A report of mine infuriated Abacha so much that he instituted a probe – IG Chukwu

Mr. Ignatius Chukwu has been a hands-on, on-field journalist for about 45 years, longer than perhaps all his peers, and has made names in Benue and Rivers states. He tells SAM NWAOKO some of his vast experiences. Excerpts:

 

Your journalism career has come a long way and thankfully, you are still on the field after over 45 years. At what point did your journalism career take off sir?

I left secondary school in May/June 1977. When I was in school, I wasn’t sure I could spell the word ‘Journalism’ in a hurry because I wasn’t even familiar with it. So, journalism was not in my radar. I didn’t even know what it was anyway. From my village background, what I knew was teaching but I wanted to study law. So, I went to the town after my school and my brother, who had the largest studio Oturkpo in Benue State, had a wedding. I attended the wedding and was not in a hurry to leave Oturkpo after the ceremony. I wanted to hang around and spend some time. A man came to the studio and they told me he was “Chief Editor”. That was what they knew about journalism. The man was described as “the Chief Editor of the Daily Times in Makurdi.” He used my brother’s studio for capturing photographs around the area. They would take photos for him, he would come, collect the photos and pay for them. It became a relationship and when I noticed that, I asked my brother to tell him that I needed a job and that I had finished secondary school. My idea was that he would use his connection to get me one employment in which I would settle down and try to raise money for further education. When the man came back, they told him about me and he asked for my credentials and he said that my English Literature was good and that I should follow him. I followed him sheepishly, no questions about where and what. He brought me to his office in Makurdi and the next morning, he gave me some of the many press releases that filled his table. He asked me to read the Daily Times very well and write one press release that he gave me to sound like what I read in the Daily Times. That was my first encounter; that was all the training I got. He told me that and left for an assignment.

I was embarrassed because I didn’t know what that meant. I was angry but there was nothing I could do. So, I settled down, read two editions of the Daily Times very well and picked up the press release he gave me and wrote what I could. When he came back, he glanced at what I wrote and declared: ‘You are going to be a great journalist’. I became more confused. I didn’t even know the meaning of what he said when he was trying to find out how I did the headline, the intro and the body of the story. I was also angry at him because he didn’t even read all that I wrote; he only glanced at it for a few minutes. I felt that he didn’t care about what I wrote but was more interested in the headline and the intro. Later in journalism, I became a ‘king’ in headlining. Many times colleagues brought a lot of headlining issues for me to resolve and I now realise that was what he saw in me that time when I had not even known the spelling of journalism.

After this rough test, the very next thing he did was to send me to cover Government House and Governor Abdullahi Shelleng was the governor then. He was the Chief Correspondent of the Daily Times then, which was why they called him “Chief Editor”. He was a very busy person because he was always travelling. His base was in Onitsha, Anambra State. So, he needed me to be the boy on ground to cover assignments for him. He told the Chief Press Secretary then, who lived close to our quarters, that I would represent him at the government function. In the morning the man took me in the car and we went to Government House. We were going to Ugbokolo and the CPS begged me for us to be two in one salon car. I didn’t know that it was one car to a journalist – and you can imagine me, an ordinary fresh secondary school graduate, in that kind of luxury.

How many newspapers could you remember publishing by December 1977 when you had these experiences?

We had Daily Times, Nigerian Tribune, Observer, Standard (Plateau); Daily Star (Enugu) and a few others. None of the many popular newspapers of today had been founded by then and if they were, they were not circulating that far. This meant that there were not many correspondents and that was why they could allocate one car to one man. When the cars for that trip were not enough, they begged me to be two in one car. It was another embarrassment because I might as well have rode to the venue in the boot. My first ever assignment was for Daily Times, at Ugbokolo in the convoy of Governor Abdullahi Shelleng.

What was it like out there on the field?

