Former Sunday Times Editor, Mr Tunde Ipinmisho recalls his days at the newspaper, which he said had a team of some of the nation’s best talents.
I fortuitously met the then Managing Director of the Daily Times, Dr Yemi Ogunbiyi in 1989 at a time I was searching for a bigger field of play in my career at the Nigerian Television Authority, Minna. I had risen to the position of Principal Editor. I enjoyed the confidence of my bosses and colleagues, but I had a compelling urge to launch out.
As soon as I presented my papers to Dr Ogunbiyi, he assured me that he would hire me because he needed somebody who would help to “clean up the bad English” in the Daily Times.
When I assumed office, I was posted to the Rewrite Desk to begin what turned out to be an interesting, challenging, but fulfilling career at the Daily Times. The Rewrite Desk was the last stop for a retiring journalist. And here was I starting my career in print journalism on that desk. That was quite challenging because writing for television, which had been my forte for years, is quite different from writing for the newspaper.
My duty was to review all the reports coming from the reporters from our locations in Lagos and across the country. That was a huge task but I had Mrs. Dupe Osibeluwo and the late Alhaji Razak El-Alawa to work with.
I was also happy to have a news craftsman of the status and experience of Mr. Dapo Aderinola, the Group News Editor, to work with. Working on the scripts of star reporters like Babatunde Faniyan, the late Josephine Izuagie, Kene Okafor, Emeka Odo, late Abiola Ogedengbe, Olaide Shokunbi, Lawal Ogienagbon helped in no small measure in helping me to understand the nuances of newspaper writing and mastering the house style of the Daily Times.
Working with a boss like the late Dr Femi Sonaike, then Deputy Editor and later the Editor, was also quite helpful. Rather than being tied to the desk, Dr Sonaike encouraged me to go out and bring in stories for the paper. I remember how thrilled I was to arrive in the office one day to find my byline on the front page of the paper. He insisted that I should push on and eventually gave me the newly established National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) as my beat, in addition to my job on the Rewrite Desk.
Gradually, I was honing my skills and also attracting the attention of readers and my superiors.
One of those who had taken notice of my stories in the Daily Times was Akogun Tola Adeniyi, an old Timesman who was, in early 1992, appointed the Chairman/Managing Director of the Daily Times. I had met him when he was the Director-General for the Office of the Movement to Abuja. He had often commended my writing and encouraged me to keep it up. On the day he assumed office in 1992, I met him on the long corridor at the Times Publication Division, Agidingbi, Ikeja and quite strangely, he asked if I had received my letter. I was in a quandary, which he noticed, and he quickly added that “I have directed them to promote you.”
That was how I became the Deputy News Editor, working with Mr. Solomon Odemwingie who became the News Editor after Mr Aderinola had been named the Editor of the Sunday Times.
Being the Deputy News Editor did not stop me from going out to scout for and writing news stories.
The Daily Times was a wonderful place to work, and it had a rich assemblage of some of the nation’s best journalists. However, the paper had the challenge of coming out every day with the pressure of government ownership weighing it down. I will give an example. When Justice Dolapo Akinsanya of the Lagos High Court ruled that Babangida’s infamous contraption, the Interim National Government (ING), headed by the late Chief Earnest Shonekan was illegal, the reporter had filed his story but a large team of the leaders of the company, including some finance and administrative staff from the headquarters at Kakawa Street, Lagos, had gathered over the story to be sure it was handled “the Daily Times way.” So, they arrived at a tepid headline that would not hurt the military authorities.
Everybody left, satisfied that the story had been given the Daily Times treatment. Nobody gave a thought to the conscience of one Mr. Ojo Bejide, an Ekiti man who was a professional to the core and who held very strong opinions on the injustice of the June 12 affair. He had just been recently appointed the Night Editor as part of the moves to contain some of those who had strong views like Mr. Bejide.
We woke up the following day to find that Mr. Bejide, as Night Editor had changed the lead headline of the Daily Times to “ING is Illegal.”
He would later tell some of his colleagues that when he came to work and saw the headline of the paper, he was outraged by the cowardice behind the choice. He said he did not mind if that terminated his career at the Times. Quite expectedly, he was sent on suspension and eventually sacked. Till today, Mr. Bejide would tell anybody who cares to listen that changing that headline marked the peak of his career in the Daily Times.
I brought up that incident to demonstrate the challenges facing those who worked at the Daily Times. Despite the turn around the Daily Times experienced under his leadership, Dr Yemi Ogunbiyi was sacked over an “unfriendly” headline the paper used for the report of a press conference Professor Wole Soyinka had addressed, at which he described the local government election, the first step in Babangida’s ill-fated transition programme, as a sham.
It would seem that some of my best times at the Daily Times were when the paper was in crisis.
One afternoon, we suddenly heard on Radio Nigeria that our then Managing Director, the late Mr. Innocent Oparadike had been sacked and replaced as Administrator by the late Daily Times veteran and one of the leading lights of Nigerian journalism, Mr. Peter Enahoro. Soon after he assumed office, he promoted me to the position of News Editor. After a year, he made me the Deputy Editor of the Daily Times, to Mr Ndu Ughamadu and a year later, he appointed me the Editor of the Sunday Times.
The Daily Times was a great paper with a team of some of the nation’s best talents, but the government’s suffocating hold on it contributed to the circumstances which inevitably made it disappear from the streets.
