Ace journalist Pastor Bisi Oladele, former South-West Bureau Chief of The Nation newspaper, and currently the publisher of Newspeak magazine and South West Chairman of the Guild of Online Publishers (SWGOP), speaks with Gbenro Adesina about his journalism career and the challenges confronting the media in Nigeria. Excerpt:
Q: How did you find yourself in journalism?
A: In one perspective, it is the profession I planned to do and, in another perspective, I was forced into it. I love and enjoy journalism. I’m a news and writing person. But I had a bad impression about journalists early in life, which made me to decide never to be a journalist. There was an interesting incident that happened in 1991. The Students of St Andrew College of Education, Oyo, went to Oshogbo to stage a protest to the government for excluding students of colleges of education from benefiting from bursary award. It was only the students of the universities and polytechnics, who were made to benefit from the award. We went to Oshogbo in three buses. When we got there, the governor wasn’t around. We met the Secretary to the State Government (SSG). We went into the SSG’s office. Two of us were appointed by the protesting students to go and tender our grievances to the government and come back to give others the feedback. When we got there, my friend asked me to tell our colleagues to invite journalists to cover the event. The SSG asked us not to worry about that because, his guest, the man we met with him was a journalist. I looked at the man. A journalist, wearing very old “Ankara clothe”, complementing with an old “fila”, sitting quietly and looking like somebody who is not better than a beggar. The SSG looked at me and saw the disappointment on my face. He said, that is a journalist, you think they have money. You only hear of their names, I read about their names in the newspapers. They don’t usually have money. That experience never left me. However, when I got to Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) for my degree programme in English, I still wanted to practice journalism. I went into campus journalism. I was appointed as the editor-in-chief of the school’s Megaphone News Agency, domiciled in the Department of English. For the one year that I led the agency, its activities scaled. Students’ day is not fulfilled until they get to our board and read what we have written. We expanded the operation and the content. I enjoyed every bit of it. After my graduation, going by what I saw in the SSG’s office, I didn’t want to practice journalism again. Journalism is very demanding. Also, and there is no money there. I didn’t want to do it. I ran away from journalism. About three years after, I couldn’t secure a job. My childhood dream was to become a lecturer and my second best was to become an advertising practitioner.
Q: How did you get to know about advertising as a profession?
A: It wasn’t as if I knew everything about advertising. What interested me was the billboard adverts. As a child, I fell in love with billboard adverts. I love the pictures and the advert words. I love what the copy writers are doing. I love the tv commercials. Unfortunately, when my parents became old; they didn’t have the means to sponsor my higher degree. So, I have to look for a way to survive. I was over 30 years of age. I needed to settle down. So, I abandoned the lecturing dream, for which higher degrees are a necessity. I tried to look for advertising job, I couldn’t get any. At the time, my friend and classmate, who served with me in Megaphone was already in journalism, and he has been mounting pressure on me to join journalism. Through him, I secured my first journalism appointment. Incidentally, this my friend was doing very well in journalism and he was an opposite of the wretched journalist we met in the SSG’s office. From the start, journalism was good for him. I refused to see from his perspective at the time. Eventually, this my friend introduced me to his friend in The Comet Newspaper. His friend was on the business desk covering money market: CBN, insurance companies and the rest. He took me to CBN assignment in Lagos because he wanted to find out how proficient I was in writing. After the event, he asked me to write the story, which I did and gave it to him. He glanced through it and said that I was a born journalist. Confidently, he took me to Mr Femi Kusa. He told Mr Femi Kusa that despite the fact that I didn’t study Mass Communication or journalism, I was able to write a good news story and he showed him the story I wrote. Mr Femi Kusa ordered that I should be tested further and when I passed, they gave me an employment in 2003. That was how I started my journalism career with The Comet newspaper, which transformed into The Nation newspaper in 2006. Let me tell you, though, I ran away from journalism early, I have enjoyed every bit of my journalism career. Though, I don’t have money, I’m fulfilled being a journalist.
Q: You said you don’t have money now. Therefore, how do you compare yourself with the man you met in the SSG’s office?
A: Dressing is one yardstick to measure certain things. We have people who don’t value their outlook. They are only concerned about covering their nakedness. This doesn’t mean they don’t have money to buy good clothes. By God grace, I believe there is nobody that will see me that will not want to be a journalist.
Q: Do you think there is money in journalism?
A: Yes and no. Yes, if you are able to give your best and God opens some opportunities for you. No, because if you don’t enjoy some good opportunities, you will just be like ordinary person.
Q: Can you quantify in percentage the number of those who are fulfilled after retiring as a journalist?
A: I think no more than 60 percent will say, I am fulfilled, while 40 percent will feel unfulfilled. There is something we need to pay attention to regarding fulfilment, or the lack thereof. There is a problem journalists create for themselves and that problem is exposure. Journalism exposes you to the high and mighty in society: people in government and decision-makers. I told you how I went to cover top-notch bankers when I was just about to enter the profession.