There was an experience I won’t forget. When we got to the venue, it was an inspection of a construction project. It was about moving in quick paces and, even in some cases, running to keep apace. As a young boy, it was easier for me to run up to meet up with the governor anywhere his car stopped. It was my first assignment ever. I didn’t know why we were running but I enjoyed it. I was supposed to grow through covering smaller activities but I was thrown straight into coverage of the Government House from Day 1. When we got to a site, I ran ahead and almost overtook the governor. His ADC grabbed me off the ground and literally just put me aside. “Who are you!?” he asked but I didn’t even know what to say. In truth, if I had become a journalist, it hadn’t dawned on me. It was the CPS that quickly came and said “He is (Austin) Akaeme’s boy” and saved the day. Austin Akaeme was a popular journalist in the region and Daily Times was one of the biggest platforms even in Africa. Salisu, the CPS, said I was Daily Times’ reporter and that was how I began to introduce myself as Daily Time reporter because I heard it from the Press Secretary. My very smallish size and naivety or innocence must have impressed the governor. He told them to leave me to feel free and allow me to do my job. It was the Press Secretary that taught me that no matter how far or fast I ran, I should not run in-between that soldier (the ADC) and the governor. I learnt that that day. Nearly everything I learnt was thrown at me and then, I naturally learnt from there.

How did you now formalise your Daily Times appointment or did it end with just being Akaeme’s boy?  

The problem was that my creativity and my hardwork worked for and against me. I was to proceed to Daily Times Training School to become something important. But everything those people who trained were doing, I could already do and because there was a heavy need for me, Mr. Akaeme got approval from the Editor of Daily Times, Prince Tony Mommoh, to train me instead of me going to the training school in Ikeja. So, I did not go to that school but I was treated like somebody who did. I was given all the privileges because I was now delivering well.

However, Mr. Akaeme took ill and this made me to be working as what they called Lineage Reporter. I was paid according to the number of my stories that were published. I got frustrated and went to the National Concord where there was an opportunity. At Concord, they wanted me to choose between Editorial and Sales Departments. I figured that a job in sales would allow me time to finish my ‘A Levels’ studies, so I opted for a sales job in National Concord. However, I was contributing to editorial content through John Akor. Shortly after, I returned to the Daily Times as a staff member. I was at the Daily Times until they did their famous purge of 1984. That massive purge affected me and from there, everywhere there was opportunity, I joined. That took me to The Guardian, ThisDay etc. all these were in Benue State.

At what point did you become the Post Express Bureau Chief in Rivers State?

I was freelancing for The Guardian. In their style, they would test you for three months although mine took about six months. I was doing the test-reporting in Makurdi and waiting for their assessment. When the result was released, I went to Lagos and the Editor, Emeka Izeze, told me I came first. He said various desks wanted me, especially the Business Desk. This must have been because I was doing a lot of popular stories from Lobi Bank and Benue Cement Company (BCC). They told me to join the Business Desk but I said I could only work in Makurdi. The Editor said he didn’t have a budget for Makurdi except if I wanted to be a freelancer. I chose to be a freelancer and went back to Makurdi. Guardian was shut and before they came back, I had joined ThisDay for a very short period. I was in Lagos when Kudirat Abiola was murdered and I was part of the people that did the story. I did mine for Post Express because my mentor in ThisDay had already left and when I returned to Makurdi, I returned as Post Express Correspondent.

Before Port Harcourt, a foreign TV station did a story that bribery had taken over Nigeria, and that General Sani Abacha had ruined and turned Nigeria into a pariah state. They used body cameras to capture images of people paying bribes at the airport to illustrate their story. But President Abacha said the story was part of orchestrated campaigns by foreign interests to denigrate Nigeria following the killing of Ken Saro-Wiwa. While that controversy raged, a story I wrote on the murder of a businessman by policemen in Makurdi because of N20 bribe was published. The story was celebrated because the erring policemen shot three occupants of a vehicle but, somehow, one of them did not die. He was not even harmed. The policemen didn’t know that he was not harmed by their shots and that he had managed to escape. They declared him ‘missing’. I got to know his whereabouts courtesy of his family and he appeared and was the prosecution witness in the matter. Some of the policemen were sentenced to death while some of them were dismissed and given long prison sentences. Post Express was one of the early papers on the Internet and that foreign media outfit picked this story as a support for their claim on their own story. They used my story to justify their report and Abacha was very angry and ordered a probe into that story. This transformed me into a kind of celebrity and even the family of the victim took me in and gave me further insights into what really happened. I was the chief reporter of the trial.

How do you advise modern-day journalists?

I’m a trainer and I was trained to be thorough with our copies. When I’m teaching, I teach journalists that their employer is actually their copy, not their editor or their publisher, those are the administrative employers. Everything about journalism is the copy. When your copy is strong, if you are in trouble, it is your copy that will save you or nail you. If the newspaper wants to sack, it is the copy that will speak for or against you. So, copy is your real employer. If you become competent on copy, have no fear. The link between the journalist and his employer is the copy.