(Two Views on Ekpu’s Redeployment and Akporugo’s Statement)
Andy Akporugo Is a Guru
“There is no need to mourn or belly-ache over Ray Ekpu’s redeployment or demotion or whatever, you ought to realize that he was not made the life editor of the Sunday Times.”
Dear Sir,
Your Parallax Snaps of December 15, 1982, on a piece titled “Akporugo’s Diabolical Sense of Homour” was entertaining in more ways than one. First, your rationale for the piece is a bit whimsical. Second, the main kernel of your quarrel with the redeployment of your good friend, Mr. Ekpu, would appear to be the fact that he is you chum and you believe that he is competent and should be left alone to continue to edit the Sunday Times. In your rather aggressive attempt to be seen as defender of the oppressed, you became foggy and fallacious and unrealistic in your reasoning. You ought to realize that Raymond Ekpu was not made the life editor of the Sunday Times and his employers who pay the piper, ought to have the right to dictate the tune the way they did when they smuggled Ray into the Sunday Times through the back door and put him over and above his seniors on the Times group about two years ago. There is no need to mourn or belly-ache over Ray’s redeployment or demotion or whatever. It may well be that he is being made to taste a bit of the dose of the medicine concocted for his colleagues at the time he joined the staff of Sunday Times or Ray Ekpu’s competence is so well appreciated that his employers are moving him from the Sunday Times to the Business Times to enable him again employ his ingenuity to shyrocket the circulation figure of that paper as he allegedly did to the Sunday Times when he became the editor.
Perhaps, Raymond Ekpu is the first of the Sunday Times to be redeployed in the manner he was; perhaps not. What is well known is that Sunday Times has been edited at different times by different editors and the movements have not caused the kind of orchestrated furore which now greets that of Ray. Like you, I probably would wish that Raymond be given some more time to edit the Sunday Times, but unlike you, I would not want to crucify those responsible for his redeployment because it is within their right to do so either for economic or political considerations. I think that it is hypocritical of you to seek to set a seeming code of conduct for the management of the Times Group when you youself, are working for a newspaper which has made dramatic changes in its top echelon recently in spite of the expertise of the affected individuals. Your newspaper group made a sudden U-turn a few months ago in its editorial policy when the proprietor, Chief M.K.O. Abiola parted ways with the ruling NPN. Does it not speak volumes for the level of absolute lack of principles on the part of the journalists, including you, working on the Concord who once wrote some of the most vitriolic articles against the NPN and Chief Obafemi Awolowo, its leader and praised to the high heavens and everything done by the ruling NPN.
The most entertanining aspect of your quarrel with Ray’s redeployment is your inexplicable decision to pick on Andy Akporugo as if he decreed the exercise. You misrepresented Andy when you wrote: Akporugo was reported to have said he couldn’t understand what he fuss was about in the re-assignment, adding that Ray knew what to do if he didn’t like the arrangement of the musical chairs.” According to you, the statement was published in the National Concord of Friday, November 19. I am afraid, Andy did not refer specifically to Ekpu, rather, he sought to imply that anyone, including himself, who did not like the arrangement, had a choice. By far the most invidious aspect of your criticism of Andy Akporugo was your unkind remark that the circulation of the Sunday Times dropped by nearly 100, 000 copies when Andy was acting editor. You ought to be honest enough to tell your readers that Andy acted as editors of the paper when there was severe shortage of newsprints and many newspaper were forced to reduce their circulation figures.
Equal invidious and professionally unethical was your assertion that Andy was once in Benin pining away, “writing his polity stuff that nobody understood, for it never meant anything really.” I am sure that the first person to disagree with you and debunk that wicked statement would be the then Military Governor of Bendel State, Major-General George Innih who found Andy’s column too hot for comfort and consequently, relieved him of his post on the Nigerian Observer. To many people, Andy Akporugo is a guru in the Nigerian press – a primus pares – first among equals.
Mike Edemereyor,
Surulere, Lagos.
Why Victimise Ray
Dear Sir,
The news of Raymond Ekpu’s removal as the editor of the Sunday Times came to me as a rude shock. This is because I was about writing him a letter of commendation for a ‘job well done’ over the years. But I was rather caught unawares, dumbfounded and disappointed when the news reached me. This perhaps explain why I haven’t been able to comment on this ‘power show’ for sometime now. It seems to me that the present management of the Dailt Times of Nigeria (DTN) have a diabolical way of frustrating seasoned experienced and courageous journalists with the sole aim of sending them out. Journalists like Tunji Oseni, Lade Bonuola, Bola Adedoja, Stanley Macebuh are the very few examples that readily came to mind. The unfortunate aspect is that these are people that have put in years of selfless service to the establishment but were rewarded in a most pathetic way. In most cases they were instrumental to making the good name the newspaper is proud of today. It is very sad indeed.
The Sunday Times have always been a must for me over the years and ever since I became an avid reader of the newspaper, I haven’t only been able to assess the performance of the paper itself but also of the various editors that handled the paper. With this background, I dare say that since Ray Ekpu took over the command of the newspaper, there has been a drastic change in the editorial contents of the newspaper for the better. The reasons aren’t far fetched. Maybe because his predecessor wasn’t the substantive editor so he couldn’t do much to sustain the already high-level the paper attained under Tunji Oseni or simply because he wasn’t dynamic enough. But when Ray Ekpu took over, he brought along with him a ray of hope when there was despair for a brighter morrow for the newspaper and a ray of light in search of truth and objectivity which the paper needed badly then. He surely possessed the magic wand. He even started a column (on page seven) in the weekly newspaper that warmed the heart of most readers of the paper because of its objectivity, courage and above all stainless truth.
Since the advent of Ray Ekpu as well, there has been a considerable increase in the circulation of the paper to 130, 000 copies every Sunday, there wasn’t any need for the paper to make any public apology to anyone or any organization and above all, he (Ray Ekpu) as the editor, received six letters of commendation from the management (in 2 years). Why then was he transferred? Raymond was redeployed because of his boldness, outspokenness, forthrightness and an uncompromising attitude towards the truth. Also, he was taken away because he lost an election at Minna, Niger State.
I wouldn’t want to believe that this will mark the end of courageous newspaper journalism in this country, but for as long as the DTN that is supposed to be the guiding light cintinus to victimize innocent journalists for working in line with their conviction, then journalism in the real sense will continue to be a mirage in Nigeria. While praising Ray for taking up his new appointment with ‘philosophical calmness’ and wishing him the very best as the new editor of the Business Times, I’d like to point out to the management of the DTN that they can only force the horse to the stream, they can’t force it to drink.
Babatunde Adegboyega,
Mellamby Hall, University of Ibadan.
©Sunday Concord, December 12, 1982
(Pp.193-196)
