AKINTUNDE AKANNI, journalist and communication expert, is an associate professor of Journalism at the Faculty of Media and Communication Studies, Lagos State University, Ojoo. In this interview, he shared his life story with TUNDE ADELEKE.
As a field journalist, you later became a communication teacher, how was the transition?
Actually, I didn’t plan for it, it was the Almighty Allah that plotted that career path. I recounted this in the tribute I wrote for my wife when she clocked 50. When I finished my first degree, my dream job was journalism. I was in love with journalism with the likes of Ray Ekpu, Dele Giwa, Yakubu Mohammed and much later, Dare Babarinsa. I cannot stop admiring Babarinsa for his ever-rich and didactic deliveries. Then, I married a lawyer but she made me realise that having gone to Law School, she already had a postgraduate qualification; and as a matter of culture in Yorubaland, it’s always better for the husband to be superior to the wife. So, she won’t allow me to rest. She persuaded me to go for my postgraduate studies. She also gave me the option of studying Law. As it would happen, I got the British Chevening Scholarship to do my Master’s programme in England. That was the beginning of my movement into academia. When I returned from England in 2000, the plan to set up a communication programme at the Lagos State University had reached its peak. So, I saw it as an opportunity. I was working with an NGO that I had co-founded, Centre for Free Speech (CFS). By that time, I had left CLO and we founded the Centre for Free Speech. As a director, the best thing for me really was to make optimal use of my time as a young man. So, I went to LASU. It was a time when they were doing recruitment, so it was a good time for me, especially with the support of my ever-lively and inimitable history scholar, Prof Siyan Oyeweso. That was how I went into it, and I don’t have any regrets.
Can you relive your growing-up experience?
Yes, I grew up in Osun State, Ede specifically. The present governor of Osun State happened to be my former classmate. The current Director of Works at the University of Ilorin, Engr. Amoo was also my classmate and quite a number of successful people like that. I happen to have attended a Muslim primary school and a Muslim secondary school –Muslim Grammar School, Ede. It was good because my parents were Muslims, and they wanted us, by all means, to take after their own religious convictions. And I have also found Islam quite transparent for anyone that cares. I later went to the University of Ilorin. But before I went to Ilorin, I spent a year at the College of Education, Ilesha. I wasn’t too sure I was going to pass the JAMB exams. Even when I was almost through with one year at Ilesha, I didn’t want anything to disrupt my admission into the university. That was why I didn’t bother to pick OAU (which was then the University of Ife). I didn’t want a situation where anybody would come back to say ‘you didn’t have enough to qualify.’ So, that’s why I settled for my Ilorin. The major attraction that I considered before settling for the university was for lecturers writing for newspapers. I have always wanted a university where the lecturers were writing for newspapers. Although I dodged the competition at the Universities of Ibadan and Ife where there was a high concentration of these people, we still had people like Olu Obafemi and Olafioye. That actually made up for me.
How was Ilorin in your time?
Ilorin was very good for me. I met quite a lot of wonderful people it Ilorin and to date, a number of us are still in touch, despite the fact that we’re from different parts of the country. I have people like Charles Elumelu. Charles Elumelu’s father was probably a police commissioner in Imo State where I served. In December 1986, I was ill and I went to the General Hospital, Owerri. After running some tests, the doctor decided that I was going to take about six injections hourly or so. I took one around 8:30 or 9:00 pm, and the injection was so strong that I couldn’t move immediately. So, I laid on a bench. From nowhere, Charles Elumelu came and asked, “Tunde, what’s wrong?” I told him I was ill and the doctors were trying to convince me that I needed to be admitted, but I had never been admitted to the hospital before. The doctor said, “All those admitted didn’t commit any crime, it’s better for you to come to terms with the reality,” but I still didn’t want to be admitted. So, Charles came and said, “let me take you home, I have a car.” This was a guy I was never close with while in school. That bond, I benefited from it that night; he took me home. And since then, I have not set my eyes on Charles Elumelu again. It was only recently that we set up a platform and I discovered that he was on that platform and we managed to interact. It was really exciting for the two of us to reunite.
Can you shed more light on your early education?
As I said, I attended Muslim Grammar School, Ede. I found MGS, Ede quite supportive and indeed most helpful. I have an Islamic background, I needed an environment that could help me nurture my faith. I found this in MGS, Ede; it had very good teachers including Ghanaians. That was when Ghana was experiencing economic problems and quite a number of them came to Nigeria. My favourite English teacher, Mr Stephen Natty Odjija, was a very skilful teacher. If you can manage to score 50 with him, you can be sure the minimum you’ll score in WASCE will be C4. I ended up scoring 58 in my mock exam with him. Having scored 50, I was confident I was going to do well, and I ended up having the best score in the history of that school in WASCE until 1981. I got A2. The person who scored hig department then was David Cook. It may interest you that he taught the great Ngugi Wa Thiong’o. So, we had a very good training in Ilorin. Ilorin, being the bridge between the North and South, also provided me with a good cultural and socialisation process and I managed to know many people. At that time, Kogi was still part of Kwara. I also leveraged on the advantage that my mum grew up in Ilorin and my maternal grandfather had landed properties in Ilorin. My undergraduate programme in Ilorin was quite an exciting experience. I had the privilege of spending the weekend in town, just like an average Ilorin boy because we had houses in Ilorin. My maternal grandfather had houses and shops which were being used by uncles while some were rented out. So, Ilorin was great for me.
