Tomorrow the Nigerian Press is 150 years old, being the anniversary date of Iwe Irohin, the first newspaper in the geographical space called Nigeria, published in Abeokuta by Henry Townsend, an Anglican priest. A deferred celebration for the first quarter next year will address the larger significance of this landmark. It is sufficient to urge every lover of the press to spare a thought for the industry.
Central to the strides taken by the press generally over the years is an abiding interest in issues of governance. From Townsend’s rural evangelical mission to teach the Egba people to search for information through reading, to the efforts of people like Robert Campbell, for an indigenous share in the economic pie of international trade at the turn of the 19th century, to the resistance to colonial rule by the Herbert Macaulays, and the agitation for political independence by the Nnamdi Azikiwes, the challenges of self rule, the civil war years, and life under military rule, to the return to civil rule, the press has struggled to affect society for good.
It has not always succeeded, hampered by its own limitations and contradictions. From the exuberance of calls for ‘self rule now’ of the last century when angry polemics often counted for patriotism, to the partisan journalism, which equated access to media power with uneven promotion of political interests, to today’s calls for measurable standards of ethical responsibility, the Nigerian press as actor, theatre, and instrument of power continues to battle for an acceptable identity.
We will concentrate on the positive and so we urge you to come with us on a quick journey through the ages, identifying some defining moments, people, forces, and institutions that have positively shaped public perception of the Nigerian press in the last 15 decades.
1859-1869: Rev Henry Townsend, for his vision and pioneering effort at publishing.
1869-1879: Robert Campbell for leading the battle against discriminatory trade policies of the colonialists which shut out indigenous people from international trade.
1879-1889: The Lagos Times, established by Andrew Thomas and Bagan Benjamin’s Observer, for ventilating public opinion on issues of the day.
1889-1909: The Lagos WeeklyRecord, established by John Payne Jackson in 1890, for being the most influential paper of the era with its model of adversarial journalism.
1909-1929: Thomas Horatio Jackson, son of John Jackson, for expanding the reach of the paper following his father’s death in 1915.
He launched populist campaigns for the underdog and leveraged his editorship for the National Democratic Party’s dominance of Lagos politics. His journalism influenced Nnamdi Azikiwe so much that a school of journalism was named after him at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka.
1929-1939: Herbert Macaulay, for publishing the first successful popular newspaper, the Lagos Daily News, and being the most influential public intellectual of his time. The paper premised its existence on ridding the country of colonial rule.
It was also the era of the big press, funded by strong business interests that allowed the Daily Times to moderate the excesses of the popular press.
1939-1949: Nnamdi Azikiwe, for pioneering national publishing. Through such titles as West African Pilot, Southern Nigeria Defender, and the Northern Advocate, he strategically deployed his arsenal to buttress Nigeria’s emerging geopolitical power zones against colonial rule.
1949-1959: Obafemi Awolowo, for establishing the Nigerian Tribune as the forerunner of effective media access to articulate a clear political agenda; today, the Tribune, remains the oldest surviving newspaper in the country.
1959-1969: The Daily Times under Babatunde Jose, for expanding the frontiers of responsible publishing through creative titles that connected with public need and effective deployment of such personnel as the Alobas, Peter Enahoros, Alade Odunewus, and Sam Amukas as moulders of public consciousness.
1969-1979: The duo of Sam Amuka-Pemu and Olu Aboderin for establishing the Punch, which opened a new credible channel of communication different from the predominant state ownership of the press, thus paving the way for such private magazines as Newbreed, and New Nation.
1979-1989: The emergence of the Guardian in 1983 and Newswatch in 1985 impacted strongly on the craft of news papering, opening new ways of performing an old chore, and reaffirming the place of the independent press in society.
1989-1999: The birth of Media Review in 1991, encouraged in part by the previous efforts of the Lade Bonuolas in the Daily Times, strengthened media criticism as a genre of journalism. The introduction of the annual Diamond Awards for Media Excellence (DAME) and the Nigerian Media Merit Awards (NMMA) in 1992 signalled a deliberate effort to enhance professionalism in the media by recognising and honouring outstanding performance.
1999-2009: The most significant development is the sustenance of private publishing in the North with the example of Daily Trust, which now prints from four locations.
For long written off as an onlooker in the newspaper business, the North, through Trust papers, has reversed that picture.
As the press begins the march towards its 16th decade, will tomorrow bring the rise of more independent papers or the coalescing of strong political interests into newspaper owners and barons?
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