| Babatunde Jose: The Death Of A Newspaperman |
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| Written by Reuben Abati | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sunday, 03 August 2008 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Babatunde Jose: The Death Of A Newspaperman By Reuben Abati
"Are you Papa Jose's daughter?", I asked "He is my father," she said with a twinkle in her pretty eye. "You mean Papa still has young ones like you in his compound? How is he these days? I have not been seeing him at public functions." "Baba is not in a good shape o. He is really old now. But we are taking good care of him," she had replied with a certain note of finality, with so much suggestion about the old man's mortality in the air. "He made a great mark. He is an icon of my profession. We thank God for his life." I told her. The lady and I parted, but on that ocassion, Papa Jose's absence at Alhaji Otiti's birthday party was conspicuous as it had been also at the 80th birthday anniversary of Papa Mac Alabi. He was a man who took friendship seriously and who stood by his friends in all seasons. Signs of old age had suddenly descended on Papa Babatunde Jose when he celebrated his 80th birthday in 2005, and shortly after, his public appearances became infrequent until no one saw him again in public. But before then, Alhaji Babatunde Jose had lived for more than five decades, an active life in the public arena, showing up even in the twilight of his life at public events in honour of friends and associates. He was also a close friend of the younger generation, for whom he had become a symbol of success, distinction as a technocrat and achievements as a manager. He was a bridge between the old and the new in Nigerian journalism. Yesterday morning, I received a text message from Mr Sunmi Smart-Cole announcing that "Alhaji Babatunde Jose died at 5. 45 am this morning aged 82. Burial at Atan cemetery, Yaba, at 4 p.m." "There goes a newspaperman", I exclaimed. Alhaji Jose was indeed a complete newspaperman. He began his career on the shop floor as a technical trainee, newsroom hand, compositor, cut and paste technician, reporter, Eastern and Northern correspondent, regional manager and editor until he rose to become the Chief Executive and Chairman of the Daily Times Group of newspapers. The Daily Times had its glorious moments under his watch, becoming one of the most influential newspapers in sub-saharan Africa and definitely, the most important news platform in the Nigerian society, with circulation figures in excess of 500, 000 copies on a good day. The glory of the Daily Times is usually associated with the Babatunde Jose era, and its collapse, with the politics of its exit. He was "one man who made a forest", not just in the Daily Times, but also in Nigerian journalism; to those who worked with him or under him, he was like the Iroko tree of his era, under whom smaller trees sought refuge and whose pre-eminence was a fact of the forest of journalism. At the time of Babatunde Jose's active career as a newspaperman, my generation was still being introduced to the syntax and structure of the English grammar and struggling with our alphabets, but it is a mark of the man's greatness, that when our generation showed up in the newspaper house, we met Alhaji Babatunde Jose's pervasive influence in the newsrooms. This owed largely to the fact that The Daily Times, at the height of its glory, supplied the manpower for all the other newspapers that emerged in the Nigerian market. Thus, other publications, and other newsrooms fell into the hands of Babatunde Jose's boys and former colleagues and associates, and of course his long distance influence. And they were never tired of regaling the younger generation with stories about the legend of Babatunde Jose, and the achievements of those who helped to build up the Daily Times story. Each of these other stories was eventually linked to Babatunde Jose, the man who ruled the Daily Times for more than two decades and who helped to build it into a formidable institution. Jose was a product of tradition, the Daily Mirror Group tradition, the new owners of the Daily Times in 1947 who had carefully groomed Jose for leadership and provided the enabling environment for the flowering of his genius, with Cecil King, the Mirror Group Chief of Operations in West Africa, as his mentor. He had tried to sustain the tradition that he inherited by ensuring that the Daily Times was a credible source of news and analysis, so successful was the Daily Times in this respect that every other newspaper in the market with this newspaper was regarded as the Daily Times. To tradition, Jose as manager of the Daily Times brought his own individual skills, he was a man of vision and foresight, and his first major achievement was in seeking to make the Daily Times modern in all respects. His second achievement was in making sure that the newspaper was successful as journalism and as business. He turned it into a strong voice, a truly Nigerian newspaper, and an empire, and into a power centre with a grip on the public pulse and consciousness. Jose did not joke with human resources, he knew that the power of an organisation lies in its people, and that a