DTN at 91: Remembering Babatunde Jose

In seeking pragmatic solutions to the national questions of accountable leadership, vision, commitment to service, probity and altruism, we should draw inspiration from the illustrious lives of the few patriots who walked this way before us. Undoubtedly, Alhaji Babatunde Jose (of blessed memory) was one of them. The doyen of Nigeria’s print journalism, who rose through the ranks in the mid ‘40s to become the news editor in 1956, editor in 1957 and subsequently, the managing director and chairman of the Daily Times conglomerate once described himself as “a political journalist.” Indeed, he left indelible footprints in the sands of time, worthy of emulation by all.

When he clocked the ripe age of 80 in 2005, Mr.N.A.B. Kotoye, in his tribute said. “Alhaji Jose built the Daily Times into a publishing empire. At the time of his exit, the paper was the largest circulating newspaper in Africa, south of the Sahara. He was the first Nigerian Managing Director of a public quoted company in Nigeria.”

Of great significance are the views of Jose on the practice of journalism in the country, the war against corruption and the state of the nation in general. For instance, on the role of the media to the society, he had this to tell The Spectator of August 8-14, 2008: “When we started in the mid ‘40s, the purpose of a newspaper was to influence people’s minds and the struggle at that time was for independence in Nigeria. In Britain and America, which we copied, newspapers were political tools of setting agenda and monitoring government activities. They could influence elections. They could bring down governments. Zik, Herbert Macaulay, Awolowo who inspired us were politically powerful journalists. We aspired to be like them.”

He also had his reservations on certain areas of practice. Said he: “The media in Nigeria is performing well but it is not leading. It is just reacting to campaign as set on the agenda by people in government. We are not setting agenda.”

Furthermore, he was of the candid opinion that the media was not investigative enough. “I can see lapses. There are no follow up stories. In our time, we fought every day. We would embarrass the police. We would expose any wrong doing. But today, you don’t get to see much of such fire. Journalists now hobnob with people they are paid to expose. They now eat with governors, ministers and pay courtesy calls to them. It is sad”.

That notwithstanding, Jose was a firm believer in journalists being well paid. Reflecting on his days in office he explained that: “When I was the editor of Daily Times, I was paid the salary of a minister. When I was regional representative in Enugu and Kaduna, I was riding the same brand of car that permanent secretaries were riding….An editor was paid twice a month so that by the time he becomes broke, he is getting another two weeks’ salary.” This brings waves of nostalgia. On the fight against the deeply entrenched economic malaise of corruption he had words of caution.”Nigeria is not the worst in what they call corruption. In fact, these countries that we try to emulate also have elements of corruption. Transparency International, with its home in Germany, we now see that they are not free of corruption…Yet, when the foreign press say we are the worst corrupt country, it is as if they are not corrupt at all.”

One only hopes that both the executive and legislature would institute policies and programmes for all the citizens to imbibe the war as a collective one. It should be taught in our homes, schools, religious institutions and not seen as a one-man battle by Mr. President. The ills of corruption hurt us all. More importantly, the culprits should be punished publicly to serve as strong deterrent to others with like minds. In fact, it reminds one of Professor Dora Akunyili (of blessed memory) and her call for re-branding Nigeria with internal moral cleansing, beginning with ourselves.

Interestingly, Jose had a similar admonition. “And I tell my colleagues when I was in active service that by all means, expose corruption, criticise: self-criticism is good but don’t carry self-criticism to the point of selfdestruction.” A word, they say is enough for the wise.

Ayo Oyoze Baje, Lagos