Tag: Yakubu Mohammed

• By Dare Babarinsa

I am happy that Oga Yakubu Mohammed was able to publish his highly readable memoir before his final call on Wednesday January 14.  The last time we met was when I visited him on August 12, last year and he presented me with an autographed copy of Beyond Expectations, his memoir of 422 pages.  The book expectedly bristles with humour and vignettes of wisdom.  It is Mohammed’s testament about journalism and public service.  It is his offering to the coming generations. 

In November last year, Dan Agbese, his co-traveller and a principal character in Beyond Expectations, died.  Now Mohammed has joined him.  Three of the four founders of Newswatch magazine are now dead.  The only survivor is the durable Ray Ekpu, the iconoclastic columnist who ruffled the feathers of the Nigerian establishment for generations.

Mohammed came to prominence in journalism early.  He bagged a degree in Mass Communications from the University of Lagos at 25 in 1975.  In 1980, barely 30 and almost four years after his compulsory national service, he was already associate editor of New Nigerian, one of the most powerful newspaper houses in Nigeria. It was at New Nigerian that he and Dan Agbese met as colleagues. Agbese and Ray Ekpu, who was editing the Nigerian Chronicles, Calabar, were of the Unilag Mass Communication class of 1973.  Destiny joined the three of them. 

The same destiny brought Mohammed to the Concord Group of Newspapers founded by the larger-than-life businessman, Chief Moshood Abiola.  It was in Concord that Mohammed met Dele Giwa, an American-trained journalist, who was the pioneer editor of the Sunday Concord.

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I first met Mohammed at the National Concord.  When I completed my NYSC in July 1982, many of my classmates would not apply to Concord because the paper was rabidly partisan in favour of the ruling National Party of Nigeria, NPN. I and many of my friends were beneficiaries of Chief Obafemi Awolowo’s Free Education Programme in the old Western Region and we viewed with resentment Concord hostility to Papa Awo.  Then, Abiola suddenly left politics and the NPN and the Concord changed its music.  My friend, the late Olawale Oladepo, who was working with Gbolabo Ogunsanwo’s magazine, Nation, said we should apply to work for the Concord.  “The paper has changed,” Wale said with enthusiasm.

By this time, I had fallen under the spell of some bigwigs in journalism who were my superiors at the Drum Publications Ltd, which I joined immediately after my NYSC in 1982.  Among these seniors were Prince Adetule, our editorial director, Olaseinde Lawson, our editor, and Matthew Faji our photo editor.  Among my colleagues in Drum were Wole Olaoye and Dayo Omotosho.  Then I followed Oladepo to Concord where we met Yakubu Mohammed and our lives changed.

We submitted our letters to his secretary and once he was told who we were, Mohammed invited us into his office.  He was warm, communicative and he asked us many questions. We let down our guards. We did not know he was already interviewing us for the job! We thought we were just having a general gist with a big man.  I told him that apart from my Drum experience, I had a very busy service year as the editor of the Ogun State NYSC newsletter and other assignments as the Ogun State NYSC Public Relations Officer.  He offered Oladepo and myself employment.  Another classmate of ours, Ifeanyi Ubabukoh, was to join us later.

Mohammed was a formidable leader of men.  He had succeeded the iconic Doyinsola Abiola as the editor of the Concord newspaper in 1982 and it was to his credit that circulation soared during his tenure. 

He was not afraid to take risk with young subalterns like us. One day, two emissaries came from Surulere saying the great Aminu Kano, leader of the Peoples Redemption Party, PRP, would like to be interviewed by the Concord.  All the big journalists were out on the beat and it was only Oladepo and I that were in the newsroom.  Mohammed said we should follow them.  We did with trepidation for despite our bravado, we were seriously green.  Our interview with Mallam Aminu Kano was to become our first story to hit the front page of the Concord.  I later served as the National Assembly correspondent before being posted to Akure as the chief correspondent for Ondo State (including the present Ekiti State) where I was destined to cover the 1983 general election riot.

We followed Mohammed and his colleagues to Newswatch in November 1984.  Our leaders in Newswatch; Dele Giwa, Ray Ekpu, Dan Agbese and Yakubu Mohammed showed us what a first-class newsmagazine ought to be.  They had able lieutenants who were giants in their own right; Dayo Onibile, Soji Akinrinade, Dele Omotunde, Lawson Omokhodion, Nosa Igiebor, Kayode Soyinka and others.  It was a great team. We produced a magazine noted worldwide for its depth of investigations and deft of language.  No one exemplifies our competence more than Oga Yakubu Mohammed.

