In the 1950’s, under the Colonial Government, Harold Cooper, the British Public Relations Officer, who was a friend of my father’s, went to great lengths in order to ensure that the airwaves between Lagos and Kano were free of disruptions (Cooper Road in Ikoyi was named after him). Consequently, the Nigerian Broadcasting stations in Lagos and Kano relayed exactly the same programmes. Indeed, most of the programmes were from the British Broadcasting Corporation [BBC].
The diversion into “Hausa Service” and Radio Kaduna came much later.
All over Nigeria, “Rediffusion” boxes were installed in homes in order to enable households to listen to the radio. The monthly rental fees were as little as five shillings.
I have no recollection of any home with more than one box around which the entire family would cluster to listen to the news early in the morning or in the evening.
There was no twenty-four hour service; and certainly no private radio stations. CNN; Sky News; Al Jazeera etc. did not exist. In essence, the staple diet of news in Lagos was exactly the same as in Kano. The colonial government also made sure that the “Daily Times” newspaper was available in Lagos and Kano on the same day. Harold Cooper’s task extended to showing films all over Nigeria, particularly schools; churches; and hospitals.
It was all part of an elaborate command and control of the communication channel. It was premised on the perception that if matters were reasonably calm in Lagos and Kano, the rest of the country would follow suit. All these were long before Nigerian Television Authority [NTA], not to talk of Channels; Silverbird; AIT etc. emerged.
Mind you, those who owned what was described as “wireless radio” could receive “BBC”, “Voice of America”; and the exotic music of “Congo Brazaville” directly.
Similarly, special attention was devoted to the railway line, between Lagos and Kano, which was amalgamated on October 3, 1912 (It was a joining of the Lagos-Minna railway line that was constructed between 1901 and 1911 and the Baro-Kano Railway line that was built by the government of Northern Nigeria between 1907 and 1911).
It is also instructive that right up till the 1980’s, there were only two entry points into (and exit points from) Nigeria. They were Lagos and Kano. Maybe demons, wizards and other flying objects were able to defy the restriction!
For those who are communications historians, it would not escape them that at the height of its glory, the circulation of “Daily Times” newspaper was close to one million copies a day. Its stablemate, the “Sunday Times” when Gbolabo Ogunsanwo was both columnist (“Life With Gbolabo”) and editor regularly hit one million, five hundred thousand copies. However, “Wikipedia” insists that at its peak, “Daily Times” circulated nearly two hundred and seventy-five thousand copies a day while the “Sunday Times” distributed nearly half a million copies.
By way of comparison, the circulation “The Vanguard” and “The Punch” newspapers, which are reputed to be Nigeria’s most circulated newspapers distribute less than a quarter of what “Daily Times” circulated in its heydays.
What we read in Lagos was exactly the same as what was on the newsstands/vendors in Kano on Sunday morning.
Eventually, both “Daily Times” under the leadership of the legendary Alhaji Babatunde Jose and Radio Nigeria were severely battered by the military bazookas. A subject for another day is the experience of Dr. Christopher Kolade the very professional and upright Director-General of Radio Nigeria during the S.D. Dimka coup of Friday 13th February, 1976 which led to the brutal assassination of the Head of State, General Murtala Mohammed and his aide-de-camp Lt. Akintunde Akinterinwa in cold blood early in the morning as they drove without special security to the office (Dodan Barracks).
Dr. Kolade was in the building when then Colonel Ibrahim Babangida surrounded “Radio Nigeria” with armoured tanks with orders from the Chief of Army Staff Major-General T.Y. Danjuma – Dimka must be captured even if it meant razing the station to ashes. Thankfully, Dr. Kolade is still alive to confirm the treachery of his subordinate Mr. Abdulkarim Zakari who was from Kano and was part of the coup as it was he who provided the coup plotters with the military music which the radio station was broadcasting. Zakari was executed along with the other coup plotters. He left behind a widow (from the Da Silva family who remain prominent in Lagos).
In a rare interview, Lt.-General T.Y. Danjuma GCON confirmed that his name was the second (after General Murtala Mohammed) on the Dimka list of those to be assassinated. Apparently, what saved him was that instead of driving by car to his office at “Defence Headquarters”, Marina, Lagos, he travelled by boat from his Ikoyi residence to a jetty on the Marina and just walked briskly to his office which was just a floor above the office of Major-General Iliya Bisalla who was his rival and alleged mastermind of the coup plot.
We are obliged to reflect on the dictum which President Barack Obama of the United States of America espoused when he visited Africa for the first time in 2009.
“What Africa needs are not strongmen but strong institutions.”
Alas, both “The Daily Times” and “Radio Nigeria” were strong institutions headed by strongmen – Alhaji Babatunde Jose and Dr. Christopher Kolade. The military literally blasted and bulldozed them anyway.
It bears repetition that in the years preceding Nigeria’s Independence, members of the Parliament (House of Representatives and the Senate) were part-timers. They were expected to have other means of livelihood. Hence, they were only paid stipends and sitting allowances – to cover accommodation and travelling expenses when they were in session in Lagos. Most of them found temporary accommodation in Lagos or “squatted “with friends and party members. The parliamentarians from the North were provided with “warrants” which enabled them to travel free of charge on the trains from Kano to Lagos and back.
• To be continued next week
Bashorun J.K. Randle
