WORLD Information Agents came with Alaroye in 1985. How did the name Alaroye come about? What informed the choice of the name?
Alaroye in Yoruba language can be positive – like an explainer who would explain until you can understand; and the other side of Alaroye is that it can be a talkative. A talkative can make sense; when he or she starts talking, the facts would come out but you might get bored when the talking becomes too much.
When we were about to start in 1985, the name I wanted to use was Alawiye. An elderly person who was into book publishing said I couldn’t use the name because Alawiye is the name of a published work. Then it just occurred to me and I said ‘if I can’t use Alawiye, what about Alaroye? He said ‘that’s very good, you can use that’. The name didn’t come about from any special thinking. We were just playing on words that ‘if Alawiye is not going to be then Alaroye can as well be’. The thing there was that I wanted to write. I wanted to inform the people. I knew certain things that the older Yoruba newspapers were not doing and I wanted to do that. I found that I could write and I wanted to use that opportunity to publish a newspaper.
Unfortunately, I wasn’t coming from the print background. I was a broadcaster, a news reader first with Radio Lagos before I moved to NTA. So, I was with NTA when I decided to do the newspaper. We were just broadcasters reading the news, I was not in the print but I loved it and wanted to do it.
Is it the same desire that took you into broadcasting? How did your broadcasting career start?
I was a poet, an Akéwì. The WNBS in Ibadan was reading news in Yoruba but when states were created, new radio stations sprang up and they needed news readers in Yoruba. Ogun Radio Radio Lagos, Radio O-Y-O needed broadcasters but in actual fact, there were very few trained broadcasters for Yoruba then. Most of those who started reading were either poets or teachers. So, teachers of Yoruba were those drafted to produce Yoruba programmes on radio and television. There was no special course for this back then.
I was a poet and got into radio by accident. The Ojo Ladipo Theatre Group (of Baba Mero) was planning a 13-episode programme on Radio Lagos and they invited me to give them Ewi in the programme. When I got there, a leading producer of Yoruba programmes then, Mr Bayo Tijani, at some point said ‘your Ewi is very good, can’t you read news?’ I told him I didn’t know about it but that I would try. He said watch what they were doing and that was it. I grew up reading Yoruba books. When I was in Primary 3, I was reading books by D.O. Fagunwa. My father and his friends would sit together and invite me to read the stories to them. I did it to their satisfaction even though I was quite young. So, I was used to reading Yoruba texts. When I started, people were asking “where did you find this boy? He is fantastic” and so on. I was so young but I was comfortable in it because. I was also able to translate news brought in by the reporters and so on. Because of that, I was well informed about what was going on in the society to the extent that during the 1983 elections, I was the one who translated Chief Obafemi Awolowo’s speech, the speech of Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, Dr Tunji Braithwaite and all the other presidential candidates. I translated and read them.
With that, I thought I was well-equipped to have a Yoruba newspaper because I was reading the news. I didn’t know that there were so many things I still needed to do before you could say you are a publisher or before you can have a newspaper or working in the print media.
There were some soft sell newspapers in that era and they were prominent. I mean publications like Ikebe Super, Fun Times and others like that. Did you include them in your thoughts with a view to rival them or something?
Actually, I was thinking of the uniqueness which I wanted to bring in then. I had been reading other Yoruba publications and they were enjoying one thing: they had parent bodies. Iroyin Yoruba came from Tribune; Isokan was owned by Concord; Gbohungbohun was owned by Sketch. So, there was actually no individual newspaper except one that was called Ariya, which was an entertainment newspaper. Because I was involved in news reading, I was able to know that some of the news they published were very stale. This was because I had come across them earlier in the week. So, when the same stories were published by the newspapers, I felt there was the need to alter that. I said I would not serve my people this, rather I would serve them current news. In addition to that, I also gave a thought to the interpretation of news. In most cases, the Yoruba newspapers would write just what the English publications had written and nothing more. So, I said I was going to bring in interpretation of news.
I was not looking to rival any of those publications then, what I was actually looking for was an outlet to pour out what I had in me. I wanted to bring out what was in me. I felt that I knew so much that I needed to write.
One of the major objectives of the Alaroye brand was to enhance and help the reading and speaking of the Yoruba language. How has that objective been achieved?
