The Road To Bandar: Reminiscences Of A Development Journalist
30 April 2013
By Abdulwarees Solanke
1. Amatokwu et al, thank you all!
How time flies! Going through some of my old
university notes, browned by age, recently, it dawned
on me that I have been out of the learning oven called
Akoka (that is how we call the University of Lagos}
since 1988, baked as a journalist. That makes it 24
years ago. That also makes it 25 years ago that I
first stepped into the ambience of a newsroom of an
influential newspaper, the Imalefalafia, oke-Ado,
Ibadan-based The Nigerian Tribune, founded by late
Chief Obafemi Awolowo in the late 40s, to share seats
and desk with some established journalists.
My long, rough, yet enchanting ride through the
various media houses on which desks I have pieced bits
and pieces and churn words as news stories, features,
opinions, editorials and programme scripts in the past
25 years, from the busy newsroom of the Nigerian
Tribune at Imalefalafia, Oke Ado as an intern in 1987,
the hot desks of the newsrooms and the cosy seats of
the editorial boards of the defunct National Concord,
The Monitor and The National Guide all demanding
cerebral acuity, the boisterous studios of
Broadcasting Corporation of Oyo State, Ile Akede,
Ibadan, the mad newsroom of Raypower 100.5 FM and AIT
at Alagbado as a radio and television producer, the
rewarding sojourn in Voice of Nigeria and the long
flights to Kuala lumpur, Bandar Seri Begawan, New
Delhi, and Jakarta, capitals of the South East Asian
countries of Malaysia, Brunei Darussalam, India and
Indonesia, respectively with transits in Dubai, UAE;
Doha, Qatar; Singapore City and Addis Ababa in
Ethiopia in the e cause of my journalism and academic
odyssey could not have been as relishing and
productive without the robust education in public
affairs journalism and development communication I
received at the University of Lagos.
With colleagues like Azubuikwe ishiekwene, John Momoh,
Soji Alabi, Ben Okhakhume, saka Asimi, Francis
Borisade, Dotun Erinle, Mary Atolagbe, Bose Eitokpa,
abdurrazak Adegboyega, Late major Remi Okeowo (one of
the victims of 1990 plane crash into the swamp of
Ijegun), Late Saka Asimi, the brilliant pioneer TV
reporter at the Channels, Chris Olisa, Abdussalam,
Abdulfattah Babatunde, Peter Adebolu and Tunde
odediran, we were prepared to fly and reach the
farthest heights in journalism and media practice,
public relations and advertising. Most of the 50
something student class that graduated in 1988 may not
be known names in the Nigerian media firmament now,
but all exceptionally gifted. Our classes were never
dull, and that was why we had the effrontery to
challenge our controversial mass comm. department on
the graduation list of that year.
I can't remember any student in that set repeating
class. It was momentous that after due diligence and
investigation into the circumstances that would have
led a number of the students having an extra semester,
our class won. Notwithstanding, we were blessed to be
tutored by a set of versatile and intellectually
intimidating scholars, almost all trained in some of
the best American universities with wide research and
consultancy experience for the UNICEF, UNESCO, the
World Bank and some other international and
multilateral organization. Many of them have since
left the department and relocated to the United
States; two of them are now late, but only one,
perhaps, is left in the department. So, I pay my
tributes to our gurus in journalism training and
social science education in the mass communication,
political science, psychology and sociology
departments where we took a breadth of courses to
sharpen our insights and analytical skills.
Sample the list of my gurus: Fidelis N Amatokwu and
Andrew Moemeka initiating me in Development
communication; Luke Uka Uche grounding me in Media
History, Communication Theories and Research, Foreign
Correspondence and Editorial Writing; Olatunji Dare
burnishing me in Fundamentals of Journalism, Feature
Writing and Public Affairs Reporting; Olu Fadeyibi
dazing me in Fundamentals of Broadcasting and Yomi
Daramola orienting me in Public me Relations and
Advertising.
Professors Alfred Opubor, Onuora Nwuneli, Idowu
Sobowale and Ralph Akinfeleye were simply the best in
the league of journalism scholarship in Nigeria. I
learnt at their feet. I drank from the rich cup of
wisdom of Delu Ogunade of blessed memory in mass media
Law and Ethics just as Segun Oduko improved my English
Writing skills in Writing for the Mass media, a purely
language and grammar course.
