No journalist should die without writing a book

By Chika Abanobi

Immediate past governor of Ekiti State, Dr. Kayode Fayemi; Managing Director/ Editor-In-Chief of The Sun Publishing Ltd, Mr. Onuoha Ukeh; former Managing Director and Editor-In-Chief of The Sun, Ghana, Mr. Shola Oshunkeye and co-founder of Tell magazine, Mr. Dare Babarinsa, have called on practising and retired journalists to put their experiences down in a book form so that people coming behind them could learn the rope of journalism practice.

They spoke in Lagos on Wednesday at the public presentation of Yinka Fabowale’s journalism memoirs, entitled A Reporter and His Beat. They explained that reporters or newsmen are in a better position to observe the goings-on within the society and corridors of power and to recollect events long after the actors had left the stage. They urged journalists in various beats not to retire from the profession without putting down their thoughts in a lucid and thought-provoking form like Fabowale has done. That way, they added, the history that was recorded in a hurry in form of news reports can be revisited for updates, footnotes and necessary hindsight.

Fabowale has put in 36 years of active journalism practice with stints at the Lagos Horizon, The Guardian, Tell magazine, The Sun and Space FM, Ibadan.

Why journalists should write books

Oshunkeye, 2006 winner of CNN African Journalist of the Year, and reviewer of the book, noted: “When a journalist dies without writing a book, a library burns and its ashes fertilize the soil. A journalist who dies without writing a book is like a fabulously rich man who dies interstate. The journalist’s universe is built on the word; spoken word; written word….Since journalists make things happen or unhappen with the power of words, no journalist should die without writing at least a book. To leave this universe without writing a book is a crime.”

Babarinsa added that what Fabowale has done with the book should challenge other journalists to go write about their own experiences in journalism. Fayemi who started life as a news reporter with The Guardian newspaper, Lagos, before moving into politics, said he was delighted by what Fabowale did with the book. He talked about his simplicity and lucidity in the use of language and noted that the literary prose style he deployed in writing the book makes him come across as a novelist, an entertainment reporter rather than a core newshound in search of news.

Ukeh said he worked with Fabowale at both The Guardian and The Sun and found him a “thoroughbred professional.” He remarked that hearing Fayemi say that he sees himself first as a reporter before anything else makes him feel proud of the journalism profession. He promised to ensure that every journalist at The Sun gets a copy of the book to read first in order to learn one or two lessons about the practice of the profession, and secondly, to get inspired to write their own books.

Also at the event were Mr. Gbenga Adefaye, General Manager and Editor-In-Chief of Vanguard Newspaper, Lagos, and Mr. Fred Ohwahwa, former editor of The Guardian on Sunday, Prince Lateef Fagbemi (SAN), Chairman, Governing Council, Yaba College of Technology (YABATECH), journalism colleagues of the author and family members. They spoke glowingly about the book and its author.

Tributes to the book and its author

Fagbemi described Fabowale as “truthful and straightforward” in the practice of his profession. Oshunkeye described Fabowale as telling his riveting story, not only in lucid words but also in colour and with elan. “He takes the reader through a pictorial excursion into his activities on the field, meeting and interviewing movers of the events in our country, reliving memorable events with colleagues in the media houses where he worked, especially at The Sun.”

Although the title of the book is A Reporter and His Beat, many people such as Fayemi who served as the special guest of honour and who commented on the content of the book argued that some of the author’s recollections, especially his ordeal in the hands of security operatives during his coverage of the 2014 Ekiti State election made the experience sounds like “A Reporter and His Beatings.”They praised the author’s meticulousness in recalling not only the browbeating he received in the hands of senior colleagues he worked with at various media houses but also the physical manhandling he passed through in the hands of overzealous security operatives and political thugs.

Enlivening the atmosphere through banters

The event was full of banters, with most of them coming from Fayemi. When Babarinsa addressed Fabowale as his colleague at Tell magazine, Fayemi interrupted his speech and asked him to explain what he meant by “colleague.” This drew some laughter. When the anchor at the book launch called on Fayemi to say something, the former governor said: “This is not how to do this job. In a situation such as this where you have many past governors, you divide them into “immediate past governor,” then “ex-governor” and “former governor.”  Me, I am the “immediate past” governor, later you can address me as “the ex-governor” and much later as “the former governor.” His remarks drew some guffaws from the audience.

During the formal launch of the book, Fayemi who described himself as a “pensioner” and “unemployed” asked Fabowale to calculate the number of Departments of Mass Communication in Nigerian universities, both private and public, and promised to buy five copies of the book for each, including the Nigeria Institute of Journalism, Ikeja. He also promised to buy a copy each for members of the Governors’ Forum, even though he had left the group.

“The reason I asked Fabowale to calculate the number of Mass Comm departments is because I don’t know their numbers. But I know the number of governors in Nigeria.”

Oshunkeye who said that no library in Nigeria should consider itself complete without a copy of A Reporter and His Beat on its shelf, recalled jocularly how he once threatened to return his wife who comes from Ekiti State to Fayemi. “He (Fayemi) said, no problem, just make her the way she was 42 years ago when you married her. Since then I have been trying to do that but it has not been possible.”

In his remarks, Fabowale expressed gratitude for the encomiums poured on his book and his person. “I am simply overwhelmed by the love shown to me today by my colleagues and various dignitaries who graced this occasion. I agree with the call on journalists to write their memoirs as I have done mine. One truth that sticks out in all these is that we are sent to the earth with certain gifts. But it is our responsibility to nurture the gift or natural endowment and use it for the development of our environment.”