Buhari, Jonathan, Kalu and 2015 elections -By Femi Adesina

Did you read the ‘Last line’ published in the Kalu Leadership Series in Saturday Sun of December 27, 2014? For the sake of those who did not, let me quote the piece verbatim:

“In the Friday, December 19, 2014 edition of The Sun, the paper’s Editor-in-Chief and Managing Director, Femi Adesina, categorically endorsed the aspiration of the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate, General Muhammadu Buhari. Unfortunately, some mischief makers and desperadoes have taken his position out of context and as the corporate position of the paper. This is not true.

“The opinion Femi expressed was entirely his, which he was entitled to, and did not in any way represent the paper’s opinion or mine. My position has never been in doubt – it is unambiguous, clear and firm: I have openly endorsed the candidacy of President Goodluck Jonathan. And I stand by it.

“Those who are familiar with the operational modalities of The Sun should have known by now that freedom of expression is sacrosanct. Even as the Publisher, I do not influence or dictate the editorial direction of the paper or the viewpoints of its editors. Each person is free to express whatever opinion he/she has on any matter. This is the beauty of The Sun.

“I wish to restate emphatically that I stand by the candidacy of President Jonathan and I believe strongly he will win the 2015 presidential election.”

Why have I brought up the piece above as written by Dr Orji Uzor Kalu, former governor of Abia State? It is a very significant development, as Kalu is the Chairman/Publisher of The Sun Publishing Limited, publishers of Daily Sun, Saturday Sun, Sunday Sun and SoccerStar. And you know who a publisher is? The man who can hire and fire, a man of authority. The centurion in the Holy Bible captured such influence succinctly:

“For I also am a man set under authority, having under me soldiers, and I say unto one, Go, and he goeth; and to another, Come, and he cometh; and to my servant, Do this, and he doeth it.”

The newspaper publisher is like the Field Marshal in the military. He can command everybody, including the Generals, and they must obey.

Have you then seen any newspaper where the Publisher and Editor-in-Chief dwell on different sides of the political divide, and yet still laugh over it, and work amicably? I have not seen, except with Kalu and The Sun Newspapers.

Kalu is a co-founder, financier and stalwart of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). Many times, I have written in this column that I do not like the PDP, at least not very much. Why? Because I believe the party could have served the country better with the power and humongous resources at its disposal since 1999. But John Ruskin wrote that “absolute and entire ugliness is rare,” so, within PDP, I have those whom I admit have done very well, and have made a difference in terms of service to their people. Rotimi Amaechi and Aliyu Wamakko were in PDP as governors of Rivers and Sokoto states. They made tremendous impacts, before crossing into the All Progressives Congress (APC). Emmanuel Uduaghan and Godswill Akpabio do the same in Delta and Akwa Ibom, even as PDP governors, while Danjuma Goje did exploits in Gombe. There are many others like that, so PDP is not “absolute and entire ugliness.” But at the centre, see where the party has brought the country it inherited in 1999 to. The land is balkanised, filled with fissures from top to bottom, along religious, ethnic and other primordial lines. Corruption walks on all fours, there’s impunity everywhere. In fact, we almost don’t have what one can call a country again.

My publisher knows my convictions and desires about a new Nigeria, so each time he sees or phones me, he says: “Baba Femo. You this APC man!” We would then laugh. But am I an APC man, truly? No. I don’t belong to any party, as a working journalist. But do I hold political opinions? I do. Do I have sympathies? I do. But do such opinions and sympathies affect my work, in terms of the orientation of the newspaper, of which I’m privileged to be Editor-in-Chief? Never.

One of the core dictums of journalism is: “Facts are sacred, comments are free.” In the treatment of news, analyses, editorial commentaries, and such like, that is the guiding principle of The Sun. Facts are free.

Not me, nor any of the key leaders of the newspaper before me, had tampered with it. Not Mike Awoyinfa, nor Dimgba Igwe, or Tony Onyima, and definitely, not me. The Sun remains a newspaper that will never twist facts to serve any pre-determined purpose, no matter who is involved. But when it comes to comments and personal opinions? There is absolute freedom. A number of our writers, Amanze Obi, Dan Onwukwe, Robert Obioha, and others, make it a point of duty to write down Muhammadu Buhari, quite regularly. Do I stop them? No. Why?Because comments are free.

For faithful readers of The Sun, they know where I stand in terms of the political leadership of this country. I am a Muhammadu Buhari man to the core. I have written that I can follow him into battle blindfolded, and that if he is 120 years old, blind in one eye, bent double on his walking stick, and with two teeth left in his mouth, as long as he is mentally sound, I would support him for the leadership of our country. Is it mere fanaticism? No. Nigeria is in short supply of leaders with integrity. Buhari has that virtue in copious supply. Nigeria seeks leaders who are transparent and accountable. Buhari has it, almost in overdose. The man is good for the country of our dreams, and we need him more than he actually needs us. That was my submission in the December 19 piece.

But that article raised so much dust in some circles. Though he did not tell me in so many words, I know that my publisher came under a lot of heat, loads and loads of pressure, because of that write up. Those who felt uncomfortable with my position wanted the publisher of the paper to call me to order. But what did Kalu say? “The opinion Femi expressed was entirely his, which he was entitled to, and did not in any way represent the paper’s opinion or mine. My position has never been in doubt – it is unambiguous, clear, and firm: I have openly endorsed the candidacy of President Goodluck Jonathan. And I stand by it.”