These mass comm courses were the oil or the lubricants
to chew and digest other core social science and
humanity knowledge-based intellectually stimulating
and rigorous courses which we were to undergo at
Unilag to prepare us for the expertise in development
communication and public affairs champions and not
just as mere reporters and broadcasters.
We were being trained to be relevant in the public
sphere as agenda setters and critical stakeholders and
actors in the public policy process in our nation. So
the mass communication department led us into the
hands of erudite political scientists, psychologists
and sociologists for the necessary intellectual
grooming. Professors Moyibi Amoda and Alaba Ogunsanwo
took turns in taking us through the elements of of
political science, just as Dr. Femi Badejo gave me
depth in International Relations. Professor Remi
Anifowoshe was my teacher in Constitutional
Developments in Nigeria while I had a rare privilege
of some Marxist or socialist indoctrination (that was
what our Marxist Political Economy was) from the late
guru, the inimitable Professor Bade Onimode who could
melt your hearts and draw tears from you in explaining
the tragedies of imperialism, monopoly capitalism,
unequal exchange and the role of multinational or
transnational corporations in the underdevelopment of
the Third World countries in the Sub-Sahara Africa,
Latin America and the Pacific Rim.
Professor Peter Omoluabi was simply an authority in
the explanation of human mind and behaviour as he took
me Basic Processes in Psychology, while a certain Dr.
T Kehinde grilled me in two core courses in Sociology:
Values and Ethics in Classical thoughts and Philosophy
and Contemporary Religious and Political Systems. But
most remarkably, I gained leadership training in the
university within the university of Lagos, the
beautiful masjid of the campus Muslim ummah where the
Muslim Students Society provided the training ground
through its daily activities – usrah, dawah camp,
morning talks, Jumah and other obligatory ibaadahs .
From that Islamic university, I learnt a bit of the
Tafsir-ul-Quran, Hifz and Elementary Fiqh. For Muslim
students like me, the likes of Professors Nurudeen
Alao, Tajudeen Gbadamosi, Abdufattah Egberongbe, Laide
Abbas and Murtadha Bidmus were mentors in the macro
and micro universities of Lagos.
2. Akoka to Bandar
From the temporal, intellectual and spiritual
perspective, the University of Lagos lives up to its
reputation as a first class institution and to its
mandate of building us in learning and character which
I took to various news desks on which I laboured as a
development journalist in the past 25 years. Happily
too, that grooming prepared me to cope with the fiery
baptism in public policy analysis and administrative
studies I underwent at the University Brunei
Darussalam while being a beneficiary of a UBD-Commonwealth
Broadcasting Association Graduate Studies Scholarship.
Professors Shafruddin Hashim, Kim Loy Chee and Ms.
Saraswathy Rajagopal were inspiring in the core
courses of the Study of Public Policy, Advance
Research Methods, Economic Aspects of Public Policy
and Strategic Public management. Dr. Muhammed
Habiburahman, a Fulbright fellow and a well rounded
scholar of Bangladeshi origin tutored me in Public
personnel Administration as he also volunteered to
supervise my case study in Strategic management in
Public Service Broadcasting. Professor David Seth
Jones, a Briton who has had an enriching academic
career at the national University of Singapore before
berthing in Brunei Darussalam was very rigorous in
public policy analysis while Dr. hajah Sainah binti
Saim was passionate in teaching Public sector
administration.
Which of the favours of our Lord can I deny with this
depth of grooming ! As I glorify Allah for the
opportunities I have had, I seek His benevolence and
forgiveness on Maami and Baami as I call my parents
both of blessed memory. My mum, Aasiah Adufe, a true
mother who sacrificed all possessions and pleasures,
toiling in the heat of the sun in the mid-road of
Dugbe, selling pepper and dried crayfish and my dad,
Alhaji Daud Ayinde Solanke (he called himself a
philosopher) weathering inclement cold, risk-climbing
tall ladders to cream houses and paint roofs in Ibadan,
Abeokuta and beyond as an artisan in the employ of the
maintenance department of the University of Ibadan
before retirement in1978. In their sweat and blood, I
swam through Abadina School, UI, Egba High School,
Asero Abeokuta, Baptist High School (for Highers
School Certificate or Advanced Level), and University
of Lagos finishing my education under 22 years which
is quite unusual for children of peasants as my
parents. With their pennies and pains, I picked pearls
in principles and practices of life through the rich
education afforded me which I now share Nigerians on
pages like you are reading, shaping people's opinions
and facilitating generative learning and public
engagement in the public sphere as a development
journalism practitioner.
