There comes a time in the life of every mortal when the unexpected comes. Such unexpected occurrences may be positive or negative, but the unexpected negative occurrence is more terrifying, more heart wrenching and suffocating that nobody prays for it.
Such a terrifying time came to me since 2020 when a bang of sickly conditions hit me with consequences of emotional, psychological and physical tortures.
Being unconscious, rumoured dead, I was rushed to the hospital, precisely to University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital. Diabetes, kidney related problems and others that I had suppressed for want of money to attend to came calling taking their toll on me .A real bang of accumulated health conditions that would have long been addressed if I had found myself in the environment where life of the citizen counts.
Money became a serious issue, because of the fact that little or no money is in the Journalism profession, more especially in the part of the country we are practising it. This sounds incredible to the outsider, because many believe that journalists make big money. It is not ruled out though that some could make money, depending on the brand of journalism or those with strong financial background before coming into the profession.
However, those in national media organization’s and those in government funded media organization’s could have a different story to tell in terms of remuneration and financial openings, but as for myself, I am not sure if earned more than a total of five hundred thousand naira in physical cash over the past two decades as salary put together in all the media appointments I have had in Owerri based newspapers as anything above this came from private consultancy services and external jobs. This sounds incredible, but it is a fact. I strictly speak for myself, there may be those who are paid regularly over the years, yet I doubt it, though some may not like the world to know this out of pride or unnecessary self esteem, which spiritually and philosophically amount to self deceit. For me what determines a man’s importance is not the amount of money he earns, but the quality and volume of service rendered to society for the common good of all as God has greater rewards for the individual at last.
It does not matter whether a person sleeps on mat, walks on foot everyday or eats half a meal every day, what determines his importance in the world is his integrity. This has been my abiding philosophy till the coming of Jesus Christ. I may try other legitimate options to augment my income if the opportunity is available because of my belief in legitimate private enterprise, but for me to totally attach myself to a politician to sponsor my writings against his opponents is the last thing I will do as a writer- journalist . After completing the job of a politician in the next ten years he will not see me in his house, except if invited again for another job or while on a group visit,.
I have strictly followed this principle in my professional practise to avoid undue influence and the insult that goes with it in addition to the sad fact that some politicians have no respect. I deprecate this because I intentionally elected Journalism as the main profession with which to enlighten the entire society. It is the only profession that offers you the opportunity to enter the room of the man who either hates or loves your views without his consent through your articles and columns. Journalism gives one the license to eulogize virtue in the individual person. It also gives you the power to chastise vice in the individual person. This is the rare advantage of being a journalist, which money cannot achieve and in practising it strictly you may not make big money, but your ideas and name will be known beyond your abode.
The fact that a real journalist does not focus on money has made it difficult for me to accumulate money, but with little or no regrets in so far as I satisfied my conscience, but my only regret is the attitude of most politicians to journalists, especially journalists of conscience in Nigeria.
For instance, when I became highly sick, I put messages across to some lawmakers for assistance. None of them responded, not even one of them which everybody thought would help me, even without my appeal. People thought so for reason of proximity and one or two articles published on him, but those who made such assumptions did not know that anything I wrote on the law maker in question was at my own personal prompting without his piror knowledge or sponsorship.
It would be difficult for many to believe that I write about politicians either for or against them without any body sponsoring or influencing me in alignment with my professional philosophy of balance and neutrality for fairness.
My professional philosophy may be alien and incredible to some extent, but it is driven by my belief that the journalist will be at the forefront in the education and enlightenment of society from the vantage point of knowledge and patriotism without primarily focusing on money. The focus on money as absence of proper remuneration has made some to practise the journalism of blackmail for settlement, but it is crude, unpatriotic and devoid of integrity. I loathe it to the depth of my marrow to stampede or blackmail a politician for the sake of money.
My family members struggled the much they could, my little circle of sympathizers in the jOwerri Journalism circle made their widow’s might efforts like tiny drops of water in the Pacific Ocean of my turbulent health situation. Of course it has been difficult to say if I have had friends in strict terms in my professional career, whether among my colleagues or politicians. I know my few colleagues in Owerri were moved by sympathy rather than friendship, because I never personalized my friendship rather I have maintained a camaderie sense of fraternity with my colleagues for reasons bothering on personal philosophy and ethics.
