Punch
Pioneer Managing Director and Editor-in-Chief of National Concord Newspapers, Chief Henry Odukomaiya, 87, speaks to TOBI AWORINDE about his life, journalism career and the state of the country under Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.)
You are the sole surviving child of your mother’s 10 children. As a young man, how did that impact you?
Oh, very badly! When I was about 10 years old, I had only two sisters. Before my birth, five children had gone and I was the sixth child of my parents. When I was old enough to know anything, it was only two sisters that I found. Of the two sisters, the first one died at the University College Hospital in Ibadan in 1951. That year, I was working with WNTV/WNBS (Western Nigeria Television/Western Nigeria Broadcasting Service), first in Africa. Then the second one died later in an attempt to abort an unwanted pregnancy. The youngest wasn’t so close to me in age but those in between us had died when I was very young. So, I didn’t get to know them well. The one that I grew to know well was the one who died (last).
What are some significant moments of your life as a young boy in Ibefun, Ogun State?
It was a traumatic experience when my father sent me out of Ibefun to Lagos and I had to do a three-day voyage on a paddle boat to Lagos. Getting to Lagos, after two nights on the lagoon, I was forced by my father’s decision to make sure I did not attend any of the few secondary schools available at Ijebu Ode at that time but to have what he considered a broader education by going to Lagos and having a wider variety of choices of secondary schools. So, he decided that, at the age of 10, I should be sent to Lagos.
There were two possibilities of my getting to Lagos from Ibefun, either for me to go on the lagoon on a canoe or to go through Ijebu Ode via Ibadan, then Abeokuta to Lagos. My father considered that too torturous and therefore preferred the less expensive choice by canoe. I spent two nights on the lagoon but luckily, we arrived in Lagos on the third day to the welcome of my uncle.
Can you share the highlights of your education?
I started at Holy Trinity Anglican School, Ibefun. At the age of 10, I was in Standard Four. That was the class I had reached when my father decided to transfer me to Lagos, so that I might have a wider variety of schools to choose from. He particularly wanted to avoid his own experience at Ijebu Ode Grammar School, where he said he lived with somebody who was very cruel to him because his grandfather could not afford to send him to the boarding house. So, he wanted me to avoid all of that. His own brothers were in Lagos, so he felt it would be easier for me to get along with his brothers, particularly his younger brother.
So, I entered the CMS Grammar School in 1947. I spent six years there and ended with the West African Senior School Certificate Examination in 1951. At the time, there were six selected schools which were running HSC (Higher School Certificate) classes. My father — bless him wherever he may be now — sent me to his old friend in Oyo, Chief Stephen Awokoya, who later became the first Minister of Education in the Western Region. As of that time, Chief Awokoya was running private HSC classes in his house; I was one of those who attended.
After that, I had the opportunity to attend the University of Ibadan and I was qualified because I already had a school certificate and HSC. But I did not go to university because my father suffered a loss of fortune and he was unable to send me. However, after working with the Daily Times for five or six years, the Chairman and Managing Director of Daily Times, in the person of Alhaji Babatunde Jose, now of blessed memory, sent me and a lady to Glasgow Polytechnic where I underwent a three-year course for Higher National Diploma in Journalism, coming back to become an Assistant Editor of the Daily Times.
What are some of the highlights of your professional career?
I began the practice of journalism with the Daily Times, first as a journalist without any training, which was the usual thing at that time. Journalists who went into the trade just practised on the trade. There was no formal training. But it was Alhaji Jose who first introduced formal training for young and educated recruits into journalism. The mantle fell on me and a young lady to be sent to England. I was sent to Glasgow Royal Polytechnic to undergo a three-year course leading to a HND.
When I returned, because only two of us who were in the employ of the Daily Times had any formal training in journalism, I was appointed Assistant News Editor. In four years, I was appointed Deputy Editor. In 1967, the position of Editor, Daily Times became vacant, after Peter Enahoro, who was a very well-known journalist for writing a column, Peter Pan. I became the successor by default because the person appointed to succeed Peter Ehanoro as acting Editor did not perform to the satisfaction of the directors of Daily Times. On May 1, 1969, I was appointed Editor and I occupied that position till 1973, after which I was kicked upstairs and became Deputy Chief Executive, combining administrative functions with very little journalism to do because I wasn’t made to supervise the editor.
