The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Olatunji Dare

  • GEJ and the ‘vision’ thing

    GEJ and the ‘vision’ thing

    I don’t envy Dr Goodluck Jonathan’s propaganda brigade

    This past week, its operatives have been striving to outdo each other in a frenzied race to demonise and pulverise General Muhammadu Buhari, the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) who will be squaring off with their principal in the February 13 presidential election.

    In this season, that is probably the easiest of political assignments. Among politicians aspiring to higher office, Buhari is probably the softest of targets. And they are sparing no effort to paint him, with help from his record as military head of state nearly three decades back in the most repellent hues.

    The irony is that, while they are busy excoriating Buhari, their principal has been busy exhuming questions that had never lain far beneath the surface about his intellectual preparation and competence for the post he has held for six years

    Now, it is one thing to raise questions about the academic credentials of a career military officer-turned politician; it is quite another for the holder a doctorate and former academic to raise at every outing questions and doubts about his own intellectual competence.

    Yet, that is what Dr Jonathan does every time he speaks without a prepared text, even when his audience is a friendly church congregation. He delivers himself in a speech pattern of which non sequiturs, dubious analogies, mangled syntax, and thoughts arrested in mid-sentence are the distinguishing characteristics.

    “Jonathanism” is the provisional term that a researcher in linguistics in one of our universities has bestowed on that pattern of speech, in honour of our GEJ.   He tells me he is assembling an anthology of Jonathanisms, and would gratefully acknowledge examples of the phenomenon from readers.

    No fake entries, please. The entries must be based entirely on words that Dr Jonathan actually spoke, where and on what occasion he spoke them, and of course, the date.

    Entries should be sent to “Jonathanisms,” c/o P O Box 419, Abuja, or jonathanisms@yahoo.com

    Here is the latest example, of how Dr Jonathan has been undermining his own campaign in ways that his most outspoken critics will be hard put to match, in remarks made at the Dunamis International Church, in Abuja, on New Year Day, as reported in several national dailies:

    “President Goodluck Jonathan has identified lack of vision as one of the main reasons government policies have often failed and pledged a return to the good old days when things were done with clear-cut vision. . .”

    Nobody can blame you for holding it right there and slowly exclaiming:  Holy Molly!

    We cannot enter into Dr Jonathan’s mind to ascertain what he really meant.  Nor should we second-guess him. Going by his actual  words, an objective analyst would have to say that Dr Jonathan came across as yearning for a return of “the good old days” when planning was based on, as he phrased it, “clear-cut vision,”  unlike today, when government policies founder and fail for “lack of vision.”

    By way of clarification, Dr Jonathan added:

    “.. . If you look at what we have been doing as a nation, you really see that before this time when Nigeria used to have what we call 25-year rolling plan, we used to budget based on a 25-year clear plan for the country, so you know where you are going for 25 years then it was broken down to five years plan and now an annual budget.”

    “But after sometimes things collapsed and we run governments on emergency basis and you see government started wobbling and I can assure you that we are going back to those good old days when we had vision.”

    Nigeria never had a budget based on a 25-year plan, by the way. But there you have it.  In the good old days, there was vision. But now, in the Age of Transformation, there is no vision.

    This lack of vision explains so many things that define the Nigerian condition.

    It explains what happened to Vision 20/20, and what is likely to happen to Vision 2020/20,  despite the creative re-basing of the economy and all that.

    It explains why national budgets drawn up and presented with ritual fanfare every year fail miserably to achieve their targets. It explains why Benin Republic is cashing in big-time on duties on imports destined for Nigeria, at the expense of the Federal Government.  It explains why some inter-state highways look like tracks on the lunar surface.

    It explains why the power supply varies inversely as sum of the public funds pumped into power generation. It explains why eight months after some 250 school girls were spirited from their school hostels in Chibok into the infernal bowels of Sambisa forest, their traumatised parents and a jaded public are treated to nothing but threadbare assurances that the girls would soon be brought home.

    It explains why fuel has to be imported in a country that procures more than a million barrels of crude daily and has four oil refineries.  It explains the mess called SURE-P.  It explains why a president who grew up without shoes has made a fetish of acquiring executive jetliners.

    It explains why hundreds of millions of  Naira is allocated each year for procurement and maintenance of electric generator sets for the so-called Presidency and why, until there was a public outcry, that institution voted one billion Naira every year for food and refreshments.

    It explains why Nigeria abstained from delivering a crucial vote that would have aligned it with those countries seeking an end to Israeli annexation and occupation of Palestinian territories in defiance of United Nations resolutions going back to 1967, and other policies that have turned Gaza into what British Prime Minister David Cameron in one moment of lucidity called “the world’s largest open-air prison.”

    Lack of vision explains why Dr Jonathan – and his predecessors– would rather travel abroad for medical treatment than build and equip even one world-class medical facility in Nigeria.

    Given the lack of vision that has historically doomed Nigeria, what can be expected in the long run of Dr Olusegun Aganga’s Industrial Revolution that seeks in essence to re-invent the wheel, or Dr Akinwumi Adesina’s Agricultural Revolution founded on statistical flights of fancy?

    For that matter, what is the future Dr Jonathan’s Transformation Agenda that was conceived in this era of no vision? Given his new resolve to return to the good old days when there was vision, will he now jettison it?

    And here is a bit of presidential wisdom for all those institutions that provide training without giving any thought to creating jobs:

    “You are rather frustrating more people and increasing the number of criminals in the society,” Dr Jonathan admonished them. “I always say that if you train a young man as a fitter and he has no job to do, he will use that skill to break into banks, because you have trained him on how to handle iron and how to handle complicated locks.”

    There you have it again, a classic Jonathanism.

    Taking together, the lack of vision for which Dr Jonathan has entered a damning indictment on himself and his administration, the pattern of thought and speech that the researcher we encountered earlier has christened “Jonathanisms,” and his failure of leadership on some key issues of national existence, it is no injustice to say of Goodluck Ebele Azikiwe Jonathan that he cannot lead Nigeria to the Promised Land.

  • COMMENTS

    COMMENTS

    For Olatunji Dare

    Thank you so much Prof Dare for your explanation on the memoir and the magistrate. The judge should be heavily sanctioned or sent back to the Law school. This kind of ruling incites violent reaction; in fact it makes ’Boko Haram’. As for the editors at The Nation, please Prof organise seminars for them. Their negative reaction to anything about Obasanjo: good or bad, is very unbecoming. Freedom of speech is very important. How can a judge attempt to stop somebody from talking because he felt what he will say may be libellous? From Abimbola Rotimi, Ondo State.

    Good morning Sir, Re: Mainstreamers at work. There are two Nigerians as a student in the mid seventies most of my colleagues and I would have gone to war for any day, we thought. But I am happy and I believe most of my colleagues too are happy to have had the opportunity to see the flip side of these guys. God bless you. From Msb Mahmud, Lagos

    Why not the court allow Chief Obasanjo’s book circulate rather than ban it to expose the evil acts of our leaders, despite that Obasanjo himself is not saint over the allegation levelled against our leaders for their conducts? If we continue hiding things without exposing evil acts, Nigeria will not move forward. From Gordon Chika Nnorom

    Sir, Ebino Topsy is confused where he is and ashamed to return home. He has destroyed all he stood for as a youth. Imagine Ebino campaigning for Obasanjo, and what of Omisore. Haa! Wonders shall never end. Anonymous

    When some people say IBB is an evil genius, I always disagree with them. Rather Obasanjo is in the best position to be called that name. Obasanjo was part of those who introduced zoning system into the country but turned around and said there was no zoning in 2011.  Inconsistency is the most  powerful attribute of Obasanjo during and after his tenure. He should check his record first before descending on others because he who points a finger at someone, the remaining four are pointing at him or her.   From Hamza Ozi Momoh Apapa Lagos.

    Re-The memoir and the magistrate.  Justice Ashi is one of them, doing judgment the manner he feels rather than considering what the entire  laws say- criminal, civil, administrative, constitutional etc. Although former president Obasanjo should have respected the law and go back to court(s) to challenge the wrong  judgement of Justice Ashi rather than also breaking the law by going ahead to launch his book ‘MY WATCH’. This is why it may take Nigeria a long time to grow. Were it to be the poor that breached the law, your guess is as good as mine. Both of them acted ultra-vires. From Lanre Oseni.

    Uncle Ebino deserves whatsoever name you call him. Must he join PDP? Please, tell Sam Omatseye to do more of Ebino political disaster in subsequent write up. No apology to him. From Isaac.

    Prof. You rightly condemned Buruji and Justice Ashi for the petitioning and granting of the petition against the publication of the Obasanjo book without first going through it. But then you also seem to have fallen into the same ditch by writing on the book when you have neither set your eyes on it nor read the content there from. Or don’t you think that what influenced your writing on the book without first reading it could equally be the same that motivated them to want to stop the publication without first going through the book? Of course the petitioner, I think, wouldn’t have resorted to the court action had he given a second thought to it. It isn’t only ridiculous for him to opt for a legal action against the publication of a book he hasn’t read, he was also by the court action inadvertently attracting wider attention to the said libelous- content in the book, contrary to his reason for wanting to stop the publication in the first place – From Emmanuel Egwu. 

