also increased the pagination from 24 to 32, and pledged a commitment to enhanced circulation for the paper, which at the time was experiencing dwindling fortunes. It also began publishing on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, giving it life from a near comatose situation.
The Chronicle, once a paper after many hearts across the country has also been reduced to a weekly publication, circulating only within its Cross Rivers State origin. According to current General Manager, Dominic Kidzu, who once worked with Kano State newspaper, The Triumph, the state-owned newspapers “started going down in the late 80s, when the private newspapers came into play. They began to replace the state-owned newspapers because they were reasonably impartial. Even the reading public thought that they did not have those associations that state newspapers had. You could publish any story in the private newspapers but not in The Chronicle.”
At the heights of its reign, The Chronicle boasted of top editorial staff that included former Cross River State governor, Clement Ebri, Ray Ekpu, Eddie Ekpo, and Pat Utomi, who was its Washington DC correspondent. The paper also had correspondents in New York and circulated in London, Washington DC and New York.
Dominic Kidzu also spoke of how finances gradually began to dwindle with the advent of the military, which was highly intolerant of criticism. The fortune of the paper reached an all-time low in 2004, when Governor Donald Duke, in an attempt to shift it financial burden off the government attempted to sell it off to private media practitioners. That move was resisted by Cross Riverians, who insisted that the Chronicle was some sort of state heritage and brand that could not just be traded off.
The story is the same with The Herald, published by the old Kwara State government since October 19, 1973, with a mandate to promoting the people and activities of the government of the state. The paper now survives by the whiskers, printing less than a thousand copies four times a week. Whereas The Herald in its hey days, was so popular and in high demand that vendors compelled buyers who wanted a copy to also buy another less popular paper. Our investigations revealed that gross under-funding by successive governments of the state, leading to a disenchanted and demoralized staff and readers’ apathy have all combined to pull down the once treasured paper. Reports also have it that the state-government’s monthly subvention at the moment can hardly pay 75 percent of the organisation’s staff salary, leading to a situation of scrappy survival.
According to Information and Communications Commissioner, Prince Tunji Moronfoye, who admitted that the paper is indeed confronted with myriads of surmountable challenges “the first thing that comes to the mind of anybody who takes a look at The Herald, is that the paper is owned by the state government. This is one of the reasons why the paper is having low patronage.”
While commending the paper for being one of the last few state-owned papers still standing, Moronfoye said most state-owned papers are going through difficult times because government due to its peculiar situation cannot successfully handle any venture that is profit-oriented, arguing that there is always going to be ‘conflict of interest’.
He also revealed that the government had anticipated this situation hence the paper now mainly “publishes the programmes and activities of the state government.” He however quipped that the paper is not entirely dedicated to singing the praises of the government of the day, insisting that “where there are issues, the paper picks them up” and talks about them.
As for The Lagos Horizon, formerly owned by Lagos State government, the question at the moment is whether the paper will ever come back, having gone under over a decade ago. The last that was heard of the paper was in early January (2014), when a group of its former staff came together to demand payment of their severance benefits, 11 years after the paper and its sister product, Eko Today went under. The group urged Governor Babatunde Fashola to pay their entitlements, revealing that they have been living from hand to mouth, while some of their colleagues have died along the line.
Another newspaper that took the nation by storm at its inception was the Imo State-owned Nigerian Statesman. Statesman was more or less the voice of the old Imo State in particular and the entire eastern Nigeria in general. It circulated across the country and was for long a top newspaper as far as Lagos and even the far north. Its correspondents also spread across the entire nation, giving it unilateral coverage and endearing it even to non easterners. Aside the daily papers, Statesman also had in its fold Saturday and Sunday editions, with a powerful section known as “Extra.” The paper also prided itself as the only state-owned newspaper that enjoyed easy and unlimited access to Dordan Barracks, the then sit of federal government in Lagos.
Statesman also boasted renowned journalists and media managers like Emma Agu former MD and editor-in-Chief of Champion Newspapers, Mrs. Comfort Obi, publisher of The Source magazine, Ibeh Njoku, Emeka Omeihe now of The Nation Newspaper, Joe Anyama, Steve Nwosu, Pip Iwuagwu, among others.
Problem however began shortly after the demise of the second republic, when the paper assumed the toga of vanguard of equity and crusaded repeatedly for the release of former vice-president, Alex Ekwueme, who was put in prison detention by the then ruling military junta, while his principal, President Shehu Shagari, was put under house arrest. It soon got the hammer from its then military governor, Brigadier Ike Nwachukwu, who sacked almost all the best hands in the paper for alleged seditious publications.
That, according to insiders, marked the beginning of the endless crisis that has rocked the paper till date.