Then the bubble burst in 1976 when the regime of Murtala Muhammed (now deceased) and Olusegun Obasanjo compulsorily took over the Daily Times without paying the shareholders any kobo. I know that because I was also a shareholder of the Daily Times and up till today, I’ve not got a kobo back out of my shares. I had 20,000 shares in Daily Times. And because it was a military regime, there was nothing anybody cared to do about it by taking them to court or not because that didn’t happen.
After 18 months in limbo, Chief Moshood Abiola, of blessed memory, appointed me as foundation Managing Director and Editor-in-Chief of Concord Newspapers. He had been briefed about me. He visited my house and said, ‘Egbon (big brother), Prince Odukomaiya, I’ve come to offer you employment as founding MD of my newspaper for which we will find a name at our first board meeting.’ He invited me to his office in International Telephone and Telegraph and, of course, I was unemployed, so I jumped at the opportunity. If the Daily Times had not been taken over by the government, I would have become a director, most certainly.
The most I could have become at the Daily Times was a director and that didn’t happen. Now, a very wealthy man was offering me employment as MD of his new newspaper, so I gladly accepted and I played that role until I had to leave the place. I did that from 1981 to 1983 when his wife, now of blessed memory, and I ran into a hitch. So, I left Concord because of that.
Again, there was nothing to do, so I returned to my house. I was there for about one and a half years until Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu invited me to Champion Newspapers. I did a total of seven years in Champion and ended my career as a journalist in 1994. I enjoyed my time in Champion Newspapers because the proprietor, Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu, considered my integrity and thoroughness on the job. He particularly said he admired my highhandedness, which my subordinates did not find funny. But it was those qualities that he admired and appreciated in me.
As a veteran journalist, can you compare the press in your day to what obtains now?
It is unfortunate that in my own day, I wasn’t a university graduate and neither was any journalist at that time. Maybe the first graduate to be employed in journalism was Areoye Oyebola, who died last year. Maybe because of that deficiency in academic qualification, journalists at that time worked with greater dedication and thoroughness. Today, I don’t know if in any newspaper, there would be anybody practising the profession of journalism who did not go to university. There are some with the ultimate qualification in academic, PhDs, but those are specialists. For perhaps even the whole retinue of journalists, the minimum qualification we have is no longer a diploma in Mass Communication or Journalism, but a university degree. You may have a university degree, not necessarily in Journalism. Because of that, the present-day journalists no longer practise their profession with dedication or thoroughness. You find some journalists just write as if this is not the same English that we all studied. It’s ironic that the higher degree of entry qualifications into journalism has not led to a higher thoroughness in the practice of journalism.
Who had the biggest influence on you in your journalism career?
Oh, Alhaji Jose! He was my mentor and I’m not ashamed to say I was his favourite. He made me to supersede many other persons who were senior to me because of the quality he said he found in me.
The late MKO Abiola is an icon of democracy, but you knew him more personally than most. What was your relationship like?
It was very cordial and he was generous, almost to a fault. As I said on many occasions in the past, he was most generous and accommodating.
As a boss, was Abiola hard?
No, I said he was accommodating. MKO had other companies; he wasn’t working there (at Concord). He left everything completely in my hands. I don’t know about those who worked with him in ITT (International Telephone and Telegraph) or other companies but not with me. He left Concord totally under my control.
How did you feel when the election was annulled in 1993?
I was not happy because up to the time of his death, we were friends, kind of. I was visiting him. He was a very good boss and employer to me. He was a friendly boss. We were not of the same age group and he was a Muslim. My first cousin was even his classmate at Baptist Boys’ High School at Abeokuta.
People of your generation often speak of a different Nigeria where one could travel around the country by road without fear of being killed….
Even my hometown is about one hour and 15 minutes away from here (my house in Lagos) but I wouldn’t dare now! I haven’t been there in over one year because of the insecurity. I feel sorry for what we are passing through but there’s nothing I can do about it. I’ve stopped thinking of going there until things are better, if they become better before I die.
How do you think the government should handle insecurity?
I don’t have any words of advice for the government because there are so many people in government who are much more experienced and better educated than me. A lot of advice is available to President Muhammadu Buhari, so who am I to be advising him? He is not my favourite, I didn’t vote for him. I’ve never voted for him. On the two occasions that he contested and won, I didn’t vote for him. He got there in spite of me, so good luck to him.
