Tag: Nduka Obaigbena

Coming almost a week after the publisher of ThisDay Newspaper, Nduka Obaigbena, celebrated his 60th birthday; it would not do justice to a man of Obaigbena’s nature to cast a simple headline to capture his essence. At any rate, most of those straightforward headlines had been used last week: ‘The Duke @ 60’, ‘Nduka Obaigbena is 60’, ‘The Duke clocks 60’, etc. The man turned 60 on July 14.

One thing that singles out Obaigbena is his penchant for the unorthodox. He came into the newspaper business at a difficult time in the country’s history, when the most vibrant independent newspapers – The Punch, National Concord and The Guardian – were proscribed. He was able to make his mark before the return of those papers; and it is his staying power that made the ThisDay to continue to be relevant even after the newspapers were de-proscribed.  Unarguably, Obaigbena experimented with razzmatazz, etc. in newspaper journalism in Nigeria in the most unusual manner, and with a high degree of success. His training as an artist contributed in no small measure to the newspaper’s success story.

I had about 17 months stint on the Editorial Board of ThisDay. I must confess I had a nice time in the organisation; the only snag being that I considered my salary then too low. It was only unfortunate that I had made up my mind to leave before my pay was doubled. But two or three things I cannot fail to mention about my experiences at ThisDay despite my short stay in the system. One was when I was named member of a three-man committee responsible for renting and furnishing of outstation offices for the newspaper. The other two members were Pastor Patrick Enilama and the newspaper’s accountant then, one Aminu. We were able to do the Port Harcourt office but I can’t remember what happened to the committee after I left the company in Year 2000. I still keep wondering what could have qualified me for such sensitive assignment in an organisation where I was barely four months old.

Trust Obaigbena, there is hardly anything he does without panache. Talking about Year 2000, I remember the newspaper made a lot of hype then with what the publisher called ‘millennium editors’. It was also at ThisDay that I leant how to use computer. It was nothing unusual then, as many editors of the newspaper had the same phobia for/disinterest in computers, and were satisfied sending their handwritten materials to computer operators for typesetting and planning. But Obaigbena made it compulsory for all of us to use computers, and almost all of us sooner than later got hooked on the computer. Today, I cannot write longhand again.  Apart from writing editorials for the paper, I also maintained a weekly column which was coming out (I think) on Mondays.

But of all these experiences, the one that fascinated me most was when I wrote about a top security chief that I learnt was the publisher’s close friend. Somehow, the publisher happened to have come around on that Sunday evening when I was putting finishing touches to the piece and he saw the headline. He then took a more curious interest in the write-up. I had erroneously lumped the security chief with some other persons with a different matter. What Obaigbena did was simply to put the record straight and the piece was still allowed to go. Some other publishers could have dropped it because of the friendship with the security chief. This editorial/content pluralism is another of the newspaper’s strength.

I acknowledge that Obaigbena, like the rest of us, has his shortcomings, especially with irregular payment of salaries. This notwithstanding, many of the journalists and others who worked at ThisDay would not forget in a hurry that they rode in some of the best cars and jeeps money can buy at a time not many publications thought journalists deserved some of these goodies hitherto believed to be exclusive preserves of bankers and other people in the corporate world.

I pray for the grace to make Obaigbena overcome the shortcomings. I have been told that wines taste better with age. All said, I join the numerous well-wishers of this ‘author’ of ‘newspapering unusual’ and unorthodox publisher, a happy 60th birthday.