For the type of critical journalism I practised in the past twenty years as an independent commentator and critic, I distanced myself from everyone to avoid betrayal and manipulation. I religiously distanced myself from politicians to avoid their selfish unhealthy influence on my commentaries and to run away from the accusation of being sponsored by politicians. I strictly distanced myself from some colleagues to avoid a possible betrayal as earlier stated because some human beings are feeble minded, but ordinarily I have enjoyed the support and admiration of some of my fellow journalists who believe in my struggle for a better society and they continuosly stand in my support, but those who are attached to politicians as their attack dogs do not agree with me for my ultra independent position, which makes me to praise some policies of the government in Owerri today contrary to my criticism of previous administrations. The truth is that age makes a man to readjust.
My anger with some who accuse me today of being pro Uzodinma do not know my spiritual and philosophical bearings in life. While they have politicians that foot their bills on behalf of whom they attack their opponents, am not attached to any politician. I am not a card carrying member of any political party as it would be rare for a politician to boldly claim to know me, except knowing my write-ups that they can not identify me personally. Any politician in the state that knows me by name is a politician who may have schooled with me or may have had prior knowledge of my name before my entry into the profession.
It is very rare for politicians to know me on personal basis, where that happens the politician must be a bundle of virtues outside the conditions mentioned above, because it takes an honest, humble and highly exposed mind to tolerate me and my positions on public service. I abhor pomposity and disrespect for people, no matter their status and I brazenly detest associating with people who measure a person’s importance with money and high public office, having tested leadership from childhood and having understood the nothingness of mundane possessions, I resolved not to puff up again in life and resolved to run away from people who value material things above virtue. This makes me to laugh when politicians brag with their political position which fades away like the water vapour with time.
Then my rigid position on power as an instrument for selfless service to humanity and the protection of both the rich and the poor from each other’s harm predisposes me to knocks from politicians who are very haughty and selfish. Such politicians do not understand why I refuse to prostrate to their demeanour and I refuse to tag them my enemies, but human beings in political office.
My relationship with politicians is based on public interest to project them and their views and to educate them on their obligations to the people. I strongly resisted to be in the pay roll of any politician in the state and the whole country, except when consulted for professional service. This neutrality seems difficult to be understood, except those who have followed me closely in the past twenty years, nobody can believe my modus operandi.
In fact since my health challenges, it has not been easy to meet with the financial demands in the face of hike in prices of food and drugs. This has made me a reluctant beggar who does not know where to go for assistance. The situation became compounded when I published two books last year as part of measures to raise money for my continued treatment and procurement of recommended foods. I did not cover my publication expenses in the first place. Some who collected books have not paid to this day and the difficulty I encounter with walking has made it difficult to reach those who collected books.
The state governor who was the highest invited guest did not attend. This added to my pains as people started rumouring that the governor must have given me some millions of naira, since one of the books was published in his favour. This is the dilemma one faces in life. Some who I gave copies of the books started coming close to me as a link man to the governor! What a kind of world! Can I ever convince them that the state governor does not even know me? Can I ever convince anyone that I raised money for the publications? This is why you have to be careful before condemning anybody’s, including those in power out mere assumptions.
The very few people who were helping me, stopped in the assumption that the government has raised money for me. To be honest before the world, I have not met governor Uzodinma personally and even the book launch committee members who went to Government House were not sure whether the invitation reached the governor or not, because of the bureaucratic bottlenecks they encountered during the submission of the books and invitation letter in June last year. It is also unbelievable that I cannot access Government House without the gate people instructing me to call the person I want to meet. I do not have the governor’s phone number and if I have it will I call him at the gate and get reply?
Today when people see me begging for assistance to attend to my health predicaments, they assume that I decided to beg after making huge money from the book launch, but they are a million miles far from the truth. At my age and life philosophy, I detest begging, then how can I resort to begging if I made money from the book launch? I am reluctant to beg, because since childhood, it has not been in my character to do so.
Therefore, anybody who has any financial assistance to render me should not dwell on assumptions to refrain from helping me. This is the true situation. I am only a reluctant beggar. The fact that I still write in newspapers does not mean that I am a paid journalist. No. I will receive any assistance with gratitude.
