PUNCH
Veteran journalist and Co-founder of Tell Magazine, Nosa Igiebor, speaks to ALEXANDER OKERE about his torturous career during the military era, including his arrest and detention by brutish regimes and how it affected his family
You clocked 70 December last year and many consider that a milestone, considering the risks you faced during the military era. Having been born before independence what kind of childhood did you have?
I had a very good, quiet life. I am from Edo State. I was born in Benin and I grew up there. Growing up, life was exciting. I was in primary school when Nigeria attained independence and I remember vividly that on that day (October 1, 1960), we lined up with the green-white-green flag in our hands. Benin City then was serene. People knew one another, depending on the quarters of the city they were living in. I think I grew up with the right values. Virtually everybody in my family was a Catholic.
You practised hardcore journalism in trying times. Was it your aspiration to become a journalist? Or could it have been something else?
In the course of my life, I have reflected on that again and again. My first love is engineering but in the secondary school that I attended, I never had the chance to study science subjects and even if I did, I think my obstacle would have been mathematics; I was never interested in mathematics. That is the irony of my life but one thing I learnt as a child was developing a passion for reading; that has been a life-long vocation. So, I won’t call myself an accidental journalist. As I said, I would have loved to be an engineer. After leaving secondary school, I wanted to study Economics but again, I could not discipline myself to sit down and learn maths, which was a requirement for studying Economics.
I was also interested in writing. I used to write short stories that were published in the Sunday Observer, which was owned by the (former) Mid-West Region, (the defunct) Bendel State, and subsequently Edo State. It was a classmate of mine, Dr Michael Ehima, who advised me to study Journalism since I had a problem with mathematics. I thought about it and that was how I got into the profession.
You worked in different media outfits, including the Nigerian Television Authority and Newswatch magazine, before co-founding Tell. In retrospect, will you say your career panned out the way you wanted?
To a large extent, I will say yes. I started my career in broadcast journalism at NTA Benin. But, again, I attended the Ghana Institute of Journalism and graduated in July 1976. While there, I had also developed an interest in cinematography. I wanted to be a cinematographer. When I returned from Ghana, I actually got a job at the Daily Sketch in Ibadan (Oyo State). I also got a public relations job but I was not interested in that; that was the same time I got a job at NTA Benin, so I opted for NTA Benin. I said being in broadcast (journalism), which is close to cinematography, I would go there (NTA Benin) and learn. Later, I was offered admission to study cinematography in the UK and I applied for the then Mid-West State Government Scholarship but unfortunately, I didn’t get it, so I closed that chapter (cinematography).