Thank God, today as we speak, the largest user of Yoruba language in print is the Alaroye newspaper. There is no other person or organisation – not even publishers – that uses the language as much as we use it. We’ve been formally recognised as that. Then, because of the way we write, we have encouraged reading Yoruba. Young people who would ordinarily complain that they could not read the Yoruba language are often told to read the Alaroye. And, because we write the way we speak, when they pick it they always want to read more. So, because of this we’ve been able to bring more people to read Yoruba even when there is a competition between the language and the English language. We are one of the champions of that cause that Yoruba language should be the the language of first contact by our pupils in primary school, that they should be taught in that language before any other language. Recently, the government has come to do that and we are very happy not only because that is what we do, but because we know that it is going to help our children.
So, the effort has not gone in vain, we have been able to achieve that part of the objectives of founding the Alaroye newspaper.
The peak of that effort that time must have included what you and the Alaroye brand did during the June 12, 1993 elections and the ensuing political crisis. Where were you then? How did you and the Alaroye wade through the crisis?
In Yoruba, we say ountí ò dáa, kòl’orúkomeji, kòdáanáàni (once something is bad, it is bad, there are no midway descriptions). I was very lucky to have been involved in the June 12 struggle. When General Sani Abacha’s goons were looking for me and others involved in it, I was able to have that good conviction that what we were doing was right, that we were not doing this thing because of money. Surprisingly for me too, it would have been another story entirely if not for God. I wrote a book in Yoruba language for the then Alake of Egbaland; we planned the launching of the book and Chief M.K.O. Abiola was the chief launcher. He had agreed to come and said he would be in Abeokuta on June 11 which was a Friday. He advised that we fixed the launching for that day. Unfortunately for me, Justice Bassey Ikpeme delivered a judgment that there would be no election. Early on that Friday morning, Chief Segun Osoba, who was then the governor, and Chief M.K.O. Abiola travelled to Abuja and left instructions that that book must not be launched until they returned. They said they would be back between 12 noon and 1 pm. My presumption was that they went to see President Ibrahim Babangida about the election issue and unfortunately, the issue could not be resolved as they envisaged. The Alake also insisted that that book could not be launched because his two most important children had said he must wait for them. So, all the guests we had invited, including the Ooni of Ife, had to return.
Why I said it had the hand of God is because when we were fighting, some people said Alaroye was owned by Chief Abiola, they never knew the owner. The government did not even know me and they also believed that Alaroye belonged to Abiola. They thought that was why the paper was so vociferous and so actively fighting the cause.
Your being vociferous in support of Chief Abiola made sense…
It was not about Chief Abiola but because of what happened. We were fighting for the truth. During that election, I was in the Nigerian Tribune. I was there for an internship because I had to go to the Nigerian Institute of Journalism (NIJ). It was when Folu Olamiti was there, and there was also Chief Ebenezer Babatope, among others. We would analyse the whole situation and all that was happening. On June 23, 1993, I was still in Tribune and all the activism was in me. Alaroye was coming out with all the boldness and with such a strong voice. Many people thought if it didn’t belong to Abiola, it wouldn’t have gone this far. Tell was also very supportive of the struggle and we were also linked… Some argued that Alaroye was owned by TELL Magazine; that Alaroye was the Yoruba arm of TELL Magazine. It was so serious that some of our elders in Yorubaland were going to translate Alaroye to Abacha’s group. They would say this is what Alaroye had written and that we wanted to cause chaos in the country and destabilise the government. Abacha was not a Yoruba man but our people were the ones translating the publications to him.
One day, the SSS sent for me and warned that we should be very careful and that we should not be found around. So, we were always on the run. However, what we were fighting for was the truth and we were convinced that the other party was the wrong party.
That must have been a period of tension for you. You must have been afraid because you would feel like you were also targetted?
We were not really afraid because many of us in the struggle were young and did not quite care. So, we didn’t really care what would happen but we were running from them because of the disruption of our work. Disruption of our publications was their actual target because they would just arrest you and keep you in a place and by doing that they know you will not be able to produce, no news would come from you. That was why they were closing down newspaper houses. Their primary plan wasn’t to kill you but to keep you somewhere so you would not be disturbing them with your publications. That was why we were running from them.
There was a day they came to my house at an odd hour like that. They were banging the door and I had to jump the fence to the other side. Their noise and threats attracted the neighbours who reacted to their visit and they had to leave. Interestingly, what usually happened at that time was that when people got bold enough and stand up to them, they would run because some of them were on illegal duties.
So, you had to jump the fence?
Yes, I had to do that because if I didn’t, they would take me away. There was a day we were printing and they came to where we were printing – I think the place is called TNT – and everybody scampered. It was as bad as that then.
