DID YOU SEE THE AWARD COMING?
No, I did not see it coming! I am not sure if it is something that people apply for, so I did not apply for it. I did not lobby anyone for it, either. I mean, I never spoke to anyone concerning the award. So I never anticipated anything. In fact, it was as if I was, uncharacteristically, oblivious that another June 12 anniversary was around the corner. So, unlike in years past when I would have been arranging in my head what to write on the anniversary weeks and days before the date, this year I did nothing of such. I wrote something else in my full-page columns in two national newspapers without mentioning a word on June 12.
Friday, June 12, 2026 itself came, and it was dreary for me. The previous day, on Thursday, my elder sister had lost her husband and, as would be expected, I wasn’t in any good mood at all. But as had become habitual with me, I woke up early on Friday to put finishing touches to my ON THE LORD’S DAY column in the Sunday Tribune, after which I began to check my mails.
On the first instance that I came across “Congratulations, Sir!” from the son of a secondary school classmate of mine, who works with a private television station to which he usually invites me, I wondered what he meant. I sent him a reply, “What is the meaning of this?” I moved on while expecting his response. Before he could, I encountered two more “congratulations!”, further fuelling my curiosity. It was the next “congratulations” that now added “for this award” that gave me an inkling that something, truly, must have happened. As I progressed with checking more of my emails, I came to know that I had been named among the June 12 or Democracy heroes for the Year 2026.
I seldom listen to presidential addresses; this year’s ritual by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu was not different. As a necessity, I drag myself to read, even analyse, them. Addresses by our leaders are usually rehashed. Speech writers bring previous addresses and dust them up. Only a few of our leaders write their own addresses by themselves or even take the pains to read what has been written for them. I have had several opportunities to work closely with some of our leaders. There was one of our leaders for whom I wrote a speech, and when it was time for reporters to grill him, he said, “Bola, please come and answer them; after all, it was your speech. I only helped you to read it!”
I learnt useful lessons from that. From that moment onward, if I had to write a speech for any of our leaders, I would first pick their brains. What exactly are their views on the subject matter? What policies are they comfortable with, etc? So, I did not listen to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s 2026 Democracy Day speech. I only read it afterwards. I had no foreknowledge that he had something in it for me. No one forewarned me or leaked the news to me.
WHAT DOES THE AWARD MEAN TO YOU?
Interestingly, I will say it means more to others than it means anything to me. At first, I didn’t attach much importance to it other than to think that the President and his inner circles must have listened to criticisms of last year’s list, where the contributions of PUNCH newspapers, to which I belonged, were surprisingly overlooked, and those many people who think were less deserving were recognised and were awarded. So, I thought, okay, they must be trying to make amends. When I eventually looked through the list, which a friend and professional colleague sent to me afterwards, I saw that two other PUNCH names – Demola Osinubi and Gbemiga Ogunleye – made it to the list.
But the avalanche of congratulatory and goodwill messages that have poured in since the presidential announcement made me realise that the award means more than I had imagined. Professional colleagues, friends, classmates at different educational levels, fans of my columns, fellow pastors and church members alike, family, acquaintances, neighbours, the various social media platforms to which I belong, my social club, town development union or group, name it! It was then that I realised that not only does the award hold much relevance to a cross-section of our people, but also that it confers privileges as well as imposes duties and obligations.
There is also the angle of people’s heightened expectations, which they have already started expressing, despite the fact that the award is yet to be formally bestowed! Let me simply say it appears to be a new level. We see how it goes as we get along.
ARE THERE OTHER JOURNALISTS THAT SHOULD HAVE BEEN INCLUDED ON THE LIST?
Of course, yes! At the PUNCH, Chris Mammah, one-time Deputy Editor of The PUNCH, deserves to be on the list. You can recollect that Chris spent months in detention under the military junta of General Ibrahim Babangida. We had to feature him on the front page of PUNCH newspapers, daily, counting the number of days he had spent in unjust detention. I still recollect how the PUNCH management never abandoned him; how his salaries were paid as due; and how I would personally collect his salary every month and take it to his wife and baby girl.
