By Ikechukwu Amaechi
I have always known Yakubu Mohammed by reputation. But we met physically in 2018 when the League of Nigerian Columnists berthed. Initiated by syndicated columnists, Akogun Tola Adeniyi and Professor Anthony Kila, the league paraded industry giants such as Dan Agbese, Ray Ekpu, Reuben Abati, the late Henry Boyo, Ben Lawrence, the late Jimanze Ego-Alowes, Dare Babarinsa, Martins Oloja, Akin Osuntokun and yours sincerely as inaugural members.
*Yakubu Mohammed's book
Attending meetings and sharing ideas with these great men, an assemblage of people whose encyclopedic knowledge of Nigeria is deep, was invaluable. Whether it is Ekpu, Mohammed or Adeniyi or the urbane economist, Boyo, you couldn’t but marvel at what they knew, not from hearsay but firsthand information.
I paid particular attention to the enigma, Mohammed. Why? Because he was usually self-effacing, a trait which not only belied his reach but also his immense accomplishments. We became friends. Two years ago, he told me he was writing his memoir. So, when he called last week to inform me that the book – Beyond Expectations – A Memoir – was ready, I was excited. And what a bombshell. On Wednesday, I sat down with him for an exclusive interview on the book that lasted two hours.
What came through in the book which he insists is not an autobiography but a memoir that deals with the work of God in his life, is the quintessential Yakubu Mohammed – an epitome of modesty, integrity and forthrightness.
For instance, not many know that he was actually the founder of the most successful newsmagazine in Nigeria – Newswatch. Of the three “rascals” (as former President Olusegun Obasanjo called them) – Giwa, Ekpu and himself – who walked out on Chief MKO Abiola and his Concord Group of Newspapers in July 1984, Mohammed was the most senior in rank as the editor of National Concord. Giwa was editing the Sunday Concord, while Ekpu was chairman of the editorial board. Mohammed also brought Agbese, who was then editing the New Nigerian newspaper, on board to complete the quartet that founded Newswatch.
Agbese bore testimony to this in his preface to the book. “Ray Ekpu, the late Dele Giwa, Yakubu Mohammed and I pride ourselves as co-founders of the immensely successful Newswatch magazine. But the true founder was Yakubu Mohammed. He it was who gathered us together to birth the new venture as employers and business partners.” Yet, when it came to sharing positions and assigning responsibilities, Mohammed took the back seat. While Agbese was designated Managing Director and Giwa Editor-in-Chief, he and Ekpu were named Executive Editors.
Beyond Expectations is a chronicle of events that have shaped his life thus far and what he describes as the place of chance and serendipity – happenings that he had no control over. As Agbese put it, the book is a window into the heart of the boy from Ologba, who despite his very humble beginnings, “has seen it all and has done it all.”
Easily readable, Beyond Expectations captured the author’s early life, examining his school days starting from the CMML Primary School, Ikpakpala in 1958 to N.A. Junior Primary School at Anyigba and finally the Roman Catholic Mission Senior Primary School, otherwise known as St Joseph School for his primary education; Government Secondary School Okene where he sat for the West Africa School Certificate Examination, WASCE; and finally University of Lagos where he graduated with a Second Class (Upper Division) degree in Mass Communication in 1975.
While in school, he displayed an uncanny flair for journalism. It was not, therefore, a surprise that on graduation, the New Nigerian newspaper took the unprecedented step of getting the directorate of the NYSC to post him directly to them in Kaduna for his service. That was the beginning of a lifelong journalism career that saw him becoming Managing Editor of New Nigerian, editing the National Concord and co-founding Newswatch.
In the course of his career, he made friends with the powers-that-be, including Heads of State – Generals Muhammadu Buhari, Ibrahim Babangida, Sani Abacha – and Presidents Olusegun Obasanjo and Goodluck Jonathan. He excelled in public service having been appointed Pro-Chancellor and Chairman of the Governing Council of Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria and Federal University of Birnin Kebbi, Kebbi State where he characteristically left his inimitable footprints.