Mohammed was an artist with words.  He wrote with simple elegance and with facts.  Verbosity was not for him, nor the flowery language of some of his colleagues.  He laid out his facts devoid of accoutrements.  He was approachable because he was one of us; members of the Editorial Street.  We exchange books, especially memoirs and biographies. He was never afraid to lose an argument if your facts outweigh his.  He was a gentleman and a nationalist. 

But success brought problems and jealousy.  He and his colleagues at the helm of Newswatch had high social visibility and their pens were mighty.  The devil found them attractive and it came for them in the forms of military jackboots. The worst happened in 1986 when Giwa was assassinated with a parcel-bomb. Detention, harassments, proscriptions and constant trailing by security agents were to follow.  Once, Ray Ekpu wanted to board a plane for Lagos at the Calabar airport.  He was arrested on the tarmac by security agents, bundled into a van and driven to Lagos by road. When we published what the military regime did not like, they locked up Ray Ekpu and company.  When the big man at Dodan Barracks is unhappy or had a poor digestion, they locked up Ray Ekpu and company. 

It was such incremental punishments that made Yakubu Mohammed and company our heroes.  Mohammed was willing to suffer for the good of all so that our country can be free from military rule.  I am happy that he was able to show his mettle during his tenure as the pro-chancellor of Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. His attempt to serve the people of Kogi State as their governor was frustrated by the complexities of that peculiar state.

Mohammed lived a good and productive life.  He loved freedom, not just for himself, but for our country.  Now he is free forever.  God compensated him by blessing him with good and successful children.  I commiserate with his wife, Hajia Rabi, and family.  May his valiant soul rest in peace.

•Babarinsa, CON is chairman, Gaskia Media Ltd.

• By Mohammed Haruna

My attention has been drawn to one serious factual error in my tribute to Yakubu Mohammed. I said in the sixth paragraph that two of the three graduates who joined myself and Yakubu at the New Nigerian in 1976, namely Rufa’i Ibrahim and Sule Iyaji, were no longer alive.

My attention was drawn to the fact that Iyaji is alive and well. Indeed, I spoke with him after I got his phone number from Professor Sam Egwu, INEC’s Resident Electoral Commissioner for Benue State, who first drew my attention to the error.

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Not only did Iyaji confirm that he is well and alive, but he also reminded me that after his stint at Peugeot Automobile of Nigeria as its spokesman, he ventured into politics, where he eventually rose to be the Deputy Governor of Benue State when his Igala ethnic group was the second largest in the State after the Tivs. This was before the Igalas were carved into Kogi State.

I have since apologised to Iyaji for pronouncing him dead while alive and well. I needed to apologise to him and his family in public.

• By Ray Ekpu

When my friend, colleague and brother, Yakubu Mohammed, was hospitalised a few weeks ago, I called him on the day he was to be discharged. “Yakky, have you been discharged?” I asked. “No, I don’t know why I have not been discharged,” he answered.

The next day I decided to call his daughter who is a medical doctor in that hospital. I asked her: “Is your father’s condition stable?” She said “yes.” “Can I speak to him please?” I asked. “He will call you later,” she answered. I decided to dial his number. His wife answered. I asked the wife the same question that I asked the daughter. Is your husband’s condition stable? She said “yes.” With those two yesses, I was calm, believing that he will be discharged soon.

Then the next day the story suddenly shifted. Yakubu is dead. That is what is called The Chisholm Effect. The Chisholm Effect is that “when things are going well, something will go wrong.” Yakubu was not someone who was frequently sick. At his age, he was still driving himself. So the sudden-ness of his death is stunning.

He was a very decent man who believed fervently in God. In an interview with The Niche he said: “I have no regrets in life because there is nothing I can do of my own strength. My life is totally in God’s hand.” His belief in God gave him a heart that was loaded with fairness. When I left the Daily Times Group in December 1982, he worked with Dr Doyin Abiola and Dele Giwa to bring me into the Concord Group of newspapers as the chairman of the Editorial Board. At that time, Yakubu was the editor of the National Concord and he allowed me and the Editorial Board to have a free hand in deciding the editorial topics for his paper.

After our meetings, I would decide which of my staff would write the editorial. I would then edit it and send it to the compugraphic section. I would send copies to the editor of the paper and the editor in chief. Yakubu neither condemned our editorials even if he did not agree with what we wrote. He gave us ample editorial independence.

On one occasion, I published a letter on the letters’ page of the National Concord that queried why MKO Abiola, a Muslim, should allow his paper to publish adverts on alcohol. Abiola was unhappy that the letter was published but Yakubu, also a Muslim, did not disagree with me on it. He did not see anything wrong with publishing it and we did not stop publishing those adverts. He believed, as I did, that a newspaper is a free market place of ideas irrespective of proprietorship. In Newswatch we also published such adverts on alcohol and cigarettes even though Yakubu and three external directors were Muslims. We had no problems with our Muslim directors. Our only restriction on such adverts was not to publish them on the front or back pages of the magazine.

