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To many followers of Nigerian journalism, Dr Wale Adebanwi’s name will not appear strange. A journalist, writer and media scholar, he, at various times, reported for a number of newspapers, including The Punch, Sunday Tribune and the defunct Sketch. Currently teaching at the University of Ibadan, Adebanwi, who recently wrapped up a second doctorate at the University of Cambridge in England, sits on the editorial board of a number of newspapers and magazines within and outside Nigeria.

In a recent interview, the former executive editor of Omega Weekly, whose latest book, Trials and Triumphs: The Story of The News, was recently presented in Lagos, took Daily Sun through his odyssey in journalism.

Foray into the media
Very early in life, I was an average reader of newspapers. While I was at Ijeshatedo Boys High School, near Cele bus stop, Lagos, I remember very well that I and four other friends used to buy newspapers every day. Each person had a newspaper that he had to buy, and we would then exchange. Then, we had our own press board and we had a group we called Inner Circle of Nigeria. We wrote every day or every other day. So, I’ve always had an interest in the media.

Columnist at 16
By the time I was 16, I started writing a column for the Evening Sketch in Ibadan. I had moved to Ibadan then and I had just finished high school. I had a TV review column in Ibadan, just a small thing. It was on the page that they published programmes of the TV stations in Oyo State. I started writing from secondary school, and when I was in the HSC at the Baptist High School, Iwo, I was also the editor-in-chief of the press club. I published my first piece in the newspaper when I was in Form Five. It was a short story in Sunday Tribune. Then, I was 15 or 16 years. But my first interview was actually in the Prime People magazine of Muyiwa Adetiba. It was an interview with Yemi Farounbi which I did while I was in HSC.

Anyway, I was introduced to some people in Sketch, and I told them I could write. The person who was handling the TV page would just publish the programmes alone, nothing more. I said I could add a little commentary. Nothing much, just about 15 or 20 lines of commentary. And people liked it. At that time, I had left HSC after one year and I was waiting for the JAMB result.

One day, I accompanied Jare Ajayi who was contributing to several newspapers both at home and abroad, to Tribune to see the then acting editor of Sunday Tribune, Mr Ayo Akinyemi. Jare Ajayi introduced me to him and suggested that I could be contributing to the Sunday Tribune. Akinyemi said I should wait for the editor to resume. When the editor, Mr Folu Olamiti resumed, I went there. And he wondered if I was the one writing that small piece in the Evening Sketch, I said yes sir. He asked me to do that for him. That was how I got to Tribune. In Evening Sketch, they were paying me N5 a week. And in Sunday Tribune, the pay increased to N10 a week.

Name, contacts
I wanted to study Law at Ife, but I didn’t get admission that year, so I threw all my energy into journalism. I started doing other things. I would rewrite this, do this interview, and so on. That was how I started growing on the job. At 16, 17, I was already building a name. Eventually, after one year, I had developed a greater interest in journalism than in Law. I then applied for Mass Communications in UNILAG.

While there, I was also writing for newspapers. By the time I finished in UNILAG, I had built a name and I had contacts in the media. I did my youth service with the News Agency of Nigeria in Ibadan, and I was then their governor’s office correspondent. When I finished, I was given a job by Punch under Mr Bola Bolawole at the Ibadan office. Before I finished my service, I had done one or two cover stories for the Saturday edition. This was the time newspapers were beginning to have Saturday editions, but not as semi independent. It was usually the editor of the daily edition who also edited the Saturday edition.

When I finished, I was given a job in the Ibadan office of The Punch. We had a regional office headed by Adeolu Akande. It was exciting working with Bola Bolawole, who I regard as one of the best editors Nigeria has produced in the last three decades.

I started working with The Punch in February 1994, and by June 10 or 11, Punch was shut down. Later, they brought out a decree proscribing it. Fortunately at that time, I was working on a Master’s degree in Political Science, because I wanted to major in Political Communication.

Journalism, a disease
Journalism, specifically, reporting, is like a disease. Even when we had no medium, we used to go out collecting information, wanting to know what was going on in town. After some time, I was offered a job by the Tribune as features editor, Sunday. By late January 1996, I was posted to Abuja as the weekend editor in Abuja.

That was an extremely rewarding period of my career, because that also gave me exposure into the dynamics of power. I was lucky to run into a few people who became my sources. I could tap what was happening inside the recesses of the Villa within 30 minutes. In fact, at some point, some colleagues were getting uncomfortable with the kind of access that I had. I had one particular source and I’m sure if he reads this, he will smile.

He happened to be in the inner recesses of the Abacha machinery. Being a journalist, he was always interested in giving gist. Most of the reporters there, at that time, were interested in making money, so when he saw this young man with a lot of zeal for news, he was always feeding me with what was happening. Exclusives became a weekly thing for me. When Zik died, I was the only journalist that followed his corpse around inside the Hercules plane. I got the story that the Abuja airport would be renamed after Zik.

Newsroom to classroom
In 1997, I was sacked at the Tribune. It’s a long story and sometimes, you should allow time to take care of some things. Segun Olatunji, the present MD /Editor-In-Chief of Tribune, Dr Adeolu Akande, who works with Atiku, Abubakar, Bode Opeseitan, now of Globacom, the four of us had a running battle then with the editorial headship of the newspaper, in terms of the direction of the Tribune. It eventually dovetailed into personal issues. We were told that our services were no longer needed. Even then, Adeolu Akande and I were already fed up with the system and we were thinking of going somewhere else.

We would have resigned but Segun Olatunji persuaded us not to resign. After that, we started a weekly newspaper magazine called Omega Weekly. Unfortunately, either two weeks before or two weeks after we started, our major financier had stroke. Things were so terrible. Again, we did a story titled Anti Abacha Forces Emerge in Aso Rock. That week, Diya and the rest were arrested for plotting a coup.

And we had also done a few ‘offensive’ stories before then. That was when security people started trailing us. So for the next six months we couldn’t use our offices. We published underground. In those six months, someone had finished all the money. We couldn’t monitor anything. I remember maybe I had only two or three shirts and we were meeting in all kinds of places. It was an exciting but dangerous time.

By the time Abacha left, there was really nothing left. We struggled to look for new investors, but it wasn’t easy. By late 1998, we just had to pack up and go. Six months or so after that, Adeolu Akande and I took up appointments with the University of Ibadan to teach. But later, Mama Awolowo wanted us to come back to Tribune to salvage the place. But then, Adeolu and I had made up our minds that we wouldn’t go back. Segun Olatunji went back and became editor, while Bode Opeseitan became deputy editor. Adeolu and I became members of the editorial board and I’ve been on that editorial board since 1999.