By Dare Babarinsa
I am happy that Oga Yakubu Mohammed was able to publish his highly readable memoir before his final call on Wednesday January 14. The last time we met was when I visited him on August 12, last year and he presented me with an autographed copy of Beyond Expectations, his memoir of 422 pages. The book, expectedly bristles with humour and vignettes of wisdom. It is Mohammed’s testament about journalism and public service. It is his offering to the coming generations. In November last year, Dan Agbese, his co-traveler and a principal character in Beyond Expectations, dies. Now Mohammed has joined him. Three of the four founders of Newswatch magazine are now dead. The only survivor is the durable Ray Ekpu, the iconoclastic columnist who ruffled the feathers of the Nigerian establishment for generations.
Mohammed came to prominence in journalism early. He bagged a degree in Mass Communications from the University of Lagos at 25 in 1975. In 1980, barely 30 and almost four years after his compulsory national service, he was already Associate Editor of New Nigerian, one of the most powerful newspaper houses in Nigeria. It was at New Nigerian that he and Dan Agbese met as colleagues. Agbese and Ray Ekpu, who was editing the Nigerian Chronicles, Calabar, were of the Unilag Mass Communication class of 1973. Destiny joined the three of them. The same Destiny brought Mohammed to the Concord Group of Newspapers founded by the larger-than-life businessman, Chief Moshood Abiola. It was in Concord that Mohammed met Dele Giwa, an American-trained journalist, who was the pioneer editor of the Sunday Concord.
I first met Mohammed at the National Concord. When I completed my NYSC in July 1982, many of my classmates would not apply to Concord because the paper was rabidly partisan in favour of the ruling National Party of Nigeria, NPN. I and many of my friends were beneficiaries of Chief Obafemi Awolowo’s Free Education Programme in the old Western Region and we viewed with resentment Concord hostility to Papa Awo. Then, Abiola suddenly left politics and the NPN and the Concord changed its music. My friend, the late Olawale Oladepo, who was working with Gbolabo Ogunsanwo’s magazine, Nation, said we should apply to work for the Concord. “The paper has changed,” Wale said with enthusiasm.
By this time, I had fallen under the spell of some bigwigs in journalism who were my superiors at the Drum Publications Ltd, which I joined immediately after my NYSC in 1982. Among these seniors were Prince Adetule, our Editorial Director, Olaseinde Lawson, our Editor, and Matthew Faji our photo editor. Among my colleagues in Drum were Wole Olaoye and Dayo Omotosho. Then I followed Oladepo to Concord where we met Yakubu Mohammed and our lives changed.
We submitted our letters to his secretary and once he was told whom we were, Mohammed invited us into his office. He was warm, communicative and he asked us many questions. We let down our guards. We did not know he was already interviewing us for the job! We thought we were just having a general gist with a big man. I told him that apart from my Drum experience, I had a very busy service year as the editor of the Ogun State NYSC newsletter and other assignments as the Ogun State NYSC Public Relations Officer. He offered Oladepo and myself employment. Another classmate of ours, Ifeanyi Ubabukoh, was to join us later.
Mohammed was a formidable leader of men. He had succeeded the iconic Dr Mrs Doyinsola Abiola as the Editor of the Concord newspaper in 1982 and it was to his credit that circulation soared during his tenure. He was not afraid to take risk with young subalterns like us. One day, two emissaries came from Surulere saying the great Alhaji Aminu Kano, leader of the Peoples Redemption Party, PRP, would like to be interviewed by the Concord. All the big journalists were out on the beat and it was only Oladepo and I that were in the newsroom. Mohammed said we should follow them. We did with trepidation for despite our bravado, we were seriously green. Our interview with Mallam Aminu Kano was to become our first story to hit the front page of the Concord. I later served as the National Assembly Correspondent before being posted to Akure as the Chief Correspondent for Ondo State (including the present Ekiti State) where I was destined to cover the 1983 general election riot.
We followed Mohammed and his colleagues to Newswatch in November 1984. Our leaders in Newswatch; Dele Giwa, Ray Ekpu, Dan Agbese and Yakubu Mohammed showed us what a first-class newsmagazine ought to be. They had able lieutenants who were giants in their own right; Dayo Onibile, Soji Akinrinade, Dele Omotunde, Lawson Omokhodion, Nosa Igiebor, Kayode Soyinka and others. It was a great team. We produced a magazine noted worldwide for its depth of investigations and deft of language. No one excemplies our competence more than Oga Yakubu Mohammed.
Mohammed was an artist with words. He wrote with simple elegance and with facts. Verbosity was not for him, nor the flowery language of some of his colleagues. He laid out his facts devoid of accoutrements. He was approachable because he was one of us; members of the Editorial Street. We exchange books, especially memoirs and biographies. He was never afraid to lose an argument if your facts outweigh his. He was a gentleman and a nationalist.
But success brought problems and jealousy. He and his colleagues at the helm of Newswatch had high social visibility and their pens were mighty. The devil found them attractive and it came for them in the forms of military jackboots. The worst happened in 1986 when Giwa was assassinated with a parcel-bomb. Detention, harassments, proscriptions and constant trailing by security agents were to follow. Once, Ray Ekpu wanted to board a plane for Lagos at the Calabar airport. He was arrested on the tarmac by security agents, bundled into a van and driven to Lagos by road. When we published what the military regime did not like, they locked up Ray Ekpu and company. When the big man at Dodan Barracks is unhappy or had a poor digestion, they locked up Ray Ekpu and company.
It was such incremental punishments that made Yakubu Mohammed and company our heroes. Mohammed was willing to suffer for the good of all so that our country can be free from military rule. I am happy that he was able to show his mettle during his tenure as the Pro-Chancellor of Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. His attempt to serve the people of Kogi State as their governor was frustrated by the complexities of that peculiar state.
Mohammed lived a good and productive life. He loved freedom, not just for himself, but for our country. Now he is free forever. God compensated him by blessing him with good and successful children. I commiserate with his wife, Hajia Rabi, and family. May his valiant soul rest in peace.
**Dare Babarinsa, CON,
Chairman, Gaskia Media Ltd writes from Lagos
