Reminiscences with Alhaji Sani Katsina
Alhaji Sani Katsina started his career as a broadcaster immediately after college. The 82-year-old journalist also served as permanent secretary in the then Kaduna State Ministry of Economic Development. He chaired the committee that reorganised sports in
What attracted you to journalism?
I think it was curiosity. When we were at Barewa College, from time to time we used to sit and listen to the BBC. So I developed the habit of wanting to hear from broadcasters.
After my school certificate examinations I wanted to further my studies, but the opportunities were very limited. We had only the College of Arts and Science in Zaria, which was about three years old. People were recruited on the basis of their mock results before the Cambridge result was out.
I was not in the first list, but that didn’t bother me because I thought I was going to study something else. At that time you would finish exams in December and results would come out in April of the following year. So you would have a period of four months. In order not to be idle, and out of curiosity, I decided to look for a temporary job. At that time, organisations were coming to the college to recruit people into different fields of endeavour, so I put my name down for the post of a broadcaster. Before we finished from the school, I was asked to go to Kaduna for interview. I went from Zaria and was interviewed by only one person, who was the director of programmes of a local radio station in Kaduna. He interviewed me for about 15 minutes and said I was okay.
When we finished school, I came home to wait for the school certificate result and the interview. When they sent for me to come and start work, I was reluctant because I thought I should wait and see the outcome of the result, but something else told me to go. So I went and joined the Nigerian Broadcasting Service (NBS) as it was called. I started work in February 1955 in Kaduna as a programme assistant. That’s how it started.
Were you the only person from your school that went for the interview?
Yes. But a lot of engineering assistants were recruited from Keffi, St. John’s or Rimi College now. A lot of young men joined me, but I was the only one from Zaria, and the only one in the programme unit; others were more in the technical section.
I was attached to a senior person who taught me the rudiments of broadcasting. After the initial training I was given little programmes to do here and there, such as continuity announcements and interviews.
As you probably know, at that time, the headquarters of the NBS was in Lagos running a national programme for the whole country and broadcasting in the three national languages.
There was a northerner who was in charge of programmes for the North in Lagos. When he was going on annual leave I was asked to go to Lagos and hold brief for him. At that time you must take your leave regularly. So, four months after joining the organisation I suddenly found myself at the headquarters in Lagos.
What was your first programme on air?
It is very difficult to say; but I think it was reading an extract from a book that had to do with hygiene. It was called Bala and Babiya.
What was your experience in Lagos?
I met a lot of other young men who were recruited about the same time with me. Because there was nobody, I had to act as a producer and presenter for Hausa programmes. I produced all sorts of programmes - magazines, interviews, musicals. Some of the Hausa artists in Lagos were invited to the studio to perform. Because there were many new people, the organisation arranged for in-house training programmes on presentation, news casting, interviews etc. I was also part of the training.
When the person I held brief for returned from his annual leave, I was retained in Lagos because I had already made some impressions on some of the expatriates there. They saw the potential I had. Technically, I was a staff for northern Nigeria, but I was working for the national programme. Gradually, I went into the main broadcasting - presentation, continuity announcements, news reading at the national level.
Are you still in touch with the people you met in Lagos?
Unfortunately, majority of them are no more. I met people like Emmanuel Mashola, who died some years ago; Deji George,
Sunday Young Harry, Ishola Folorinsho, a famous radio broadcaster; Joe Atuwana, who was a senior officer. Most of them are no more, such as Segun Olushola, Chinua Achebe, Ralph Okpara. There were also some ladies like Kenwe Atuk, Mrs Eruku and Toyin Adededoyin, among others.
As a northerner, what were the challenges you encountered in Lagos?
I think it was a pleasant experience, especially because of the perception that northerners were not quite educated. When I went there, a lot of people couldn’t believe I was actually a Hausa man. There was an incident where I read the national news and I received a phone call from someone who was excited. He asked: “Sani where have you been? I haven’t seen you for a very long time.’’ When I asked who he was, he said, “So you can’t remember me, we were in Kings College together.’’ I tried to convince him that I had never been to Kings College, but I couldn’t.
