Still reputed to be the youngest ever to edit a national newspaper, Peter Enahoro’scourageous commentaries were known for the wit and satire. He was forced into exile but remained unbowed. In an exclusive interview with Ben Asante, long-time political analystand contributing editor of internationalpublications specialising on Africa, Peterspeaks on Nigeria and life at eighty.
Octogenarian? How I hate the word! In fact, I dislike the thought of old age. We should come into this world born mature as in “old age”. All the things that make old age a nuisance – rheumatism, arthritis, hip replacement, cataracts, dementia – should come to pass in the early years of life when you’re too old to want to go nightclubbing. Then asthe years progress we shouldgrow younger and stronger until arrival in the departure lounge.
Middle-agewould then be a time of hedonism when you cannot be judged a tearaway. As matters stand now you are advised during your prime to slow down, deny yourself pleasures, save up in preparation for old age. Then you reach old age and you discoverthat, as Dr K.O. Mbadiwe of blessed memory, who tried to reform the English language all by himself put it,”the spirit is willing but the physicability is not able”!
You were appointed editor of the Sunday Times aged 23. Looking back do you think you were mature enough to take on the responsibilities of a national newspaper at that early age?
Well, my employers thought so. And it is true that I gained maturity on the job. I had older heads like Managing Director Percy Roberts, Editor of the Daily Times AlhajiBabatunde Jose and Editorial Adviser Geoffrey Taylor watching over me.
The pre-Independence Nigerian Press was robustly against foreign rule but the Daily Times group was owned by the British Daily Mirror. How did that square with your patriotic duty to contribute to the struggle for freedom?
It is true that we were sometimes accused of being tools of imperialist masters by some politicians and a few rival colleagues. But let me say this: I grew up hearing that my maternal great-grandfather was dethroned and executed by a British hireling with a bogus title of “major” who led a band of mercenary foot soldiers to terminate Uromi’s ages-old autonomy within the Benin Kingdom – more than three decades after Lagos was ceded to the British. My grandfather was sent to prison in Calabar, and even after he was allowed back to resume his inheritance, he was again banished firstly to Benin and subsequently to Ibadan.
Although he spent his last years on his throne, he was not allowed peace by the British. My father faced ruination when, a young man, he was put on trial for sedition. He won an appeal against his conviction but in the colonial civil service that sort of thing stayed harmfully on the records so that his rise up the ladder was begrudged. My brother Tony spent his years between the age of 22 and 30 variously in prison for his anti-colonial activities. Every time news came of his imprisonment the family went into sad retreat. Given these antecedents against which I grew up the charge of a tool of imperialism was quite absurd.
Yet your late brother and you did not see eye-to-eye during the time of the Abacha regime when he was forced to leave the country a second time.
Let me refer once more to the family. When Tony was serving a political jail term in the First Republic our father reluctantly took up party politics under the banner of the Midwest Democratic Front allied to the Northern People’s Congress.
Our old man thought it would gain him access to the NPC overlords. He was a candidate for a seat in the Midwest House of Assembly and had the party flag fluttering in front of the house. Our youngest brother Emman thought it was politically wrong to ally with a party to which Tony was sternly opposed. He took up the cause of the Action Group Youth Association and put up its flag feet away from the MDF banner.
Some of my father’s supporters were outraged. They said he should order Emman to take down his flag. He didnot. Don’t forget that Tony served in the Gowon administration as a senior figure, at a time that I’d fled the country. But here’s the surprise: every time he was in Germany or the UK both countries in which I resided, he called me and we met. On one occasion I was at a conference in Nairobi and he was leading a Nigerian delegation to a peace negotiation in Kampala. I flew in and out Uganda to spend no more than an hour with him at his request.By the way my other older brothers Eddy and Henry always called to see me as did Christian and Michael who respectively flew out to Monrovia. I was never alienated.
Did you foresee the coups d’état that led to Biafra secession and the civil war?
No, I did not.
So what was it that got you into trouble with the military?
With some in the military is how I would phrase it. Violent men who held sway in a moment of madness. They had a grudge against the things I was writing after the fall of the First Republic.
You swore not to return to Nigeria under military rule let alone work for a military government, yet you worked for Abacha as chairman of the Nigerian Broadcasting Commission.
Actually, I was appointed chairman by General Babangida’s administration. I’d returned to Nigeria because elected civilian state Governors, state Assemblies and local governments and chairmen were in office. The return to full civilian rule seemed irreversible. Besides, I fully endorsed the deregulation of the electronic media as well as NBC’s assignment of permanent regulator. It was a very brave innovation by the administration. It put broadcasting in Nigeria ahead of many countries. It appeared to confirm what Wole Soyinka told me on a visit to London, that Babangida “is a listening President”.
I did return later as Sole Administratorof the Daily Times of Nigeria Plcat the invitation of Abacha. The attraction was the sole purpose of resuscitating the company’s newspapers. That turned out to be nonsense. Security Adviser Gwarzo inadvertently revealed to me that the appointment was intended to give my brother Tony a political snub. The assignment was to be for one year only. It lasted 36 unfunded months instead. I was to be paid a consolidated remuneration at the end of the assignment. Abacha died. His successor promised to pay. He didnot. Then Baba Iyabo came along. The least said about his crude hostility towards my person the better.
In your memoirs titled “Then Spoke the Thunder” you admit that with hindsight you were naive in some of the things you wrote. Were you a conscious provocateurstirring things up during the build-up of one crisis after another that culminated in the young majors’ decision to intervene in politics?
