By Adebayo Bodunrin
I am sure there will be no objection that Prince Samson Oruru Amuka Pemu, otherwise cherished as Uncle Sam Amuka or who his numerous admirers lovingly call Uncle Sam, the publisher of Vanguard newspapers and co-founder of Punch, is a respectable father of journalism. He is certainly the oldest Nigerian still plying his trade as a journalist.
Media entrepreneur, Nduka Obaigbena describes him as an icon and leading light in Nigerian journalism. Ten years ago, ex – President Muhammadu Buhari described him as a “Gentleman of the Press” because of his simplicity, humility, modesty, generosity and friendliness on his 80th birthday.
But make no mistake about his professional standing. He is a stickler for principles and unbendingly passionate about ethical conduct, discipline, decency and hard work.
As a journalist, Uncle Sam has bestrode the Nigerian media and emerged admirably as an outstanding reporter, gifted features writer, first rate features editor, consummate title editor and exceptional manager of men, women, materials and resources, media entrepreneur and most importantly as a star columnist.
There are many engagements in the print media. One of the most tasking and really creative endeavours is column writing. Not all editors or journalists dare to venture into it. Don’t blame them. Column writing is usually missing in the “intellectual menu” lists in journalism schools.
Uncle Sam courageously dared into column writing. He is comparable to William Connor who wrote a regular column under the pen name, Cassandra, for 32 uninterrupted years between 1935 and 1967 in the London Daily Mirror. Uncle Sam wrote dazzling columns, sometimes twice weekly, under different pen names (pseudo) Sad Sam and Off Beat Sam bursting with satire, wit and humour depicting him as an informed people’s writer who unpretentiously exhibited nationalistic passion during his years at the old Daily Times.
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I do not intend to write on Uncle Sam’s journalistic odyssey. This is purely a piece on what many may not know about this inimitable and versatile journalist as he joins the nonagenarian club. He was born on June 13, 1935.
The date was Sunday, April 22, 1990. Dawn broke with the bewildering news of a bloody coup attempt in Nigeria. It was led by Gideon Orkar, a Major in the Nigerian Army. It was an abortive coup to overthrow the administration of military president, Ibrahim Babangida who himself took power after a coup d’etat on August 27, 1985.
The identified 42 coupists who killed Babangida’s aide de- camp, Lt. Colonel U.K. Bello were apprehended. In one fell swoop 13 journalists and media workers were similarly arrested and detained. The detained journalists’ family members, professional colleagues and sympathizers were in the throes of agony, pain, apprehension, anxiety and outright anger. The veiled threat to try them along with the coupists was hair-raising and mind boggling. How can professional journalists who do not usually carry arms be thrown into the gulag, presumably for coup plotting?
For days there was great apprehension. This was informed by the unpredictability of dictatorship under military juntas. Over 14 years earlier, February 13, 1976, to be precise, a media worker, Abdulkarim Zakari of the Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria (FRCN), Radio Nigeria, was convicted of treason and executed by firing squad along with 36 soldiers and two police men for a similar abortive coup which claimed the lives of the then Head of State, Murtala Ramat Mohammed, his aide de-camp, Lieutenant Akintunde Akinsehinwa and the then Kwara State governor, Ibrahim Taiwo.
In the instance of the 1990 coup, the great apprehension in the media community was not wearing the alluring garments of guiltlessness. The feeling of uneasiness that they could be put on trial was not taken lightly. The umbrella organisation of all practicing journalists, the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), not only raised an alarm but equally demanded their immediate and unconditional release.
The effort by the NUJ leaders received a boost when the Newspaper Proprietors Association of Nigeria, NPAN, collaborated with the journalists’ body to demand and succeeded in holding a meeting with top security operatives. It was unpublicised. It was hosted by Uncle Sam. The venue was the great canal canteen at Vanguard headquarters at Kirikiri Canal, Apapa, Lagos.
The meeting yielded fruits immediately. The initial figure of 19 detainees was reduced to four. They were the Deputy General Manager of News Agency of Nigeria, NAN, Willie Bozimo, who was accused of having a close link with the financier of the failed coup, Great Ogboru, the late Deputy President of NUJ, Bassey Ekpo Bassey alleged to be sympathetic to the coup plotters, the former Deputy Editor of The PUNCH, Chris Mammah who was accused of writing the coup speech and a reporter with the defunct National Concord, Onoise Osunbor accused of attending meetings with the coup plotters.
