| Troubles that killed
Mister magazine, ex-editor
From BUCHY ENYINNAYA, Asaba
Wednesday,
October 24, 2007
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Aori Obaigbo
Photo: SunNews Publishing
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Mr. Aori Obaigbo, former editor of Mister Magazine, believes
journalism should uphold the truth no matter whose ox is gored.
In an exclusive interview with Daily Sun,
he advises journalists to change their tactics to ensure that
a better society is built. He also talks about how journalists
can live good life without tarnishing their image.
Access to information
I think the Nigerian journalist is relatively free. The freedom
that the journalist desires in the Freedom of Information
Bill is already here. It is not as if Nigerian journalists
have not suffered retribution. Many have suffered incarceration
over what they had written, but I think that it is ennobling
to write the truth and be willing to go to detention. Or even
die for it.
Poor salary syndrome
Many journalists seem to be doing well, although not necessarily
based on their salaries. May be we should stop thinking about
salary. Our job involves us moving around. As we move around,
we should also think of what we can do to supplement our salary.
I believe in what T.D Jakes calls the fourth stream. He says
one shouldn’t have just one way of making money. He
should have others. A journalist can be an actor. I know Richard
Mofe-Damijo when he was a journalist in Metro and also an
actor. That must have given him a little more. Even then he
was also trying to do business. When I was a journalist, I
was good in photography.
Death of Mister Magazine
The magazine was upbeat and upscale. It was the first full
gloss, full colour magazine to hit the newsstands. Ovation,
Genevieve, can be said to be children of Mister. Then we had
people who were really committed to the magazine. We were
flying. Then, we were victims of escalating cost of newsprint.
At that time, we were the most expensive magazine on the bookshelf.
When the costs started going up, we wondered, how much to
sell the magazine? Don’t also forget that the time Mister
magazine went to sleep there was this crash in the finance
sector. If you remember then, there were many finance houses
that crashed. People lost their money. A good number of our
directors lost their money.
So, they decided to sell. They sold to Fred Ajudua and suddenly,
Ajudua himself was incarcerated and when that happened, it
was just natural for Mister to die.
Journalists and IT development
The Internet is the real meaning of the world being a global
village. There’s nothing you can’t learn there.
There are all sorts of sites from which one can learn a lot.
And from that, the journalist can gain a lot of knowledge.
Knowledge and use of Internet services are essential.
Developmental journalism
I think developmental journalism is the way to go. People
like us are particularly guilty when we were with Vintage
People. Gossip was a juicy thing and people are always ready
to read gossips and we were always looking out for gossips.
But then, the country was not this low in terms of harmony.
People were happy to read gossips. But now, the country has
a serious challenge. There were things that were going wrong
then that have now added to the upheavals we have now. Now
that we have all these upheavals, it has become more critical
for journalism to move towards developmental journalism because
there’s need for our people to develop. In fact, if
we had started developmental journalism earlier, may be underdevelopment
would have been the core of our agitation. We would have been,
alongside, pressing for justice in the Niger Delta and for
the place to be properly developed or the government to do
its job of developing the place. We would have been agitating.
Just as our agitation led to change of government, we should
have been agitating for the development of our nation.
Unforgettable moments
In life, I try not to remember too many of the unhappy things
but only the pleasant and sweet points of my journalism days.
I remember when I was trying to take photograph of the Independence
Building and was rough-handled by some soldiers. I didn’t
know I was committing a crime. I was not hiding. I was just
there to take the picture of the burnt building then. Then
one soldier just came out and shouted, “Kai, wetin you
dey do for there?” I didn’t even try to run. They
got hold of me and beat me.
Broke my camera. Anyway, I just saw it as part of the fun
of being a Nigerian. But when I look back, I see it as real
fun. I should have agitated seriously. Can I advise anybody
to go into the profession? Ah! Definitely. You know journalism
is a noble profession. Any profession that is interested in
the truth, in development of nations and is on the side of
the people is a noble one.
Advise to journalists
They should focus on developmental issues. They should shy
away from sensationalism. They should also sieve between facts
and opinions. They should sieve between what actually happened
and what somebody is presenting as the truth. You know, at
times, something may happen and because some people have an
agenda, they come up with stories that move them further in
the actualization of that agenda. They use the journalist
as a tool for pushing that falsehood. That also moves them
in the direction they want to go. Of course, that falsehood
moves Nigeria away from the path that it should ply.
So, journalists need to be a little more skeptical of the
people they take as their source. They need to ask themselves,
what is the motive of their sources? They need to be more
investigative and at the end of the day, they need to allow
their conscience to guide them. I believe so much in that
word, conscience.
I believe it’s our first judge. Before my editor or
my publisher will censor me, I want my conscience to be clear
that what I have written is the truth, the whole truth and
nothing short of the truth. In that case, when my publisher
tries to shut it down, I am likely to be unethical and send
it to another media house to publish.
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