The naivety to which I admit was the way I said certain things not the fact that I said them in the first place. We were young, idealistic and not sufficiently experienced. However, the impression should not be given that I was the only political commentator in the land.
What role therefore did the Press play in stoking the fires of conflict and instability, starting with the crisis in the West?
Instinctively taking on the authorities was a tradition that began in the colonial era. It was after all the main reason newspapers were founded. My generation inherited that tradition without really appreciating the implications of the constitutional changes heralding the approach of Independence. Our attitude towards the leaders was conditioned by a basic suspicionofthem and us.
And yet you were respected by the leaders – The Sardauna of Sokoto, Premier of the North, the most powerful politician in the land who was no friend of the Press famously invited you to tour his region as his guest. President Azikiwe;the Premier of the Western RegionAkintola; and the Premier of the Eastern Region Okpara all granted you access. Was the hostility one sided?
Speaking for myself I can say I was not overtly hostile. And from their side you could say that they had to speak to the Press sometimes. The Daily Times newspapers had by far the largest and widest followings in Nigeria.
That tour of the North made memorable impression on you. Why was that?
I was 28 years old and this was the first time I’d been anywhere in the Far North of Nigeria. For years I’d written about “we Nigerians” without the experience of how deluded that generalisation suggesting a homogenous people was. The journey from Maiduguri to Yola on a market day was especially shocking and instructive.
Why in particular?
The year was 1963. In some of the roadside markets we drove past the women’s covering of their modesty was straight out of the time of Adam and Eve.
How would you assess the Nigerian Press today?
As should be expected, technically better than sixty years ago when I came into journalism. I thought that the Nigerian Press covered itself in glory during the Abacha regime, especially the weekly magazines. I didn’t always agree with the slants and the emphases. The weakness today is language. I’ve no idea what can be done about it.
The amalgamation that produced Nigeria is only 20 years older than you. The country recently marked its first centenary .Do you subscribe to the saying that Nigeria is a geographical expression?
Several of today’s established nations began with military conquest and thenemblazoned the nationhood in geographical expression. Our problem is that we are required to pretend that our ethnic nationalities intrude on nation-building; that they are mere tribes.In other words,communities mired in primordial cultures lacking political and organisational sophistication thatconfirm nationhood.
So what should an evolving nation like Nigeria do in order to avoid ethnic conflicts?
I doubt that ethnic confrontations can be eradicated altogether in the foreseeable future. Expectation of that is utopian. But a true federation by which government is brought closer to the people would be a very healthy start.
Some critics say that the present system of government is too expensive. Are you advocating the creation of more states?
The rationale that guided state creation until now is a formula for “sharing the national cake” as it used to be called. If the principle had been targeted at revenue creation we would have fewer states and a different, economically more enterprising country today. But the curse of oil has done irreparable damage. People demand states and local governments because they know that come month end they will receive their freebee from the Federal Government. The typical Nigerian businessman pays no income tax. He is an importer not an exporter or creative developer.
What is your judgment of today’s political leaders?
The Americanisation of the Constitution has brought with it our version of the profligacy that requires money, money, money. That immoderateness filters to the bottom of the ladder. Voters expect or even openly demand money, and elected representatives expect to recoup the money they spent getting nominated and elected. In the final analysis we are all in it together! But as the Asian saying puts it, when the monkey was asked how he got his fleas he pointed at the other monkey!
My question really was what you make of the quality of the elected representatives.
What the political process has not succeeded in doing is make policy debates the central issue in campaigns. Platitudinous promises are made and quickly overtaken by mundane issues such as which geographical area or clan should supply a candidate. A people have the government they deserve. Why should the quality of the representatives be any different from the quality of the electorate?
How would you compare today’s politicians with those of the First Republic who won Independence?
I lived a few years directly on Herbert Macaulay Road in Yaba, the access route into Lagos from Ikeja Airport. People would wait for hours in burning sun to see the political leaders of the era driving past. I don’t know that you would see the like of that today.
What is it like living abroad as part of the Nigerian Diaspora?
I’ve been a resident in Germany, Belgium, Holland and the UK only; but. I’ve travelled the world widely. What amazes me is that there is always a Nigerian virtually everywhere I’ve been. It is in the UK that I have the longest experience. I have to say that our reputation is that we are assertive but aggressive, enterprising but not always trustworthy. The saga of “419” exacerbated that. The negative side was reflected in a South African TV sketch. “Here is the news,” read the news reader, “the Nigerian authorities have ordered all drivers to undergo psychiatric test. Those who fail the test will be sent to South Africa to become taxi drivers…”
In Ghana a TV lampooning had a Ghanaian and a Nigerian reporting at the UK Home Office to have their residence permits renewed. “You are aware that you’re a month late for this?” the official says to the penitent Ghanaian who apologises politely. It’s the turn of the Nigerian who steps forward. “You’re three months latefor this application,” the official notes drily.”Let me see,” the Nigerian says snatching back his passport. After a while he says, “I see…” and re-presents the document. “Is that all you have to say?” asks the official? “What d’you want me to say?” the Nigerian snaps. “When you came to colonise my country did you have a visa?” Jokes apart, there are very successful Nigerians in the arts, in the academia, Civil Service, in the legal and medical professions.
What is it about Nigeria that you miss most?
My friends;golf and the atmosphere at the IBB Golf and Country Club in Abuja.
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