     

    For Gbenga Omotoso

    Your article is quite splendid and germane to the socio-political events in the country. You’ve done more than Santa Claus by doling out Christmas gifts to everyone that leads our political and economic terrain. Your article is steep in humour, laden with parodoxical tropes, spiced with oral acrobatics. You are indeed the editor of the year, the Achebe of journalism. Anonymous

    Mr Omotosho I just read your Christmas day piece. You were a little bit biased in the Santa gifts galore. Are you saying the Labaran Maku; Dr Peter Ayodele Fayose; Chief Nyesom Wike; Mr Femi Fani-Kayode and other  enfant terrible are undeserving of your largesse? Haba! Try and make the list more exclusive in the spirit of the season. My own gift for you is a lorry load of ink for your  ever sharp pen. From Olusegun Owoeye. Kogi State.

    You did not mention Dieziani in your article. Why? Does she not deserve a space here? Thanks and Merry Christmas.By now Nigerians studying the Jonathan-led PDP administration have come to sure conclusion that a leopard cannot change its spots.  let us take their money and still vote them out this time around. Wankar Daniel

    Reacting to your piece, When Santa comes to town, as witty as it sounded, our leaders should be ashamed of their performances in the out-going year. Though, we know shame doesn’t appear in their dictionaries. Hope we can gift them the humble pie at the polls in 2015. From Adesina Kunle, Abeokuta

    For sure your gift to Emperor Okupe was the best. But will he read and study those quotations? You have done your very best. Compliment of the season. Anonymous

    I always enjoy your style in the editorial notebook. Please keep it up. From N. O. Olawore

    ‘When Santa comes to town’ is a master piece and a good parting shot for them. Ph.ds with tunnel vision. You left out Rueben Abati. How come? From F Onagoruwa.

    Thanks for your piece; Santa comes to Town, in The Nation today. But what yuletide gift do you have for our own Reuben  Abati? He seems missing  in action these days. It would have been interesting to hear from him in these seasons of change versus transformation agenda. From Wole Alawode, Ijagbo, Kwara State.

    My dear Omotoso, thanks  for those generous gifts. But alas! You’ve left out the almighty-Petroleum Queen? She deserves Santa Claus gift too. Anonymous

    Mr. Gbenga, your gift to Mama Ngozi, for her misdirection of the Nigerian economy, is most fitting. You are a fine literary pugilist. From Sam.

  • The principled satirist

    The principled satirist

    Ace journalism teacher, writer Olatunji Dare turns 70

    Unlike some of my colleagues who were taught formally by Prof. Olatunji Dare, I was not. But I had the privilege of benefitting from his wealth of knowledge somewhat fortuitously. The important thing though is that I (as his ‘unknown distant learning student’), and those who were taught by him in the classroom, have benefitted immensely from whatever we have learnt from him. And, as I used to tell another colleague, it is immaterial whether one is selling apples or oranges; what is important is that the two sellers are smiling to the bank! So, it is immaterial whether I was taught formally by Prof. Dare or whether I did it as an ‘unknown distant learning student’. I keep referring to myself as an ‘unknown distant learning student’ of Prof Dare because, unlike Jesus Christ who knew when the woman with the issue of blood touched the hem of his garment, Prof Dare did not know to what purpose I had put a beautiful piece he wrote in The Guardian condemning Decree 4 of 1984 promulgated by the draconian Buhari/Idiagbon regime.

    It was at an interview I attended when looking for job after my National Youth Service in 1985. About 44 of us were invited for the interview at The Punch, to fill four vacant slots. It was a marathon interview which lasted from about 10.a.m. till about past five in the evening. The written test was in two parts: newspaper production, and an essay/feature article. Right from my university days, I had always avoided the production aspect of print journalism, so I knew I must have had an average performance if that had been the only area of journalism that we were tested on. Of course an average performance could not have been of much use in a situation where about 44 graduates from various universities were contesting to fill four vacant positions. Obviously then, my saving grace was the essay I wrote on Decree 4.

    A few days to the interview, I had been trying my hands on everything I imagined could be asked at the occasion. Then it occurred to me that I needed to read up something on Decree 4 and Dr. Dare’s piece came handy. I digested it. It was divine direction as it ended up being part of what we were examined on during the interview. By the time I was through with the question, I was cocksure that if ‘performance infrastructure’ was the only criterion for selection, I had already made it.

    But in Nigeria, we all know this is not always so. You can imagine my fears and the fears of many of us who did not know anybody of substance at the company then, when we saw some of our colleagues entering the offices of the ‘big people’ there, some emerging with bottles of water, others with soft drinks. We almost concluded that the interview was a facade and that they already knew the people they were going to take. Anyway, we later found out that we were wrong by the time the result started coming out, same day. People were weeded out in batches of 10 and somehow, some of those we had thought were ‘well connected’ could not make it to the third round. Our hearts skipped a beat whenever the person announcing the result came into the office where we were awaiting our result. That was the way it went until about 14 of us were left. This was the most dreaded stage of the interview. Eventually, by the time they came to weed out the last batch, only four of us were left and I cannot remember if any of us knew anybody at the company then. Somehow, all of us were from the Department of Mass Communication, University of Lagos.

    Perhaps a major lesson for jobseekers here is that they need not lose hope simply on account of what they see around them during interviews. For me however, Prof Dare’s piece on Decree Four gave me the edge that I needed in that interview as I gave it back to the examiners almost in the elegant manner it was presented by Dr Dare. I itemised the points just as he did, i.e. that the decree was draconian; it was discriminatory (obviously for the private media as no government medium could dare to run afoul of it, etc.), and argued the points very well, thus giving me that needed added advantage.

    My close friends knew how happy I was because securing employment at The Punch then was an ambition realised. Up till the time I did my youth service, I had craved working only with The Punch and Newswatch magazine; I mean the original Newswatch of the Dele Giwa fame.  That should be expected, given the fire of the fresh-from-school radicalism that was burning in me. It was the paper’s radical approach to issues that kept me in the company for about 12 years, despite the fact that one had all it takes to seek greener pastures elsewhere. Don’t forget, that was a time the company could not pay salaries regularly.

    My patience paid off. And that was why I celebrated Chief Ajibola Ogunshola, the former chairman of Punch Nigeria Ltd. last week, and I am doing same for Prof Dare today. If we cannot celebrate such people who have contributed immensely to human and economic development, then we should have no business celebrating politicians who only compound our economic adversity. On a personal note, I can only imagine what would have been my lot if I did not rise to the position of editor of  the paper’s daily before leaving the company in 1997. Given my post-Punch experience, one might have ended up as a footnote in the long list of veteran journalists, in a profession that one governor described as having ‘no second-hand value’.

    Anyway, back to Prof Dare. I guess I must have met him for the first time at a function organised by the Lagos State Council  of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), sometime in the ‘90s. I can’t remember the details of what the programme was all about, but it was from Dr Dare at the event that I first heard the expression, the “social cost of  SAP’,  (Structural Adjustment Programme)  introduced by the Babangida regime. Dare was then Chairman, Editorial Board of The Guardian. I do not know what exactly happened, but I remember that he left the venue in the car of a comrade friend.

    Apart from being a journalism teacher, and a good one at that, Prof Dare is more renowned as a satirist. I have tried my hands on satire a couple of times and have always felt so happy when people like him commend my efforts. However, like the hunchback who does not know the enormity of what people who stand straight do until he tries to do same, it is not easy to be satirical, especially in this country. It is also a thankless job because many people don’t understand it. Some people sometimes rain curses on me. But such people give me both sadness and joy at the same time. Joy because they feel so strongly about what you also feel strongly about but which you have expressed differently; and sadness because their misplaced aggression is a reflection of the state of education in the country.

    Born on July 17, 1944, Prof Dare, a first class material of the Department of Mass Communication, University of Lagos, is extremely principled. It was on this matter of principle that he left The Guardian when the management decided to go and beg Gen Sani Abacha to reopen the newspaper following its proscription by the Abacha junta, alongside some other strong newspapers in the ‘90s. THe same demand, I remember quite vividly, was made of us at The Punch then and we also refused to go and beg. As far as we were concerned  then, it should have been the other way round. Rather than join the ‘we are sorry train’, Dare simply turned in his letter of resignation. Apparently, principle flows in their veins in the family.

    Prof Dare’s nephew, Colonel Abayomi Dare (rtd), who was my classmate and good friend at Crowther Memorial College, Lokoja, where we did our school certificate examination had been known as a principled young man since those days. It was on that same pedestal that he took the Nigerian Army to court after his premature exit from the army a few years ago. He eventually won the case. Yomi and I met again for the first time in a long time at Prof Dare’s birthday lecture where he told some of my colleagues that both of us “used to do some funny things together” in those days. But for our long-standing friendship, I would have sued him because in our kind of society where we have too many people with dirty minds, they could interpret those ‘funny things’ to mean something else, which may make me lose self-esteem in the eyes of right-thinking members of the society!

    Be that as it may, the fact that Prof Dare is never led by ‘toys’ (material attractions) has greatly helped his cause concerning principle. His other armour in this regard is his abiding covenant with simplicity.  These are twin commandments for people who want to stand for something.

    It is only a man like Prof Dare that could have attracted the kind of quality crowd that graced the public lecture and presentation of a book to mark his 70th birthday at the Muson Centre, Onikan, Lagos, on July 17. Prof Kwame Karikari of the University of Ghana, Legon, was the guest speaker. With General Theophilus Danjuma as chairman, other dignitaries included Governor Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti State; four other governors – Edo, Lagos, Ogun and Osun were well represented. It was an occasion attended by many media executives, students and people from all strata of the society.