We were young men, so we always ignored things that would hurt others. I made friends with many Logisians. I had no problem settling down in the headquarters. However, my colleagues from the South had problems with northern names and I had problem with theirs as well, particularly Yoruba, Igbo and names from the Niger Delta areas. We helped each other to pronounce such names. I can remember a particular incident when one of the emirs of Yauri, the late Mohammed Tukur was appointed after the demise of the famous Abdullahi. The news was sent in and the newscaster on duty could only pronounce Muhammadu, but not Tukur. He came to me and we spent quite a time telling him how to pronounce it. Eventually, he got it and that became a password between the two of us. He would call me Muhammadu and I would call him Tukuru. That’s one of such moments I will never forget.
We worked like one family, a very happy one indeed. We had no problem among ourselves. As long as you are willing to do your work and understand why people behave the way they behave, you will not have any problem with your colleagues. And Lagos was peaceful.
How did you cope with food, mode of dressing and other aspects of culture?
Everybody dressed the way they wanted, but because we were young men working in a radio station you couldn’t afford to dress flamboyantly. So the dressing was simple - normal caftan, shirts and trousers, sometimes with or without caps. There was no problem with dressing.
Also, having left Katsina for Zaria at an early age and spent six years in the college with a lot of people from all parts of the North, Yoruba, Nupe, Fulani, Kanuri, the question of food was not a problem at all. You could choose what you wanted. However, some of the things were strange to me and it took me some time to adapt to them.
What was the most memorable interview or programme you presented?
I had quite a few, but the one I will always remember with nostalgia was my interview with the Sardauna, Ahmadu Bello, on the Wednesday before he was killed.
Sardauna had gone to Umrah and returned back. I was the head of television unit, so for some reason I was asked to do it. During the interview, we spent time talking about different things, including the days of his grandfather. There were no recording facilities, so he had to come to the studio. He came with the late Abubakar Gumi, late Amadu Fatika, Sarkin Fadan Zazzau who was the minister of health.
The interview was purely religious because he wanted people to know their duties and rights during Hajj. He spoke about what he did and why it was done. Sardauna’s message was that people should realise what they were trying to do and how thUnfortunately, he was killed. This is one of my most momentous interviews.
What happened when you returned to Kaduna?
When I returned, the Northern Nigerian Government was given scholarships to all manner of people because there was the need for trained manpower. The government was spending a lot of money to send people abroad, so I applied. I went for the interview, but for some reasons, I was not selected. I felt a little bad. I think my boss saw how I felt, so without even asking me, he arranged for a Federal Government scholarship to study at the BBC Staff Training School in London.
In 1957, I went to London for what one might consider the first professional qualification as a broadcaster. It was a certificate course in all areas of broadcasting, minus engineering.
How would you compare journalism then and now?
I was expecting this question. I think different situations will require different solutions. When we started broadcasting, it was a new thing in Nigeria. It came after the World War and served as a facility for the colonial masters to talk to people.
The fifties were a period of intense preparation for the establishment of broadcast facilities - the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC), NBS, which graduated to the Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria (FRCN). It was a new thing and there was so much to do and say. It was a matter of what to tell the people. There were very few other alternatives, and papers were scarce, so broadcasting came at the right time to help with political enlightenment, social mobilisation and all other things. There was so much to do, but you needed to be careful.
Now, the situation is totally different because you have alternatives, both positives and negative. Basically, the objectives should be the same - to educate, inform and entertain. These are the requirements, so whether you do it in the scientific or dark ages, the message should be the same. However, the colour, intensity and sophistication of what you present make the difference. At that time, if you talked to people well above their heads they would switch off, but now, if you talk below they will switch off. So it is a question of period.
But there are more challenges now than in the past. In the past, the challenge was basically what could make the audience react violently because they were learning new things. The methods of reaching the audience were simple, not sophisticated. Not many could own radio sets, so whatever you needed to say must be said in a way that people could retain them.
Again, the authorities were a little more lenient because they needed you as a broadcaster to carry their messages to the people, and through the response of the people they would know what was happening to their programmes. Now, you are running after people, sophisticated radio equipment and sets, transmissions, technical quality is very high, and there’s so much competition. So you need to really think properly before you say anything on radio. If you need to be taken seriously, you need to maintain a standard. You have to maintain etiquette so that you will not hurt people and attract backlash and violent reactions. You have to be very careful about what you are sending, and you need to visualise the type of reception the message generates and keep on monitoring to know what the people need. In addition to that, you have to look over the shoulder because there’s competition from all sources - overseas, local stations, and the new phenomenon called the social media.
