Mr. Shola Oshunkeye is one of the very few Nigerian journalists who have won the CNN African Journalist of the Year award. A master storyteller and unabashed reporter, he won the award in 2006.
Starting out as a civil servant, he switched over to journalism after some years and has obviously not regretted the very fruitful decision.
An erstwhile member of staff of the iconic Concord group of newspapers, he’s also traversed other media houses like The Sun, Tell, The Spectator and now The Crest, an online news medium and entertainment company, where he’s sitting comfortably as president cum ceo.
On Friday, March 12, 2021, the old student of Methodist High School, Ilesha; Nigerian Institute of Journalism, Ogba and University of Lagos graciously shared his journalism story, lessons learnt and more with YES INTERNATIONAL! Magazine publisher/editor-in-chief, AZUH ARINZE. Excerpts…
What are the attributes of a good journalist?
First and foremost, you have to be rugged to be a good journalist. You have to also have a high degree of perseverance. You have to be honest. Honesty is key in all you do, because everyday of your life, you are constantly in pursuit of truth. You are constantly pursuing those things that people struggle every second to hide. However, whosoever is coming to equity must do so with clean hands. You cannot therefore be pursuing the truth and your hands are filthy. Which means, as much as possible, you have to be honest at all times and also be truthful to yourself. You must at all times be truthful to your profession and you must be truthful to your country. Of course, you have to be curious, because where two or three people are gathered, in their midst, there would always be news. Our gospel, as a matter of fact, is “Seek ye first the kingdom of news and every other thing shall be added unto you.”
What are the attributes of a good story?
A good story must be compelling. It should be told in a way that is clearly easy to understand. Your language must be as simple as possible, and you must keep it as engaging as possible. Your first line must be arresting. In newspaper journalism, if you lose your readers in the first paragraph, it’s not likely you will get them back. So, it’s very important, from the first line, that you have the hearts and souls of your readers, which means your intro must be very powerful to keep them interested till they reach the last word or paragraph. Two, a good story must answer as much as possible, the curiosity of your readers. It must not be ambiguous. You must not keep your readers or viewers asking “what next?”. You must be able to answer all these questions: Who is involved? Where? What? Why? When? The five Ws and H. It also has to be accountable to whoever is consuming it so that at the end of the day, your credibility is not eroded.
What are the attributes of a good magazine?
The attributes of a good magazine are not totally different from the attributes of what a good story should be. Magazines go the extra mile. For instance, a daily newspaper; they break the story, catchy headlines, and tell the story in a hurry and all that. But it is your duty as a magazine journalist to now go behind the scene and dig deeper into the story. In other words, you keep the story alive by bringing in extra angles. Those angles that time, space and speed of production may not allow the people in the regular newspaper to cover. Of course, because of the time that is available to the magazine, you dig deeper, your investigation is in-depth and you are able to answer all questions and then set an agenda.
What are the attributes of a good interview?
For me, I try to use the conversational style. I won’t come to meet you and say, “Sir, can we know you?” If somebody comes to meet me and says, “Can we know you?” I think that should end the interview effectively, because before you leave your office, before you leave your home, you must have said you are going to meet Shola Osunkeye or Azuh Arinze and there must be a particular subject of interest that you want us to talk about. Why should you then come to the person with, “May we know you please?” For me, that’s a no, no, no, no, because it is expected that you must have done your research, you must have drafted the questions that you are going to ask before coming to me. So, it’s not quite decent. When you are doing your feature story for instance, you must then try as much as possible to explore all angles. I want to know who Azuh Arinze is, through my questions. Not asking you directly to tell me about you. In the course of the interview, I will discover you, I will know what dragged you into journalism, instead of entertainment, where you can easily be earning millions or law, where you can become a SAN (senior advocate of Nigeria) and all the politicians are running after you with millions and all that. But you have chosen the hard and very narrow road of journalism.
What are the attributes of a good columnist?
I may not be able to effectively answer that because, number one, I’m not a good columnist. But I’m learning. However, from the little knowledge I’ve gathered in column writing, you have to be as current as possible. If any issue happens this week, you don’t wait for two to three weeks before you address it, because people want to read fresh issues and all that. And then, from my perspective, as a columnist, time is of the essence. The freshness of the issue matters. Public interest is also of the essence. You must therefore keep the interest of your loyal readers focused on whatever you write and you must keep your language as simple as possible. Column writing permits you to be expressive and you also have the liberty of language and all that, but you must keep it simple.
To write very well, what must one do?
To be a good writer, you must read and read very fast; read anything readable. In journalism, no book is totally useless. No matter how terrible a book is, you still have something to extract from it. So, you read to be abreast of issues. To be a good writer, you must also be curious. They say curiosity kills the cat, but it does not kill the cats of journalism. It is actually the oxygen that feeds journalism and journalists. So, you have to be curious. Of course, you must have language. That’s because you can have a good story that is badly written. You must equally be as precise and as concise as possible. Any information that is not necessary and that can amount to complications should really not be allowed in your story. You must make it as simple as possible. Bring in all the components of a good story, but in a very precise and concise way.
To have a taste of success in journalism, what must one do?
You must be focused. Wherever I’ve been invited to talk about journalism and this question is raised, I often tell them that if your interest is to come into journalism to make money, I’m sorry to say “you don miss road.” But that does not mean that we have signed an oath or an agreement with poverty. Like I sometimes say, “Seek ye first the kingdom of news and every other thing shall be added unto you.” When you come into journalism, you do not chase money. Rather you should be driven by public interest, you should be driven by service to your country and service to the community. Those should be your motivation. And if you do your job very well, if you are professional, if you are truthful and honest, God will open ways for you and every other thing shall be added unto you. Nobody will see Azuh Arinze today and call you wretched. You have paid your dues and you have been truthful to your calling in journalism and God has added other things.