    Life begins at 70! Happy birthday, sir!

  • The man Dare

    The man Dare

    Dr Olatunji Dare, one of Nigeria’s famous newspapermen, will be 70 tomorrow. Who is he? What do people say about him? RAYMOND MORDI, JOSEPH JIBUEZE, ADEBISI ONANUGA, PRECIOUS IGBONWELUNDU, EVELYN OSAGIE and OLATUNDE ODEBIYI spoke to those who know him.

    Olatunji Dare, a professor, studied Mass Communi-cation at the University of Lagos, graduating with a First Class Honours. He earned a Master’s degree in journalism from Columbia University in New York, where he was prizeman in Editorial Writing. He obtained a doctorate in Communication Research from Indiana University, Bloomington, with specialisations in international communication and public policy analysis.

    Dare taught at the University of Lagos from 1984 till 1988, when he was appointed a columnist and editorial page editor at The Guardian, where his award-winning and wide-ranging weekly column, in turn satirical and serious, attracted a wide, appreciative national audience. Two years later, he became the chairman of the Editorial Board.

    As a correspondent for The Guardian, Dare filed stories from more than a dozen countries on three continents, interviewed several statesmen of global stature, including reporting from the White House.

    He has served as an editorial writer for The Seattle Times on a fellowship from the American Society of Newspaper Editors. He has also served as a consultant to the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Department for International Development of the U.K. Foreign Office.

    Dare’s weekly column in The Nation enjoys a wide and appreciative readership. His awards includes The Robert A. Curry Prize in Editorial Writing from Columbia University, The Nieman Foundation’s Louis M. Lyons Prize for Conscience and Integrity in Journalism, and the Faculty Achievement Award in Teaching Excellence from the Slane College of Communications and Fine Arts at Bradley University, which he joined in 1997.

     

    What people say about him

     

    Kunle Ajibade,

    Executive Editor/Director

    The NEWS

    “Arthur Miller, one of the great American writers, once said that ‘we must re-imagine liberty in every generation especially since a certain number of people are always afraid of it’. In all-embracing term, Olatunji Dare’s journalism is a fervent defence of liberty of creative and growth-inducing thinking. In jest and in earnest, he insists on the moral function of journalism, the power of journalism to create change.

    “With his lofty thoughts couched in pure language, Dare constantly provides insights as he mirrors and focuses his eyes like camera lenses on our country’s severe conflicts and crises. When he rails against our vulgar tastes and values in his mordant satires, he shows that he cares enormously for our wellbeing, and wants us to take ourselves and our country seriously. Dare is a man of incredibly broad knowledge yet he doesn’t dazzle or overwhelm us with his deep knowledge and wisdom—they only shine through his writings effortlessly.

    “For me the significance of Olatunji Dare lies not just in the power of his observation but, more importantly, in the nobility of his vision as a selfless patriot and humanist. If many of his well-flavoured essays have stayed in my mind very stubbornly since I read them, it is because each time I re-read them, I find in the beauty of his words, in the beauty of his phrases, in the ravishing beauty of many of his sentences, the beauty that we all should create to make humankind a lot better.”

     

    Lai Oso

    Dean, School of Communications, Lagos State University

    “He was my lecturer in UNILAG. He taught me news reporting and feature writing. One incident that I would always remember was when I was to do a story on one of the centres in UNILAG, Centre for Cultural Studies and he made me to write the article about five or six times before he was satisfied.

    “He is a perfectionist; he wants you to bring out the best in your writing and he demonstrates that in his column. I also think that his writings show a lot of maturity and a good user of the English Language. He has a very good style, very readable, very straight forward.

    “He is a great patriot and a democrat who is highly committed to the principles of democracy even as a lecturer. He gives his students opportunities to say their minds, they discuss issues and so on. So, he is a great democrat; he believes in it and practises it. He doesn’t impose his will on the students. He allows free discussion in his class and some of us really benefited from that.”

     

    Prince Adebayo Onanuga

    MD/Editor-in-Chief, Independent Network Communications

    “I have known Prof. Olatunji Dare since the late 70s. He was my teacher and a very good teacher at that. When we were in the University of Lagos (UNILAG), in the Mass Communications Department, he was our teacher on newspaper writing and we did enjoy him. We enjoyed him more when he was writing articles in the Daily Times and at that time, he was writing satire. We knew him much as satiric writer and he carried that to the Guardian.

    “What I noticed is that in recent time, the man has stopped writing satire. He used to mock our military leaders but now he writes straight talking. May be he is saying that the time for mockery is over. As a human being, to me, he is a very easy going man, an extremely humble man, a very brillant man and all these days I have known him, I have never seen him get angry one day, very respectful man and even respects people who are much younger than him. On the whole, I would say Prof Dare is a very nice man and a very good writer.”

     

    Yusuph Olaniyonu

    Ogun State Commissioner

    for Information

    “Prof. Tunji Dare is a journalism teacher per excellence. He is also one of the rare ones who made it as a journalist but also one who not only belongs to the rank of the celebrated journalism teacher but also as a journalist and a rare practitioner. He teaches it, he practises it and everybody can acknowledge the fact that he is a master in the profession.

    “Prof Dare is also somebody who is a mentor to many of us who are into journalism. You read his piece and you hope that you can write like that,  you see the depth in his writing and you see that it depicts the fact that he is a man who has read so widely. When he corrects a columnist, he does it in such a way that you don’t feel offended; you don’t feel that you are little.

    “Those who went through him at UNILAG and those who went through him just by reading his writing, either in The Guardian or now The Nation, all of us, should join in celebrating the man and we should showcase him to the entire world, that this is a great journalist that Nigeria has produced for the world.”

     

    Femi Falana

    Activist-lawyer and Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN)

    “Prof. Olatunji Dare is a patriotic intellectual and a consistent critic of bad governance in Nigeria. Through the weekly column maintained for years by him in The Guardian and The Nation, Dare has regularly joined issues with the reckless managers of the neo-colonial capitalist state in Nigeria.

    “A country governed by a ruling class which believes in impunity certainly needs the likes of Dare to insist on the sanctity of the rule of law and due process. He is an unrepentant defender of the interests of the marginalised majority of our people.”

     

    Lateef Ibirogba

    Lagos State Commissioner for Information and Strategy

    “Prof. Olatunji Dare is a professional, a highly intelligent individual, a very upright personality and a rare Nigerian. He has really contributed to the intellectual world. I think that Nigerians have benefited so much from him. I want to wish him the best of times so that he can use the rest of his time to enjoy all those good things he has contributed to, particularly, the generations that are now making waves, people who are doing very well in their chosen industry. Our generation benefited from Prof Tunji Dare.

    “The essence of having this rare gift is to build a generation that can take over from him. This is what Prof. Dare has done. I wish him the very best, a very good time such that he can sit back and watch his products doing well and that can be his joy. I wish him very many good times in years to come.”

     

    Ralph Akinfeleye

    Chairman, Centre of Excellence in Multimedia, Cinematography and Radio UNILAG 103.1, Department of Mass Communication, University of Lagos (UNILAG)

    “Prof. Tunji Dare is an excellent scholar; an excellent journalist. We both taught news writing, news editing, graphics/communication and editorial writing at the University of Lagos. I was the Head of Department when he was released to The Guardian. Since that time, he has been adding value to the profession of journalism. And I’m not surprised, because he’s a graduate of the famous Colombia University Journalism School in New York.

    “I used to joke with him that Colombia University comes after my own school, that’s the School of Journalism at the University of Missouri in Colombia. They’re famous journalism schools and were competitors. There’s University of Missouri in Colombia; there’s Colombia University in New York, and graduates from those schools have it.

    “I wasn’t happy when he left UNILAG for greener pastures, but it has been very profitable. We miss him seriously. He’s somebody that is very dynamic and very resolute, and highly reliable, dependable and loyal.  Everything he does is journalism. There’s journalism in his talk. There’s journalism in his laughter. There’s journalism in his thinking. There’s journalism in his behaviour. Everything he does is journalism.

    “He’s a man that I admire and I’m so proud of him, as we both worked together as colleagues, and I feel proud to say I was the one who released him to go and join The Guardian and he has continued to represent us. We do keep in touch from time to time when we meet in the United States. I’m happy that he’s 70 and I wish him long life and prosperity in the spirit of journalism.

    “If you read his editorials and columns, you will know he’s very constant just like your newspaper, just like the northern star. He’s very humble, very polite, but does not fail his conscience and that is one aspect that I admire in him. He’s a news man anytime.”

     

    Dapo Fafowora

    The Nation Editorial

    Board member

    “Tunji Dare was himself a victim of the consequences of the events of June 12, 1993. Through internal and external intrigues, he was forced to resign his job as the chairman of the editorial board of The Guardian, as the owners of the paper sought to mend fences with the military authorities after the paper was closed on account of its editorial policy with which the military rulers were uncomfortable. Under threat by the military authorities, he eventually fled the country with his family for the United States where he now resides.

    “I left The Guardian in disgust at this sad turn of events. This was not difficult for me as I had waived my fees when I was on the paper’s editorial board.  At meetings of the board, Tunji Dare said very little and would only interject if someone said something that was plainly absurd or morally outrageous. But he left no one in any doubt about the moral rectitude that he wanted the paper to espouse.

