Citizen Jones Usen is the oldest practicing broadcast journalist in Nigeria today. He began his career with Radio Nigeria in Lagos in 1974 and traversed RN2, AM FM, NTA2 Lagos, NTA Channel 5 Abuja, Capital FM, also in Abuja and now back at Continental Broadcasting Service, owner of Television Continental (TVC) and Max FM. In this interview, with IME AKPAN, the lively, conversational and chatty broadcaster speaks on a number of professional and personal issues relating to broadcast industry in Nigeria.
Before the promulgation of Nigerian Broadcasting Commission (NBC) Decree 38 of 1992, broadcasting was an exclusive preserve of the federal and state governments. The decree empowers NBC to accept and screen applications for the issuance of licences for private participation in broadcasting. Through the edict, Clapperboard came on stream in 1996, followed by the first private radio station in the country, Raypower100.5 FM. Now, what have been the gains and pains of the liberalisation programme?
One of the gains would be expanding the field so people who hitherto found themselves, as I did, either in a federal government establishment or state broadcast media house would have the chance to express themselves, away from the skewed idea of the business. Prior to the deregulation or proliferation of the electronic media industry, it was a one-way flow and so with proliferation or plurality of the radio and television houses -in Lagos for instance we have no less than 32 radio stations and about 26 television stations- so the atmosphere in Lagos is like a big market. Virtually every radio or television house has a sizeable chunk of listenership or viewership.
Now, they are talking about community radio which is a plus. If my village, which is a university environment had a community radio, it would be a plus for the industry, you take the radio to the people. Your programme types will determine how much you hit the bull’s eye, so to speak.
Now, one of the lows or pains would be the proliferation of nonsense on air. You hear all sorts of things on air in the name of broadcasting. You have people called on-air persons who speak bad grammar; they have no respect for syntax; they have no respect for the English language which is a major tool of the trade and the teaching element is gone. In those days, we were called broadcasters or announcers. So, if the announcer or on-air person went on air to speak bad grammar, it was negatively bound to be influencing the listenership or viewership and they call it new school. I don’t belong in the old school of broadcasting; I belong in the good school of broadcasting because we were duly trained by some of the experts of renown in those days.
What has gone wrong with training of journalists in this case?
The training is still there. I know that for television, the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) has a school at Rayfield, Jos in Plateau State. And for radio, we have the Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria (FRCN) Training School at Shogunle in Lagos where I am a resource person every once in a while. But there are still some of the new school folks who believe they can’t subject themselves to training. We were colonised by the British and so we expect every broadcaster in Nigeria to speak English, not the American English. Americans don’t speak English; they speak American which is a shed of mainstream English. Broadcasting has a standard. So, the training is still there; the FRCN has training for the intermediate classes. You have presentation, engineering, production, news writing, etc. So, training is still on, but some people believe that they are bigger than the training schools.
YOU OWE YOUR EMPLOYER NOTHING WHEN YOU ARE ON AIR; YOU OWE THE LISTENER SOMETHING, A LOT. THAT IS WHY YOU DON’T SPEAK TO IMPRESS; YOU SPEAK TO EXPRESS.
Could the problem be traced to the universities where most journalists graduate from?
Maybe, maybe not. Before I went into the classroom at the university, what I was doing was the practical aspect of the job. When I got into the school, I was taught the theoretical aspect of it. But you cannot have a teacher at the university who does not have a background; speech therapy is a specialised school teaching people to pronounce words in specialised fields. At best what the university would do, especially schools of mass communication, is to give you the rudimentary training. But going to the nitty-gritty of pronouncing words correctly, articulation, inflexions and so on are technical aspects the university won’t teach you. I know in the secondary school, there is a subject called Oral English where the teacher attempts to teach you how to pronounce words. But when you go into the mainstream broadcasting, you are taught the rudiments of pronouncing words correctly by paying attention to diction, inflexions, commas and all that.