When I got to Concord, I noticed that the company did not have a good research librarian. I told Yakubu there was a man I knew who was very good on the job. Could I bring him? Yakubu said yes. So I got the company to invite for an interview, Nyaknno Osso, a man I had worked with at the Nigerian Chronicle. He came, did well at the interview but he was not employed because the file of the interview had disappeared. Office politics! When we started Newswatch, we employed him as our research librarian. I eventually recommended him to help set up the Obasanjo Presidential Library in Abeokuta, the first presidential library in West Africa.

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At Newswatch, it was Yakubu and I who decided that we should make Dele Giwa and Dan Agbese leaders of the company. This decision was based on the fact that we believed that their former employers Concord and the New Nigerian respectively treated both men unfairly. That was our own way of showing fairness and compassion to the two men.

 Yakubu and I left the Concord because we did not think that Abiola treated Dele very fairly. None of us had any problem with the Chief who had, towards the end of our tenure, started calling us “strangers” based on false stories that those who wanted to damage our relationship with him planted in his ears. Big men can easily become victims of unverified but vile gossip. Abiola was a victim. It was when we started to smell the rancid odour of frustration that we decided to leave Concord.

I was a student in the Department of Mass Communication at the University of Lagos from 1970-73. Yakubu came into the Department in 1972 and graduated in 1975. During his student days, he showed quite early that he was going to be a good journalist. He was involved in amateur journalism on campus. After his graduation, it was clear that there was a career waiting for him: journalism. During his days at the New Nigerian, he was a line editor of the paper in Lagos. Fela Anikulapo Kuti was being tormented by the military government based on the flimsy accusation that calling his residence Kalakuta Republic was a way of having a republic within a republic. They burnt down his residence and took him into prison. Some soldiers went to various media in Lagos ordering them not to publish the story. Yakubu defied them. He wrote the story and got it published in the New Nigerian, a government-owned newspaper. That is the definition of courage.

 When Yakubu brought out his book “Beyond Expectations,” The Niche interviewed him. In that interview he gave a definitive stand on his choice of journalism as a career. He said: “I have no regrets picking journalism. If I have to come back to this world again, I will be a journalist.” That is evidence of his belief in the nobility of journalism as a profession. Yakubu was a very good reporter. He had seeing eyes and hearing ears. These are the qualities that a reporter needs. Most big events are covered by many reporters. For any reporter’s report to stand out, to be fresh, to be deep in the coverage of such an event, the reporter must use his eyes and ears well. That is the only way he might get something that is close to exclusive and not something that reads like a run-of-the mill report. Yakubu was that kind of reporter, a reporter’s reporter who always looked out for exclusive details of an event. And in reporting such events, he did so simply, without too much flourish because he was a very good story teller. Even in his columns, the strength of his writing lay in the stories that he told to illustrate his points. He did not go for grandiloquence or intellectual exhibitionism or writing gymnastics. He just wanted to tell a story and tell it in such a manner that anyone who read it understood what he wrote. He did not go for the glow of glamorous writing.

As a person, Yakubu was always calm, always stable. He did not get into paroxysms of outrage over minor or major happenings. I never saw him giving people, old or young, duchessy orders. At Concord where he was my senior, he did not build a wall of prejudice against me even though he knew that I was very close to Dele Giwa. He did not also seek to consign me to the margins as evidence of his superiority even though he knew that I had edited four newspapers in two other organisations before coming to Concord. He was always in fine fettle.

On the two occasions that he left journalism and pitched his tent at the camp of politics, I did not seek to stop him. I knew he wanted to get into politics and governance out of conviction. He was convinced that if he succeeded in getting into office as governor of his state, Kogi, he would make a difference to the well-being of his people. That is why he decided to sink his feet twice into the murky waters of Nigerian politics. Why he did not succeed is because Nigerian politics is an algorithm of complex calculations fenced round with barbed wires of false promises, extreme corruption, public deception and bouts of mago mago and wuru wuru. That is what decent people who put their feet in the door of politics found out. Yakubu found that out too. He found out too that in politics, the hand you cannot kiss you must bite it, cut it, chew it and swallow it. He was not ready to do that.

But he was successful in another field. He was the Pro-chancellor and chairman of the Governing Council of the Ahmadu Bello University, (ABU), Zaria. He took the fairness doctrine which is an important journalism doctrine into the governance of this premier university. When he left, he left fairness behind as a legacy that the university must cherish and chant.

Yakubu will be remembered as a great journalist, a remarkable columnist and story teller, a fair and painstaking administrator, a respected nationalist and a man of admirable compassion.

Yakky, goodbye.