    “As a political writer and columnist, Dare has established, with his objectivity and moral courage, the finest traditions of the art of political journalism for which he has set a high standard.  Dare has a wide network of friends, including the politicians. He knows them personally and has a good grasp of their characters, which is why he is often cynical about politicians. But he has never allowed friendship to develop to the point at which his views are warped by prejudice, or inhibited by the fear of causing offences, even to his friends.

    “As Paul Johnson, the celebrated political writer of London News Statesman once advised: ‘Journalists should develop a proper pride in their profession and deal with politicians on a basis of friendly and civilised equality. They must seek information, but never cringe for it; if they know their job, the politicians will always be prepared to meet them on equal and fair terms.’

    “Tunji Dare is an exemplar of these attributes. It is this that has made him Nigeria’s pre-eminent political writer and columnist.”

     

    Odia Ofeimun

    Author and poet

    “Of Nigeria’s columnists, Olatunji Dare is the most consistent memoirist and instant biographer of the nation. His dairies are flawless markers of our national travails and foibles. Witness his insightful entries for the June 12 Debacle. He is a master of the art. At 70, he deserves every celebration.”

     

    Debo Adesina

    Deputy Managing Director,

    The Guardian

    “I was his student at UNILAG and I learnt a whole lot from him. He is one of the most brilliant brains who passed through not only the Mass Communication department but the entire UNILAG.

    “I learnt real journalism practice from him. He was a leader for many of us who took our studies seriously. He was never tired of mentoring us and he is always ready to assist us. I’m so surprised that he is already 70 and I wish him a happy birthday.”

     

    Lanre Arogundade

    Director, International

    Press Centre

    “When he was in The Guardian, he was one of the columnists that made people to buy the paper because people looked up to his write-ups. During the June 12 period, he wrote a series that if compiled, would serve as a big history of what transspired during that particular period.

    “I think that he made that contribution, in 1996, when the NUJ Lagos State council published a book on Journalism. He served as the editor of the publication and the book was titled: Journalism in Nigeria, issues and perspective. The book has been recognised as a great job on the history and processes of the media in Nigeria.  He ensured that we had a publication. At the level of the Nigerian Institute of Journalism, we will remember him for undertaking that responsibility and ensuring that we had the publication that is still a reference point till today.”

     

    Akin Oyebode

    Former Vice-Chancellor, University of Ado-Ekiti and professor of International Law and Jurisprudence at UNILAG

    “He is an old friend and a colleague who has proven his worth in literary endeavours. He made a First Class at the University of Lagos and I was the one who did his reference for admission in Columbia. Tunji Dare is one of the greatest editorialists Nigeria has ever produced and I wish him many happy years.

    “He is a man of high integrity and one with a mighty pen. He wields it tremendously and his pen is one in a million. He is a man of the house and more power to his elbow.”

     

    Lanre Idowu:

    Managing Director, Diamond Publications (publishers of Media Review and organisers of the Diamond Award for Media Excellence)

    “He is one of the academics who have been able to marry the gown with the town. Aside lecturing, he was able to keep his column going consistently for about 20 years and so, his students and colleagues have the opportunity to not only hear him teach, but to learn from the sound arguments his columns provide.

    “He has done it for so long and has remained relevant through the years, which speaks volumes about his scholarship. He is diligent and committed to his craft. He is a long distance runner and maintains an unblemished record.

    “On a personal note, he is one of the people one looks up to. There are journalists and there are journalists. He has succeeded in keeping his integrity intact. I have not heard of any untoward thing about him in about 30 years that I have known him.

    “It is something to commend and I recommend him as a role model to younger mass communication professionals. He is not a poor man and he is not a moneybag but still Prof. Dare is a name that cannot be missed by students of public affairs and mass communication.

    “He has remained relevant and has never stopped raising his voice on issues of public importance. I pray his pen would not go dry. He should continue to trouble those who trouble Nigeria. I contributed a chapter in his book and I said a lot more there.”

     

    Martins Oloja

    Editor of The Guardian

    “He is a very big source of inspiration to all reporters, writers and those who want a good career in journalism, especially in ability to write well and ability to use English language very well. He is a teacher and he is so committed to the use of language.

    “We will continue to remember his write-ups. I want to wish him well, more ink to his pen and encourage him to publish some of his writings, his experience, so that they will not go to the grave with him. He is a world-class journalism teacher, who also has both local and international experience. He should publish a book that can endure, that journalists will continue to use.”

     

    Jumoke Anifowose

    Lawyer, politician and daughter of the late Governor Michael Adekunle Ajasin

    “I would say Prof. Olatunji Dare is just an acquaintance; I won’t say I know him. On his part, he doesn’t know me either. If he sees me on the street, I don’t think he would recognise me. But at the same time, I admire him as a good writer, who talks about issues that affect the polity.

    “He is certainly somebody we should celebrate at 70, because he is one of those who have helped to shape the democracy we are all enjoying today. I am a kind of a faraway admirer of him; I can’t say much about him, apart from his writing. He is somebody we should celebrate at 70. I wish him the very best on his 70th birthday!”

     

    Femi Omowunmi

    Information specialist, Public Affairs Section of the United States Consulate-General, Lagos

    “We worked together when I first came to the American Embassy, in the sense that he was always a resource person in several workshops we had for journalists. During these workshops, Prof. Dare showed his kind of man; that he was very thorough in what he does. As a writer and professor of journalism too, he was very thorough as a professional. That was one of the reasons why I believe he left The Guardian during the military era, when they were asked to go and beg the military dictator then, the late Gen. Sani Abacha. He didn’t like the idea, so he opted to resign. For that singular act, he got an award from an American institution. That incident clearly illustrates the kind of stuff he is made of. Professionally, we worked together and interacted very well. Like I said, he is a fine gentleman.

    “His column is such that when you have read it, on any issue he deals with, you would feel satisfied about what you have read. He has a thorough grasp of the issues he writes on; he would have done his research; by the time you finish reading, you will be satisfied. When he was at The Guardian, he was always winning awards as the best columnist of the year.”

     

  • Man of brilliance and character at 70

    Man of brilliance and character at 70

    About everyone Prof. Olatunji Dare has taught almost always enthuses: we owe him a debt of gratitude.  The academic, famed columnist and editorial writer, turns 70 on July 17.

    Lekan Sote, a columnist with The Punch, encountered Prof. Dare, then a graduate assistant, as a fresh man at the University of Lagos Department of Mass Communication in 1975.  Those were the closing years of the golden age of Nigeria’s academia.

    “The man taught me three things,” volunteered Mr. Sote, “how to write, why you must attend classes because you always pick up something new and how to network.”

    The networking lesson came after Mr. Sote came asking his old teacher for a job reference, even after he never asked after the don for many years.  The professor, feigning anger, threatened not to write the reference; but eventually, he did.  The moral: ask after people; nurture your network.

    Learning how to write was a routine teacher-student ritual, though it was no less refreshing.  It was no less refreshing because the young Sote would, via rejoinders, critique Dare’s newspaper contributions.  The teacher, after reading Sote’s piece would invite him over, commend him on his strong areas but still draw attention to weak areas that could make the contributions more logical than emotional.

    But the imperative to attend classes came at a stiffer cost.  Mr. Sote admitted some measure of truancy because he felt he was brilliant enough to always pass his examinations.  He passed this one, all right.

    Still, the professor gave him a reference, just to teach the hard lesson of intellectual modesty.  Harsh?  Unfair?  Maybe.  Maybe not.  But Mr. Sote admitted that single lesson stripped him of his near-contempt for class instructions — and he always picked up something new!

    From the same golden 70s of the Nigerian academia comes the golden testimony of Joke Omotunde, another former student of Prof. Dare’s, a staff of the United States Information Service (USIS) for 23 years now.

    Mrs Omotunde’s first testimonial is to the rigour and brilliance of Dare’s teaching.  “For me,” she said, “he was my lecturer at the University of Lagos in the late 70s, a meticulous mentor to the core whose ‘grammar for journalists’ has helped me tremendously on the job I now do.”

    But in this age of brilliance without character, it is her testimony to the solid character of her teacher, even by a foreigner, that blows the mind, en route to her taking up the USIS job.

    “He was one of the three referees whose names I submitted when I was applying for the job of an information specialist,” Mrs. Omotunde recalled.  “Not knowing  then which organisation I was applying to, the then Public Affairs Officer of the USIS shortlisted me because a prolific writer, an upright journalist, Olatunji Dare, was one of my referees.  I scaled through the series of interviews because, to the American officials, a student of Olatunji Dare would be ‘worth employing’.  It is 23 years now, and I am still on the job!”

    In 1985, another student, Azubuike Ishiekwene, former editor of The Punch and now managing director of Leadership, drank from the Dare spring.

    Now, between 1975 when Mr. Sote was a freshman; and 1985 when Azu was, the Nigerian academia had rapidly declined, with the flux of the river of Heraclitus, which flows so rapidly you cannot “step in the same river twice.”

    The military barbarians were on overdrive, cannibalising the glory of Nigeria’s tertiary education; and, with maniacal zeal, implanting the rust iron that would blight its future; thus condemning the best of Nigerian intellect to a Diaspora brain drain.

    But even with all that storm, Prof. Dare would appear to have retained his essence: a strict but fair and conscientious academic — again, not unlike Parminedes, who contrary to the ever-changing theory of Heraclitus, his Greek philosophical cousin, insists nothing ever changes.