Holy Moses! What manner of person is this Orji Uzor Kalu? He holds one opinion, his employee holds another diametrically opposed to his own, and he lets the employee be! This is a revolution in newspapering in Nigeria, if not in the world.

Publishers are not only totally in charge of their publications, they often set rules, draw lines, which no employee dare cross. Under the Sani Abacha regime, one of our ‘ancestors,’ and one of the greatest newspapermen in the country, Henry Odukomaiya, was Managing Director/Editor-in-Chief of Champion Newspaper. A reporter with the medium, Labaran Maku, (till recently, Minister for Information) filed a story that the Abacha regime did not like. The government complained to Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu, the publisher of the newspaper. What happened next? Odukomaiya was removed, and Maku got sacked. That is the quintessential publisher for you.

During the Ibrahim Babangida regime, we woke up one day to the news that Dr Yemi Ogunbiyi had been sacked as Managing Director of the Daily Times. No explanation was given. Months later, when I interviewed Sir Alex Akinyele, the Minister of Information who gave Ogunbiyi the boot, he confessed to me: “I wanted to use the Daily Times to improve the image of the Babangida regime, Ogunbiyi would not allow me, so I fired him!” That is what publishers do, I tell you, they brook no opposition.

What of Ayo Ositelu, the man popularly called ‘Arena’? He was editor of Sunday Punch when the Buhari/Idiagbon regime came in 1984. He carried an interview with Naiwu Osahon, which was very critical of the new government. And what did Punch do? They gave Ositelu a hefty punch, and he landed outside the Kudeti headquarters of the newspaper. That is what publishers can do!

But for Kalu to take the position he did? Wonderful, I’ll say. When I discussed the development with my colleague, Eric Osagie, he laughed uproariously, then declared: “They don’t know this man called Kalu o. He is the most liberal Nigerian I’ve ever seen.”

I agree totally with Osagie, but I’ll tell you more. I was the pioneer editor of Daily Sun, and I held that position for five years. Not once did Kalu, as owner of the newspaper, tell me to either use or drop any story. At a recent board meeting, he even told us: “The Sun is now beyond me. It is a public trust. We are accountable to only the public, not to anyone else. We do not belong to PDP, though I’m a member of PDP. Neither do we belong to APC, or any other party. We belong to Nigerians. They are the ones who dip hands into their pockets daily, and buy us, so we must remain true to them.”

In the first term of the governor of Abia State, Theophilus A. Orji, he said he was hampered by Kalu, his predecessor, who was allegedly breathing down his neck. But somehow, the story did not jell with me. It seemed out of character with the Kalu I knew. A man who gives his employees in a national institution like The Sun absolute freedom to run, would not sit on the neck of a governor to the extent that the man can’t perform. And truly, before his second term, T. A. Orji got his ‘freedom’ from Kalu. Did he perform thereafter? By no means. Abia is the worst state in the country today, and a byword for stink and decay.

The presidential election is only weeks away. Do I have anything against the person of President Goodluck Jonathan? Not at all. But do I have issues with how the country is? Yes, I do. Bitterness, lack of cohesion, suspicion, and other negative emotions run deep in the land. Bombs go off like firecrackers. The old, young, toddlers, anybody is bombed to death. Where are the schoolsgirls abducted from Chibok 263 days ago? Nobody knows. Where are the students, sent by their parents to boarding house in Bunin Yadi? Their throats have been slit. Where are those who were at morning devotion at a school in Yobe? Where are the people who left home for church or work in Madalla, Nyanya, Kano, Kaduna, Mubi, Gwoza, and in many other parts of the country? They returned home in bodybags. Do I want the country to continue like that? No. I want a unifier, who can bring cohesion back to Nigeria.

But what if Jonathan wins the February 14, 2015 elections? So be it. That is the beauty of democracy. Kalu then wins also! And we then see how we can team up with the new government to get our country back from the evil currently strangulating her. It is not a matter of life and death. The will of the people must prevail in a democracy. Let whoever the people choose be our president, and let the choice be made freely and fairly. That is where I stand.

Before the 2011 elections, Dr Reuben Abati, then chairman of the Editorial Board of The Guardian, did a serial on Jonathan, that ran for many weeks. Did anybody muzzle him? No. The publishers of the newspaper must be applauded for that, just as Kalu should also be garlanded today for giving us free hand to run The Sun. I have travelled with him to Sierra Leone, to Gambia, and to other parts of the world, where he held board meetings in his many banks and insurance companies. Each chief executive officer (CEO) is at liberty to argue with him, and when Kalu gets defeated, he waves the white flag of surrender. He does not bulldoze his way through as the Chairman. Louis Odion, former editor of Sunday Sun (now Commissioner for Information, Edo State) bore the same testimony after he left The Sun, so what I’m writing is not just fiction.

Facts are sacred, comments are free. We will continue to abide by that principle in The Sun. Fairness to all, fear of none, is our watchword. So, let the “cynics, the pestle-wielding critics, the unrelenting, self-appointed activists, the idle and idling, twittering, collective children of anger, the distracted crowd of Facebook addicts, the BBM-pinging soap opera gossips of Nigeria,” hold their peace.

By the way, the words above are not mine. They are those of Dr Reuben Abati. He called online critics of the Jonathan administration “children of anger.” But now, maybe those asking that mischief be done to me over my freely held opinion are elders of exasperation and vexation.