A community leader par excellence, Mohammed was instrumental to the creation of Kogi State on August 27, 1991. The book also gives account of his foray into the murky waters of politics. He aspired to govern Kogi on the platform of the All Progressives Congress, APC. For his sake, Babangida flew to Lagos to, among other things, sell his candidature to Bola Tinubu. Mohammed rendered the engrossing narrative with his trademark modesty.
On the role played by Tinubu, who was then the APC National Leader, Mohammed wrote: “After his meeting with Babangida, Tinubu later invited me to his Bourdillon home in Ikoyi to discuss my foray into politics. Satisfied that they had got a credible material for Kogi State, he began the groundwork for my emergence. He did more than any campaign manager would do. Many prominent political leaders confirmed to me that they got my rich profile from him.” But it was a bruising experience. The murky waters of Nigerian politics is not for his type.
The book is enchanting. But his account of Dele Giwa’s assassination via a parcel bomb on Sunday, October 19, 1986, will, no doubt, raise some storm.
Almost four decades after that dastardly act, the riddle – who killed Dele Giwa – is yet to be solved even as the suspicion remains rife that because of its sophistication, it must have had the imprimatur of the government and its security services.
The rumour mill was awash with the story that Giwa was investigating the death and “resurrection” of one Gloria Okon, who was said to be a drug courier for the powers-that-be. Ms. Okon who was initially said to have died in police custody after her arrest in Kano was later said to be alive and surreptitiously flown to the UK. She was about to reveal names that would have implicated Babangida and his wife, Maryam. Giwa had reportedly discovered her whereabouts and travelled to interview her in London, so claimed the conspiracy theorists.
Kayode Soyinka, the London Bureau Chief of Newswatch, who was with Giwa when the bomb detonated was said to have brought back the interview materials. Col. Haliru Akilu, who was then the Director of Military Intelligence, DMI, was said to have called Giwa that fateful morning to make sure he was at home before delivering the bomb.
But Mohammed dispelled these rumours as hoax. “And who, I must ask, killed Dele Giwa? This question that sounded sonorously like an anthem of sorrow when it was first asked pitifully across the country and was sustained in nearly everybody’s lips for a long while has remained the same today, even in its tamed and almost muted form, lacking in its original vigour and gravitas,” he wrote.
“The Gloria Okon theory is woven around Military President Ibrahim Babangida’s alleged interest, or lack of it, in the death and resurrection of the fictional character called Gloria Okon. Linked with the Gloria Okon theory was the wild but baseless speculation as to why Kayode Soyinka, the London bureau chief of Newswatch, was in Nigeria at the material time and why, of all places, he stayed with Dele Giwa when the bomb exploded. Another one has to do with Colonel (Haliru) Akilu (director of military intelligence) and the series of telephone calls preceding the delivery of the parcel bomb. Who initiated the call and who made the last call?”
He dismissed all the theories. First, Newswatch was not planning to do any story on Gloria Okon. Second, Giwa didn’t travel to London to interview her. Third, Soyinka didn’t bring the stories and the pictures from the alleged interview to Lagos and he and Dele Giwa were not looking at the pictures when the lethal parcel landed. “How utterly ridiculous it was to say that he brought to Lagos the interview allegedly conducted by Giwa in London,” he decried. Fourth, it was actually Giwa who called Akilu that morning and not the other way round.
“In discussing these theories, I am mindful of the fact that I am accountable to only God, my Creator,” he wrote.
“My religion which is Islam teaches me that I should at all times bear witness truthfully even if it is against myself. Whatever I say here has been said before, one way or the other, but where I was a personal witness, I make bold to say it as I know it,” he concluded.
On Wednesday, the erudite journalist reiterated that his position is neither an attempt to pass judgement nor exonerate anybody. He was simply saying what he knew to be the truth.
*Amaechi is the publisher of TheNiche (ikechukwuamaechi@yahoo.com)
No comments:
Post a Comment