    Azu gave his impression of Dare in “The debt I owe”, published in his column in Leadership on July 11: how the professor disabused the mind of his freshman class of 1985 on fantastic notions about journalism; how Dare, with Chief Ajibola Ogunshola, the man who brought The Punch back from the dead, directed his uncharted steps at crucial junctures of his education and journalism career; how his old teacher pooh-poohed a piece of writing the student felt he could crow about but highly praised an improved later piece, encouraging the writer to get it published in a newspaper — his first ever!

    Azu’s experience is not that different from yours truly.  Ripples had, with a flourish, rounded off a Language Arts first degree at the University of Ibadan, and set his mind on being some future wordsmith.

    Again, it was the first class; and the then Dr. Dare asked his PGD Mass Communication inaugural writing class to do an essay on anything that caught their fancy.  Ripples conceitedly blurted, in the piece, his dream: wordsmithery.

    The script literarily bled: “Wordsmithery for what?” the teacher queried. “Have you ever heard the saying: scratch a journalist and you will probably find a social reformer?”  The moral: wordsmithery is useless, if media writing does not improve society.

    Over the years, these were the fine ideals Prof. Dare taught his lucky students.  More importantly, these are the ideals he pens in his writings.

    For some four decades now — in his classroom and in the public space as columnist and analyst — Prof. Dare has stuck to his principles; and demonstrated how to match brilliance with character, with stylistic panache and devastating rigour.

    Incidentally, the week that started July 13 opened with a flourish of birthdays, of truly iconic Nigerians, all in their winter years: Prof. Wole Soyinka (80, July 13), Chief Ajibola Ogunshola (70, July 14), Prof. Dare (70, July 17); and on July 10, Chief Henry Odukomaiya, famed newspaper technocrat and manager, had turned 80.

    But should one laugh or cry?  To be sure,  a harvest of laughter is assured for these senior citizens who, in individual accomplishments, have shown their country what it could easily have been but has not — no thanks to a unceasing relay of third-grade rulers.

    But there might be some cry too.  For starters, Wole Soyinka in his poem, “Abiku”, proclaimed the “ripest fruit” the “saddest”.  Even on the personal level, this makes some sense, since old age comes with frailty.

    But it is in the sociological level that this sadness becomes more acute, with the Nigerian education system in a shambles.  The temper that produced these titans, despite an indifferent Nigerian leadership over the years, appears in real danger.

    So, as we toast these senior citizens, role models all, are we seeing the last of the titans?  As far as Nigeria’s education and academia go, is this the last dance of the golden generation — even if Prof. Soyinka famously dismissed his generation as the wasted one, before the advent of the real wasted generation?

    Happy birthday to Prof. Dare, a man of brilliance and character.  May his protégées continue to uphold his legacy of banner without stain.

    That, in Azu-speak, is the debt we owe!

  • OLATUNJI DARE @ 70: ‘Why I think Jonathan has failed…’

    OLATUNJI DARE @ 70: ‘Why I think Jonathan has failed…’

    Dr Olatunji Dare, foremost journalism teacher and columnist, will be 70 on July 17. In this interview with JOSEPH JIBUEZE, Dare speaks on how he almost dropped out of university, why he left The Guardian, how UNILAG refused his request for an official car despite his peculiar circumstances, the need for a rule to limit election spending, his autistic child and his plans for life after retirement.

    As university teacher with experience in Nigeria and the United States, how would you compare the two systems?

    Let me begin with the US system. There is an abundance of literature and teaching material. The media environment reinforces what happens in the classroom, so that you are always in a position to learn. The academic environment too is very stable. For example by May of this year, students had already registered for the courses they’re going to take in the next academic year. I already know what I’m going to teach, what classrooms have been assigned for the course; the textbooks for the course are already in the bookstore well before classes begin. The system is very predictable. You can plan.

    I regret to say you cannot say much the same about the system in Nigeria, with a very unstable system. The literature is scarce; there is some good reinforcing material – some good journalism, but there is also some bad journalism that tends to subvert whatever is taught in the classroom. In the US, journalism training in conducted in an ethical context, and the ethics very strongly upheld. Here you find a kind of ethical vacuum, where journalism is disconnected from the ethical value. This is not generally the case, but in some media establishments you see a lack of commitment to strong ethical values, and I don’t think this makes for good journalism.

    Also in the US, most of the people who teach in journalism schools have worked in the media before and so are in a position to combine academic work with practical instruction. I wish this was also true of the Nigerian situation. Here we think because somebody has an M.Sc or PhD in Mass Communication, that qualifies him or her to be in the journalism profession. A marriage of the two – practical experience plus academic qualification – makes for the best instruction.

    What would you attribute Nigeria’s falling education standard to?

    The proliferation of universities, which has meant a dilusion in the faculty pool available, which I believe has undermined the quality of instruction. Also, lack of textbooks, computer labs. I doubt if there’s any journalism institution in Nigeria that produces a weekly newspaper where students can put their learning into practice and build up a portfolio that will enable them to get jobs. When I was applying for admission, there were only five universities in Nigeria. Today there must be almost a hundred. The faculty has not grown as fast as the universities have.

    Some of your students describe you in various ways. While some say you’re so strict, others say they’re so enthralled they won’t want an end to your classes. How do you endeavour to strike a balance with your students?

    Again unlike Nigeria, your students evaluate at the end of each semester any course you teach. Some of the things they take into account are: Do you come to class prepared? Are the textbooks relevant? Are you accessible? Is your grading fair? You have students who are highly motivated, who want to make the best of the course. They pay attention, and I think my international experience here, in the US, my academic background and my cultural experience enable me to produce the kind of instruction different from what they are used to, and some of them value it a great deal. But there are others who are so insular and cannot see immediately beyond the US and they think all that kind of wide experiences from which I draw is a waste of time – ‘Just give us the stuff that we need and cut out all the crap.’

    What do I care about? Students say all kinds of things, some of them very constructive, some of them very mean. I’ve heard students say in their evaluation: ‘Please give us a professor who speaks English’. I used to think that I spoke English until I got to the US. There are others who say: ‘This guy is the most knowledgeable instructor we’ve had.’ The two things that I really care about, that would hurt me if students said them, are: That I didn’t know what I was talking about. No student has ever said that about me. Two, if students said I wasn’t fair. Again, no student has said that about me. Strict, yes, but fair. If you want to learn, if you don’t want an easy grade with empty content, this is the guy to go to. He drives you hard, but in the end you’re grateful for it.

    You’re one of Nigeria’s best known newspapermen. How do you view journalism when you began and now?

    I find a great deal that is encouraging. The profession has been virtually taken over by young men and women who have the best training that the Nigerian system can offer. Many of them are fired by idealism. They want to change society through journalism, and that is the reason most of us got into journalism, hoping that through your work, you can make an impact and help change a few things or call attention to a few things.

    The old journalism was analog journalism. It was hard-going and much of it lacked the sophistication that we have today in terms of technology. But there were some pillars, some really, really good role models whom we younger ones tried to emulate, people like Peter Pan, Sam Amuka, the late Alade Odunewu. I’m hoping that today’s younger men and women, people like you, will also find some role models worth emulating and studying. I am encouraged by the standard of writing, reporting and commenting among the generation coming after us.

    Are you satisfied with the media’s contributions to democratic growth since 1999?

    I don’t find an overarching commitment of the media to democracy in Nigeria. When it comes to democracy and larger issues, the media is still largely instrumental. Take the issue of June 12 for example. We thought the issues were fairly straightforward. An election has been held. Somebody has won. The results were frozen midway after they were already available to the world. I thought, whether you liked the candidate or not, we had a duty to support the process and insist on an outcome. But again, all kinds of things crept in: ownership structure, politics, ethnic issues. I was so happy that it was a Muslim-Muslim ticket, because if we had added religion to that combustible mixture, the country would have exploded. We tend to insist on a democratic outcome if it serves our purpose. If it doesn’t quite serve our purpose, to hell with democracy. This is what I meant by the media tending to be instrumental rather than committed to principle. That’s not the way to build the country. We have to insist on principle.

    Could it be the fact that a good number of media houses are not capitalised enough?

    Maybe, but I’m not sure. I think in critical situations like that, professionalism should trump existential considerations. You want to be respected as a professional and not as somebody who is fixated only on existential issues. We can hold different political views, but when professional issues are concerned, I don’t think there’s an ethnic, religious or economic cleavage when it comes to professional issues.

    The media as business in the US and Nigeria. What’s your take?

    Yes, you do have the media as a business and even ideologically driven media. When you watch Fox TV in the US for example, or read the Op-Ed pages of the Wall Street Journal, you know that you’re getting a conservative viewpoint. When you read the New York Times and the Washington Post, you know you’re getting the liberal viewpoint. I think they agree basically on the facts. ‘This is the situation and this is our take on the situation, this is their take, but we agree basically that this is the situation; we agree on the facts of the matter; our interpretations may be different.’ You know the title of the famous book in 1960s by Wolfgang Gestolfo, the American economist loaned to Nigeria from the Ford Foundation to help draw up the first national development plan. The book is appropriately titled: Planning without facts. What are the facts? We have to establish the facts, agree on them, and then we can have divergent interpretations of what those facts mean.

    You were a victim of the events of June 12, 1993, culminating in your resignation from The Guardian as editorial board chairman. Could you give us an insight into what led to your decision?