How would you describe your career trajectory?
My career trajectory too has been very interesting. When I finished from Ilorin and was posted to Imo for NYSC, I was reluctant to go but when I was going, I made up my mind that by December, I would seek redeployment. I got there and I discovered that there was no reason to seek redeployment, especially as I got a fairly good place for my primary assignment, and I also got a good accommodation. At that time, the National Council of Muslim Youth Organisations (NACOMYO) had an outreach office in Owerri which was manned by a young man called Saliu. The Immigration Department, where I did my youth service, didn’t give us accommodation; they gave us money in lieu of accommodation. Saliu offered me accommodation so my accommodation allowance was a sheer bonus.
Serving in Imo opened me to a completely new culture. I had never travelled to the East. So, NYSC exposed me to the Eastern part of the country. I stayed in the NACOMYO centre, and had the opportunity to participate in Daawah exercises, introducing Islam to the people of the East. It was so exciting and rewarding. I met a number of serious Christians and serious Moslems. There were serious Christians who wanted to know more about Islam. If you’re not serious about your faith, you won’t want to know about other religions. I also knew quite a number of those who were already converted. I didn’t know that Allah was preparing me for some assignments in future. When the service year was over, I went into journalism and got into Punch under Alhaji Najeem Jimoh, and much later, I moved to Concord facilitated by Alhaji Liad Tella. When I got to Concord, I also got appointed to MKO Abiola’s Zakkat Committee and I served as a member. My responsibility was to share Zakkat in the then seven eastern states together with my deputy news editor in Concord, Alhaji Kunmi Olayiwola. When that assignment came, it turned out that Imo State was my second home; every year, I had to go. The service year acquainted me with the people. Each year that I went, the Imam in Owerri, Dauda Onyekocha, was always warm to us.
We shared zakat money with other places like Calabar, Uyo, Enugu and others. But for the service I had done in 86/87, I wouldn’t have found it as easy as that.
How was your experience in Concord as a journalist?
It was when I got to Concord that I got all the opportunities that I wanted and always craved. Concord had a number of titles –National Concord, Sunday Concord, African Concord magazine and Isokan, the Yoruba weekly newspaper. I was also writing for the Yoruba title, Isokan. Concord was the most generous newspaper at that time. Generous in the sense that even as a middle cadre reporter, you’re entitled to a copy of the newspaper, unlike in the Guardian where the reverse was the case –if you needed it, you had to buy, even as a reporter and even if you had stories in it, you must buy it. MKO did not run that kind of tight-fisted system!
We also had the WonderLoaf Bakery within the premises. You know journalists work till late in the evening. The bread was sold to us at cheaper prices coupled with the fact that as Concord reporters, we were elite reporters; every desk had a car. I was on the features desk and we had a Volkswagen Jetta that was fully air-conditioned. If you have any assignment, just call the driver.
I still remember the name of our own driver, Mr. Remi who often treated me with kid gloves because he happened to have come from Ile-Ife, Osun State. He saw me as his kid brother and he was always extra kind to me. I had a female features editor, Mrs Ewaen Osareren. To date, I still reckon with her as my boss because I am still media active. I still write for newspapers to date. Many times, when I write, especially when it has to do with our colleagues in Concord or their wives, I still share them with her. Tunji Bello was the politics editor and his wife is the Vice Chancellor of LASU. LASU commissioned me to write on the VC recently, and I shared it with my former boss.
What are your thoughts on journalism?
Journalism is good; it enables you to extend the frontiers of your network. You get to know people but it’s not a high-paying job. It compels you to have financial discipline, so that when you grow up, and attain some level of comfort, you don’t lose sense of where you’re coming from. Because it’s a tough job, it cultivates you for the future, just like teaching, in which you have to read, do a lot of research and combine it with administration. So, if you must excel as an academic, you have to prepare for it. Journalism came in handy for me, it prepared me. And the good thing is that it’s not everyone in the communication scholarship that has passed through the industry. But having had that advantage, I found it interesting to teach skills-based courses. It doesn’t look like anything difficult for me; it’s just like I am engaging my students in some petty play. Because I also have sufficient international exposure in the course of working for development organisations, that also gave me a lot of advantages.
What was the major challenge you faced?
After my national youth service, the young man that I was, was too impatient; I just wanted things to fall in place immediately. So, I wasn’t patient. My uncle with whom I stayed with then, Professor Isa Bello, wanted a lot of good things to happen in my life too. He had trained in Saudi Arabia and then moved to Canada for his doctoral studies. He felt that although Saudi is Arabic-speaking, there were still pockets of opportunities that one could explore there. So, I went there. Unfortunately, that coincided with the time the Gulf War broke out. I wrote a recruitment test, passed and did the interview, but the school called Al Manarah International School in Jeddah could not hire me, because enrolment had dropped drastically because of the war. Where will they get the money to pay fresh employees?
