It has been over a year since Dimgba Igwe, Mike Awonyinfa’s long-time colleague, business associate and friend, died from a hit-and-run incident that has remained a mystery till date. In his honour, the book they co-authored titled 50 World Editors: Conversations with Journalism Masters on Trends and Best Practices will be launched on September 15 at NIIA, Lagos. In this interview with Assistant Life Editor, TERH AGEBDEH, Awoyinfa talks about the new book and his foray into writing.
How is working for yourself working out for you?
It is tough, very tough; but it has always been the best thing. From the experience I have so far, I like people to be entrepreneurs. You are the captain of your own ship. It is very tough initially. But like all enterprise, if you have a good vision, you have the money, you have a good product or service, you are focused and give the market what the market wants, you will make it.
What I do basically right now is to write books, and my training as a reporter has been very helpful. I write books that I believe I will eventually profit from. It is not easy, but we started book writing – when I say we, I mean my late brother Dimgba Igwe and I – many years ago when we were together in the (defunct) Sunday Concord. Dele Giwa had left for NewsWatch and Shina Adedipe was our editor then. We were just scanning the future ahead of us and we were wondering, where are we going? We looked at the whole hierarchy of things and (we wondered) when are we going to be editors. It is a long way.
I mean, I was ambitious. Dimgba was also ambitious and there is nothing wrong with a person being ambitious. We said the way things are going here, we might rot here. So, let’s do something. We were wondering what to do and I said, let’s write books. But what books do we write? And I brought the idea, what we know is writing feature stories and reporting. So it is either we do a book on reporting or feature. I said okay, we are good at features; so let’s start a book, and we called it The Art of Feature Writing. We approached it the way every reporter would; we assumed we didn’t know anything about feature writing. We went out there talking to other journalists. We approached them, asking them, people like Ray Ekpu and all the big names in journalism at that time. We asked them, what is a feature? How do you write a feature? We were carrying our tapes from one media house to another. May Ellen Ezekiel (MEE) saw me that time and said, “Mike, have you finally released your album?” (Laughter.)
Those days, I used to be so crazy about becoming a pop star. I used to delude myself; I thought I had a good voice. I didn’t know my voice is not the type that anybody wants to listen to. But I loved composing music. We believed the book should not be desk work. We should not sit down and assume we know it all and begin to say that feature writing is this blah, blah, blah. So we started from the basics, asked, what is a feature story? We discovered there is a whole lot of misconception about a feature story. Some people were thinking feature is commentary, but there were people that knew what a feature story is – really like a news story but an elaborate form of news, approached from a human angle where you bring in many voices. Essentially, a feature story is a soft human angle story that people would read and that would evoke emotion; either they feel very sad, very touched, or very happy. That has always shaped my life. Every story, for me, should have an emotional dimension.
When we finished the Art of Feature Writing, it became a bestseller. We hear everybody that went to journalism school read it.
How do book ideas come to you?
When we were writing the first serious book, 50 Nigeria’s Corporate Strategists, it just occurred to us. I mean ideas come through thinking and thinking, maybe it is God that drops ideas into people’s minds. We scanned the environment, then we saw that this is a country where there are very great managers, big managers, CEOs who have stories to tell about the art of doing business in Nigeria. People like Ohiwere, Kolade, all of them. We believe they are not writers, they may think they know how to write; but we are reporters, if we go down and put a tape and ask them questions concerning their lives, how they got into business, how they were trained as managers, what they did, how they rose to the top and the challenges of running business in Nigeria, how the Nigerian worker can be motivated. And there is something they call the Nigerian factor; what is it? How does it impact on business? Who are your mentors? It helped us a lot because, as journalists, all we care about is reporting and writing. We don’t bother to get trained as managers. So that was the arena by which Dimgba and I mastered a whole lot about business management. We talked to all these people and at the end of the day, we got 50 of them; 50 Nigerian managers all sharing their experiences about how to run business in Nigeria. It became a big bestseller. We priced it at N10,000 and everybody was buying. Some would complain that the book is so expensive. This house (his residence) was a product of that book. We built this house based on that book.
So I keep telling people there is money if you write.
What was the yardstick for selecting the 50 editors in your new book?
There was a book I was trying to write, called ‘Editors Talking Journalism’. I have a passion for journalism. I felt I didn’t know much – what’s news; what’s reporting? So, I talked to the editors to tell me what journalism is all about. I was the one who started the book initially, but, somehow, the manuscript got missing. When we got to The Sun newspaper, every year we were travelling out to international conferences like IPI (International Press Institute), World Association of Newspapers – you need this kind of networking if you really want to advance on the job, because you have to really know the state-of-the-art of journalism. You meet other journalists (at such conferences). I recommend these conferences to every journalist, because every profession, whether it is law, business, or whatever, always have its own conventions.
There is no year we miss these conferences. We don’t just go there to listen to conference talk; we also do other things. I had the dream of meeting editors all over the world, writing their stories, asking them to tell me what got them involved in journalism, the stories they have reported, their definition of news, their challenges and journalism in their country.
Each time we went for the conference, I would look for the big names: editors of the New York Times, Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, International Herald Tribune, Financial Times (and so on).