    Being a liberal newspaper, we saw a process unfolding; a process that we have been given to understand was designed to achieve a certain goal. We followed it religiously and insisted on the process. Apparently this was too much for the authorities, and they closed the paper, even while our publisher was serving as a member of Sani Abacha’s cabinet. One day, he was given to understand that if he apologised to the regime and promised not to do anything that might get the regime angry in future, they would un-ban the paper. For that purpose Alex Ibru said we should go to Abuja to meet with Abacha. They didn’t disclose the agenda but I’d found out that was the agenda for going to Abuja, and I didn’t go with them. My position was that if we had broken any law in Nigeria, charge us to court.The Guardian had always insisted on the primacy of the rule of law. We can’t go and apologise for an unspecified crime. If we had committed a crime under the laws of Nigeria, the place to charge us was the court; we’d defend ourselves; and that if we went on this mission and apologised to Abacha, we could never with a straight face write an editorial advocating the primacy of the rule of law anymore. It would ring hollow. So, I didn’t go. They went and apologised to Abacha. He said he was lifting the ban. Thereafter, I considered that I was done at The Guardian. Having refused to join them in their mission of apology, I decided that I could not in good faith partake of the fruit of that apology, and for me that was the end. The day after they came back, I tendered my letter of resignation. I never went back.

    Before The Guardian was the University of Lagos (UNILAG). What were your fondest memories of UNILAG and what were your not-so fond memories?

    My fondest memories were one, my instructors in the Department of Mass Communication: the late Frank Ugboaja; James Scotton, dean of what they called the institute of mass communication at the time. In fact at the end of my first year in UNILAG, I had no scholarship. I sponsored myself and I had run out funds. I have this Nigerian Certificate in Education. I was qualified to teach physics and chemistry. I said would leave the University for one year, work, make enough money, return to finish up. I told James Scotton and he said: ‘My fear is that you may go to work and may not come back. Why didn’t you have a scholarship?’ I said I applied to the Kwara State Government then and they wouldn’t give me a scholarship. He said he would write them a letter. He wrote them this beautiful letter, saying ‘this guy has run into problems, he deserves a scholarship and if we don’t give him one, we’ll be missing a good opportunity to help build a future for him, a future in which he can make some vital contributions to society, so please reconsider.’ A few weeks letter I got a letter offering me a scholarship. There was Mary Riley, who taught journalistic writing; and Alan Herbert who taught French. I entered university as a fairly mature student, and surprisingly all my instructors always called me Mr Dare (laughter). Much to my embarrassment they always said Mr Dare. They had such high expectations of me. I was at times very uncomfortable. I didn’t want to disappoint them, so that kept me focused on my studies. This was also when we had Ayodele Awojobi on campus.

    Does that explain your First Class degree?

    The First Class came as a surprise to me. It didn’t come as a surprise to them. The bar then was so high. Mine was the first journalism First Class in UNILAG. Even up till today, I think there have been only five or six.

    My not so fond memories: When I came back after my masters degree, I confidently expected to be appointed lecturer grade two. It was the practice that in a professional programme like Mass Communication, Accounting, if you came with a Masters degree, they appointed you lecture grade two. In my own case I was offered Assistant Lecturer, which meant I was not entitled to university housing, and the rest of it. I protested and my head of department said all the precedents I cited, he didn’t create them, so he was not bound by those precedents. I raised a petition, which succeeded. He was overruled.

    After my PhD, I paid the obligatory visit to my dean, and he was asking about my family. He wanted to know everything about my family. I then had to tell him I had a handicapped son who suffers from autism. He asked how was I coping? I said it’s tough. I don’t have a car. I can’t be taking him round in danfos and molues; that if he gets lost in a crowd, he wouldn’t know his way back and that he has to be under constant supervision. He said: ‘You just made an excellent case for getting a university loan to buy a car. Go and write an application, state your case, I’ll endorse it and send it to the deputy Vice-Chancellor, who is in charge of car loans.’ I made the application. One month, two months, three months, no response. I ran into the dean one day and he said: ‘Have you not heard from the DVC?’ I said: ‘If the DVC wrote me, he has to route the letter through you in any case since the application went through you as my dean.’ He said okay, let’s send them a reminder. Two months later, there came the reply, with two terse sentences: “With regard to your application for a car loan, I am to inform you that the university car loan programme has been suspended. When the programme is revived, your application will be considered along with others.” Nothing was said about my son. Nothing. Nothing saying: ‘Sorry we didn’t know you were going through this, we can’t help you at this time, but we’ll keep it in mind.’ Nothing about my son. I was fighting back tears when I got that letter. Even if I was working for an enemy, someone who had every right to detest me, when it comes to children or health, I expected that they would show some sympathy. My heart left the university that day. My heart left that environment that day. What kind of people are these?

    Fortunately I got an invitation from Stanley Macebuh, Managing Director at The Guardian, asking me to take a leave of absence to come and work there for one year. I applied. It was approved. And within my one year at The Guardian I was able to buy a brand new car. Even while at The Guardian, technically on leave of absence, I was teaching at UNILAG without pay. I volunteered to teach two courses without pay. At the end of the year, Stanley Macebuh said: ‘Listen, must you go back to the university?’ I found the work environment really nice. I asked for an extension of my leave of absence by one year, they said no, no, no, the department of mass communication would collapse if you didn’t return. It will collapse if I didn’t return? They said yes. That’s alright. If it’s going to collapse, let it collapse, I’m not coming back. It wasn’t going to collapse. I was still offering to teach without pay, but departmental envy and that kind of thing… ‘Hey this guy comes and goes. He left here empty-handed, now he has a brand new car. He wants to have the best of both worlds.’ So, I left. The thing about my son and the car loan were really my saddest memory of UNILAG.

    Ahead of the 2015 election, do you have any fears for Nigeria?

    No so much fears as anxiety. In this country elections seem to be a civil war by another name. It’s not about ideas and programmes. It’s about everything else except ideas and programmes and if there are rules, they are not strictly followed. Look at what happened in Ekiti for instance – somebody openly distributing rice and that kind of thing on the eve of election. I don’t know whether there’s a rule governing that kind of thing or not. There’s supposed to be a rule on limiting election spending. It’s absolutely unenforceable. A situation in which winner takes all; if you’re already in charge, it makes you think you must do everything to remain in charge; if you’re on the outside, you would think that you have to do whatever needs to be done to get on the inside. No rules, no restraints.

     

    Those on the outside, if they can’t get in there, decamp to the successful party and the situation gets really confusing. One of my anxieties is that from now until the election, the country is totally on hold. Nothing is moving. The election seems to be the only business in town. The business of governance is almost in abeyance. Everything is targeted towards 2015, with all the problems on the ground. I can say that for the past six months, everything has been about 2015. INEC seems to be learning and getting better with each election, but the desperation; the winner takes all mentality; the desire to capture territory that doesn’t belong to you; to turn constituencies into battlegrounds literally and figuratively. These are the anxieties I have about 2015.

    President Jonathan’s administration has been severely criticised for his handling of the Boko Haram insurgency. Do you agree that he has failed?

    Given all that is happening around, and given how reticent he himself has been about telling the public what substantive measures he’s taking, I would have to say that he has failed. There is no way of finessing it. I would have to say that he has failed. I am appalled that after so many days after the abduction of the Chibok girls, has he summoned the parents of those girls to talk to them one on one, or summon them as a group and talk to them? Each time he’s asked, have you any message for the parents of those girls, he says: ‘I’m appealing to them to cooperate with the government.’ It’s almost as if it’s their alleged failure to cooperate that is responsible for the impasse in getting those girls back. He has not shown enough empathy towards the victims. He underestimates the size of the problem. Just because America and France came in offering help, Jonathan says with the involvement of these outside forces, we can begin to see the end of the Boko Haram insurgency. And even they now are saying that they don’t know where the girls are.

    These people have their own agenda. They come in, harvest data which they don’t share with you, and for use against the future. By one account there were more troops in Ekiti for the election than have been deployed in the Chibok area so far. When you take all this into consideration, you have to say that he has not shown the empathy required. He has not shown the muscle and the firepower required; that he underestimates the problem. When you take all this into account, you have to say that he has failed in this respect.

    People do say the art of column writing has declined over the years, despite the fact that purportedly more educated people are coming on board. What’s your comment on that?

    I don’t agree. At the time people like Peter Enahoro, Alade, Gbolagbo Ogunsanwo and Sam Amuka were writing, it was almost a unidirectional effort, very little feedback; maybe an occasional letter to the editor, unlike now where you have text messages, social media and that kind of thing. At that time you had only five universities in the country. We didn’t have the kind of sophisticated readership that you have today. Those guys were almost like oracles. Today some of us are almost like punching bags. You’re writing for people who are at least as knowledgeable as yourself, who can take you apart. Those guys who we used to idolise in those days got away with what contemporary columnists cannot get away with. We’re dealing with a much more enlightened, much more sophisticated, and much more critical readership. So I don’t think there has been a decline in the quality or art of column writing.

    What’s your view of the Nigerian column reader?

    It’s almost an oxymoron when you talk of social media at least in the Nigerian context. It is anything but social (laughter). The amount of cursing, the amount of swearing, the violence of the language – uncouth, and they’re not even addressing the issues you raised. Whereas in most other climes – I read the rejoinders to columns in the New York Times and others – they discuss the ideas contained in the column. It has nothing to do with the personality of the writer, his ethnicity or religion. Here, we abuse, we curse to the next generation; in fact, curse five generations back in the vilest language conceivable. I heard it being discussed on TV the other day. I think it was based on a comment that Prof Wole Soyinka made, that social media in Nigeria is devoted more to abuse than to a discussion of serious issues.