Did you anticipate this outcome in 2015 when he first won?
No, I didn’t. Nobody in their wildest dreams would have thought that Nigeria would become this, particularly in respect of insecurity.
What is the secret to your longevity?
God’s grace is the secret because I eat what the ordinary person eats. I don’t eat eba but I eat poundo yam, boiled yam and any other ordinary food. So, I do not see how anybody can say, ‘It is what I eat or my lifestyle that has contributed anything to the longevity that I have.’ Apart from the grace of God, (I attribute it to the) longevity is in my lineage. For instance, out of my father and all his five siblings, my father died after his 86th birthday. My father was the oldest of the six children, the one before him who was a female died early in life before I was born. The one after my father lived to the age of 89. The only woman among them died at the age of 91. So, you can see that my father’s generation had some longevity. Even if you have longevity in your family, you also have to be a favourite of God to enjoy His grace.
Can you share some of the challenges of family life?
That is not a rosy story to tell because my present wife is my second wife. My first wife and I divorced and it was a bitterly-fought divorce. Unfortunately, that first wife of mine died about five years ago but I attended the burial, even though we had been separated. She did not remarry before her death.
What about the joys of family?
I can tell you that as for children, I had nine of them — four from my first marriage and three from my present wife. Out of wedlock, the other children came and out of the fact that in my younger days, I was said to be handsome.
Can you share some highlights of your life outside journalism?
My ancestral church in Ibefun moved to a new site about 50 years ago. It was founded in 1894 and it is one of the oldest churches in Ijebu land because of the proximity of Ibefun to Lagos. It was very close to Lagos because of the lagoon. I built and equipped a five-bedroom bungalow as the vicarage of the Holy Trinity Church in Ibefun. I started attending Archbishop Vining Memorial Church (Cathedral), which became a cathedral in 1990, when it didn’t have any premises. We were worshipping in a hall at the Police College, Ikeja when I joined in 1964. My contribution to AVMCC is the payment of three instalments of a N1m pledge for the refurbishment of our cathedral in Ikeja GRA. That is my latest contribution. But I have not finished, I’ve only done three instalments, which is N600,000 (N200,000 yearly). I still have two instalments to pay to please God.
I also founded and edited the AVMCC Christian Outlook. What I found when I got to that church was a small four-page newsletter called The Link. But in 1979 or so, I was given the charge of founding a proper newspaper, so I didn’t discharge that function until six months later because, in between, there was correspondence between the church standing committee and me. I said it wouldn’t be a magazine, it would be like a newspaper. There is a rupture in the history of the AVMCC Christian Outlook; for the past two or three years, no edition has been produced. I don’t know what has caused that. But while it was ongoing, it was a well sought-out church journal in newspaper form.
What advice do you have for aspiring journalists?
As MD of two newspapers that I founded, I didn’t think that being MD of a place gave you the special privilege of coming to work at 9am. I was always at work at 7am. I was probably also the last to leave the place. My clocks were and still are always set several minutes ahead so as to give me a false sense of urgency. I no longer go to work for anybody but that has already settled as part of my life. The only one that I don’t make faster is my wristwatch. I did that for so many years in the profession in order to be able to get to work well ahead of any other person. I wasn’t competing with anybody and nobody was competing with me, I wanted to set the example to my managers and staff that ‘if I’m the MD and editor-in-chief and I come to work at 7am, I don’t expect you to come to work as early as me, but I expect you to get to work by 8am, not later!’ That made it difficult for a lot of my managers to come later than 8am. Anyone who came later than 8am knew that he or she had run into the soup.
To the young and aspiring journalists, the perception of a university degree is not the only thing you require to practise journalism. You also require hard work. You have to do a lot of research in whatever assignment you are given. You have to give a background. If you are a reporter and are given an assignment to cover the installation of the new Oniru of Iruland, you would go into the background and find out how the Oniru-ship arose and what the response was from the Oba of Lagos because that was breaking his kingdom into two. The Oniru of Iruland is not subject to the control or supervision of the Oba of Lagos. You find that the present Oniru and the one before him are very highly educated. The present one has a master’s degree and the current Oba of Lagos is a retired Assistant Inspector-General of Police and before going to the Police Force, he went to law school.
