The late Alhaji Kere Ahmed, mni: A true media giant

KWENU! Our culture, our future

MAX GBANITE

Monday, February 14, 2005

“The evil that men do lives after them,

the good is often interred with their bones.”

These were the words of General Mark Anthony in his famous address to the Romans after the brutal assassination of Julius Caesar, as essayed by William Shakespeare.

On December 6^th, 2004, while attending the ‘1^st Anniversary Memorial Lecture’ and scholarship foundation in memory of the late Alhaji Kere Baba Ahmed, ‘The Garkuwan Nupe,’ held in the power city of Minna, Niger State, I witnessed an assemblage of sincerity profusely declared in various forms by different personalities as encomiums in memory of this great man. Notably, of all the things said about this man, none had the markings of evil; instead all the encomiums pointed to all things good in his deeds, rendering the above quotation impotent when the subject is Alhaji Kere Ahmed.

Fortunately for me and many other personalities who filled the 500-seat capacity auditorium the ceremony qualified the old cliché’ ‘killing two birds with one stone’. I say this because the first part of the lecture series were filled with profound tributes by various eminent personalities and, the second part was the keynote lecture titled ‘THE MEDIA IN A MULTI-ETHNIC NATION’ delivered by the guest lecturer, Dr. Tonnie Iredia, Director General, Nigeria Television Authority (DG-NTA). This lecture, though highlighted the humble, illustrious, industrious, and detribalized side of Kere Ahmed, it altruistically without prejudice gave a serious self assessment and thorough indictment of the Nigerian media, both print and broadcast, but more of the former.

It was not my initial intendment to write this article, however, there was this nagging feeling called ‘conscience’ that gave me restless moments, especially, when I witnessed two memorable events encapsulated into one. First, the description of a man by more than five speakers as detribalized, honest, sincere, filled with integrity, selfless in his duties to humanity, philanthropic by nature, a loyalist to the core, and above all a man with unwavering faith in his religion of Islam and fear, trust and belief in the Almighty God. Second, Dr. Iredia’s lecture that touched on morality and (dis)integrity of the mass media, especially the once formerly respected, reputable and indefatigable print media of Nigeria.

Bert Murray described ‘conscience’ as, “….. that still, small voice that is sometimes too loud for comfort”. And Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf explained it as, “ ….. knowing the right thing to do. The hard part is doing it”. And what finally did it for me was Confucius's description when he wrote that, “ To know what is right and not do it is the worst cowardice”. A coward, I am definitely not, especially, when the issues of concern is the truth, morality, integrity, honor, duty to fatherland, humility honesty, loyalty, and belief and trust in the Almighty God. These testament words are truly an embodiment of Alhaji Kere Baba Ahmed; a true media giant.

ABOUT ALHAJI KERE BABA AHMED (mni).

My numerous meeting with this great man when he was alive was occasioned by the many visits to greet my Boss and Senior Friend, the ever-so-amiable and the quintessential Mr. Nigeria, Gen. Ibrahim B. Babangida, GCFR.

Alhaji Kere Ahmed’s humility, simplicity, enthusiasm for the rural development of the Nupe people and his unwavering loyalty to his friend Gen. Babangida, left an indelible mark worthy of emulation on me.

Alhaji Kere Baba Ahmed (mni), the Garkuwan Nupe, was born in Bida on the 12^th day of September 1942. He attended East Primary School, Bida between 1952 and 1955 and for his secondary school; he attended the famous Government College, Bida from 1956-1961. Immediately after, in 1962, he joined the then Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) to begin a brilliant career that spanned three decades as broadcast practitioner, manager and until his untimely death a private broadcast station owner.

In 1967. he enrolled at the college of Television Production Berlin, Germany where, a year later, he combined the studies with work at the Radio Deutsche Welle, the Voice of Germany. In 1969, he obtained diploma in Broadcast Management from Tokyo, Japan on scholarship from the Japan International Cooperation Agency. And between 1977 and 1978, he obtained an Advanced Diploma in Public Administration from the prestigious Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Nigeria, to which he added a Masters Degree in Public Administration from Pittsburgh University, Pennsylvania, USA. In 1989, he attended the much-envied Nigeria Institute of Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS), Kuru, Jos, and became a Member of National Institute (mni).

Alhaji Kere Ahmed, undoubtedly was a major player in the team that raised NTA to very high level of development between the early 1980’s to the 1990’s as the Secretary of the Board, then Director-Corporate Affairs and finally as the Executive Director-Finance and Administration, the post he last held before voluntarily retiring in 1994.

His colleagues profoundly stated that the Nigerian Television Authority is still reaping the dividends of his foresight as a broadcast manager. As a matter of fact, they confessed that majority of top-class professionals in NTA, then and now, were brought up by Kere Ahmed. Remarkably to date, NTA Sokoto where he served as General Manager, and NTA Maidugiri from where he coordinated the administration of NTA zone E as Managing Director, still remain model stations in terms of physical and infrastructure development. (Bio. Excerpted from the program brochure).

Unfortunately, for his family and many of his friends, but trusting in Almighty God’s wish, he was called home on that fateful day of December 6^th 2003.

