Like me, or perhaps even worse, I know that the founders and executives of the Daily Trust brand (Media Trust Group) abhor praise. The Chairman and Founder, Mallam Kabiru Yusuf is a self-effacing man who shuns the klieg-lights and would prefer to work from the background. The other executives that I’ve met are also that way. Just like me. I cringe whenever I’m somewhere and someone decides to read my citation. What’s that for? I believe I haven’t achieved anything and there’s so much more to do ahead. I’ve never celebrated a birthday and I am still searching for that thing that will go off in my brains and cause me to wake up one day to start celebrating myself. But I do, lest I be misunderstood, enjoy and celebrate the little joys of life.
Today is not about me. It is about Daily Trust.
I had cause to throw up an issue recently; the Lagos/Ibadan press as they are called (the hub of Nigeria’s media), have in my opinion been taking too much of intellectual content for free. To them, it doesn’t even come up that they should sometimes acknowledge the value of people’s write-ups. I recall back in the day before the advent of the Internet, we used to send articles to newspaper houses by post (now called snail mail), or we dropped them off at their gates, and it was a great thing of joy when one gets published. These days, it’s just by e-mail. Yes indeed, the newspaper houses have access to a tome of opinion pieces, but at what point can it be said that they have started to become exploitative? Of course, Newspaper houses which don’t even believe in paying staff salaries cannot think of recognizing columnists.
There are members of the public who write letters to newspaper houses and get published occasionally. There are others who are published more frequently. Letter writers are not paid anywhere in the world by newspaper houses. But columnists are. I discovered that in Nigeria and in the axis I mentioned, most regular columnists don’t get paid. I mean not even a dime. Only a few who know the global standards and are able to syndicate their articles, have been able to get their rightful recognition.
Now, the business of intellectualism is a dying one in Nigeria – and no wonder we are where we are today. I will write soon about the anti-intellectual foundations of Nigeria’s underdevelopment. A nation that cares not about the products of mental faculties generally goes into extinction. But just as it is in government circles, and among civil servants and politicians, so it has become in the private sector, and unfortunately, in the fourth estate of the realm. To be an Author in Nigeria is to romance with penury. Bookshops sell your material, for you to agree to them collecting 50% of the proceeds of your books, and then proceed not to even give you the 50% that is yours. No one is speaking to these issues today; issues which underpin our existence and the reasons for our collective failure and the furious decimation of the country.
Now my Daily Trust story.
While I was worked with a bank, I approached Media Trust Group for some business – facilitation of newsprint imports specifically. It was Mallam Shehu (then Ag GM Finance) that I met. I was pleasantly surprised by the friendliness of the institution as against many other places that one visits as a marketer. This was sometime around 2004. After a couple of times interacting with Mallam Shehu, I was bold enough to tell him I write articles and he encouraged me to send my materials to him any time. Wow! And so I did. But I wasn’t regular.
In the autumn of 2005 I left the bank and went for my belated Masters Degree studies in London. At some point I received a mail from Mallam Shehu Mohammed that they were starting a new edition; Sunday Trust. He asked if I would like to take up a column. Naturally, I say ‘yes’ to new ventures, having been influenced by a movie ‘Yes Man’, starring Jim Carey. And so I said I will give it a try even though I was afraid about keeping up with weekly write-ups. Thankfully I have. I’m not sure I’ve missed a single write-up since I started writing for the Daily Trust group almost 12 years ago regularly, and almost 14 years in general. I even have too much materials than they could take. I’m indeed grateful to Mallam Kabiru Yusuf, Mallam Shehu and others for giving me this opportunity.
The real gist is that without asking, right from the beginning the initiated a monthly honorarium of N16,000. I didn’t ask. And they paid regularly. After a couple of years, the sum was increased to N25,000 monthly. Later on their own, it climbed to N40,000 and sometimes it looks like N50,000 monthly. Ordinarily this is something I could do for free, and I have never agitated for the money. Even when there are slight delays, trust Daily Trust to remember and surprise you with a credit into your account. It’s by clockwork and it’s remarkable; the sacrifice of keeping up with obligations in an environment where nobody cares about integrity. The accountability and respect for intellectual property, and even an unwritten agreement with their stakeholders, is touching. These sums, small as they are, have come in handy on a few occasions. I believe Daily Trust should be commended for showing integrity in a country where that is a rarity. The issue is that in the Lagos press as I mentioned above, the claim is that publishing business is unprofitable and arduous. Yes, that is true. But we have also seen publishers living large, buying private jets and frolicking with women of easy virtues from all over the world while riding intellectual capital for free. The fact is that without the regular supply of writings from different places, newspapers will be near empty.
It was therefore icing on the cake for me, when the Chairman of the Group suggested that I be added to the Board of Economists as a member about two years ago. I have been privileged to learn from big guns like Professors Ode Ojowu, Mike Kwanashie and Muttaka Muhammad, also the late Sanusi Abukakar, Mallam Isiaq Ajibola, Husseini Abdulrahman, and other living encyclopedias of economics and public policy. Mallam Ajibola moved a motion at the very first meeting and I became the Secretary; a role that puts much responsibility on my fragile shoulders.
In the heat of the 2015 election build up, due to my support for Buhari, some people were bold enough to accuse me of writing for a northern newspaper. Some took it forward and said Boko Haram paper. One supposed intellectual said I was the Sultan’s columnist, after I had defended Father Matthew Hassan Kukah whom he referred to as the Sultan’s Bishop. I have had cause recently to reiterate that I am glad to be associated with the Media Trust Group. I don’t believe very much in waiting for 365 days of every year to appreciate God, or the people He has used to touch my life. In the same vein, I think one should show gratitude to God and his agents, when the desire to so do nudges my mind… as it has this time. Kudos to Media Trust for setting new standards in professional journalism in Nigeria. The frugality and professionalism has made this newspaper one of the strongest in Nigeria today. The sense of equity and fairness to stakeholders can only result in more blessings from God himself. Thanks to my wonderful readers too.