Negotiations with the top security operatives drawn from State Security Service, SSS, Directorate of Military Intelligence, DMI and allied agencies led by the Chief Intelligence Officer of the Babangida regime, General Haliru Akilu did not end with the first meeting. The heart-warming outcome of the negotiations by the NUJ team was that all the allegations have no basis. In fact, all the allegations turned out to be falsehood dressed in inelegant robes as truth. The detained journalists emerged from the shadows of incarceration, or was it death, into the warm embrace of freedom. If they had not regained freedom, perhaps, they would have been tried along with the leader of the coup, Gideon Orkar and 41 others who were executed on July 27 1990, in what has been described as the bloodiest coup d’état in Nigeria’s history.
Perhaps, the role played by Uncle Sam in securing peaceful resolution of the issue and eventual freedom of the four journalists is one of the several things yet unsaid about him. The NUJ President Mohammed Sani Zorro, during the coup crisis said in an interview that unknown to many, Uncle Sam is a strong voice and one of the distinguished figures in the profession of journalism in Nigeria.
It is incontestable that on several occasions, Uncle Sam waded into feuds between media houses and government. For instance, in June 2019, when it mattered most, Uncle Sam with support from two other publishers, the late Isa Funtua and Nduka Obaigbena resolved the “face-off” between the National Broadcasting Commission, NBC and Daar Communications Plc when the regulator withdrew the operating license of the latter.
Every passing year, since 1994, May 3, is celebrated globally to appreciate the important work of journalists and to highlight the basic principles of press freedom. It is World Press Freedom Day.
There are chances that many people haven’t got the faintest idea about the role of Uncle Sam in the proclamation of the day for this yearly global event. He had chosen the ennobling path of quietude.
The World Press Freedom Day is traceable to inclement environment under which journalists plied their trade in Africa in the 1980s and 1990s, even though it was a season that the wave of democracy was sweeping across the continent but journalists were gagged. The media was muzzled. The journalists’ right to know was abhorred. The watchdog of the society was chained.
It was an agonizing era in Nigeria. The democratic transitions had become lengthy and uncertain. Journalists witnessed repression, persecution, oppression, unjust imprisonment, abduction, detention, physical elimination, and arrests in gestapo style. There were forced closure of media houses, seizure of market ready publications, disruption of printing and distribution of tabloids etc. In some extreme cases, journalists paid supreme price and suffered deprivations including means of livelihood.
This deluge of despicable acts prompted a conference of African journalists under the aegis of United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation, UNESCO, in Windhoek, Namibia between April 29 and May 3, 1991. A remarkable outcome of the conference was a Windhoek Declaration for the development of a free, independent and pluralistic media.
The Windhoek Declaration was a profound statement by African journalists that Press Freedom is the rotor that drives all fundamental human rights, good governance, justice, fairness and equity.
By a programme drawn up for the conference, the UNESCO secretariat insisted that two top media executives should be in the delegation of the Union of Journalists from Nigeria. The NUJ settled for the publisher of Vanguard, Sam Amuka Pemu aka Uncle Sam and the managing director of defunct African Concord, Lewis Obi. In fact, Uncle Sam was nominated by UNESCO on the recommendation of one of its officials, late Akintola Fatoyinbo in recognition of his professional career as a notable reporter, editor and publisher.
A year after the conference in Windhoek, there was a follow up review in the capital of Benin Republic, Cotonou. Uncle Sam and my humble self, represented Nigeria.
A cheerful news was broken in Cotonou that the General Assembly of the United Nations will hold a special session to proclaim a day for a global event to mark Press Freedom.
Two years after the Windhoek Declaration, the United Nations General Assembly held a special session and proclaimed the date of its adoption, May 3, as World Pres Freedom Day. That was in 1993. The first World Press Freedom Day was celebrated on May 3, 1994.
•Bodunrin is journalist with Africa Independent Television and RayPower FM.