How I Missed Being Old Kano State Governor’s Spokesman 42 Years Ago

In 1981,  42 years ago, I was the presenter/producer of the popular NTA IBADAN weekly current affairs personality interview programme, “SPEAK OUT”

I caught a big fish that year, in person of the radical first civilian Governor of the old Kano State, Alhaji Mohammed Abubakar-Rimi.

His party, the now-defunct Peoples Redemption Party (PRP) had gone into an alliance with the UPN, NPP and the GNPP to form the Progressive Peoples Alliance (PPA). They were set to wrestle political power from the ruling conservative National  Party of Nigeria (NPN) in the 1983 General Elections.

As part of its strategy to win the 1983 General Elections, the PPA held a meeting in Abeokuta, Ogun State sometime in 1982. I led my NTA IBADAN “SPEAK OUT “crew to that Abeokuta meeting, with the singular aim of interviewing Governor Abubakar-Rimi of Kano State.

But, the moment he heard I was from the NTA, Governor Rimi ‘spat’, as it were, to the sky and said: “You are from the NTA, that partisan station. No, I won’t grant you an interview because your station will mess with whatever I say to suit your NPN masters.”

I politely replied Governor Abubakar-Rimi that the NTA IBADAN was non-partisan and our doors were open to all, but the Governor of Kano State still refused and turned a deaf to my assurance. It took the interventions of the Governors of the old Oyo State, the late Chief ‘Bola Ige and his Ogun State counterpart, the late Chief Bisi Onabanjo, respectively to appeal on my innocent self, before Governor Rimi acceded to my request for an interview.

That 1981 NTA IBADAN “Speak Out” interview programme has not only gone viral, it’s also being used in journalism classes today of how interviewers must remain above board to avoid being cast a partisan by the public.

To the best of my training and personal ethos, I assured my guest in 1981, Governor Rimi, of fair dealing in the interview process and transmission of my interview with him that twice, while recording him in Abeokuta, Governor promised me of immediate employment as his Press Secretary “if the NTA sacks you for your non-partisanship in conducting this interview with me, a PRP Governor.”

I did my best to maintain a balance between my employer, the NTA, Governor Rimi, my reputation and my viewers. The interview earned me a corporate letter of commendation when it was transmitted in 1981

On this second  day of my current visit to Kano City, Friday, December 8, 2023, for the Nikhai of the son of a former First Lady of Oyo State, Alhaja (Chief) Mutiat Olayinka Ladoja, I remember the 42 year-old pledge of the late Governor Mohammed Abubakar-Rimi of the old Kano State, to offer me immediate employment as a Press Secretary if I had lost my job, in the course of interviewing him, over 42 years ago, on my programme at the NTA IBADAN then.

*Senior Chief ‘Lekan Alabi, is the Maye of Olubadan of Ibadanland.   

 

CAPTION.         

My humble self and Alhaja (Chief) Mutiat Olayinka Ladoja at the Traditional Night of her son’s wedding ceremony at the Government Reservation Area (GRA) of Kano City on Friday, December 8, 2023.