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In the communications industry in the 70s and 80s state government owned newspapers were the main event. There were radio and television stations but newspapers remained the elephant in the mix. We had the Nigerian Chronicle in Calabar, The Nigerian Standard in Jos, Daily Star in Enugu, The Herald in Ilorin, The Tide in Port Harcourt, The Nigerian Statesman in Owerri, The Triumph in Kano and The Renaissance in Enugu. They dominated the media scene the way Pele, the Brazilian legend, dominated football.
The Cross River State Newspaper Corporation was established in 1970 by the Military Governor Brigadier Udoakaha Jacob Esuene. The Corporation gave birth to the Nigerian Chronicle and Sunday Chronicle. I worked there for six years after my NYSC programme in 1974 as Features Writer, Features Editor, Acting Editor of the Sunday Chronicle and Editor of the Nigerian Chronicle before fate took me elsewhere. It was at the Chronicle that I cut my journalism teeth; it was there that I learnt the nuts and bolts of the craft; it was there that I learnt the ins and outs of journalism practice under Mr Moses Ekpo and later under Mr Nelson Etukudo. So Chronicle was the midwife that delivered me as a baby journalist, a sophomore, that needed to be taught how to crawl, how to walk, how to run and how to fly in this line of business. So whatever I have achieved in my journalism journey I owe it to the Chronicle and God Almighty. They made it possible.
Then sadness came to me when I learnt that some beasts, yes that’s what they are, beasts, had burnt down the beautiful edifice from where we regularly delivered wit, wisdom and truth to the world. This was on October 20, 2020 during the EndSARS protest against the Police. They entered the place, torched the office complex, destroyed any and every equipment in sight and wait for it, the library, too. The place remained decrepit, deformed, defiled for six years until Governor Bassey Otu decided that if there was a death, there must be a resurrection. He revamped and revitalised the place and we the Chronicle alumni, gathered at a conference of the clan on September 3, as Otu injected oxygen into the place. Destroying the library bothered me a lot because I was the one that my Editor Nelson Etukudo assigned to do something about providing a suitable research library for the Corporation. And the man I used for that purpose was Nyaknno Osso who eventually also built the Newswatch research library into one of the best in the country. He is also the one who gathered and assembled the books, pamphlets and other documents for the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library in Abeokuta, the first in West Africa. I respect his skills endlessly.
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White Americans always say derisively that if you have a secret that you do not want Black Americans to know you should put it in a book. And they will never know because, according to their critics, they never read. Those who burnt down the Chronicle thought that they had killed the place; they did not know that there was a Governor Bassey Otu at the corner, a game changer, a futuristic reformer, a renaissance man, a believer in history, a legacy restorer, who decided to turn the ashes produced by the arsonists into a piece of pleasure for humanity. When I saw the newly built and refurbished edifice I wanted to dance. History has come back. It has turned a page. Truth will no longer be torn to pieces. Truth will put its shoes on again and march gallantly for the benefit of humanity. The arsonists thought they had burnt and buried the truth by burning the manufacturer of truth, the newspaper. But truth and its symbol have been resurrected and there will be no hiding place for truth shredders. Truth is never dead because “it is the foundation of all knowledge and the cement of all societies,” according to John Dryden. And that is also because a newspaper which is much more than a conveyor belt of truth. It is also a platform, a pulpit, a parliament and a university where ideas are marketed meaningfully.
At the resurrection ceremony of the Cross River State Newspaper Corporation, the Minister of Information and National Orientation, Alhaji Mohammed Idris Malagi, give the keynote address; Professor Oka Martin Obono of the University of Ibadan did the review of the book “A journey through the Ages,” which is a documentation of the history of the Corporation with its trials and triumphs. Dr Clement Ebri, a former Governor of the State and a former Editor of the Nigerian Chronicle who was a major mobiliser of people who served in the Corporation to the event also spoke eloquently about the Governor’s decision to revive the paper. Chief Effiong Essien, a former General Manager of the Corporation, a former Editor of the Business Times, was physically present at the event. He remains the master of meritocracy as he did not allow the ethnic vultures to distract him from the path of merit during his days as the General Manager. That led to the roaring success of the Corporation under his watch. My classmate at the Department of Mass Communication of the University of Lagos, Dr Offiong Okon was also there. He edited the Chronicle too. Several others who toiled in the Chronicle’s vineyard wrote their reminiscences in the book that was launched that day.
The revival of the Chronicle is good for the Cross River State and Nigeria because it is coming back at a time that there is a sea change in the media landscape. There is quite a lot of misinformation and disinformation in the public space largely through social media. Some of those who are not trained journalists but who call themselves citizen journalists have done a lot of havoc to the business of credible journalism and truth telling. So the traditional media need to balance the equation by merging the speed of new technology with the factfulness of conventional journalism. That way they can deliver truth speedily and get the best of both worlds, the world of speed and truth. Truth is like a pregnancy. You can’t hide it for too long. Our society must pursue truth-telling as a matter of habit. During this campaign period, the media must insist on conveying to the public the truth and nothing but the truth. That is what can help Nigeria to deal fairly with its many problems, problems of insecurity, ethnicity, transparency, corruption, poverty and unemployment.
Governor Otu did something amazing which was a pleasant surprise to those of us who worked in the Chronicle many years ago. He gave us Certificates of Appreciation. In Nigeria, people hardly remember the past, even the good part of the past. They are more inclined to say that the past is past and should be forgotten because it is already in the grave. Let us deal with the present because that is what can put food on our tables, they would say. The more ungrateful ones may even say that as far as the past is concerned “it is good riddance to bad rubbish.” That is vile revisionism. Governor Otu did not ridicule the past. He rewarded those who toiled in that vineyard years ago with Certificates of Appreciation. Wow!
Governor Otu please take a bow. History will remember you kindly as a veritable renaissance man.
