High Commissioner Jonathan Richardson meeting with former Managing Director and Editor-in-Chief of The Guardian newspaper, Mr Eluem Emeka Izeze and former Editor, now Editor-in-Chief, of the newspaper, Mr Martins Oloja, in 2014
On scales and balances
By Yinka Fabowale
“How are you, Yinka? How would you like to go and work in outstation?” The gentleman who asked that question was Mr. Eluem Emeka Izeze, the new Editor of The Guardian. There had been a change of guard in the leadership and management of the newsroom that saw him moved from The Guardian on Sunday, which he hitherto signed, to replace Mr. Kusa, who was promoted Director of Publications to oversee operations of the various titles in the stable.
Izeze is one man possessed of the look, charms and other attributes playboys would envy and for which many women would swoon. Handsome, bright, he combined rare personal refinements and modesty in character and conduct with an affability that expressed itself in a natural disposition to chatting up and joking with colleagues including subordinates. Sartorial, he was always impeccably dressed with evident preference for suits which he dropped in the office leaving on the shirts and ties as he supervised the production of the newspaper. Izeze is a signification of order and harmony. Almost everything about him breathed quality, was neat and tidy – wears, shoes, other personal effects and yes, his office!
Whenever I had to see him inside his office, I’d marvelled at the serenity and sparkling beauty of the place. Despite this, you found the Editor wiping imaginary dirt (for only him appeared to see it) off the gleaming surface of his table or some other objects! Izeze had an unflappable mien (well, to some extent, for no editor really did), light, springy steps and a hearty laughter that, I believed, all testified to the quality of his soul – a radiant, free and happy spirit, uninfluenced and unencumbered by sense of guilt or any action or thought that could oppress either him or others.
I’d watched him only from a distance since he sat on the editor’s seat of the Sunday newspaper and didn’t know how he came to know me by name, as our interaction was restricted to the usual polite greeting a subordinate accorded his superiors when he ran into them within the premises. I could only guess that he took notice of me as the one who provided him with many of the stories that led the newspaper during the FGN-ASUU tango and also the story that revealed not only the identities but also service numbers and regimental postings of military officers who perished in the Hercules C130 flight that crashed in Ejigbo area of Lagos, that nearly got The Guardian into another trouble with the military authorities. The then Chief of Defence Staff, General Sani Abacha was reported to have threatened that the military would come after us to explain how we got the extra details apart from the officially issued information carried by other newspapers and broadcast media, once the victims were buried and the period of national mourning was over. (Story for another day).
I could recall that I’d also been detailed to cover the convention of the Deeper Life Bible Church attended by the Editor at the church’s headquarters in Ipaja, Lagos sometime in 1992.
Since I started relating with him, I found Izeze a boss who bossed like a friend. He had a talent for getting the job done with minimal, nay, genial snarl! He was, perhaps, the only person I felt at ease with in the entire organization.………………………………………………The Editor repeated his question which momentarily left me dumbfounded as I least expected it.
He had breezed into the library where he met me being handed some requested files by an attendant, moments before. Seeing me hesitate, Izeze’s face furrowed into a quizzing frown which again vanished almost instantly as he cheerfully offered explanation on his proposition. “We’re thinking of relocating you to Ibadan. I think you can work even much better on your own.” I replied with a shrug and told him almost inaudibly I was prepared for any assignment or challenge management deemed fit to give me.
The Editor scanned me briefly and flashing his trademark boyish grin, swept out of the reading room the same way he had come in. The probability of my being redeployed to serve outside the company’s head office threw my mind into a whirl. It could so easily, quickly and starkly expose my deficiency as to earn me a sack. On the other hand, it throbbed with the promise of enabling me develop and prove my worth, away from the stifling environment in Lagos.
Already I had garnered a little experience working as a Correspondent when I went to relieve Tunde Olofintila in Ilorin, Kwara State, a few months back. Unlike the grind and frenetic temper in Lagos, Ilorin offered me the latitude and conducive ambience to work hard on my major area of weakness – news-writing. I spent all my free time and working hours practising or writing news to such extent that colleagues in other newspapers made a joke of my diligence and penchant for reporting even events or issues they’d agreed should be boycotted for some reasons. “If the (state) governor coughs or sneezes, you can bet that Yinka will take biro and report it,” they used to say. I was gratified because these stories were not only generously but also prominently used in The Guardian.
My perceived improved performance on that assignment probably recommended my consideration as a replacement for two experienced reporters – Kareem (TJ) and Akande, being moved to Lagos as Editor, Foreign Affairs and reporter respectively.
One problem which persisted though was meeting deadlines. I tended to be slow in my struggle to get it right with the scripts and this often made me turn in my stories later than expected. I recalled a skeptical Mr. Onajomo Orere, Assistant News Editor, lamenting a day or two after the Editor’s disclosure of my imminent transfer: “Heh, Yinka, it’s you that will spend hours writing just one story that they say should go and man an entire state! I hope you can cope o!
But, Orere needed not fear much, as I quickly smoothened and perfected the craft at my new post. Complaints from the News and Sub desks came less frequently and almost fizzled out altogether, except on few occasions which were easily justified.
To be concluded…