3. Day One at Imalefalafia
It was the end of the 2006/2007 academic session, my
Year III at the University of Lagos. During the long
vacation, it was the practice of holidaying students
to fix themselves with the media houses of their
choice to gain practical experience before entering
the final year. As I was an Ibadan based student, the
Nigerian Tribune was my choice newspaper to test my
grasp of what I have learnt so far as a budding
journalist.
I remember Biodun Oduwole, as the News Editor then,
accepting my introductory letter from the Department
of mass Communication, University of Lagos for holiday
internship in 1987. I also remember fair-skinned Tunde
Laniyan, his deputy, being the able newsroom commander
and deputy news editor, polishing all scripts from
reporters to be fit for public consumption as news
materials. I remember akin Onipede, the dark-skinned
tall and robust assistant editor filing stories from
the Lagos office. I remember the fastidious petite mrs.
Bisi Yomi Layinka as a very competent female
journalist. I recall eagle-eyed Muda Ganiyu as the
chief –sub doing some yeoman's job to ensure our
stories make meaning while cutting them to size to fit
the precious newsholes .
I recollect Mr. Banji kuroloja as the no-nonsense
editor of the Nigerian Tribune and the magisterial Mr.
Felix Adenaike, a very sartorial gentleman with his
trademark black staff as the MD.
I remember my first challenging assignment, apart from
writing and re-wring some short news stories on the
desk, the coverage of the visit of a USIS delegation
to the Tribune. No senior journalist was around for
the 10.00am visit, and as an intern who must report at
the newsroom latest 9.00 am, the lot fell on me to
join the senior editors and the management staff to
receive the visitors and cover the discussion, sadly
without a tape recorder, a luxury for an intern like
me. Here was I, straining my ears to pick the drawling
English of the visiting Yankees , jotting down in
shorthand and abbreviations, in phrases and incomplete
sentences to make meaning a good stuff out of the
visit, fit for usage, after the news editor and
editor's clearance on a strategic page with my by-line
in the second and first editions.
My internship at the Tribune lasted six week and but
continued at Ile-Akede, as the Broadcasting
Corporation of Oyo State, Ibadan is known. At BCOS, I
remember being fixed on the Current Affairs Department
of the television arm of BCOS, following senior
journalists on special coverage and doing some reports
myself, and rushing home to listen to my voice on the
7.00pm news….Abdulwarees Solanke, reporting for BCOS
News. I remember being tasked to cover an emergency
press conference at Oke Mapo on the Ibadan Municipal
Government closure of Orita-merin market to force the
traders to relocate to the New Bodija market. Again,
no senior journalist was on ground. As the rookie on
the desk, I was commandeered to be at Mapo with a
cameran and an official car driving me there to cover
the press conference. Scripting and voicing for 7.00 o
clock television news on arrival from the impromptu
assignment, I was stupefied, being called to do a live
report of the assignment as the 6.00 clock radio news
bulletin was underway. I had to do an Usain Boltl dash
between the staff quarters offices of the TV Current
Affairs Department and the radio studio in the main
complex, some four to five hundred meters apart.
Panting, I had to adjust and adapt the TV script to
the radio right on the spot. I landed safely with
Abdulwarees Solanke, reporting for Radio O-Y=O, Ile
Akede, Ibadan.
I remember my one year service at Sokoto, joining the
third batch of the 1988/1989 in April 1989 and
concluding my service in 1990. The one year service
with the Envoy newspaper, published by Emman Usman
Shehu, the christian scholar in the seat of the
caliphate. Designated as the paper's news editor and
given free hand to write many incisive editorials in
the biting newspaper, service in the Envoy in Sokoto
groomed me in all practical aspects of newspaper
production beyond what I learnt at Unilag, up to
manual collation and distribution/marketing.
ABDUL-WAREES SOLANKE B.Sc. Mass Comm (Lagos); Master
of Public Policy (Brunei Darussalaam) Head, Voice of
Nigeria Training Centre, c/o VON Transmitting Station,
Ikorodu, Lagos. Formerly the special assistant to the
Director General, VON, he is the 2007/2008
Commonwealth Broadcasting Association scholar in
Public Policy at the Universiti Brunei Darussalam,
korewarith@yahoo.com 08090585723