By Deba Uwadiae

I actually thought I knew Kirikiri Canal, Apapa, Lagos and did not bother to ask for direction from Jossy Nkwocha, my classmate at the Nigerian Institute of Journalism, Ogba, Lagos, Nigeria. Jossy had visited me a few days earlier at my mother’s store on Isaac John Street, Fadeyi, Lagos to encourage me to go seek a freelance reporter’s job at the newly established Vanguard Newspapers that mid-year of 1984 while we were on holidays. I found myself at the Liverpool bus stop, Apapa, asking for directions to the office of Vanguard Newspapers on a Monday morning. After what seemed like a fruitless journey, someone came to my rescue. “You are not there yet. Take a Mile 2 bus and get off at Berger Yard. Cross over to the other side and ask anyone you see. They will direct you to the place,” said my rescuer.

Vanguard Newspaper was truly “refreshingly different” from other newspapers of the time in outlook with its unique bold font masthead, captivating layout and attractive pictures.

As I walked down the dusty road towards the Canal a passenger boat surged towards the Mile 2 side of the water. I instantly recognised the Editor Muyiwa Adetiba, having known him from his “Face-to-Face with Muyiwa” in Punch Newspaper, as I entered the “newsroom” in a small building that seemed to crowd everyone in it – the editors, reporters and typists. I wanted a freelance job. And I got a freelance job. A big deal for a student. And Lagos was my beat. It was incredible! I had never met Mr. Muyiwa Adetiba in person before that day, and neither did Jossy Nkwocha speak to him about me. I left the Vanguard Newspapers premises on that first day determined to work and impress that “happy family” that welcomed and gave me a job. Interestingly, the newspaper was planning to go daily in few weeks.

I learned very fast, especially with the first story I submitted for publication. “I can’t buy this,” Mr. Muyiwa Adetiba told me with a smile after reading the story.  “I know you can do better.” I nodded, smiling back. Every piece of information in the story was based on sources. I did not talk to those involved and I did not witness the incident. I learned my first practical lesson as a reporter. I left the newsroom that day encouraged to get the right story and be published.

Incidentally, it was about the time the second year students at my school were to go on a six-week industrial attachment and Vanguard Newspaper was automatically my choice. The six weeks meant submission to the rules and guidelines of the newsroom as opposed to the independence of a freelancer.

The Entertainment Editor Uncle Fola Arogundade gave me my first assignment, a press conference by a musician who was announcing his new album at the NUJ House in Victoria Island.

Interestingly, I had my first two stories published on the same day, on a Saturday, with one leading the front page. The lead story was an alleged kidnapping and murder incident that happened at Kirikiri. I was in the new newsroom on that Friday when the Editor received information about the incident. He came into the newsroom, informed the News Editor, Frank Aigbogun and I was detailed to go cover with a cameraman. We rode there in a Vanguard Newspaper delivery pickup vehicle. The two reporters on the Crime beat, Ochiama Ahia and Tonia Maijeh came in later in the evening with the Police version of the incident and so the three of us shared the bylines in the lead story of that Saturday edition. It was my formal “baptism” into journalism.

It’s 40 years of Vanguard Newspapers where it all began for me as a journalist in 1984 till 1985. I returned in 1991 after a stint with the Republic Newspaper, and finally left in 2000 to start a specialized publication in the aviation industry – Aviation Weekly, and later Business Travel. Everything I am today in journalism, I owed to the innocent beginning at the Vanguard Newspapers, and I am grateful to the publisher, Uncle Sam Amuka for giving many of us that opportunity at that time to begin our reporting by walking into the Canal and getting a job without knowing “anybody.”

(Deba Uwadiae is the publisher of the New Americans magazine in Columbus, Ohio and author of the Coming to America: Early Life in America and Citizenship)

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