The Sorry House of Tribune

I grew up with stories from my father about the legendary achievements of Pa Obafemi Awolowo. I read his books meticulously and his speeches like they were laws (and they still largely are). Pa Awolowo was ahead of his time. The great man was a politician, philosopher, lawyer, philanthropist and businessman all rolled into one.

One of the more prominent businesses Baba founded was the Nigerian Tribune. In our home, Tribune was a staple as much as rice and pounded yam were (no guesses, truly Ekiti). Father liberally provided daily dosage of Tribune newspaper be it on the week days or weekends. Indeed, my first few articles as a young writer in my early teens were carried by the Nigerian Tribune. I remembered following the Festus Adedayo’s religiously on those pages, and believing the era of the dark goggled dictator were numbered; timeless commentaries flowed from Bola Ige, Lam Adesina and occasional guest writers.

Father has been a three decade adherent of the Tribune Newspapers since his return from overseas, and even when the likes of myself have moved on to modern staples like Punch Newspaper; he has stuck to his guns. It was as such a surprise to me when I returned home during the general elections of 2011 and father announced proudly that he had stopped buying Tribune! If you do not know, this is an equivalent to the Ford family using a Toyota car! Impossible! His grouse was the seemingly out of touch partisanship of her commentators, and declining quality of journalism!

But if the loss of the loyal readership of father was the height of Tribune’s folly, nothing revealed the out of touch nature of the newspaper than the recent tirade they’ve spearheaded on behalf of the Awolowo family abandoning all journalistic ethos of objectivity. Indeed, given the high standards Baba was known for while alive- he would definitely disapprove of the bandwagon commentary now emanating from Tribune House!

Indeed, the most recent excessively personified attacks led by the newspaper designed not to analyze or demystify a pointed, but unfortunately intemperate, commentary by Sam Omatseye was the height of Tribune’s folly. How on earth will a member of the fourth estate be engaged in the art of muzzling an open ended debate? The House of Tribune has stooped low and dirty and it is quite unfortunate.

The constant and steady decay of Tribune is a sad commentary on generational businesses in Nigeria, and the seeming ineptitude of Africans to keep up business enterprises beyond one generation. Years after Triune was founded, the proprietors somehow have stuck to this narrow formula that is Oyo state focused, refusing to see beyond the narrow bandwagon of Pro or Anti-Awoism, and readily serving up commentary on the altar of its publishers.

Even though Tribune is supposedly publicly traded, the Awolowo family no doubt still controls that entity. Ordinarily- there is nothing wrong with this. In fact, owning a family business in the newspaper industry anywhere around the world is not unusual. The Washington Post, New York Times controlling families and Fox’s Rupert Murdoch are amongst media families that have earned their throne in the business.

However, what these families do to stay ahead of their peers and conform to times is to tactfully stay refreshed by handing over the baton of business to the next generation. On the other hand, our dying Tribune is still stuck at one generation and still dishes news and commentaries as if this is 1960. Truth be said, it is time for change at the Tribune! Their website leaves much to be desired, their news content needs to be expanded alongside the reader base, their commentaries are too biased and full of hero worship. News to them is the “Awolowo Family” ….all of these my dear readers, are highly unacceptable in the fourth estate of the realm.

Indeed, knowing that Pa Awo was a man of excellence who never trailed his peers in any achievement, one will find it hard to believe that he would approve of Tribune as it is today. Pa Awo would have considered the extension of the Tribune brand into Television and Radio as soon as those private licenses were offered years ago in the IBB era, and not see to the near comatose state of the current stable. He would have led the charge on the World Wide Web, and established Tribune’s primacy in web content distribution.

Pa Awo would not take a Tribune that is not ahead of its peers in mobile applications and deployment. Pa Awo would have led the charge of putting tribune online, on iPad or Smartphone, while hiring the best hands for the media business. Pa Awo would have disapproved of blind loyalty to the Awolowo name, but would instead have insisted on people centric commentaries and commentators. Pa Awo would have insisted that his newspaper not become a platform for political jobbers, who trade in the revolving doors between editorializing and being press secretaries for the latest political clown in town.

Pa Awo as an astute business man would see no sense in fighting imagined enemies on the pages of his newspapers, but instead would have stuck to the true and tried method of publishing commentaries that measures and reflects the popular political temperature of his readers. Tribune would not be swamped by the sudden pro-ACN temperature in the hotbed of Southwest politics (Ibadan), but would rather have led the charge against the anti-Awo elements of the PDP (a party that removed Baba’s statue in Agodi and replaced it with that of Unknown Soldier!)

I would end this piece with another story. Last year, I received a number of calls from friends that I grew up with in Ibadan. It was part congratulations, part “what is wrong with Tribune”? Tribune had republished a piece that I published online (without attributions and compensation), and then had gone ahead to wrongly analyze the piece. The article was common sense commentary on the bias nature of mainstream journalism in Nigeria today; and most readers saw the underlining idea behind the criticism. Tribune- my first and perhaps undying love, instead decided to turn that article into a commentary on “tribal analysis”. At that point, I realized the newsroom at Tribune House needed a revamp!

If Tribune would jump at every criticism of her proprietors, I would advise them to save their salvo for this one. No one, not even the Awolowo family, is above criticism in a democratic setting. Even though I also submit that such criticism must be respectful, and certainly the one that riled Tribune was shamefully not. The gerocratic temperature that once dominated the South West is slowly but surely giving way to an atmosphere of free enterprise, freedom of thought and new bearers of the Awo standards of efficiency, performance and public service delivery. This generation aware of the legacy of our fathers best expressed in Pa Awo cannot be cowed to silence, not even by the Nigerian Tribune: the “once upon a time” voice of the masses founded by Baba himself. How we wish they’d give us our old Tribune back again.