Deputy Editor-in-Chief of Sun Newspaper, Femi Adesina is one of the two contestants for the Presidency of the Nigeria Guild of Editors. In this interview published in The Sun of February 27, 2013, Adesina shares his vision for the editor’s group.
Why do you wish to be President of the Nigeria Guild of Editors?
I’m contesting because I believe I have something to contribute to the growth, the development of the Nigeria Guild of Editors. I am contesting because I have served for four years as a member of the Standing Committee of the guild under Gbenga Adefaye, the outgoing president. For the past three years, I had been chairman of the Planning Committee of the annual National Conference of the Guild held in Port Harcourt, Benin and Uyo respectively. And they were all hugely successful. And Mr Adefaye has led with dignity and integrity, and I believe that the tempo must not go down. Rather, it should be taken forward.
I am contesting again because I received an overture in September 2011 from some of our Northern members in the guild who came to my hotel room in Benin when we held our annual conference in that city, and told me that they believed I had the potential to move the guild forward after Gbenga Adefaye’s tenure must have run out. I told them then, when they asked me to contest that, would they be able to sell it to the North? And they promised they would. It took me a while to make up my mind, but based on their assurance that night which they kept re-affirming over the next one year, I then decided to contest.
What are your programmes for Nigerian editors if you are elected president?
Primarily, the guild can be sure that the association is not being misused. You can be sure that the integrity of the leadership would be rock solid. I will not lend the guild to anything that will bring shame or odium to Nigerian editors. So, I will lead with integrity and dignity. You know you can merchandise the guild. We will not do that.
Again, because I’ve been part of the Standing Committee in the past four years, I know the direction in which Mr Adefaye led the guild. So, it’s a matter of just continuing in that journey. There are things he started that have not been consummated. We have signed a memorandum of understanding with the School of Media and Communications of Pan African University in Lagos. That one, I intend to follow up on, so that members have opportunity for training and retraining, and have opportunity to develop their capacity. The guild since its formation in 1962 does not have a secretariat. I know how far the Adefaye executive has gone in a bid to get land in a commercial area of Abuja. When that comes through, the challenge is to build. Of course, if I lead the executive, I will take up that challenge. We will secure the land and build the secretariat. It will be a big step forward in more than 50 years of the existence of the organisation.
Of course, the welfare of editors would matter. You find senior editors, journalists pejoratively described as veteran journalists. So, we will need to take care of the welfare of our members, so that they don’t retire into penury. Get opportunities for them, get grants, let them write memoirs, let them write books, assist them to do things that are productive and that can fetch them some extra income so that journalists, editors don’t retire into penury. So, those are some of the things we will need to do.
Of course, we will design creative ways of raising money for the guild, so that for all our programmes we don’t have to go cap in hand to government before we can do them. Now we have about 300 people as our members. The membership dues amount to only N3m in a year. According to our constitution, the standing committee must sit four times in a year. That N3m will not fund those four meetings. So we would design creative ways in which the Guild of Editors can make money so that we don’t have to beg before we do our programmes.
How qualified are you for this election?
I got into the rank of editor in the year 2000. I began journalism in 1986 after graduating. That means I became an editor 14 years after entering the profession. My first call as an editor was in Concord Press. I was made editor of the National Concord. And then in 2001 when Concord became distressed as a result of the travails of Chief MKO Abiola, I then went to Nigeria Tribune as a visiting member of the Editorial Board, which I did for the next one and half years. Then about the middle of 2002, I was invited to join the team that set up The Sun Newspapers. Mr. Mike Awoyinfa and Mr. Dimgba Igwe had been my editors in Concord Press, and when they were setting up The Sun, they called me and I joined the team that set up the paper. I became the founding editor of the Daily newspaper in 2003. I edited that paper for five years. And during those five years, the paper became the highest selling newspaper in the country. It was named the Newspaper of the Year in 2007, and I was also pronounced the Editor of the Year by the Nigeria Media Merit Award. In 2008, I was promoted Executive Director, Publications, of The Sun Newspapers, and in 2010, I got promoted Deputy Managing Director/Deputy Editor-in-Chief of The Sun. In 2008, I got elected into the Standing Committee of the Nigeria Guild of Editors. I served four years, that is two terms on the Gbenga Adefuye executive. So I believe I have what it takes to lead the Nigeria Guild of Editors and lead it well, lead it excellently and lead it in a way that all members will be proud of the association.