newspaper is as good as its men. And so he went after the best and the brightest in every department of the trade, and in particular, he introduced a graduate employment policy. He himself did not go to university, but he started the business of bringing graduates into the Daily Times and with that he raised the level and profile of journalism practice in Nigeria. Before then, journalists were regarded as press boys who had little education. Jose encouraged those among his staff who did not have university education to proceed on further training either in professional institutes or in the universities. He loved a good story and he rewarded bravery and excellence. He was so powerful that he could promote a reporter or remove an editor, raise someone's salary or order a pay cut, on the spur of the moment without any reference to any higher authority. No other newspaper managing director in Nigeria has been as powerful as that ever since. Because he was fully in control and in charge, Jose was able to mould the Daily Times in his own image into an efficient and productive organisation. But this seemingly totalitarian hold on the newspaper brought him admirers and also attracted the criticisms of some aggrieved subordinates who many years later still accussed him of favouritism, dictatorship and injustice. But no one has ever doubted is Jose's professionalism. Having risen through the ranks and having worked in so many departments of the newspaper, Jose knew the territory and the job. He was the big man of the Daily Times, but when it came to reporting the news, he did not act the big man, he joined his editors and reporters in writing the stories and in casting the headlines. He got involved in the analysis of news and events, he studied the columns and their impact, he took an interest in the private lives of his staff and according to one legend, he helped some of them to get married and acquire property, and because he was so involved in the operation, he could sense commitment, identify true talents and punish laggards and hypocrites. A newspaper house is full of egoists and poorly talented, but ambitious petition-writers. Those that were sanctioned for one reason or the other by Jose, or who felt they were not favoured hated his guts and they soon conspired against him, forming the notorious Joint Action Committee (JAC). Their eventual success led to Jose's exit, the military take over of the newspaper in September 1975, and the gradual end of the Daily Times. I had said earlier that Jose built the Daily Times into an empire. He diversified the newspaper operation into a vast business; at a time the Daily Times published up to 15 titles; there was also a thriving real estate side to the business, a Times Journalism Institute which focussed on the development of manpower, a distribution and packaging company, housing estates for staff, and a strong stock market presence with the staff encouarged to buy the company's shares and become part-owners. Jose initiated the movement of the Daily Times from its humble Kakawa offices to Iganmu and to a sprawling estate in Agidingbi, and created a one-stop, multi-shelf newspaper empire. Jose's journalism and business management was further strengthened by his active engagement with the community outside the newspaper. He knew everybody that should be known; he had all the sources at his beck and call, he was a member of the Zikist movement, and the NCNC. He was a powerful man not just in the Daily Times but also in society. Indeed, the Daily Times and its stories had a strong bearing on the politics of the Nigerian state. But Jose's power and influence was also his hubris. Ex-Daily Times staffers have debated the susbstance of this over the years and they are divided over whether or not Alhaji Jose was fair-minded or not in the decisions that he took, but a group of disgruntled staff soon found cause to do a petition to the Murtala/Obasanjo government in 1975, to complain about how Alhaji Jose had taken over the Daily Times, and why one man should not be allowed to be so powerful. Governments and their paid agents do not like powerful newspapers nor can they tolerate "powerful journalists". Encouraged by the internal conspirators, the military government literally took over the Daily Times by seizing majority shares in it through NICON in 1975. Babatunde Jose had to go (this was what the conspirators wanted), and this happened in March 1976, but the Daily Times would also go down. Jose himself has told the story of that treachery and of his principled stand, at great length in his 1987 book: Walking A Tightrope: Power Play in Daily Times. Cecil King's biography, Strictly Personal is also worth reading. It takes a while for a great newspaper to die, and it takes quite a while for a good newspaper to become mediocre, but both have a lot to do with human machinations. A newspaper is sustained by tradition and philosophy. At any particular time, there would always be people, internal and external forces, struggling to take control of these two factors. If the wrong party triumphs, the newspaper goes down. And so it was with the Daily Times. Jose's immediate successors had tried to sustain the tradition of excellence that they inherited, but