Vanguard @40: A peculiar experience
By Ochereome Nnanna, Chairman, Editorial Board/Columnist (30th year)
In the middle 1980s when we were Mass Communication students at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, there were three privately-owned newspapers in Nigeria which virtually every journalism school leaver wanted to write for. These were: Concord (1980), The Guardian (1983) and Vanguard (1984). Legendary Newswatch Magazine joined in January 1985.
These print media stood out because they were hotbeds of highly-gifted writers whom people, especially budding writers like me, were hungry to read. The Guardian was an intellectual stimulant. Newswatch was a weekly fiesta of literary buffets. Vanguard was a bazaar of robust opinions, engaging sports, with special servings for those who loved comely, tastefully endowed females. It had the best pass-around appeal, even within the family unit.
The first time I set my foot on Vanguard premises was in July 1991 when I accompanied a friend to place an advert. I swore never to come back. The place was so obscenely tucked away in obscurity, along the Kirikiri Canal, Mile Two, Apapa! Never say never. Three years later my mentor, Chief Pini Jason, one of Vanguard’s ace columnists I had read for years, gave me a note to the Chairman of the newspaper, Mr Sam Amuka-Pemu, alias Uncle Sam. He was a legendary columnist, of the Sad Sam and Off-Beat Sam fame. I was not privileged to read him because he reigned before my time – in the 1960s and 1970s. Our elders who read him have never forgotten Sad Sam of the Daily Times fame. He was sad 60 years ago when Nigeria was still sweet. Imagine today!
I had just resigned from Chris Anyanwu’s TSM Magazine as Deputy Editor/Columnist, and I needed a job, in August, 1994. Funny, the same place I had sworn not to come back to was suddenly no longer so difficult or remote! Uncle Sam was a portably-built elderly man with casual airs, dressed a navy blue safari suit, reclining in his chair in his office in the top floor of Vanguard’s main building. He took the letter from Pini Jason, read it, got up and asked me to come with him.
Out in the corridor, he faced me.
“I don’t know you,” he said, “but Pini Jason is a man we respect. If he could write this about you…come with me”.
I followed him down to the first floor where he handed me over to a young man of about my age, Mr Gbenga Adefaye, the very powerful Deputy Editor whom I knew back in Nsukka as a year my senior. To test my abilities, I was given some assignments and a three-day deadline. I submitted the write-ups the following day. I was immediately assigned the People and Politics column, a full-page affair. Not only that, the products of my test assignments became the first edition of People and Politics With Ochereome Nnanna! I volunteered to do two pages a week, and it was approved!
I had the free licence to travel to any part of the country, report major current affairs and politics-related events, interview newsmakers and write my column. It was Uncle Sam who encouraged me to “speak up” for the Igbo viewpoint, same as writers from the North, West, Minorities, Christians, Muslims and what have you, were mandated to speak out but with responsibility. As viewpoints go, Vanguard is home for all.
Suffice it to say, 30 years later, after a number of major and minor awards and the usual ups and downs of life, I am still writing this column. As Vanguard celebrates 40, I will be celebrating 30 years in November as the current longest-running political/current affairs columnist in Nigeria. During my time as a Lagos-based journalist, I have seen Chris Anyanwu’s TSM, Pini Jason’s The Examiner and Sonny Odogwu’s The Post Express. But I have spent the pith of my lifetime in the Vanguard stable, rising to the position of Chairman of the Editorial Board (since 2015). I am the third occupant of this position after the late Alhaji Kola Animashaun (1984-2008) and Maazi Ikeddy Isiguzo (2008-215), both of whom are Vanguard legends in their respective rights.
I arrived in 1994, a time Nigeria was making the final transit from military to the current unbroken 25 year-old civilian rule. During this period, the media as an industry and profession, was also transiting from the analogue to the digital. Digital technology has killed the old journalism, increasingly transferring the power of the media from the journalist to the people: in other words, democratising it. Anyone can now play the game! The newspaper has virtually disappeared from the newsstands into handheld or table-top devices. People now watch (photos and videos) more than they read. And now, Artificial Intelligence, AI, has entered the matter.
The media, the newspaper and journalism as a whole all over the world have been gasping for air and staggering for balance. Many have gone. More are to go. Find you balance or you go.
I am proud to say that despite everything, Vanguard has remained firm and standing. We in the media industry are beset by skyrocketing costs of production, dwindling newsstand fortunes and wages stagnation/default crises. Those who still have their heads above water are those who have changed with the times. And Vanguard has deftly played the game of change while sustaining its iconic brand puissance.
They say journalists are not good managers. Oh yes? Vanguard is one media organisation that has been run exclusively by journalists. It is ably led by the biggest of them all – Uncle Sam. An epitome of modesty and self-effacement, Uncle Sam does not like his name or photo in print, especially his own paper. But how do you tell the story of Vanguard at 40 without the generous mention of the frontman; the man behind the helm, and as former President Muhammadu Buhari correctly hailed him: The Gentleman of the Nigerian Press, our father, Uncle Sam?
Just de play!!
Vanguard Media Limited