You always canvass that presenters should speak to express, not to impress. Could you point out some of those things you have observed and feel they are not doing right?
Radio and television stand on a tripod: you inform, entertain and educate at the same time. And if you remove any of these legs, obviously what you are doing cannot stand. I am a stickler for professionalism and the content of your programme forces me to listen or read you the next time. Why are you on air? You are on air to sell your station. If you are on air for one hour, you are supposed to sell yourself a lot less. You don’t go on air to speak big words. You are broadcasting to a large public and in the large public, there are smaller other publics—the informed, the uninformed, the downright illiterate and the semi-literate. You come down, you strike a balance. You don’t go on air speaking big words and end up doing nothing. So, at that point you are trying to impress. And people go on air just to impress their employer. You owe your employer nothing when you are on air; you owe the listener something, a lot. That is why you don’t speak to impress; you speak to express.
But journalists go through interviews before they are employed.
If you had money to establish a television or radio station and you insisted I put this man on air and I told you ‘oga, this man never get training’ you will retort by saying ‘my friend, put him there; he will learn.’ In broadcasting because people take it as just another job, you don’t learn on the job. On television, you cannot take a man who is skilled in still photography to handle a camera for television; you need some form of training. So, ownership is also not helping matters. Ted Turner, who owns CNN, is not a journalist; he is a businessman. But six folks, including Larry King went to him and asked him to make some money available to run the business. So, you are not involved in the day-to-day running of the station because you don’t understand the dynamics; perhaps you are interested in how much comes in. So, ownership is the problem. Licences are given to people who don’t deserve them and of course, this is the fallout of party patronage.
I HOPE THE COMMUNITY RADIO STATIONS WILL BE APPROVED… IN THAT CASE, I WILL PARTNER WITH ONE OR TWO PEOPLE WHO HAVE THE CASH AND THEN I WILL BRING THE KNOW-HOW TO THE TABLE AND WE JOIN FORCES AND GET THE COMMUNITY RADIO OFF THE GROUND, SPECIFICALLY, IN MY VILLAGE, IKOT AKPADEN WHERE THE AKWA IBOM STATE UNIVERSITY IS.
Workers in other sectors of the economy who seek to enforce their rights and better their condition run to the media. But when media workers are maltreated or owed salaries for many months, such is rarely reported in the media. Is there any unwritten law that forbids the Nigerian media from reporting itself?
No. it also has to do with ownership. When it was predominantly government-run, you could not have had any such thing. Although I remember in my earlier days in broadcasting, we, younger broadcasters, attempted to go on strike, but government wielded the big stick. But these days, CBS, for instance which is the parent body and it’s privately-owned, before you undertake a work-to-rule session or an idea like that you look on the inside. You know the general thing in Nigeria is ‘work no dey.’ So you attempt to KEEP your job by stomaching what you have. Until we have a body like the League of Nigerian Broadcasters, it will remain that way. It doesn’t say we hate ourselves so much to the exclusion of our comfort.
Over the years, many media houses-government and private-have folded up. In the case of government, the workers are paid off or redeployed to ministries, departments and agencies. But for workers in the private media establishments, they are left high and dry. Don’t you think that private media houses should be made to have a minimum paid up capital so that in the event of bankruptcy, such fund may be used to offset employees’ wages?
Democracy is a process that allows for, among other things, free space, freedom of association, freedom of choice. So, if, for instance, the radio station I work with folds up tomorrow and I am not reabsorbed, the only place to go is the labour market. So, what can government do at that point since we are privately-owned? In Nigeria, it has become a part of our national life. A Nigerian businessman invests at 7am and expects returns at 1pm; it’s a SHARP, SHARP thing. Except a private bill is taken to the national assembly and they make a law. The welfare of journalists remains an issue; it is germane. So, who will bell the cat? The NUJ tried a few times to intervene in places, many times, it came out the worse for it. And so what you do is tuck your tail between your legs and life goes on. In Nigeria, ‘it is well has become a new anthem. You are going down, you don’t have money in your pocket, things are not going well, and you say ‘it is well.’ It is not well and we know it is not well.