    You’re known to have a wide network of friends, including politicians, but you are never prejudiced or inhibited in your views. What is your guiding principle?

    Stick as much as possible to discussing ideas and concepts. Analyse the issues and the ideas and their implications, and of course don’t sound like an oracle. Try not to sound like you know it all, that this is the only way to think about an issue. ‘This is just one way of thinking about the issue. There are other possibilities.’ Don’t get too carried away by your own arguments or by your own brilliance. Just say: ‘This is my take.’ Have your say and move on. Let others have their say. Try not to answer back.

    One of the ‘oracular’ columnists Dan Agbese who turned 70 recently had a prescription: ‘Express, but don’t try to impress’. What’s your take on that?

    I think it’s two sides of the same coin really. In a way it may actually be a distinction without a difference. The impression comes from the way you express yourself, rather than from a desire to show how brilliant you are. The way you handle ideas, the way you present your arguments, the way you express yourself, the way you choose the precise words – this total expression is what is going to impress the reader, not the parade of learning and quoting people and showing how encyclopedic you are.

    You will be 70 on July 17. How does it feel to reach this landmark age?

    I almost can’t believe it myself (laughter). In the 70s, there was a columnist called J.V Clinton. He was 70-years-old, and he was like a dinosaur, as if from another age altogether. People marveled at the fact that this man is 70 and was doing a column for a whole Sunday Times. Now you just mentioned my good friend and contemporary at Colombia University Dan Agbese, who’s 70. There are others approaching that age. It’s a good feeling in a country where they say the lifespan is about 50. So, it’s good to have exceeded that lifespan. But at the same time, it’s a signal that what lies ahead is far less than what you had behind you.

    It’s a good feeling, I’m thankful for it, that I have enjoyed good health and have remained mentally productive, but there is no escaping it. When I walk through the news room…there was a day I asked for one of the desk chiefs; they said he wasn’t around. The next day I went into the next room and somebody day ‘Hey daddy…the man you’re asking for is now around.’ I said: ‘Me? Daddy?’ (laughter). I had a visitor and he told somebody he was looking for me and the fellow was trying to be helpful. So he called another fellow and asked: ‘Do you know where that Baba Dare has his office?’ (Laughter). Or when you meet the young men who greet you reverentially; staffers who come here and almost prostrate; girls who courtesy deeply and that kind of thing, you know that you have attained the status of a senior citizen and you had better not mess up. So one gets those reminders. Memory fades. There was a time when I used to feel that if something was worth remembering, I wasn’t likely to forget it. I had telephone numbers and all kinds of things in my head. I hardly put stuff down in writing. I said if I don’t remember it, it’s because it’s not worth remembering. Nowadays if I don’t put it down I may not remember it. That happens, but I’m consoled by the fact that as a colleague of mine who’s much older, says: ‘All those things about Alzheimer and memory getting fuzzy, if you can’t find your car key when you need it, don’t worry. It happens even to younger people. What you should worry about is when you have forgotten how to drive.’ It happens. When Alzheimer strikes, you forget so many things, like how to drive. You even forget who you are. Ronald Reagan, in his dying years, had no memory of his presidency – he was president for two terms. It is a terrible thing.

    Are you pleased with the country as it is now? If you’re not, how can it be salvaged?

    One of the things that puzzles so many Nigerians is: How can a country so richly endowed be so thoroughly messed up? All kinds of factors have been blamed for it: leadership and the unwieldy nature and structure of the country and all that. All the countries that were at the same level with us – Indonesia, Malaysia, South Korea – have moved on to greater things. See where we are, we can’t even generate enough electricity. I was reading somewhere that there is platinum mine in South Africa that generates more electricity for its own internal operations than the whole of Nigeria generates for public consumption – a platinum mine. When people say no lessons have been learnt, I ask: Have any lessons been taught? Those who have hijacked the national patrimony, those who have desecrated our value system, those who have siphoned the nation’s wealth – we make a noise and go through the motions of prosecuting; they come back to even higher offices. Abacha’s son now wants to be governor of Kano State. Fayose has been returned as governor of Ekiti State.

    As the Ekiti election results were unfolding, I was discussing with somebody. He said Fayose was going to sweep the whole thing. I said what about that integrated poultry project that gulped several billion naira and didn’t produce a single egg? Not one egg. The fellow laughed. He said people have forgotten, and those who haven’t forgotten don’t care. He’s back there. We don’t punish those who are found wrong, and so impunity thrives, because we don’t make an example of those who have run afoul of the law or committed some wrongdoing. So, until we get serious about punishing those who are found to have been in breach of the law; until we make examples of those who have broken the law, and we learn lessons of the past, I’m afraid we’ll continue to go round and round in ever shrinking cycles.

    Babangida tried to grow wheat; the thing was a disastrous failure. They’re trying to do the same thing now. Babangida banned rice. It was unsustainable. In fact, there was more rice in the country after the ban than there was before. We had motor assembly plants – Peugeot, Volkswagen, Leyland and all the rest of them. They collapsed. We’re going back to the same policy again, without even finding out why they failed, just going round and round in an ever shrinking cycle. All that can be fixed.

    What really, really worries me the most is the collapse of the value system. There was a time we could say this was wrong and unacceptable and everybody would agree, nobody would quibble about it. Now you cannot say that this is wrong or right. It depends on what you can get away with. If you can get away with it, it’s right. This is what really worries me. The economy you can always rebuild. When the value system collapses, it takes a generation or even longer to rebuild it. This is my worry about all that is going on in the country now. The collapse of the value system is not being addressed, and in fact everything that is being done today further debases the value system. This is my worry. The political arrangement and the economy can be fixed, but once the value system collapses, it takes a long, long time to re-establish it.

    What’s your assessment of commitment to service in Nigeria?

    One thing that keeps the USA going, and we have little of that in this country, is volunteerism – people who volunteer for all kinds of things. ‘I still have the skills; I still have the health; I can help teach a course here, I can provide some service here and hope that my expertise will motivate others and show how things are done’ – people who don’t need the money. I was scandalised that only four people turned down they N4million that they were being offered at this constitutional conference. Many of them are millionaires. They don’t need the money. What can be greater than being asked to serve your country at a critical moment of its history? Only four out of almost 500 rejected the money. That’s a measure of the level to which the commitment to public service has sunk in this country. We had in the second republic people like Dafinone – he wasn’t even taking a salary as a Senator. He said he didn’t need it. The country has given so much to many of us and if we could just give back – let the example spread, use our knowledge, influence and try in our own little way to make things better.

    What are your plans after retirement?

    I would be interested in continuing to impart knowledge. Two, I told you earlier that I have an autistic son. The problem is more widespread than is generally realised in Nigeria. People are not aware of the extent. It is very, very widespread. I had an idea of it while I was on assignment in Addis-Ababa, Ethiopia. A Nigerian diplomat there organised lunch for me. In attendance were the ambassador, myself, a Nigerian diplomat accredited to a UN agency in Rome and another Nigerian diplomat in the embassy, four of us. I was meeting them for the first time. As we were discussing, one thing led to another. It turned out that all four of us had autistic children. All four. My host said his wife couldn’t handle it, that she just ran away. She just abandoned him. The diplomat accredited to the Nigerian embassy said each time he was traveling, he had to drug his son, really drug him hard, so that he would not be active during the flight. That gave me the idea that the problem may be more widespread than is generally realised and I have seen signs of it elsewhere. The symptoms are fairly easy to recognise. There is a Nigerian Society for Autism, but I don’t know how active it is.

    So, one of the things I plan to be actively engaged in is spreading awareness of autism, the level in society, and using whatever little influence I may have to raise awareness, to raise funds and generally help improve the quality of life of autistic children in Nigeria. That’s one of the goals I have set for myself at retirement.

  • Fashola, Danjuma, others to honour Dare at 70

    Fashola, Danjuma, others to honour Dare at 70

    A former Defence Minister, General Theophilus Danjuma; Lagos State Governor Babatunde Fashola (SAN), a leading member of the Yoruba socio-political organisation, Afenifere, Chief Ayo Adebanjo; frontline politicians, scholars and media chiefs will, on July 17, honour The Nation columnist and former Chairman of the Editorial Board of The Guardian, Prof Olatunji Dare, on his 70th birthday.

    The event, which will hold at the MUSON Centre, Lagos, will attract leading figures in academics, politics and the media.

    The birthday celebration, which the organisers said will be chaired by Gen. Danjuma, will include a lecture to be delivered by a media scholar, Prof Kwame Karikari of the University of Ghana, Legon, titled: Memories of Censorship: Struggling for Press Freedom in Africa.

    A book edited by Wale Adebanwi, titled: Public Intellectuals, the Public Sphere and the Public Spirit: Essays in Honour of Olatunji Dare, will also be presented at the event.

    Contributors to the book include scholars, media chiefs and activists. They include famous poet, Prof Niyi Osundare; University of Swaziland don, Dr. Adidi Uyo; former Daily Times Editor, Dr. Ndaeyo Uko (now of Monash University, Australia); former Concord Newspapers Managing Director, Dr. Doyin Abiola; former Punch Chairman, Chief Ajibola Ogunshola; famous poet, Mr. Odia Ofeimun; Editor-in-Chief of Premium Times, Mr. Dapo Olorunyomi and Executive Editor of The NEWS, Mr. Kunle Ajibade.

