Ray Ekpu: At 70, I’m Feeling Good; it is Something to Be Thankful For…

RAY EKPU IS A NAME THAT RINGS A BELL IN THE JOURNALISM PROFESSION FOR SEVERAL REASONS. HE HAS HAD IT ALL IN HIS 45 YEARS OF PRACTICE. HE TAKES YEMI ADEBOWALE AND AHAMEFULA OGBUTHROUGH THE HIGHS AND LOWS AS WELL AS PLANS TO CELEBRATE HIS 70TH BIRTHDAY AND 45 YEARS OF PRACTICE WHICH HE CALLS 70.45. … EXCERPTS:

You will be 70 on August 6, how are you feeling?

I feel good. Of course when you get to this age a lot of things change in your body but you decide to take it in your stride; your footsteps are no longer long and your feet can no longer kill an ant. At 70, if you don’t have any serious health challenges, you will live and look reasonably well. So, it is something to be thankful for particularly if you live in a country like Nigeria where the life expectancy is put at 53 years. To live in a country like Nigeria where petrol tanker can just go crazy and if you are within that area, you are consumed by an inferno and many other things that can kill people at a younger age in Nigeria like malaria which other countries have eliminated. People go and import fake drugs from India and China to sell to their own citizens; people bring fake tyres from China to come and kill people in Nigeria and people buy those tyres without knowing that they are buying instruments of death. A soldier or a policeman will hold his gun carelessly and you get shot to death and they call it accidental discharge; so there are a million things that kill people very early in age here. Very bad hospitals, poor prescriptions, fake drugs, fake doctors and so on and so forth.

The regulatory mechanisms are not strong enough to help people to live long and the operating environment itself adds to people’s short longevity. So, if you manage to get to 70, you have to be grateful to God because when you have been able to jump over all of these hurdles, you cannot say it is because you are smart or clever. I think there is an element of an unseen hand in your life.

Are there things you are doing to stay healthy?

Well, yes, you do some exercises, you adjust  your food as you go along; you cut out red meat from your food, cut out salt and sugar and heavy carbohydrate, garri, yam, pounded yam or boiled yam, you shift more to plantain, beans, vegetables  and fruits, those will certainly help. Of course, at this level, you will no longer be smoking if you were smoking, if you were drinking you will reduce the quantity of alcohol that you take, a lot of those things can help. I have read a number of longevity literature and they indicate that you can control 65 per cent of your longevity, the remaining 35 per cent come from your genes, so you don’t control your genes, you didn’t decide who your parents and grandparents would be, so that is an area you can do nothing about but the 65 per cent that is left, you can do your best to see how God helps you to live long.

Does longevity run in your family?

Yes and no. My father died at 50 so it is not long; my mother died at 76, so it is long, depending on what you mean by long. Somebody can get an accident and die; does that determine longevity in one’s family? No. Everybody does not die from natural causes, it is when people die from natural causes that you can actually determine longevity, people can get an accident, people can die from misdiagnoses and misapplication of drugs and so on, that was why I said yes and no.

You have a list of high points and low points 70 years down the line. Tell us some of the evergreen high points and indelible low points?

Let me start with low points. One of them is that I just got into the University of Lagos after the war to study Mass Communication and then one year into my course, my father died. I come from a low background in terms of money so I had to struggle to finish my course and I was the only person in the family who got into the university at that point but I was lucky, at least there were still scholarships given by government at that time. Because my first year result was good, I got South East State scholarship and federal government scholarship but because the value of federal government scholarship was higher, I took the federal government scholarship and dropped the South Eastern State scholarship. I got into a career called journalism and I didn’t understand the full implications until I started practicing and in 1976, I wrote an article I thought was innocuous and a patriotic duty to my country and I was picked and detained in jail. I have been in and out of those detention centers five times after that, making it half a dozen, and it is not a funny place to be. The Nigerian prison is probably one of the worst in the world; even for the fact that you are denied your freedom is stringent enough to meet extraordinarily horrible conditions add something to your misery, so those would be the low points.

Then of course, the assassination of my dear friend and colleague, Dele Giwa, through a parcel bomb, which was a novelty in this part of the world at that time. We were such close friends that I lost about 10 kilogrammes within one month without doing anything or diet. I lost my memory for about nine months; I couldn’t remember anything. I will sit down with people to talk and talk sensibly for one hour and after that, everything goes away. I was moving around like a zombie at that time for about nine months after the guy’s death and then of course, the proscription of Newswatch after I took over. Six months into it, the Babangida government proscribed this young company that was struggling to find its feet and some people said to me, well, this is a follow-up to what happened to Dele Giwa, why don’t you run?