These big names always come to the conference to deliver papers. Immediately they finished, I would approach them, introduce myself and ask them few questions. The idea was to leave a legacy in my profession, so that younger journalists would get a book they can read; they will be able to read about the lives of other journalists, and be inspired by what they have done. If you go through the book, you will see most of the global icons in journalism.
One of them is the man called Sir Harold Evans, the biggest name in journalism in England. He is a legend of sorts. They call him editor of editors. He made a big name in one of the tabloids in England. I think he worked for Harold Maxwell. He also became the editor of the Sunday Times.
While an editor with Sunday Times, he wrote a journalism memoir that became a bestseller all over the world. I have been following that man. So, when he came to Edinburgh, Scotland, to present a paper, I saw it as an opportunity to talk to him. I remember the night I was going to interview Harold Evans. I was so nervous. It should be in 2008, or thereabouts. In the hotel, I had to kneel down, asking God to intervene: “This is the man; this is the big fish; don’t let me miss this interview…” Luckily, I got him, and he granted me the interview.
That was one of my happiest moments. When I asked him what prompted him to come into journalism, he said, “Sex and money”. I, then, asked him, “What has sex got to do with journalism?”
And he said, “I am still asking myself that question”.
I found him a very humorous human being. He is one man I see as my role model. He has really made his mark. When he was fired by Maxwell, he left England for America. In America, he re-invented himself and made a name for himself by writing two big books, including The American Century. I met so many people while writing this book, including the lady who became the editor of New York Times, Jill Abrahams. She is also featured in the book.
Does the book also feature African editors?
I met an editor from The Nation newspaper, the biggest newspaper in Kenya. In Nigeria, I brought in about four Nigerian editors, people like Dele Olojede, who won the Pulitzer Prize; Bayo Onanuga (who was among those who started guerrilla journalism during the Abacha days); Segun Osoba (a great reporter who made a name during his days; he was the one who discovered the corpse of the assassinated prime minister, Tafawa Balewa, during the first Nigerian coup), and above all, Babatunde Jose, who is the father of journalism in Nigeria.
For me, this book is a compendium, an encyclopaedia of journalism in Nigeria. I am pricing it N10,000 (laughter). This is the Rolls Royce of Nigerian journalism. I am not begging people to buy.
That is the same price with 50 Corporate Strategists published earlier. Why is that?
It’s because journalists are poor (laughter).
But journalists are not the only ones who are going to buy the book…
I think N10,000 is the price I have decided for it.
It seems like the number 50 fascinates you.
That’s our brand. Every time, we look for 50 – 50 Nigerian corporate strategists, 50 marketing memoirs, 50 world editors…. I mean it’s not easy putting together 50 people. It’s very tough. If anything is tough and nobody else wants to do it, that’s the kind of thing we like doing. It means it’s good.
Are you going to write more books after this?
This is my last journalism book. After interviewing 50 world editors, what else do I want to prove? I have written Art of Feature Writing; I have written Biography of Segun Osoba; we have written 50 World Editors. I want to go into corporate Nigeria. There is no money in journalism. I write to make money. I don’t want to waste my time. What I have written is enough; let other journalists write. At least, I have satisfied myself. In my profession, I have done my best. Right now, my main focus is on corporate books; I am working on the biographies of people like Aliko Dangote. I am revising the biography of Mike Adenuga, because we wrote earlier on it. But right now, the latest book we are writing is a book called ‘Boardroom Leadership and Corporate Governance’.
When you say “we”, what do you mean exactly?
Dimgba and I. The fact that he is in the grave doesn’t matter; he is still going to be my co-author.
As long as I live, Dimgba Igwe is going to be my co-author. His death doesn’t stop anything. It doesn’t stop us from being co-authors. It will look very strange to see only Mike Awoyinfa’s name on the book as the author. It’s not his plan to die when he did. We had this dream together. As long as I am alive, there is no book I will write that you won’t see Dimgba Igwe’s name on it, except it’s my own autobiography. Even if it is, I will still dedicate a page to him.
Who are you expecting at the book launch?
The launch will be taking place on September 15. We have invited President Muhammadu Buhari.
Why did we invite him? Even before he became the President, he came here on hearing about Dimgba Igwe’s death. I haven’t forgotten about that one. That’s one of the reasons I am so passionate about him; for a man like that to come down and say “Sorry”. When I made a speech that day, Buhari was touched; he was almost crying. I told him, “Look, when you come into power, I hope you bring a change” to a situation whereby somebody would drive a car, kill somebody and vanish into thin air. We hear these days that CCTV (closed circuit television) will be installed everywhere. Nigeria should move forward to a civilised, sane country where people in emergency still have a chance of surviving and getting their lives back. It’s not when you are in trouble, you are left on your own. It’s insane for a man to have an accident and be moving all over the place looking for help and there is none. That’s not the Nigeria of our dreams.
Back to the book launch, we have invited Ahmed Bola Tinubu, Governor Shettima of Borno State and all other governors in Nigeria. Everybody who is a friend of Dimgba Igwe is expected to come.
Mike Adenuga is a big friend of his, and I am inviting him openly to attend (you know, he has a policy of not accepting invitation letters sent to his office); we are inviting Aliko Dangote, another close friend of Igwe; we are inviting Dele Fajemirokun – these three are people we have written about.