‘Never again’ is the rallying cry for all who believe that mankind must speak out…. – Jon Corzine
(A Review of Adventures of a Guerrilla Journalist, Babafemi Ojudu, 2024)
Twenty-six years after Nigeria returned to constitutional democracy, it is enlightening that some of those who contributed to the long fight to ensure the dawn of democracy are beginning to tell their stories and giving insights into the dark corners, twists and turns of our journey to now.
It is important that this part of our story as a nation is told so as to serve as a lesson to generations coming behind to know how we got where we are today. Democracy is not a 100metres dash but a race for determined long distance runners who can endure the grit and demonstrate resilience. It is a race with grit and resilience that has consumed many while those who survived it must not keep mute but tell their stories to edify the polity and keep the hope of others alive.
One of the survivors who has decided to tell the tales (ala Nobel laureate Gabriel García Márquez) is Babafemi Ojudu, an accomplished journalist, editor and latter-day politician. In his journalistic memoir (Adventures of a Guerrilla Journalist), which chronicled his escapades along with that of his other colleagues in Independent Network Communications Limited (Publishers of The News/TEMPO), Ojudu has offered to the reading public his own faithful account of the events of the time.
With a powerful sense of recall, he narrates how his life as a green horn reporter started and how he was able to learn what it takes to be a good journalist. Recalling his life as a student on the campus of the then University of Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University) as a student-journalist and his NYSC years and the search for a job, he takes the reader through what chiseled him into an accomplished journalist and the eventual meeting with a colleague (Bayo Onanuga) that would become his and others’ lifelong friends in the pursuit of democracy.
He was perhaps being prescient when at the launch of their publication he had declared, “We are about to chart a pioneering course in history of Nigeria’s media that we may undergo experiences unprecedented by any other journalist or news publishing establishment in the past.” And they sure did!
Taking the readers through some of the innocuous stories they did as a magazine from trailing ladies of easy virtues on Allen Avenue, to the dangerous travel from Lagos to Gashua in pursuit of the gadfly of law practice in Nigeria Gani Fawehinmi, travelling to Saki Oyo State in search of snippets and picture of Major Gideon Orkah, to the trip to the notorious island of Ita Oko in Lagos and his arrest and near encounter with death all in pursuit of stories.
Ojudu in this book leaves nothing to guesses; he is forthright and grateful to all those who helped their venture (The News) to be able to stand after their exit from the Concord stable. Paying tributes to such men as the late Chief Anthony Enahoro, the late Lateef Jakande, Jim Nwobodo, the mother of their business partner and accountant Mr Idowu Obasa, who all at one time or the other lend their support to make their publication survive the trying and perilous times under vicious military jackboots.
He recounts the dare devil escapade he had to undergo to report the story of Gilbert Chagoury and his brothers and how the family worked in cahoots with the late Gen Sani Abacha to siphon Nigeria’s wealth out of the country. He tells of how he and the then Senator Bola Tinubu (now president) met and interviewed a Jewish lawyer who gave damning details about the late head of state’s hidden assets using the Chagoury brothers as a funnel.
The Chagoury brothers were later indicted and the Obasanjo administration had to send them out of the country when he assumed power in 1999. However, Ojudu wonders how the villains of yester years are now back in the armpit of power as strong as they were under the much hated and maligned Abacha. What has changed for the family from being a friend of the man who wanted Tibubu dead in the nineties but are today back in reckoning. Ojudu points out “The relationship between Tinubu and Chagoury has blurred the lines between public interest and private gain, raising serious concerns about transparency and accountability.” (p134)
This is perhaps a great lesson for supporters of politicians; today’s bitter enemy of Oga could be his best friend tomorrow thus leaving the die-hard supporter in the lurch. Ojudu has written a faithful account of the ordeal of being a journalist under a military that was not ready to brook opposition to its strong-arm tactics. This book is a primer lesson for those who think there is a substitute to democracy.
With this book, Ojudu has added his voice and words to the growing literature of those trying days when to identify yourself as journalist was like courting death or detention. Nigerians are waiting for Dapo Olorunyomi, Bayo Onanuga, Onome Osifo-Whiskey, Soji Omotunde, Nosa Igiebor, and the others to document their travails during this dark era. It is necessary for this to be done to put the record out there permanently so that upcoming generations would learn that this country produced journalists of courage who were able to stand up to the excesses of military juntas. Also, to let some of them who quickly resort to the call on the military to come and ‘teach’ errant politicians some sense that we are no longer ready for those masked messianic tendencies. We must all band together to tell any military adventurers that “Never Again!!!” shall we go that route again. Our democracy, despite its imperfections must be defended until we get it right.
Finally, last month one of the greatest saboteurs of our democratic journey presented his memoir to be public and was able to raise billions of naira, which he does not deserve while true fighters for democracy are ignored or forgotten. However, with voices like Ojudus and others who have written theirs before now, we must not forget even if we forgive.
