Tag: deadlines

SOMETIME in July 2006, Managing Director Victor Ifijeh called me into his office to unveil the masthead of The Nation. A big, bold font belonging to the Gothic family with white stripes. “What do you think editor?” Ifijeh asked. I looked at it and advised that we close the stripes with a Revised Line Block (RLB). The colour green immediately showed its beauty, caressing our eyes, almost leaping out of the computer. “This is good,” Ifijeh said quietly.
To be damn sure that we got it right, we called some members of the staff, including non-journalists. The choice was popular.
We then set a date for the birth of the baby. The plan was to have a simple layout that will be attractive to the serious reader and, at the same time, don the garb of the popular press. The paper should be error free, written in good, colourful language and easy to read. Racy. It should be strong in politics and business, appealing to the A and B classes.
July 31, 2006. The first edition broke the news of a new party, Accord. It was well received.
Many of our colleagues were sceptical about the success of the new paper, going by the high mortality rate in the industry. They were not excited to join us. I recall the managing director and I visiting a former editor and veteran whose column made waves in those days. We had a cheque ready for him, but he refused our plea to run a weekly column in the paper. His fear, we later found out, was that the readership might not be there.
By the time we set up a plant in Port Harcourt, the readership grew exponentially. The Abuja plant joined and we proclaimed ourselves “Nigeria’s widest circulating newspaper”. Ever since we have got them all – politicians, business giants, civil servants, labour leaders, students (God bless the late Ngozi Agbo, the Campus Life pioneer), the ordinary folks and many more – reading and writing.
One day at a meeting of editors, we drafted our colleagues to writing columns. Some liked it; others felt it was a burden that should not have been added to the grinding task of producing the paper. Today we cannot cope with the deluge of people seeking to write for the paper.
But, I have since accepted the age-long argument that tough as writing is, it is no match for the enormous task of production – attractive layout, arresting headlines, great photographs and good sub-editing as well as other features that make a newspaper a total package that must satisfy the need of its readers and advertisers as well as play its role as an instrument for social engineering.
The late Dele Giwa wrote about how simple writing is. He said all you need to do is just sit before the typewriter and bang the keyboard until blood begins to come out of your forehead. Producing a newspaper is more tedious, especially when you have a poor electricity supply, bad connection of computers, slow graphic designers and poor internet connections. All this despite a deadline that must be met.
Initially, we had no machine. We believed journalists should be able to do their job without poke nosing into printing. But we soon discovered that running a newspaper without a press would not work. We were printing at 24 Hours Press in Ogba, about 30 minutes away from our Mushin office. After going to bed, Ifijeh and I would leave the office around midnight and head for the press to ensure a good job by the printers.
As we watch the press roll one night, I convinced Ifijeh to double the supply for Ekiti State, a decision we never regretted as we became the leading newspaper in that state.
We would, after the paper must have been distributed, go to the Ikeja “Under bridge” to listen to vendors’ and agents’ comments. We would from there hit Maryland to interact with vendors. Maryland has always been home to a large army of vendors. We would seek their opinions about the paper. All that between 5am and 7am. We would later return to the office about 11am after catching a few hours sleep.
There were no street lamps then as we now have. Crime was common and people were wary of going out at such unholy hours as we did. It was all in the spirit of weaning a baby.
I recall shutting down production for over an hour one day. The newsroom was stuffy, with a strange odour offending our nostrils. It was like a barbecue site. We launched a search and discovered that a cable had been cut by a rat which got electrocuted. It got burnt and the heat was threatening the entire cable system.
Our computers were often hit by network problems that slowed down production as engineers battled one problem or the other almost every day.
Our biggest challenge has been how to keep errors out of the paper. Sometimes the computer tells you all is well only for it to misbehave, refusing to save the right material. Other times, human error prevails.
At such times when we were depressed, foremost Journalism teacher Prof Olatunji Dare would console us by saying: “Every time I see a newspaper on the stand, I know a miracle has occurred. Why? A thousand and one things could have gone wrong.”
There was a big test of our resilience in February 2008 when some of our colleagues jumped ship for The Nigerian Compass. Ifijeh was away in South Africa and I was left to reassure those who left and those planning to quit that better days were coming. Besides, I had to produce the paper with few hands for many days. Our key hands, such as Chief Sub and Assistant Editor, left after giving short notices. Besides, they took away some of our good graphic artists. It was really tough producing the paper.
“We will kill this place,” some of them were said to have been boasting openly. The Nation survived.
The Nation has endeared itself to the reader through its coverage of political events in a manner that answers all the questions he is likely to ask. It was at the forefront of the struggle to get former President Goodluck Jonathan installed as Acting President during the illness of the late former President, Alhaji Umaru Yar’Adua.
When former President Olusegun Obasanjo decided to run for a third term – a bid he has vehemently denied – this newspaper rose in opposition to the massive plot, which eventually failed.
Dr Jonathan would, perhaps, have continued in office after the last general election, but he did not make it partly because a section of the media remained alive to its duties. This newspaper reported the political battles accurately and without favour. The electorate, needless to say, rejected the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
The respect the newspaper won among politicians soon extended to the business community.
Besides, President Muhammadu Buhari’s anti- corruption crusade has been well reported in this newspaper, which has broken many stories. This is because this newspaper has won the confidence of many sources who know that they will never be betrayed.
The Nation runs two editorials daily – a feature that has made the Opinion and Editorial (OPED) pages a favourite of many readers. The Commentary section is formidable, with renowned writers and academics featuring everyday on the pages. Some of our writers have won prestigious awards.
The challenges of those early years have given way. Now it is a battle to conquer more territories and remain a champion in the business. We won the Nigeria Media Merit Award Newspaper of the Year Award in 2013 and the Diamond Award for Media Excellence (DAME) Newspaper of the Year in 2014.
The citation read by the organisers of DAME when the newspaper won the award says it all. It reads: “In emerging The Newspaper of the Year for the first time at DAME, The Nation put up an impressive fight, elbowing out The Punch in a close finish. The Nation won five DAMEs in Informed Commentary, Development Reporting, Health Reporting, Political Reporting, and Judicial Reporting. She also came second in six categories, namely Informed Commentary, Development Reporting, Child Friendly Reporting, Business Reporting, Editorial Writing, and Press Investigative Reporter of the year. Finally, she also recorded two third place positions in Press Investigative Reporter of the year award and Development Reporting. Established in 2006. The Nation has gradually emerged as a paper of record, parading some of the most enterprising reporters and columnists in the land. Guided by its Editor-in-Chief and Managing Director Victor Ifijeh and the Editor, Gbenga Omotoso, and Sam Omatseye, its chairman of the Editorial Board, and a host of other key officers, The Nation is truly one of Nigeria’s leading newspapers giants. Omotoso also emerged the Editor of the Year. Editorial Board Chairman Sam Omatseye won the Informed Commentary Prize. The newspapers reporters also won four other awards in Development Reporting, Judicial Reporting, Political Reporting and Health Reporting categories.”
Ten years in the life of a newspaper is a significant milestone not just for its length but more for its symbolism as a window showing a great future. Many that came after this paper have either succumbed to the vagaries of the economic situation or are struggling to stay afloat.
The ideals that The Nation cherishes and pursues – strong democracy, a good environment for business to thrive, social justice and others – are yet to be fully realised in our society. How apt its motto: “Truth in defence of freedom.”