I could also recollect that the count that we insisted on sustaining boldly on the newspaper’s front page seriously angered the Babangida junta. The Chief Press Secretary to Babangida, Chief Duro Onabule, aka Double Chief, complained ceaselessly about it. His efforts to use “Ijebu parapo” with the then Editor, Demola Osinubi, were resisted by all of us. We stood our ground until we got an undertaking that removing the logo would facilitate the release of Chris, which we then did, and Chris was released afterwards. So Chris richly deserves the award.
Another action of ours that unsettled them seriously was our “Countdown to Democracy”, which fell under my watch as the editor of The PUNCH/Saturday PUNCH. We carried the picture of two shackled fists on the front page, with the manacles broken in the middle. And we began to count: 200 days to go! 150 days to go! 100 days to go! I understand this unsettled the First Lady, Maryam Babangida, so badly that the junta sent emissaries to me to pull it down. I resisted their overtures and spurned their bribe offers. This was one of the reasons they gave for eventually proscribing the PUNCH newspapers; they said we were inciting the people against the government.
Of course, we also took the military junta of General Sani Abacha, Babangida’s successor, to court. Indefatigable and irrepressible Gani Fawehinmi was our lawyer. I followed Gani to court to sign all the papers and swear affidavits at great personal risk and cost.
Eventually, our efforts paid off. We won, and costs were awarded against the government, for the newspaper as well as for me, as the then editor who was detained in the newspaper premises for three days: Saturday, June 11 – Monday, June 13, 1994. The court also declared the PUNCH closure illegal and ordered the government to reopen the newspaper. When the government failed to comply, Gani filed contempt charges against the government before it eventually backed down, and the newspaper was reopened.
The Chairman of PUNCH at the time, Chief Ajibola Ogunshola, also deserves more than an award. He was the Commander-in-Chief of the PUNCH Forces armed, as it were, with our pens, which, as it has been said, is mightier than the sword! The doggedness with which we prosecuted the June 12 struggle attested to that, and the victory that we achieved proved beyond reasonable doubt that the pen, truly, is mightier than their guns and bullets.
We refused to be cowed, we suffered, but our heads were unbowed, we took the military junta to court and won – from the high court up to the highest court of the land. When we realise the important role that proprietorship plays in the formulation of newspaper editorial policies and its overall sustenance, then it will be realised that the PUNCH newspapers and its bold and courageous editors and staff would not have achieved much without the staunch support and backing of the Chairman and other Directors of the company.
So, Chief Ajibola Ogunshola deserves to be lionised when the struggle for the actualisation of democracy in Nigeria is discussed. He, too, put his life, family, and business on the line. I know this because when I was detained within the premises beginning from Saturday, June 11, 1994, the questions they asked me revolved around the critical roles they said Chief Ogunshola played in the pro-democracy struggle in general and the revalidation of the June 12, 1993, presidential election won freely and square by Chief MKO Abiola in particular. But Babagida’s military junta annulled the election for inexplicable reasons. So, Chief Ogunshola’s contributions also deserve to be recognised by the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu administration.
Now that President Tinubu has begun to redress the injustice done to PUNCH in previous awards, he should go the whole hog by including Chief Ogunshola, Chris Mammah and other deserving ex-PUNCHERS in the next edition of the award. He should also honour the court by paying the costs awarded to PUNCH and my good self, with commensurate interest!
Of course, there are many other journalists and related persons in other newspapers and spheres of life who made invaluable contributions and who also deserve to be acknowledged as heroes of democracy. My advice to the government is that, yearly, as we mark June 12 as Democracy Day, more heroes of our democracy should be recognised and rewarded. For those yet to be recognised, I counsel patience. I pray that, for them, delay, as they say, will not translate into denial.