Now, to continue to be relevant, what must today’s journalists do?
We spoke a while ago about reading. We must read ahead and of course, we must develop ourselves because social media or let me say technology is the new structure of journalism. So, if you are not technologically savvy, you may be left behind. For instance, here we are doing an interview. But in those days, I would fly to wherever you are or travel kilometers to have this conversation with you. But here we are; I’m in Abuja and you are in Lagos and a live interview is still possible, courtesy technology. If either of us does not know anything about Instagram or you are not conversant with the internet, I’m sorry, this would not be holding. So, you have to develop yourself, you have to keep up with the changing times. Also, don’t join the Joneses. I have said it several times that if you want to read or you want to know what the papers are saying, unlike in those days, everything is now on the internet. Today, if you pick up a newspaper, it will probably be a story you’ve read on the internet already and I think that is tragic. Nevertheless, each paper should stick to its identity and give its readers what cannot be found in other newspapers.
What mistakes must a journalist flee from?
Ethical mistakes! Then, you have to be truthful to your conscience. Some politicians believe that there’s nobody in this industry that cannot be bought, but I don’t agree. There are still many SANs in the profession who you cannot flaunt anything before and they will tell you to go to blazes. So, you must stick to your conscience, do what is right, don’t compromise your integrity, your truth, your occupation, etc.
What is your candid assessment of Nigeria’s media industry?
Nigeria’s media industry, like other sectors of the economy, is not having the best of times. Challenges are rising everyday, with shrinking revenue and so on. For instance, if you are doing an investigative story and you do not have enough funds to deploy, it could be very challenging. I remember those days in Concord, to come up with a good story, we could deploy ten journalists across the country. Trust me Azuh, we were that big. Now, how many media houses can deploy five journalists on a single story? The resources are not even there to pay salary, not to talk of giving tips to sources. There are not too many investors out there who are willing to bring their money to invest in media houses; there are very few investors these days. So, we all have to be creative to keep our organizations afloat. Also, the challenge of getting quality manpower in the industry is shrinking by the day and I don’t know if I should tie it to the inability of organizations to have the necessary financial muscle to go after quality manpower.
I need you to tell us how you were able to win the CNN African Journalist of the Year award, and also what any journalist who is desirous of winning any international award must do?
Well, I think that anybody seeking recognition or appreciation or respectable awards and stuff like that should not set out to win awards. Just go out there and do your lovely best, put the whole of you into your work and that’s all. That was what happened in the case of that story which my executive directors captured as ‘Niger, The Graveyard Of The Living’…
So, it wasn’t you that cast the headline?
No, it wasn’t me. I cast another headline…
What was the headline you had in mind initially?
Ah! I can’t remember. However, my sub-headlines were intact. But the one in the magazine was not my headline. This was our practice in Tell magazine in those days. We discussed stories and cast our headlines through a collective system. The editors, the directors, will sit across the table and discuss and suggest headlines and the board will pick the most captivating ones. I was not even there when the headline was cast because I flew to Abuja to collect the photographer (Sunday), who went with me to Kano. From Kano, we entered Niger and we stayed ten days in the country. The story was about the famine in that country and how the children, the elderly and the women, in particular, were dying in their hundreds. I think that time, over 200,000 deaths were recorded across different locations in that country. We tried as much as possible to touch many of those locations, especially the vulnerable ones. That was where I got most of the exclusives for that story. God, in fact, favoured us. We were there at the right time. Our first night in Niger, I was just chatting with somebody at the lobby. I was trying to make friends and all that and I don’t speak French. Meanwhile, Niger is French-speaking, but fortunately, during the course of my interaction, I met a guy, a Nigerien who was educated in the University of Ibadan. So, he spoke Yoruba. He later told me that his mother was from Ogbomoso (in Oyo State). That was how we connected to be my guide and interpreter from morning till night. But the one that touched me most was that despite the tragedy that was unfolding in that country, the then President was telling us that it was just an annual famine; that his government was on top of the situation. But how can you be on top of the situation and the whole world was donating food to you, because the children and the adults were dying? That’s why I love human interest stories. Whether you are doing politics or economy, whatever story you’re handling, there’s no story you cannot humanize, because every story actually is about human beings. I usually look for the human interest in every story; the one that will vow my readers. There was a particular feeding centre we got to, I don’t know the right pronunciation now, but a woman just came out of the tent with her child and went to the tap. There was a tap outside that tent where you could wash your hands and legs and she placed that child by the side, went to the tap, washed her hands and her legs and left. Too many stories. The food distribution centre was huge and you know Niger, the sun comes out early and is usually very hot. The sun will be blazing as if it is 1 p.m. So, this fateful morning, we went to the feeding centre, there was this particular woman that caught my interest. On the line, the baby at her back was queued at a direct angle to the sun and I said how can a baby that is sleeping on her mother’s back be directly facing the sun? In Yoruba land, we have a proverb, “agba kin wa loja…”, meaning you cannot be in a market place and see a child’s head dangling awkwardly. You’ll call her mother to adjust the head of her child. So, that’s what me and the photographer, Sunday did. We called the attention of the mother to the very awkward way in which the child was. She didn’t leave what she was doing, she didn’t adjust, she just told us that the child was dead. So, when we were coming back, I was running out of funds and eager to write that I just took a hotel in Sokoto and that was where I wrote the story and faxed it immediately to Lagos. And the rest, like we say, is history.