over time, there was a corruption of the ideology of the newspaper, commitment waned, as the military overlords sought to use the newspaper to promote their own propaganda. The nail on the coffin of the Daily Times was finally struck home in the days of General Sani Abacha, when the newpaper became a mouth organ of the miliatry junta. Integrity of news suffered and the readers turned their back on the Daily Times, distribution vans of the newspaper were stoned by angry readers; other newspapers filled the void. The Daily Times was finally buried under President Olusegun Obasanjo who had been one of the original undertakers in 1975 (some insist he was the main undertaker); the decision to return the newspaper to private investors merely brought more troubles. The Daily Times is yet to resurrect. This was one of Papa Jose's last wishes; he wanted the Daily Times brought back to life; he wanted the institution to which he and his colleagues devoted the best part of their lives to return to glory. This remains an unfulfilled wish: newspapers have their life-spans: even when the Daily Times returns as has been promised by its new owners, it won't be and can't ever be the same Daily Times; so much has transpired in the industry since the Daily Times was put to sleep. Every profession creates its own legends and icons. Alhaji Babatunde Jose was the main icon of contemporary Nigerina journalism and the most influential Nigerian journalist since 1960. There may be no one else like him, because no other Managing Director of a newspaper may be as powerful as he was. The sociology of newspaper ownership is in part responsible for this. But the profession will continue to be enriched by the example of other living stars of the profession, who have remained active even in retirement as sources of inspiration to the younger generation: Laban Namme, Lateef Jakande, Alade Odunewu, Mac Alabi, Tony Momoh, Henry Odukomaiya, Mac Alabi, Stanley Macebuh, Peter Ajayi, Segun Osoba, Felix Adenaike, Peter Pan Enahoro, Kola Animashaun, Gbolabo Ogunsanwo, Lade Bonuola etc. Alhaji Jose lived long enough to witness some of the more modern innovations in Nigerian journalism. The domination of the profession by an educated elite, the continuing influence of news and analysis, and the growth of new media in terms of print technology, the computerisation of newspaper operations and the phenomenon of internet publishing and the increasing democratisation of journalism which has turned virtually any parrot with a smattering of education into a licensed commentaror and publisher, relying not on a newspaper platform but internet sites and blogs where the rules of professionalism and ethics may not apply and abuse, blackmail, misinformation and ignorance, are accepted fare. Until old age limited his movement, he was abreast and in touch. He also lived long enough to witness the special difficulties and crises that latter-day journalists faced: the continuing intolerance of the leadership elite, murderous censorship, the rising cost of everything from printing ink to newsprint, and the dwindling numbers of readers. Jose whose bones have now been interred was not just a journalist, he was also an astute businessman. He sat on the boards of many other companies in corporate Nigeria and also ran a printing business in retirement. But he was all the more active as a religious leader. A Moslem, he took his religion seriously. In 1942, he and Professor A. Asuni and Professor A. B. Fafunwa founded the Shooting Stars of Islam, an Islamic association. In 1967, he became the President of the Anwar-ul Islam, the Ahmadiyya Movement of Nigeria. He was then 42, the youngest person to hold that position in the history of the Ahmadiyya Movement in Nigeria. His tenure for two terms as President witnessed phenomenal growth in the movement including the building of the Central Mosque of the movement in Lagos which was then commissioned on the occasion of his 55th birthday on December 13, 1980. He had been honoured in a similar fashion 23 years earlier when he was appointed editor of the Daily Times on December 13, 1957. In 1555, he went on pilgirmage to Mecca and on his return he wrote a book titled: Towards Mount Arafat. Alhaji (Dr.) Ismail Babatunde Jose, OFR, will be greatly missed, no doubt. He became Managing Director of the Daily Times in 1962, and Chairman of the Group in 1968. In March 1974, Pope Paul VI awarded him a medal in appreciation of his contributions to the promotion of interdenominational understanding in Nigeria. A new generation of journalists is emerging that may never know him, but his life and example, and the values that he represented will continue to be relevant to the practice of journalism and Islam. Goodnight, sir.
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It was at the 80th
birthday anniversary and book launch in honour of Alhaji A. O. G..
Otiti, former Deputy Governor of the Central Bank, in November 2007,
that I ran into this young lady with whom I struck up a conversation as
we all filed out of the venue of the event. I had asked for her name
and she had mentioned a familiar surname: Babatunde-Jose. 
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Posted by Robot| 03.08.2008 08:49