These days, people’s perception of journalism is very bad, did you face a similar experience during you time?
To answer the first part of your question, I think it is not journalists alone that are now on the radar, every human activity is subject to misinterpretation, criticism and rivalry. It is the mood of the time; it is the development we are in. But I am sorry to say that some of my colleagues have not helped themselves in this issue because as a journalist you are responsible for your job. Your responsibility is to help uplift your society, do a few things to advance their course, as well as get rid of societal ills. In that regard, you cannot afford to take sides and accept inducements. People will trust you, but if you misuse that trust, half of your credibility rating will go down. However, there is so much pressure in the society now, so you have to be careful in whatever you do, including walking in the street.
In the past, people embraced journalists as new brides because they wondered why you would gather in the studio to talk, play music and dance for half an hour. I think this is the difference, but the pressure is the same. So long as you want to talk to people, you have to do it in such a way they would understand and accept in line with their social norms, behaviour and other influences.
You were appointed a permanent secretary in the then Kaduna State Ministry of Economic Development. How did you feel when you left journalism for a new place?
After the war, there were a lot of movements and initiatives within the northern region. And for the post war period I was the head of television unit from 1968 to 1970. I felt I had had enough and was planning to move elsewhere. In fact, I had almost concluded to go abroad when there was a request from the Kaduna State
Government and I was posted there as a chief information officer. I held that position for about five years and was transferred from information to administration.
I was appointed a permanent secretary, first at the Ministry of Internal Affairs, then information. So I actually left journalism and went into administration.
Did you miss journalism?
Well, yes, in a way. The saving grace was that I was first made a permanent secretary in the Ministry of Information. The real rupture came when I left information to go elsewhere.
How did you cope?
When I was growing up as a young broadcaster, we had a series of training programmes on talk shows, commentaries, and sometimes a little bit of administration because you needed to know what could be done. So when I left information for another ministry, I took some of the lessons I learnt from my broadcasting days, such as organisation, precision, staff relationship, deployment of resources, and a critical mind to look at issues. These are also what you need as an administrator.
How is life after retirement?
In the beginning it is a little sad. It is sad in the sense that you were used to getting up, dressing up and going to work and meeting people. But suddenly, all that are cut off. After a period of two or three months you start thinking of what to do.
Usually, I get up in the morning like others and observe the prayers, after which I read few things on religious matters. Normally, I take a nap before breakfast, after which I read papers. I make sure I read at least a newspaper every day so that I will know what is happening. If I have a meeting I attend and visit friends. In the evening I take another nap, after which I still read or chat with friends,
Are you into farming?
Yes, but I am not a big time farmer.
You were the chairman of the Bauchi State Sports Council; one wonders how a broadcaster could be appointed to head a committee vested with the responsibility to reorganise sports.
In my college days I was an active sportsman. I played football and hockey. I had to drop football when I had a serious knee injury, but I played hockey to the national level.
One of my classmates in the college was the late Maccido Dalhat, the first Secretary to the Kaduna State Government (SSG), his friend, the late Abubakar Umar was also the SSG in Bauchi; two of them were my schoolmates. Umar was two or four years ahead of us in the college. There was a national sports festival in Kaduna and Bauchi State performed woefully. They did not win any medal. I think Umar discussed the matter with his friend, I don’t know what happened. Dalhat sent for me and said that Bauchi requested I should come and look into their sports department and make suitable recommendations for improvement. That’s the connection. So we went there and spent some time looking at the structure, facilities, talking to people. Finally, we submitted a report.
In the 1980s you also served as Amirul Hajj in the old Kaduna State. We are still having some challenges in Hajj exercises; from your experiences, how do you think we can get it right?
This is a tall order. I think I can only make some suggestions as we did during our time. The main problem is that you are dealing with human beings and cannot guarantee a 100 per cent implementation of whatever recommendations or regulations you make.
Secondly, pilgrimage is a spiritual affair and the level of people who go to Mecca has improved. But there is the need for more improvement. A lot of them are local people who are barely able to go through the full rigours and rituals of pilgrimage. The moment they pay and get a receipt, their behaviours will somehow change. A potential pilgrim will begin to feel that since he has paid his money he should be allowed to go there without any hindrance. Thirdly, at that time, a lot of them were not quite familiar with the requirements of the rituals, and they were not physically fit. They present a lot of problems, and some of the things that are likely to cause problems are not addressed on time.