Conflict of interests as a major factor
According to Tunde Rahman, former daily editor at ThisDay Newspapers and managing editor of The Western Post, who began his journalistic career at The Lagos Horizon, every newspaper, even if it owes its very existence to the government needs to be able to draw the line. “I think that most of the newspapers that have come and gone found it difficult to draw the line. A newspaper needs to run as a business concern, and once you begin to see yourself as having to go to the government every time you need to go to bed, then a lot of demands are going to be placed on you. And you in turn will not have the power to resist those demands.”
Rahman’s position was corroborated by Alex Ighodalor, a former staff of the Nigerian Observer, when he outrightly declared that successive military governments in the state ruined the newspaper company for their selfish reasons. He cited the case of Adamu Iyang, whom he said “came in and sacked all the competent hands in the organization”.
“It may interest you to know that all the competent hands that Iyang sacked then are now managing directors in various media houses and doing well as top government functioneries. Emma Niboro and Mrs. Adesokan Ero of Tell magazine are two names that easily come to mind in this regard.
As a corollary, Mr. Isibor, a retired staff of the company also lamented the incompetence fostered on the once thriving newspaper, on account of wrong management staff appointment, which he called “round pegs in square holes.”
The Nigerian Observer was first published on May 29, 1968 as a Bendel State-owned newspaper and published by the Bendel Newspaper Company Limited, under the then military governor, Sam Ogbemudia. It soon became a household name across the country, enjoying bumper sales across the nook and cranny of the country. The paper’s sad story, according to Isibor took a worse turn between 1999 and 2009, when it began publishing only twice a week, against the concept of daily, on which it was conceived. “At the moment, you can hardly see the paper on the news stands. Before I left, we were only printing five hundred copies, most of which were supplied as complementary.”
Isibor concluded that it is little wonder the organizations is not making any money.
Dominic Kidzu also disclosed that things took a bad turn for The Chronicle “when government wanted the newspapers to report all the news beneficial to it.” He revealed that as soon as that happened, the reading public became divided into two: those who liked the government and those who don’t. It therefore goes without saying that those who don’t like the government would automatically shun such newspaper, thereby creating a huge slice off the revenue accruing to it.
Conflict of interest also account largely for the collapse of Statesman, first for daring to attack the military over Ekweme’s detention, as that attracted the hammer from its military governor, who had to prove his allegiance to his superiors. Ike Nwachukwu sacked its generation of brilliant editorial staff and managers, literally laying bare a once vibrant newsroom. The second factor here of course would be successive civilian governments and politicians’ tendency to have the media house play out their scripts, even at the detriment of blatant truth.
Apathy to government-owned newspapers
Like the Kwara State Commissioner for Information and Communication Prince Moronfoye aptly put it, “People no longer appreciate government owning media outfits such as The Herald.” The Herald according to him was fashioned primarily for the service of Kwara and Kwarans, to inform them within and outside the state on what the state government is doing and as such is not competing with the Tribunes and the Gaurdians of this world. This to the modern day reading public however translate to doctored and teleguided information, for which they have little time. The commissioner’s flimsy defence that the paper is not gagged and that it nevertheless still reports and comments on issues “when they see that something is going wrong” might just have come as an after-thought.
The advent of privately-owned newspapers
Linked to the above was the advent of privately-owned media houses, such as The Punch, Vanguard, Concord, ThisDay and Champion newspapers, with their unbiased laissez faire approach to news coverage and reportage. The reading public in no time began switching allegiance and what was left of the old brigades’ readership was swept away. Their vibrant administrative set up and welfare package also meant massive brain-drain for the government papers, as media professionals moved en masse to the emerging media. The fact that journalists also operated under greater freedom also encourage the migration, which was like the final blow on the state-owned papers.
Poor funding
Of course the readers’ apathy and switch of allegiance has also meant dwindling fortune and poor revenue, leading to more reliance on the governments of the day for funding. Ultimately, this has meant additional burden to the government’s scarce resources, which needs to choose wisely on where to vote its fund. The Rochas Okorocha administration is said to have slashed Statesman’s subvention, seeing that it has only been gulping money without making any in return. Moronfoye also confessed that his state government (Kwara) has had to drastically cut down on its financial support for the paper. He however said that the state has managed to pay the minimum wage to its remaining staff, and even absorbed some into the state civil service.
Even veteran media manager and current Edo State commissioner for Information, Louis Odion is said to have repeatedly promised to improve standards at The Observer, with little to show for it – apparently due to lack of fund.
Obsolete Equipment
Sequel to the issue of funding has also been lack of modern publishing equipment, including tools as little as computers and the internet. This of course has led to poor quality papers that cannot compete with the frontline privately-owned papers. Even things as basic as office is said to be lacking for some state-owned media houses correspondents, who now operate from NUJ offices in their locations.
Additional reports by Bisi Olaniyi (Port Harcourt), Nicholas Kalu (Calabar), Adekunle Jimoh (Ilorin) and Kingsley Ndidi (Owerri).