What should be done to improve the lot of journalists?
Something is in the works. I always say that every profession, vocation, occupation under the sun has ethics. I’m sure you know that armed robbery has ethics. If you were a professional armed robber, you couldn’t cross my path; there is respect. We are trying to form what we call the League of Nigerian Broadcasters; we would have been on board before now. The NBC does not have the right to tell us what constitutes content; they are the ones regulating. The Nigerian bar Association (NBA) regulates the law practice; if you mess around, you are disrobed, same for the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria (MDCN) which regulates medical practice and Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria (COREN), regulator of the engineering profession. It is only broadcasting that has not really thought it fit to start a body like that, to regulate. We will be unionised. And so, if in radio or television station A or B the workers there are maltreated or short-changed, it would be the duty of the league, if we are licensed, if we are empowered, we can picket the station. It’s in the works; I just hope we get it off the ground before long.
THE NIGERIAN BAR ASSOCIATION (NBA) REGULATES THE LAW PRACTICE; IF YOU MESS AROUND, YOU ARE DISROBED, SAME FOR THE MEDICAL AND DENTAL COUNCIL OF NIGERIA (MDCN) WHICH REGULATES MEDICAL PRACTICE AND COUNCIL FOR THE REGULATION OF ENGINEERING IN NIGERIA (COREN), REGULATOR OF THE ENGINEERING PROFESSION. IT IS ONLY BROADCASTING THAT HAS NOT REALLY THOUGHT IT FIT TO START A BODY LIKE THAT, TO REGULATE.
But there is the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) already in place.
Yes, but this has to do with broadcasting, what the NUJ and Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE) are doing. Broadcasting is a thankless job, thankless because I can’t imagine any job that is as exacting as broadcasting. If you are listed to read the news this morning and just last night your father died or something tragic happened in your family, you must read the news because there is not enough time to arrange for a replacement for you. These are some of the strictures we have.
You were in Radio Nigeria 2 (RN2) in the 1980s where you made a name as anchor of one of the programmes ‘Masculine Line.’ You left and later appeared on the NTA as anchor of ‘One-on-one.’ Why did you leave radio Nigeria?
RN 2 went on air on April 20, 1977. But I joined broadcasting in 1974. So, I have been in the business for close to 39 years and I dare claim here and now that I am the oldest practising broadcaster in the country. I got fed up with the industry. I had a boss who would not promote me for nine years and my juniors rose to meet me. And you are asking what could have been my offence. After all, if I was found not to have been good, I should have been sacked. Radio Nigeria 1 gave me three last letters of warning because they felt I was particularly stubborn, unruly and all that. Each time they went for the board of management meeting, this boss (of mine) would specifically ask for my sack and the board members would ask him: “where is the problem, the guy on air is good.” You did not employ me because of my character; you employed me on account of what you thought I had because I went for the audition three times, passed on the third time and went on training for 10 weeks at the FRCN Training School, Language Lab. We were there with BBC people and some folks like Bode Alalade, Stella Bassey. I had to leave; I took a dive, I resigned on November 28, 1986. I went back to school and did what you might call second chance at the University of Lagos (UNILAG).
You went to UNILAG as a student?
I follow go learn, follow go read so that I won’t become a big nuisance at home. I had to leave because this is a heavily certificated country. People believe you must have a certificate to be termed good or right for a particular job. Whatever paper they gave me, I can’t remember where it is because where I went from there nobody cared to ask me what qualification I have because I am not a heavily certificated fellow. It doesn’t matter to me. But I have taught classes where you have PhD and master’s degree holders.
Where you particularly stubborn or you were what could be referred to as an ‘ant-establishment person?