Furthermore, communication among the authorities, Saudi government and the pilgrims is impaired. There is also language difficulty, social standards and so on. So you have a lot of problems to solve in a matter of days when people have already conditioned their minds for pilgrimage.
We submitted a lot of reports, but fundamentally, what is needed is early preparation and a lot of enlightenment for those who want to go. People should be told exactly what is required. Those who are officials should be conversant in Arabic and the habits of the Saudis. They should have broad minds - a lot of the people they see are not Saudi citizens but pilgrims like them.
You must have somebody who is in a position of saying what should be done, almost immediately. The government must come out to tell people exactly what they want - having paid your money, this is what you are to meet and get. In the camp, there should be enough presence of officials who can take decisions and make sure that people who are going to Mecca are healthy, fit, know what they are going to do. And they should not be a problem to anybody.
You also served as the chairman of the Katsina State Vision 2010 Committee; would you say the vision was achieved?
Well, when you are appointed to serve in a particular committee on a subject and you are not part of the implementation of your report, you won’t know what happened afterwards. In any case, if you knew the initiator of that 2010 vision; you would know what happened to it. It was put aside no sooner than its architect.
You have been to many countries; are you missing any of them?
Well, Saudi Arabia is the one I miss. This is because apart from the religious fascination and attachment, the country is a case study on perseverance and patriotism. When I went there first in 1964, we had a letter from their consulate, which stated that as part of their team of reporters we should I think the time has come for Nigerians to sit down and decide how we want this country to be run. It is time to think of how to improve people’s lives. Why do we build bridges and high scale buildings without qualified people to man them? Why can’t we train people who can manage them? Do we still think properly? We should think of how to give value to our naira be treated nicely. As a result of this, at every checkpoint between Jeddah and Mecca, when we presented that letter with Saudi emblem, the first thing was for the Askar to salute the envelope and say, “go, Hukuma.’’
A.lso, there are many universities there, and most of the people you meet in the high places, technical fields and engineering are Saudi citizens. Even the Ka’abah itself has been remodelled and expanded. Every time you go there, something is happening towards making things better. I think such a country should be a model for all to see, and an attraction for all right-thinking individuals.
As you progressed in journalism, did you recruit other broadcasters from the North to fill possible gaps?
Well, as the NBS was growing, we recruited people with an eye for that time and the future. So it was a question of people getting there and being trained and retrained. There was no problem of supply line and its effectiveness. Now, the situation is totally different. I may be wrong, but broadcasting is a profession of the moment - you must be with the moment because you are dealing with people and people are changing.
On the question of comparison between the North and South, I think we have achieved a lot and are still achieving. We need both regions to be a little more proactive.
Why do you think people prefer the BBC to indigenous radio stations?
Radio stations have their missions and goals. What will cause trouble in one country may be acceptable in another. Because they want to get audience, they will tell you things that other radio stations in your own country will be careful not to tell you.
The other issue is technical problems. For a long time, the sound quality of broadcasting is still a little below what is expected. Thirdly, people are always adventurous, and they want to wear their pride on their sleeves. I listen to China, Ghana, BBC, every day. The BBC will talk about Somalia, America, Trump abusing his people, and listeners will be excited, but they don’t make for nation building at all.
What advice do you have for journalists?
Journalists have to play their roles very well. They should be trained to have eyes, noses and ears for news.
I think the time has come for Nigerians to sit down and decide how we want this country to be run. It is time to think of how to improve people’s lives. Why do we build bridges and high scale buildings without qualified people to man them? Why can’t we train people who can manage them? Do we still think properly? We should think of how to give value to our naira.
We have limited time to live in this world, so what do we want to be remembered for as individuals and Nigerians? Do we want to contribute to humanity by just sitting down and complaining about things? Everyone of us should discharge his/her responsibilities and contribute positively to humanity. Nigerians should be patriotic, patient, but firm and committed to a cause. That is my message.
Are you still in touch with your childhood friends?
In December I will be 82, so you would have to imagine my colleagues and mates in that category. Unfortunately, a lot of them have passed on. I met Alhaji Yusuf Saulawa, a retired educationist, in the middle school. Alhaji Sanda Kaita and Alhaji Nakano Rafin Dadi are those I met in Barewa College. I also met people like Dr Amadu Ali and Muhammad Dan Madami Sa’in Katagum.