For someone who is just starting a career and gets exposed to that level, it becomes difficult if they fail to eventually rise to the level they’ve been exposed to. When we say journalists don’t feel fulfilled, we’re not saying they are starving; we’re not saying they can’t meet their basic needs; we’re not saying their job isn’t interesting. Rather, we are evaluating fulfilment in comparison to other professionals whom journalists often interact with—and against whom they measure themselves. Journalists cover influential people in society like Vice Chancellors, proprietors, MDs, as well as politicians, senators, members of the House of Representatives, governors, monarchs, high chiefs, union leaders, and renowned lawyers. I think it’s a sociological or psychological issue, this kind of environment that journalism creates for you. So, if after 30 years, as you’re retiring, you have not been able to rise to a level somewhat close to those people, there’s a strong tendency to feel unfulfilled.
Q: Can you look at it from the angle of remuneration and other welfare packages like pension and gratuity?
A: There is a provision for pension and gratuity for journalists who worked in a reputable media outlet. The gratuity may not be much. Again, gratuity flow from your salary. Both gratuity and pension are determined by your salary. Because our salaries are small, our gratuities and pensions are also small. Journalists’ salaries are not really different from that of the civil servants but the life style of the two are different. The life style journalism exposes journalists to makes the salaries grossly inadequate. As a journalist, you move round and the companies don’t fund your movement. What the company pays journalists for transportation expenses is grossly inadequate. Journalists spend a lot on calls, data and transportation and what their companies pay for all these is just a peanut. The company expect you to shore it up from your pocket out of your meagre salary. Journalists in Nigeria use their personal money to do official assignments. That is part of the poor remuneration we are talking about, unlike the western world, where they are well funded. In the western world, the salary may not be very fantastic like that of accountants, pharmacists, engineers, and the rest, it will be far above minimum wage and you will not spend your income on official assignments. They will pay you what is more than enough to cover your reportorial expenses. For example, I was a correspondent for many years before I became the Oyo State Bureau Chief and South West Bureau Chief. As a correspondent and Oyo State Bureau Chief, my employer never paid me a dime to cover events in Oyo, Ogbomosho, Saki, or any other location, apart from the meagre transport subsidy I received monthly. However, when I became the South West Bureau Chief, the company would refund any expenses I incurred while traveling to other states.
Q: How can a journalist that is not well catered for write objective stories?
A: All of those things have negative influences on the practice of journalism. Early this morning, something crossed my mind. There are many misnomers in Nigeria, not only in journalism but virtually all aspects of our life. I was just reflecting on why journalists will be made to solicit for adverts. It is a misnomer for a journalist to ask for advertisement from the people they are covering. The media establishments expect reporters to solicit for adverts because they need a lot of avenues where they can generate funds. In Africa, there are certain thing we are yet to get right. One of it is media operation. As a reporter in Oyo State, how can I hold the people I am begging adverts from accountable? It will be difficult to expose the ills of those who have given me adverts or those whom I am expecting adverts from. This is the reality of Nigerian journalism and journalists. In the western world, things like that don’t happen. Adverts will be left for those in the advert department. The best for a journalist to do his job is never to be at the mercy of those that you cover. Asking for adverts shows that you are at their mercy. You can’t collect my money and still write against me. In the western world, what happens is that your employer will adequately fund you. It is easier for them because of two major reasons. First, there are multiple advertisers that want to advertise on your platform because the economy is booming. So, there are countless private organisations that want to advertise their products and services. The second thing that helps them in the Western world is that there are many foundations, organizations, and NGOs funding specific stories. They might say, ‘You have been covering Oyo State. There is illegal mining in certain places. We need you to write about this and expose it so that officials at the Ministry of Mines and Steel Development in Abuja can be aware and take action. A foundation or organisation will fund it. This work will take about three months. The reporter has to lodge in a hotel, eat, buy data, and give money to some people in the community to facilitate exclusive information he needs to write good and objective story. The foundation may come up with a budget of N3.5m for such story. The money will be passed through the employer for proper monitoring. At times, the employer will legitimately retain certain percentage. In this kind of a situation, the reporter will do a thorough story. In Nigeria, nobody does that. Even if there is any company that wants to do this, it will still be foreign companies, and in most times, they will pay us peanut to execute such project. They will give like $100 and if it is their own journalist; they may give like $6000. They know that if you convert it, it may amount to around N300,000. They know you will take it because the local media establishment you are working for may not even give more than N30,000. Again, all the blame should not go to the employers. The print is not that profitable. For example, as a national daily, you will have offices in at least 28 state capitals with staff. The head office is on generator 24/7 because of epileptic power supply from the power companies. The running and maintenance of press is capital intensive. You have journalists, and staff all over the country and you are buying news print. These materials are not produced in Nigeria. Look at the negative implication of forex. All of these make newspapers struggle to survive in Nigeria. That is why they don’t have enough money to fund the editorial content. It is an environmental issue. It affects the quality of the content that the Nigerian newspapers produce.
