Sam Amuka-Pemu (Sad Sam) has staying power. He has remained a prominent Nigerian for more than half-a-century. In 1967 when he was appointed the editor of the Sunday Times, he was just 32. Before then, he had been the editor of Spear magazine, also published by the Daily Times group. In 1973, he collaborated with Chief Olu Aboderin, a wealthy accountant, to start the phenomenal Punch newspapers. It was a collaboration made in heaven. Amuka had the idea. Aboderin had the money. The Punch remained till today, but not the friendship or collaboration between Aboderin and Amuka-Pemu.
In 1985 – 40 years ago – Amuka-Pemu established the Vanguard newspapers. The truth is that Uncle Sam has been everything possible in journalism and beyond. On Friday June 15, many of those who gathered in Lagos to celebrate this living legend were not around when he was a roaring lion on the pages of the old Sunday Times.
At 90, Uncle Sam has become a Living Deity of the Press. His impact on Nigeria, especially on the press, is great. Around 1988, I went to see him at his office at Kirikiri Canal overlooking the sandy waterway. I was assigned by my boss in Newswatch to do a story about a young publisher who allegedly was owning money to Vanguard for printing and other services. Amuka said the story was true, but he would not want any story about it published. He promised to reach out to Ray Ekpu our Editor-in-Chief,
“The young man is restless, but he is trying to do something good,” Uncle Sam said. “We should not discourage him, but help him. His success may be good for journalism.”
He was clairvoyant. The restless young man of that day has now become an iroko tree of Nigerian journalism. The truth is that Uncle Sam is an excellent human being. His serenity and royal poise belie the battles he had fought and won. As the editor of the Sunday Times, he was running the most important weekly in Nigeria, the Nigerian Civil War. It was a testy period when news could have more implications than mere intellectual curiosity. He made good friends, and remained the journalist he has always been. He never tried to trade places with any other profession.
Amuka-Pemu’s career can be calibrated into three phases. First was his experience with the Daily Times during the Golden Era of Nigerian journalism. That was the era of Alhaji Babatunde Jose, the legendary editor who became the Managing Director of the Daily Times in 1962. There were too many stars in the Daily Times firmaments: Peter Enahoro, Alade Odunewu, Henry Odukomaya, Segun Osoba, Tunji Oseni, Gbolabo Ogunsanwo, Tola Adeniyi, Areoye Oyebola, Tony Momoh, Femi Sonaike, Idowu Sobowale and many more. We grew up to know them. They were the heroes of my youthful years.
Under Jose, Daily Times was the tree that made a forest. No reporter thought of leaving the Daily Times except Sam Amuka-Pemu, the irreverent columnist of the old Sunday Times writing under the pen name, Sad Sam. His writings were witty, filled with sarcasm and ironic twists of words. He made use of short sentences and crisp elucidations. He was bold and often ran into trouble. He was totally unafraid. Then he thought of leaving the phenomenal Daily Times group! It was fortuitous that he met with Aboderin and they soon started the sassy Sunday Punch, noted for its racy prose, its irreverence and its barely clad page three girls.
Then the two friends fought and Sam-Amuka was pushed out of the Punch. He went to court and won! Thus began the third phase of Sam Amuka-Pemu’s story.
After Punch, he founded The Vanguard and proved to sceptics that there is life after disaster. The Vanguard is Uncle Sam. His open personality, his effervescence and his sheer humanity are all expressed in the openness of the Vanguard; its irreverence, its great prose and its damn-the-consequence reporting. The paper attracted intellectual gypsies; those who preferred radical and unorthodox opinion typified by the radical rhetorics of Alhaji Kola Animasaun, Dap Dorman, Chuks Iluegbunam, Eric Teniola, Bisi Lawrence, Pini Jason, Tony Iredia and Chris Momah. The Vanguard Alumni lists some of the most iconic journalists in modern Nigeria: Muyiwa Adetiba, a living legend of the profession, Toye Akinode, first-class reporter in the old National Assembly, Frank Aigbogun, cerebral, fearless, Fola Arogundade, informed, courageous, and the incredible Uncle Sam’s alter ego, Gbenga Adefaye, the journalists’ journalist whose delicate dance with trouble has earned him some deep stripes.
There are many proud Vanguardians, including Professor Ladipo Adamolekun, Hubert Unegbu, Uche Onyebadi, Chris Okojie, Kunle Oyatomi, Tunde Ajani and Wole Akinola, who regards themselves as eternally part of the fraternity. The truth is that once you have joined the Vanguard Family, you may move on, but you remain parts of the orbit. Uncle Sam is an incredible mentor; unbreakable under pressure, resilient, fearless and steely stubborn as the military regime of General Sani Abacha found out. During the Abacha era many newspapers and magazines, including TELL and TheNews, came under intense pressure and they paid dearly for their opposition. Alex Ibru, The Guardian publisher, escaped an assassination attempt, but was fatally wounded. The Punch, under the resilient and unbending leadership of Chief Ajibola Ogunsola, was closed several times and its editors and reporters faced incredible oppression and harassments. The Vanguard, with its irreverent and iconoclastic reporters and editors, paid dearly for their daring. One of the Vanguard reporters, George Onah, the defence correspondent, spent his one-year detention in solitary confinement at the underground cell of the Directorate of Military Intelligence, DMI, Apapa, before he was transferred to the underground cell under the Ikoyi Cemetery on the order of Colonel Frank Omenka, the fiendish boss of the DMI. Yet the Vanguard remained the vanguard of our freedom. Time has moved on, but the Vanguard newspaper remains on the beat.
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The leader of the team, the Unbreakable Uncle Sam, has lived 90 incredible years, witnessing the transformation of our great country. That Uncle Sam agreed to be celebrated at 90 is a testimony that he too at last has been transformed. Ten years ago, as his 80th birthday was drawing nearer, I called him, reminding him that we needed to celebrate him. “What is the hurry all about?’’ he asked. “Wait until I am dead, then you can have all the celebrations that you want!!”
This time around, I was told that it took a deep conspiracy, led by the iconic investigative reporter and living legend, Aremo Olusegun Osoba, to ensure that Uncle Sam attended his own 90th birthday. Osoba, former Managing Director of the old Daily Times, drew on his experience and resources, including Gbenga Adefaye, to ensure that Uncle Sam was successfully kidnapped and brought to attend his own birthday!
The truth is that Uncle Sam has lived an incredible life. Every Nigerian leader has known him on a one-to-one basis: Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, Nnamdi Azikiwe, Obafemi Awolowo, Ahmadu Bello, Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi, Yakubu Gowon, Murtala Muhammed, Olusegun Obasanjo, Shehu Shagari, Muhammadu Buhari, Ibrahim Babangida, Ernest Shonekan, Sani Abacha, Abdulsalami Abubakar, Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, and Bola Ahmed Tinubu. While the tapestry of power was changing, Uncle Sam remains the incredible witness, a Voice of Reason, a temperate interlocutor, a towering symbol of our national resilience and possibilities. What a life!
Congratulations Uncle Sam! Please get ready to be kidnapped for your 100th birthday!!
. Babarinsa is the Chairman of Gaskia Media Limited.
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