In school at the Jos Plateau State-based then campus of the
prestigious Nigerian Institute of Journalism (NIJ) where I took an
intensive professional course many years back we were told that journalists are
historians but of a different dimension in that they write bits and pieces of
history in a hurry. I had my very strong doubts then because I queried the
logic behind writing history in a hurry but was later convinced that indeed
those aspects of history written in a hurry but accurately captured make more
sense than the version that would undergo series of editorial scrutiny and
embellishments and sometimes insertions of variegated tissues of lies and
make-beliefs like the versions of African history written by the so- called
historians from the Western World who followed their contemporaries that
militarily subjugated and colonised much of Africa for many years and
engaged in series of looting of our natural, agroa-allied and human
resources.
Mr. Hegel a
philosopher who provided intellectual support for the subjugation of the black
race even insinuated that blacks were inferior to whites.
Anyway that's not
the focus of this piece which in some ways is a tribute to the memories of one
of Nigeria's most colourful, glamorous but politically savvy trado-cultural
rulers of the YORUBA speaking nationality of South Western Nigeria-the late
Ooni of Ife Oba Okunade Sijuwade.
My brief tribute
or intervention was borne out of the fact that this man who left a great amount
of impressions either/or in the minds and hearts of many Nigerians was once a
journalist who practiced for a brief period before proceeding to study business
management. His involvement and foray into the field of journalism has
once more reinvigorated my strong conviction that the media profession must and
should remain a noble profession and not just a trade as most of us the
contemporary journalists and media owners have assumed it to be.
Going through the
official biography of this great man although he may have his faultlines in
that he associated too closely with politicians and therefore can be accused of
displaying some partisanship but by and large that aspect of the official
records that showed him to have practiced journalism has added to a rich
collection of Nobel minds that once in their life times practiced Journalism
therefore serving as constant reminders for the contemporary media workers to
strive to respect their ethics and professional codes of conduct so as to
defend the Nobel integrity and historicity behind the practice of journalism in
Nigeria. Chinua Achebe of the Things fall apart fame whose works in the field
of scholarship currently enjoys global acclaims and this professor of literally
scholarship was once a broadcast journalist in Nigeria. So in both nobility and
academic prowess /excellence the Nigerian media isn't found wanting.
Most especially
the owners of the media industry in Nigeria who would now join the bandwagon of
those who would start paying tributes to the late Ooni of Ife must be made to
abide strictly to contractual terms that wouldn't subjugate their workers and
treat them like slaves.
Looking at how
earlier media owners set up their businesses we can see that they didn't treat
their staff like slaves. NNAMDI Azikiwe, Obafemi Awolowo were some of these
well known media owners who never maltreated their workers in the way and
manner that some media owners do to their workers and there are no regulatory
framework effective enough to deter these range of punitive practices against
ordinary media workers who toil day and night to keep their media houses
relevant and viable. Dr NNAMDI Azikiwe specifically published several titles
that spanned up to Sierra Leone and West Coast or Ghana. Incidentally the late
Ooni of Ife reportedly worked in the newspaper chain set up by the late Western
Nigerian leader Chief Obafemi Awolowo. As prominent Nigerians would have
started pouring encomiums on the memories of the departed traditional ruler of
Ife it is imperative that his record of having worked as a journalist mustn't
be just a mere mention but must be used as a point of contact to highlight the
various operational challenges that modern media industry face and to proffer
concrete panacea to the situation of poor salary structure for media workers by
the owners.
It's an
irony of unfathomable reach that the media practitioners who are the only
professional groups recognised by the constitution by way of a detailed mention
in section 22 of the Nigerian Constitution as vanguard and Consciences of
Nigeria are at the same time treated shabbily by the media owners. This is
pathetic and sad and smacks of hypocrisy that we who preach freedom are at the
same time treated as economic slaves and we lack institutional redress
mechanisms and everyone seems not to give a hoot or a damn (apologies to Good
luck Jonathan).
Nigeria Government
needs to look at the issue of newsprint whose importation is not only
cumbersome but heavily taxed and the ugly fact that the local newsprints'
manufacturing industry seems to have gone comatose.
Government has to
bail out the suffering media industry more particularly with the resuscitation
of the newsprint manufacturing sector. Now to the main tributes to the memories
of this colourful ruler I learnt that his pursuit for academic and professional
trainings took him to virtually all the leading manufacturing and business
firms in many European countries.
As stated
officially, Oba Okunade Sijuwade was born on the 1st of January,
1930 to a great royal family in the Ogboru house, Ilare, Ile-Ife.
Prince Okunade
Sijuwade as he was then called, reportedly started his elementary education at
Igbein school, Abeokuta, an institution owned by the CMS mission. He lived with
his other brother under the care of their father’s good friend Chief G. A.
Adedayo and his family. Chief Adebayo was the secretary to the Egba council,
under the Asoju Oba. After his elementary school education he proceeded to
Abeokuta Grammar school, under the well-known educationist, The Rev. I. O.
Ransome Kuti who was the principal.
Herein is my
interest. In the precise words of his official biographer as seen on the
Internet by this writer, the late Ooni of Ife before he left to Europe for
extensive studies the young man on his own volition decided he needed to
have journalistic training.
He joined The
Nigerian Tribune where he spent two years, first as a reporter
and later as a sales executive. Thereafter, he proceeded to the United Kingdom
in the early fifties to undertake a course of training inBusiness
Management.
His training was essentially
in Northampton and with the Leventis Group in Manchester in 1957. He also
participated in advanced business management training programmes with
companies in Italy, Greece, Cyprus, Scotland, West Germany and Israel.
Coming again to
the challenging times faced by the media industry my take is that the current
administration should find the political will to revive the moribund newsprint
manufacturing industry and also provide the enabling environment for foreign
direct investors in the fields of newsprint and books to set up their
production lines in Nigeria for the very good reasons of providing job
opportunities and the revival of economic productivity of Nigerians.
Besides that would encourage reading culture amongst the youth because a reading
youth is a prepared leadership especially in our clime whereby we are
experiencing speedily the decline of leadership qualities amongst contemporary
politicians. Let the memories and journalistic legacies of this all
rounded and educated traditional ruler be respected by doing the aforementioned
and many other measures to promote intellectualism and reading culture even as
the Nigerian media industry needs to be administered in accordance with best
global practices.
*Emmanuel
Onwubiko is Head of Human rights Writers association of Nigeria and blogs @www.huriwa.blogspot.com,www.
29/7/2015