For me the compelling urge to write this article was further influenced by the outstanding speeches of broadcast media giants like Mr. Yinka Craig of NTA’s very popular AM-EXPRESS program; Hajia Hassana from Sokoto, who told of how she was magnanimously rewarded by the Almighty Allah thru Kere Ahmed, for life when she lost her husband and benefactor over ten years earlier; Hon. Alhaji Mohammed Kudu, who narrated all the thankless efforts Kere Ahmed was making towards the development and advancement of the Nupe people, and it was actually during a trip to one of those meetings that he died in a ghastly car accident. He indeed died serving his people; Alhaji Sheikh Ahmed Lemu and Distinguished Senator Nuhu Aliyu, Chairman Senate Committee on Intelligence (former DIG of Police) both confessed how their lives changed for the better as a result of taking the advice of Kere Ahmed.

As a reader I hope you can now understand why I had to write this piece. It is not all about the man Kere Baba Ahmed, instead it’s about the values that he truly stands for; the same values that are currently missing from the lexicons of our current crops of politicians, administrators, journalists, students body, even professional teacher’s and university lecturer’s, but were clearly imbibed by the founding fathers of our great nation, Sir Alhaji Ahmadu Bello, Pa. Obafemi Awolowo, and the Rt. Hon. Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe; the values of integrity, loyalty, sincerity, honesty, duty to fatherland, and above all faithful to one's religion and belief and trust in the Almighty God.

DR. TONNIE IREDIA’S PROFOUND LECTURE

As stated earlier, the keynote lecture by Dr. Iredia, titled ‘The Media in a Multi Ethnic Nation’ served as the clincher in the sense that he stood out as a mirror reflecting the underbelly of the current crop of recharge-card unqualified journalists we have and their very dangerous and damaging style of journalism. He was particularly hard on the print media, and deservedly so because they have in most cases reverted to being the ‘fifth column’ of destruction, instead of the usually recognizable ‘fourth estate of the realm’ that professes the truth and defend the masses from oppressors.

Iredia posited that the practice of journalism and mass communication is guided by a simple principle of three E (3 Es). These he described as:

(a) Entertainment

(b) Enlightenment, and

Interestingly enough these same 3 E’s have been twisted by some of the present print media journalist to the highest order of extreme negativism.

He went on to cite numerous instances some of which ‘am a witness to, where the media have misled the general public with unconfirmed information by overzealously creating beyond normal imagination distorted stories that ultimately led to unnecessary loss of lives.

For instance; he averred that during the historic June 12^th annulment, the print media went to extreme measure to create an atmosphere of palpable fear and anxiety that led to pandemonium, especially in the South-West of the federation, such misinformation led to the massive panicky evacuation of people from the South-Eastern and Northern part of the nation who were residents in the cities in mostly South-Western part of the country, for fear of mass killing in protestation of the election annulment.

He even touched on the unfortunate killing of Dele Giwa and the way the same media handled such a serious issue by accusing someone without proper evidence or proof of investigation. The same press is very silent on the extra-judicial killings of Chief Bola Ige, Dr. Harry Marshall, Chief Aminosoari Dikkibo, and a host of others under this perilous democratic experimentation.

While listening to this man, what came to mind was the prohibitive brutality with which the media reported the ethno-religious crisis in Plateau State, which ultimately led to President Olusegun Obasanjo’s declaration of a state of emergency. In one paper (name withheld) the lead story read in part “1,000 Christians, some from the Eastern part of Nigeria killed and their houses burnt and many others displace in ethnic-religious crisis in Shendam/Yelwa.” And another paper read widely in the north wrote, “ Over 2,000 unarmed Muslims murdered and burnt by their Christian tormentors in Shendam/Yelwa.” This sacrilegious reportage precipitated the wanton killings of innocent people in the city of Kano and some parts of the North, even in the East, and would have created a tsunami-effect killings that would have engulfed the entire nation, had the State of Emergency not been declared then.

Even today in our wonderful country, the print media are unrepentant of their sins; they are equally as corrupt as any other sector of the nation. The Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ) are still investigating and counter-investigating themselves for economic embezzlement of their own funds, and is even considered to be more corrupt than the National Assembly. The same journalists, some of who were once in Tafa Balogun’s payroll are now falling over each other in writing negatively on the avarice of the sacked (retired) former Police obese-boss. The same writers failed to inform their readers of the numerous occasions they had had to collect funds surreptitiously from the same Tafa Balogun to block any negative story against him.

I and many others feel that if this type of sensational and false journalism persists, the federal government should set up a monitoring unit to check inciting and provocative articles published in the media that is capable of destabilizing the country or overheating the polity, and truly establish a law that will enable prosecutors to prosecute the earring journalists to court and ultimately exact punishment under a democratic system and not the return of Decree 4.

Those who are fortunate enough to own print media houses should in the interest of humanity, integrity, sincerity, as a duty to fatherland, loyalty, and the fear, belief and trust in the Almighty God, endeavor to pay the journalists on their pay roll their monthly salaries as when due; this simply practice of honor would prevent a writer from pursuing a phantom story, fabricate stories or use his pen to assassinate innocent citizens because he was paid to do so. They should also challenge their respective writer’s to at least investigate and confirm a story prior to publishing. This simple practice will inevitably restore the credibility of the Newspapers and the print media’s image.

When all is said and done, you will find out that the profession of Journalism is still intact and as noble a profession that it’s meant to be, except that like the Nigerian Police force and Navy, National assembly, the Presidency, and Minister’s office, it has been infiltrated by charlatans, sycophants, pen-robbers and men and women who lack in integrity, honor, nobleness, duty to fatherland, morality, the fear, belief and trust in the Almighty God.

I gladly thank Alhaji Kere Baba Ahmed (mni) posthumously for being the reason for my being in Minna, Niger State to hear this memorable lecture; you are indeed an embodiment of goodness and a true media giant.

Long live the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

Long live the United States of America.