Initially, I was staying in the guest house of the World Assembly of Muslim Youth (WAMY) in Jeddah. It is a guest house, so I couldn’t continue to stay there for too long. I had to leave the place and started squatting with a cousin of mine who was an automobile mechanic in Jeddah. The guy would go to work in the morning, leave the wife and me, and we would sit down to just watch videos on the television after eating. Just the woman and I but in Islam, it’s not right! So, at all costs, I wanted to get a readily available menial job to do, and I got one in a furniture factory. We actually set up that factory together. I worked for some months. I used the period to nurture myself religiously. I also took advantage of it for Umrah and Hajj, and I used the period to pray a lot, most fervently, and I can tell you that Allah answered my prayers.
I returned to Nigeria in November 1990, and in January 1991, I started working in Concord, and that set the foundation of my career. It was the game changer in my life. But for that detour that I had by going to Saudi Arabia, I just thank Allah.
Any unforgettable experience?
Well, you know when I got the British Chevening Scholarship, my uncle, Prof Bello had a friend, Alhaji Azeez Bello, who is late now. Until his retirement at Pfizer, Alhaji Bello was the deputy managing director. He was a very religious man and extremely generous.
He was the kind of man who would just look at you and say ‘you probably need money’, and would give you money. When he gives you such money, he also makes sure nobody was there. When I returned from Saudi Arabia, I felt like I didn’t achieve anything but I didn’t know that Allah had answered my prayers.
I was dodging people, I didn’t want people to see me. It was Alhaji Azeez Bello that sent for me. He said, “I learnt you’re back in the country and you are hiding. You went to Saudi Arabia and things didn’t work out and you think that’s the end of life? You would still face other challenges in life! You’re still a young man, is any girl pregnant for you?” I said no. He asked “what then is the challenge? Go to the University of Lagos and shop for a postgraduate form, I’ll pay.”
And he did?
I went to the University of Lagos (UNILAG) and they just concluded admission for the year. Then, I went to the Nigerian Institute of Journalism (NIJ). Thank God, some courses were still on, and I applied for Public Relations & Advertising. The man not only paid but also gave me a book allowance. So, you can imagine that he actually meant to pamper me. And Alhaji Azeez was an avid reader. He wouldn’t be satisfied that he had read anything until he had started to share the knowledge he gained with others. He was an avid reader of the American Time magazine; he would share what he read in Time magazine with me, and other books he had read. He was also a regular traveller to the West. Each time he came back, he would share his experience with me. A very kind man. May Allah bless his soul.
Saudi Arabia was like a dark spot in my life, but it was a game changer. After my sojourn in the 1990s, Allah opened doors for me to go to Hajj several times. I went to Hajj with Alhaji Liad Tella when he was chairman of the Osun Muslim Pilgrims Board. In 2008, he was a member of the National Hajj Commission, he offered me another opportunity. And then, the immediate past chairman of the Hajj Commission, Ustaz Zikrullah Hassan, happens to be my friend and most reliable brother. In 2022, which was the first Hajj he had the opportunity of conducting, he took me along. In 2023 again, he took me along, two times as a member of the media team. But for his removal, I would have performed more Hajj pilgrimages. I know Allah will still offer me more opportunities.
How did you find love?
It was interesting. Again, it was the immediate past chairman of the Hajj Commission who came to me in my office at the Civil Liberties Organisation (CLO) and said ‘You know, it’s not when you have everything –good accommodation and car– that you start looking for a wife. At this stage of your life, you should be planning to settle down.” But, he was not going to leave me in a vacuum. Here is a lovely person, an uncommon friend, but much older than I am. He got his first degree in 1984. But in 1990, he went back to the university to study Law. He was staying in Surulere, my wife was also staying in Surulere with her uncle in a place that was not too far from my friend’s place. So, he and my wife were classmates studying Law, but my wife was much younger.
Did he connect you?
Much later, he said I should start looking for a wife, and he didn’t even wait for me to ask whether he had a candidate for me before he said “I have somebody, very intelligent, well behaved and very beautiful too. You’ll like her if you see her.” I said okay. He said, “come to my house.” The girl was usually in his house to play with his children. Truly, I went to his house and because they were neighbours, my wife truly came to his house that day. That was how we met. We started chatting; my friend just left us. So, when it was time for my wife to go home, I saw her off. We eventually got married. And Alhamdulillahi, it’s been blessings all the way. There’s one remarkable thing in my marriage, not for once have we got to have a third party to intervene in our affairs. It has never happened.
What’s your favourite food?
I don’t have a favourite food but I like beans; I can eat beans three times a day. I used to like dodo (fried plantain), until last year when I had a problem with high cholesterol. When I went for a test, they told me pointedly it was high cholesterol. How could I have developed this problem? Of course, I have a way of auditing myself.
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