    Others are: Prof Lai Oso, Mr. Segun Ayobolu, Dr. Ogaga Ifowodo, Dr. Ebenezer Obadare, Mr. Olakunle Abimbola, Dr. Akin Adesokan and Dr. Sina Odugbemi.

    Dare, who is a professor of communication at the Bradley University, Peoria, Illinois, United States, is Nigeria’s most celebrated satirist and one

    of the most respected newspaper columnists.

    The Nation columnist has been described as one who “remains a glittering advertisement for patriotic and conscientious journalism.”

    Prof Osundare said: “In Olatunji Dare’s writing, we encounter a productive marriage of the gravitas of content and the felicity of style.”

    Dare studied Mass Communication at the University of Lagos (UNILAG), graduating with first-class honours.

    He subsequently earned a Master’s degree in Journalism from Columbia University in New York, and a doctorate in Communication Research from Indiana University, Bloomington, with specialisations in international communication and public policy analysis.

    He taught at UNILAG from 1984 until 1988, when he was appointed a columnist and editorial page editor of The Guardian, Nigeria’s most influential newspaper then. Two years later, he became the chairman of the Editorial Board.

    As a correspondent for The Guardian, Dare filed stories from over a dozen countries on three continents, including from The White House in Washington, DC. He joined the Bradley Faculty in 1997.

     

     

     

    The frontline columnist has served as an editorial writer for The Seattle Times on a fellowship from the American Society of Newspaper Editors.

    He has also served as a consultant to the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Department for International Development of the U.K. Foreign Office.

    Dare’s awards include The Robert A. Curry Prize in Editorial Writing from Columbia University; The Nieman Foundation’s Louis M. Lyons Prize for Conscience and Integrity in Journalism, and the Faculty Achievement Award in Teaching Excellence from the Slane College of Communications and Fine Arts at Bradley.

  • Once upon another C’wealth Games

    Once upon another C’wealth Games

    The ongoing World Cup in Brazil has so gripped Nigeria that I will not be surprised that not many in the audience of the usually attentive are aware that the Commonwealth Games are due to start in Glasgow, Scotland, in two weeks.

    Games officials and indeed all Glaswegians must be heartened that the event has not been foreshadowed by the kind of political issue that doomed the 1986 edition held in Scotland’s premier city, Edinburgh.

    It was a sham and a financial disaster.

    Of the 59 countries eligible to participate, only 27 showed up, just four of them – Botswana, Malawi, Lesotho and Swaziland — from Africa.

    Thirty-two countries stayed away. Revenue projections based on broadcasting rights and sponsorships and spending by teams and visitors collapsed, plunging Edinburgh into huge debt.

    Designed to celebrate the diversity and common purpose undergirding the largest political organization –I exclude the moribund Non-aligned Movement – the Games ended up as a competition among white athletes for the most part, bereft of the colour and the gaiety and the grit that athletes from Asia and Africa and the Caribbean usually brought to the event.

    Never in its 56-year history had the quadrennial competition witnessed such a spectacular flop.

    Few now remember, and fewer still ever knew, that the discussion that triggered off the massive boycott of the Games originated in Rutam House, in the Conference Room of the Editorial Board of The Guardian Newspapers, one sultry Thursday in July 1986, two weeks to the competition.

    Back then, meetings of the Editorial Board were largely unstructured. Members in attendance suggested subjects or issues meriting editorial attention; the urbane and intellectually-formidable Stanley Macebuh presiding, entered the topics on his yellow notepad, and discussions followed. If you brought up an issue judged worthy of an editorial, you ended up being assigned to write the editorial.

    The Nigerian contingent to the Games was counting the days to its departure for Edinburgh. That, remember, was the time of Structural Adjustment, when goods, consumer goods, were scarce or unaffordable or both. A foreign trip, all expenses paid, with pocket money for athletes and hefty allowances for officials in the almighty British pound, would go a long way in easing the pains of the benighted programme.

    That was also a time of ferment in the anti-apartheid struggle within South Africa and the wider world, particularly in Africa. In the Commonwealth, British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher stood imperiously alone against the tide of history. She not only resolutely opposed any plan to impose comprehensive economic sanctions against the racist regime in Pretoria, she branded Nelson Mandela a terrorist and M’konto We Sizwe (MK for short), the military wing of the African National Congress, a terrorist organisation.

    To undermine the exclusion of South Africa from competitive international sport, Thatcher’s government had processed in record time papers granting South African marathoner Zola Budd citizenship to enable her compete in the 1984 Olympics under the British flag and perhaps add a medal or two to what was sure to be a modest haul for Britain.

    Given Thatcher’s – and Britain’s – duplicitous role in a matter that touched every African at the core of his or her being, should Nigeria participate in the XIII Commonwealth Games?

    That was the question before The Guardian’s Editorial Board that sultry Thursday, two weeks to the Games.

    The answer was unanimous: No. And I was asked to find the words to affirm that conclusion and the reasoning behind it for publication the following Saturday.

    Officials and athletes set to fly to Edinburgh for the Games were aghast, and they registered their disenchantment with The Guardian in various ways.

    In the policy establishment, however, the reaction was different. Back from his rounds at the Ministry of External Affairs the following Monday, The Guardian foreign editor Ejiro Onobrakpeya told us that the editorial had resonated powerfully and that the Federal Government would most likely order a boycott of the Games.

    The next day, The Guardian reported pointedly that, based on a directive from the Federal Government, Nigeria would not take part in the Games. The official announcement came only the day after.

    The effect was galvanic.

    By the end of that week, virtually all member-countries of the Commonwealth in Asia, Africa and the Caribbean had announced that they would be joining in the boycott, thus effectively sealing the doom of the Edinburgh Games.

    References in the global media to “the Nigeria-led boycott” of the Games must have pleased military President Ibrahim Babangida and External Affairs Minister Prof. Bolaji Akinyemi, emblematising as it did, not merely a foreign policy triumph, but a resurgence of Nigeria’s waning leadership role in Africa.

    In Rutam House, however, we felt somewhat cheated. We had lit the fuse that literally consumed the XIII Commonwealth Games; the Federal Government had merely accepted our well-argued recommendation. And yet, everyone was calling the result “the Nigeria-led boycott” when they should be calling it “The Guardian-led boycott.”

    All the same, we dutifully congratulated the authorities for adopting our principled advocacy. And for long thereafter, we playfully indulged ourselves in the conceit that we ran the world.

     

     

    The credit belongs elsewhere

    At the bottom of this page, you will find a feature labelled “Hardball.” It carries a conspicuous notice, a disclaimer in effect, that it is not the product of the writer whose column is posted above it.
    Yet I often find that I am credited with its content. A recent scholarly volume assessing the Jonathan administration did just that, with footnotes to match.
    I would not have said some of the things posted under that rubric, or would have phrased them differently. However, this is not to disavow its robust, often irreverent but always scintillating tone and content, merely to say that the credit belongs elsewhere.

     

     

  • Dare turns 70

    Dare turns 70

    Prof. Olatunji Dare, a journalism scholar, famed newspaper columnist and editorial writer, will be 70 on July 17.

    According to a statement by his family, friends and associates, a public lecture and book presentation will hold on July 17 to mark the occasion. Gen. Theophilus Danjuma will chair the event, which would hold at the Agip Recital Hall of the MUSON Centre in Onikan, Lagos, by 11am.

    The lecture, to be delivered by Prof. Kwame Karikari of the University of Ghana, Legon and executive director at the Media Foundation for West Africa, is titled: “Memories of Censorship: Struggling for Press Freedom in Africa”.

    The book to be presented is Public Intellectual, the Public Sphere & the Public Spirit: Essays in Honour of Olatunji Dare at 70, edited by Dr. Wale Adebanwi, associate professor of African and African-American Studies at the University of California, Davis, U.S.A.

     

  • Lagos experiences theatre

    As parts of efforts to keep the practice of theatre alive, Wazobia Theatre House with ASAP, a capacity building company, unveiled a theatre collection in Lagos.

    The collection, which is titled: Theatre on the Mainland Series, would serve residents of Lagos Mainland with interesting theatre performances.

    According to the project’s Team Coordinator, Mr Olabanji Olawale, it is set up to create awareness for theatre on the Mainland, adding that residents of Lagos mainland do not need to visit theatre houses on the Lagos Island before experiencing quality theatre shows. The initiative, he said, does not have any particular audience in mind but it plans to reach out to majority of people around the mainland.

    He said: “Theatre is a re-emerging industry and so, need more people investing in theatre productions so as to reclaim the glory it had in the past. Aside from being a business, Theatre on the Mainland series uses the platform to develop people regarding youth development, capacity building and creating job opportunities.

    “Someone told me after seeing one of the dramas that ‘it is better than watching a movie. Like in the last three to four months, coordinators of the projects would have paid about 40 youths. People keep saying that there is no work but the theatre industry can employ so many youths.”

    According to Olabanji, the production holds its monthly production every last Sunday at YABATECH’s Vginis Main Hall. The shows, which, he said, this has been on for five months now, included: Osaka the Porter, written and directed by Jude Ikenna Okpala and produced by Olawale Olabanji; The Engagement written by Prof Femi Osofisan, directed by Jude Ikenna Okpala and produced by Olawale Olabanji; Lottery Ticket, written by Prof Ahmed Yerima; Prison Chronicles, written by Wole Oguntokun and Alego (The guest), written by Jude Ikenna Okpala.