It was wise to run also because Sergeant Rogers was on the prowl then. They killed Chief Alfred Rewane, shot Chief Abraham Adesanya and killed Kudirat Abiola…
That was even the peak of it because we were now aware of the seriousness of the junta. We saw that it was beyond just threats and that they were out on a mission to kill just to silence anybody who stood in their way. So, many people in the society had accepted their fate as they continued to look for those of us who could still come out to say the truth. Many newspapers fell by the wayside and the friends of the junta were establishing newspaper houses to lie and to propagate whatever they wanted to do. At the end of the day, it was the truth that overcame all those things. It was a tough time for the newspaper industry.
However, while it was a tough or bad time for the newspaper industry, it was also a challenge, a time that brought out who you were exactly. It was a time to tell who you were and what you were producing for the people. Were you in the industry to make something out of it through your reportage and analyses of the events? Were you with the people or were you with those in power? We knew those who were with the people and we knew those who were with the government. It was a challenge and it was a period you knew those who were journalists and those who were charlatans.
Then, in terms of income, it was a booming period for the industry. It was the type that had the people reliving the experience they had in the 1960s during the Western Region crisis. The boom that was seen in the newspaper industry between June 12, 1993 and May 29, 1999 would make many journalists say that they had never had it that good.
It made me agree that Nigerians are bad readers or that they never read at all. They buy newspapers only when they are afraid or when there is something bordering them or their security is threatened. They would buy to know what is going on. It got to a time when there were a few major publications, Alaroye Weekly. Tthe others were either sealed or were under severe surveillance. Then they could print 150,000 copies per edition and I wonder what one would say now about print runs.
The vision and efforts of that time would soon be 40 years. When you look back, it will seem that readership and the economic gains are coming from the pinnacle to the abyss. How do you think the newspaper industry can manage and wriggle out of this situation?
Like I have just said, Nigerians are very typical, a different set of people. They would go for two types of stories: Entertainment – we have a large percentage of our population who are very frivolous, gossip, party and so on and any newspaper in that area will attract them. It is not all that well for them too. When it comes to hard news, you don’t see people specifically going out to buy newspapers because they want to read, they buy newspapers because of what is happening around them. They don’t buy because of the education that newspaper gives. It happens everywhere, even among professionals. We do not cherish information, we buy newspapers only when we are scared, we buy negative things and we enjoy rumours and so, we want to buy from those who peddle rumours. We do not want anything too serious that is going to bother our mind and intellect.
Many have argued that it’s because of the Internet but I disagree. When you go to European countries or even the USA, and you are inside a train, despite the fact that newspapers are given to people free, you will still see some of them who actually buy other newspapers. Despite the availability of the Internet, you will still see them with books in their hands. They read novels, motivational books and professional books. In a population that is not anything near ours, you still see them print about a million copies daily. So, it is not because of the Internet but it is because of our poor reading culture.
At what point did we begin to lose this reading culture because it wasn’t this bad back in those days?
Those who were coming up then were serious-minded – accountants, teachers and other professionals. They wanted to read. Daily Times of Nigeria was once printing 750,000 copies daily, so what happened? Some people had said the oil boom was a curse on Nigeria because immediately these frivolities set in, everything got lost because everyone was interested only in parties and the good life. Back in the days of proper reading, everybody that was respected was a critical thinker. The more you could think and act, the more you could earn because you didn’t have to make it because you know one political bigwig or the other. Even job seekers want to buy newspapers for information on government and its activities because these can come up in interviews. So, people were buying for reasons other than frivolities then. Now, news is popular because a celebrity ‘has hammered’ or ‘has been hammered’ and people want to read it for debate purposes. In those days we had at least 80 per cent serious minded people in most spheres of the life of the country and that was why the country was excelling.
Somehow, we still need to sustain the drive for people to develop themselves and particularly for you, the need to sustain the reading and speaking of the Yoruba language. What is your protection for the future after 40 years of Alaroye?
Why are people running away from speaking their mother tongue? It is because it was not made a language of commerce. When you go to a home and they tell you “uncle don’t speak Yoruba to the child, he doesn’t understand Yoruba”, is it not because they want the child to pass English and go to the university or get a job? At the job interview or at the ministry or department, would they speak in our local languages?
So, when the government understands this and recognises that there are more benefits in that area for them than when they ignore or try to kill it, the better for all of us. Because of one Nigeria, we have been emphasising English, where has it now taken us to as a society? Can we compare the growth, development and values of today to when the people of the North were united under one language? Can today’s Yorubaland be compared to when we were united under one language or the Eastern Region of one language? Didn’t we see the grounds they broke and the development of the Eastern and Western regions of those days? What Chief Awolowo did during that period, we are still chasing it. Will any government surpass it as things are going?
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