The choices that I had were to fight, flee or fret. I chose none. I was not capable of fighting the behemoth called the federal government. I was not ready to flee because we had brought a lot  of young people to the place and was not ready to fret but God gave me the composure to say ‘we can carry on’ despite the adversity and it was that resolve that made us overcome the adversity of that proscription. I described it in one interview as a partial eclipse and we were sure that the light will shine again. It was difficult getting through, having to preserve your staff from being poached. We had about N3 million in savings account at that time so we continued to pay our staff to retain them for the six month period and then we started a magazine called Quality, just human interest magazine under a different company.

Even then, the military junta said ‘you are smart, you want to be clever, you have been banned, what are you doing?’ We said ‘but this is a different company, was the idea to kill us after you killed the company?’ During that period that Awo died, we published a magazine simply called Awo which was just a simple magazine and they were complaining, so you can see how vicious that government had been. You proscribed a magazine established by young people in their 30s who didn’t do anything monumentally wrong that could kill the country and you wanted to kill their source of livelihood. Our account was frozen but a few days to the expiration of the proscription period, they invited us and reopened the place so those could be what I call the down sides.

The upside is that the magazine did well at the time I was editing it. We did up to 152,000 copies which was a novelty at the time, which was evidence of the strength of the magazine in the market place and our staff won many awards – DAME award, the MMA award and I was privileged to be given the international Editor of the year’s award in New York in 1987 and I was also named as one of the 10 outstanding persons of the world by Jerseys international at an event in Sydney, Australia in 1988. Several other awards came and those would represent the high points. I was also able to lead the Commonwealth Journalists Association as its President for two terms and no black person had ever risen to that position, so one is grateful for those mercies and we thank God.

You are still writing after 45 years, what are the motivations?

The motivation is to continue to be healthy. If you exercise yourself physically and mentally you get healthier. There is a friend of ours called Ime Ebong; he was the Managing Director of ICON Merchant Bank many years ago. He was someone who guided us by the hand when we were starting Newswatch in financial terms, telling us how to run our business and so on and four of us went to see him – Dan Agbese, Yakubu Mohammed, Soji Akirinade and myself. He was 86 a couple of months ago. We said to him ‘what keeps you strong,’ he said ‘I am still writing, that is what I invest my energy in and that mental activity keeps me strong , that’s why  I am 86 and I am still strong, walking about.’  So, I think writing helps you to be fit physically and mentally. It also improves your knowledge because before you write, you do research on whatever you are doing. It brings you up to speed on a number of subjects and it is most interesting thing in the world for me. It is such an exciting thing to do. A lot of people who retire from services and stay in their houses, because they have money, they sit down and eat, stay in front of television and grow fat; they die quicker than those who are still active after retirement.

So, that is something that I think about apart from the fact that I enjoy what I am doing, journalism is the most interesting business that I know of, maybe because I don’t know of any other business and I have not practiced any other one; I think that it pumps my adrenaline if you ask me.

At 70, do you feel fulfilled? Are there things you still desire?

I’m fulfilled. You see, many Nigerians think that fulfilment is how much money you have or how many cars and houses you have. Those are not indicators of fulfilment or happiness for me. I am fulfilled, I have a good family, a lovely wife, three lovely children who have done well in their professions and I have three grandchildren, one of them is in the house now; when she comes around, I put her on my knees and then she slaps me, I slap her playfully, we enjoy each other’s company. That for me is fulfilment, not how much money, how many cars or houses I have. Fulfilment comes from within; it is not a Nigerian philosophy. Nigerians like to throw their wealth around and show how much money they have. I don’t come into that category. What I have, I’m satisfied with it. If I have more, I will be satisfied with it too. I work hard for everything I have. When I get into the house and sleep, I am not afraid that EFCC will come after me because I know I have worked on this thread on a narrow path in a country like Nigeria.

Your name rings a bell and people wonder if Ray Ekpu is a wealthy man. How would you describe your status?

If you know my background, if you know where I am coming from, I come from an unknown village. I don’t think it is on Google map, I doubt if you will find it on Google map, it is called Udo Osiong in Ukanafon Local Government Area in Akwa Ibom State. There is no industry there, there is only a primary school, there is no secondary school or university, there is no factory, there is nothing, no tarred road. The pipe borne water I put it there in the school compound so people can go there and fetch water. I brought my friends and we went there and raised money and put electricity in the village. So, that is the setting from which I have come. My father had five wives and we were 19 children and he died when none of us got into the university and then I come to a level where few people know my name and identify me by face. What more can you ask for? It has its blessings and of course, it has its burdens of being known, being popular has both its blessings and burdens but you must be able and ready to take them in your stride.