Anti-establishment? I don’t know if that is the correct phrase. But I know that I am someone who would like to have my own mind; I am entitled to it. See, everything is about style. I asked them initially to send me to RN2 when they started it and they refused. So, what I did was to deliberately, once in a while, announce the station as “This is RN2, sorry RN1.” I did it once so many times. So, they said ‘ok, send him there’ and that is where I blossomed because I had my way. So, when I was given the Announcer of the Year 1980 Award, I was not surprised. Let me be a little immodest here, for a little immodesty would not harm anybody here. I think I acquitted myself because I know my onions. I am retained at Radio Continental because of my nuisance value which is very high. I am one of those, along with my late friend Zakari Mohammed, who made Capital FM, Abuja what it was. Each time I was on air, the city stopped for me. So, I was not necessarily anti-establishment; I was not stubborn.
You express radical and independent views. How did/do you cope with work first in a government and now in private establishment?
Experience, experience has no substitute. We are told that the only substitute for experience is to be 16 years again, but you are given to be 16 only once. But I have come to a stage in my development where I can determine between good and evil and as a trained journalist you have a responsibility. I am a molder of opinion; I can’t form your opinion for you but I mold whatever opinion you have.
RADIO NIGERIA 1 GAVE ME THREE LAST LETTERS OF WARNING BECAUSE THEY FELT I WAS PARTICULARLY STUBBORN, UNRULY AND ALL THAT. EACH TIME THEY WENT FOR THE BOARD OF MANAGEMENT MEETING, THIS BOSS (OF MINE) WOULD SPECIFICALLY ASK FOR MY SACK AND THE BOARD MEMBERS WOULD ASK HIM: “WHERE IS THE PROBLEM, THE GUY ON AIR IS GOOD.”
You have spent about 39 (as of 2012) years in broadcasting. Are you rich and fulfilled as a broadcaster?
I am rich, not in naira and kobo terms. But my scope has been expanded. Imagine, I am getting to 360 degrees point. There are still new things to learn on the job. I have had my juniors correct me; I can’t know it all. So, I’m open to most of the things here. I have said in some places that if I died or collapsed behind the microphone, I would have been home and dry. So, broadcasting has always been my life; I want to remain in it, I don’t see me leaving. Next year, I would be clocking 40 years of active broadcasting life. So, what else could I ask for? I just want to give my voice, which is a weapon in itself; it makes people want to listen to you. When the word from the voice hits the target, your job is done. So, I am a fulfilled man with regard to my profession.
LET ME BE A LITTLE IMMODEST HERE, FOR A LITTLE IMMODESTY WOULD NOT HARM ANYBODY HERE. I THINK I ACQUITTED MYSELF BECAUSE I KNOW MY ONIONS. I AM RETAINED AT RADIO CONTINENTAL BECAUSE OF MY NUISANCE VALUE WHICH IS VERY HIGH.
Where do you go from here, Radio Continental, if you had your way?
I hope the community radio stations will be approved as Mr. President said. In that case, I will partner with one or two people who have the cash and then I will bring the know-how to the table and we join forces and get the community radio off the ground, specifically, in my village, Ikot Akpaden where the Akwa Ibom State University is. As a university environment, obviously, there is quite a lot to give. I have always been a radio man. Radio is the magic medium; radio is 95 per cent perspiration and five per cent glamour. Television is 90 per cent glamour and about 10 per cent perspiration. So, whatever I do on the television is a stopgap; I enjoy it.
What have been the defining moments in your career?
It came when I realised that I was the only member of the Nigerian country from the old South Eastern State, now, Cross River and Akwa Ibom states to have bagged the Announcer of the Year Award. And coming from an environment where we are considered as ‘ete people, ete people no fit talk grammar’ I think I have broken that jinx.
The interview first appeared in Blueprint Newspaper under ‘My experience, high nuisance value keep me in broadcasting – Jones Usen.’