I didn’t ask to be known; this profession thrust me into it and the things that have happened in my life have maybe made me known. As a person, I am a self-effacing man and I don’t think that I deserve all the publicity I have gotten and I try to resist and shy away from unwanted, unmerited publicity. Over the years during my birthday, some newspapers will come and say we want to do a supplement on you and I said ‘what? You want to drive me out of business.’ It is not just because as a journalist I don’t feel that is necessary, even as a human being, I don’t think it is necessary. During my 50thbirthday, one of my relations wanted to put an advertisement congratulating me and luckily he told me before hand and I said no, ‘just let me be.’ So, I feel good, I feel okay the way I live my life.

So, would you say you are a wealthy man or a poor man or an average man? How do we rate you?

Those things are relative. I can put three meals on the table for myself and my wife and my children but none of us actually eats three meals a day; there isn’t enough time to eat three meals. So the people who have time to eat three meals do not have the money to do it. That’s the reverse. When you have a little bit of money to be able to eat three meals, you don’t have enough time to eat three meals. Those who have the time to eat three meals don’t have enough money to buy three meals.

What are the activities lined up to mark your 70 years?

Not activities. I don’t want to consider activities. Some Newswatch people came and said ‘we want to plan a week-long activity,’ and I said ‘what? You think I am President Buhari or something.’ So, we just have a one day event which is organised by my wife, family and my children to mark the day which is August 6. I said to them I don’t want some loud party, owambe party or something. I will prefer we have a colloquium not on journalism subject but something close to my heart. The topic is ‘Nigeria, the Leadership Question’ and we have a guest lecturer, Dr. Chidi Amuta, a well-known public intellectual and an economist. Then, we have a panel of five who would discuss the subject and that panel is going to be moderated by my brother and friend Mr. Dan Agbese, former Editor-in-Chief of Newswatch, a notable columnist. So, that is what we have arranged for that day and then there will be a cocktail at the end of the event but I am told the Nigerian Press Organisation wants to host me to a dinner on that day. I am really deeply, deeply honoured by that decision because I don’t think they have done it for anyone before. So, I am extra lucky to be so celebrated by my colleagues and I want to thank Prince Nduka Obaigbena because that is his own initiative. I want to also thank the President of the Guild of Editors, Funke and also President of the NUJ, Odusile for that gesture.

What are your thoughts about the profession now, having seen all the stages?

There is a sea of change in journalism. The gap between what we had when I started in the 70s and now is very wide. The instruments, equipment for practice have also changed. The recording device you have here is very different from the recording device in those days; we were not even using recorders. We were using pen and paper, reporters’ notebook; you write down everything and carry it in your head. There were hardly any telephones anywhere and no cell phones as we have now. We were using typewriter; today, you can travel with your laptop and file your story and photograph from anywhere you are in the world. So, the advances in technology have made the job easier and ultimately should make journalism more interesting and accurate. Of course, every bit of technology that comes has also its downside.

There has emerged what people call citizens journalism which is practiced by the social media. Everybody who is interested can set up his own platform and sending his own stories, fake or real from there and it goes to everybody in the world who is hooked on to it. That means that information is more easily available to a larger number of people but what kind of information are they sending out? There is a lot of falsehood, there is a lot of useful information and the problem is how to identify what is false and what is fake from what is real and what is true, that is one of the challenges that the traditional media, radio, television, newspapers, magazines face today and that is what Marshall McLuhan called the global village which has made things different. It depends on how we shape our future based on the reality on the ground. It is a major challenge; people call it citizens journalism but that is not journalism, it is social journalism. Journalism cannot be practiced by one person only. Journalism has rigour. A reporter goes to check a story or event, he brings it back to the supervisor who crosschecks the information, passes on to the next person to the next person and it gets to the editor. So, you have layers of checks to ensure that names are correct, the places are correct, the ages are correct, the totality of the information is correct, so when it is transmitted to the public they depend on it. Journalism has a set of professional canons; it says your story must be accurate, comprehensive, balanced and must be fair. All of these contribute to making the story credible. So journalism is a quest for truth, for fact. Journalism also has a code of conduct that journalists must obey. They subscribe to it, it is coded and they must comply with it. They have institutions that must stand guard over these codes of conduct and professional canons; so that is the rigour I am talking about to ensure that what you read, what you hear on radio and television you can take it to the bank and take  a loan with it without collateral. That kind of situation is under serious pressure now and that is a challenge that we all have. We who were brought up the old fashioned way have to meet the challenge of the modern era. I think various mainstream media have risen to the occasion; some of these platforms report through their own social media platforms and they link them up to their own traditional media. So, anybody who is looking for quick information can go to their social media platform because it will consider that being a reputable organisation, being trained to manage the news in a professional and ethical way, the information they put in their social media platform would be accurate.