₦airaland Forum

I wrote this on March 13th, 2018.

Nairaland home page and the selfishness and intolerance of some Nairalanders.

I read a lot of publications when I was growing up. Nigerians loved to read back then and there was no shortage of titles for them to read. There were newspapers and magazines that covered virtually every area of human interest.


1) Daily Times, Vanguard, Punch, Concord

Old Man originally bought Daily Times Newspapers. It was a proper newspaper at that time and I remember the main cartoon in the paper. The star of the cartoon was an old man who smoked a pipe and who always eavesdropped on other people’s conversation and always made comments about what he had heard. In this way he provided commentary about political, social and economic issues in the society. I’ve forgotten his name, but I think he was called Pa James or something like that. The comic strip became very popular and it got its own comic book in the mid-1980s.

Stop press I’ve remembered the name of the cartoon. It was called Pa Johnson and the name of its comic book was Fun Times.

However we had stopped buying the Daily Times by then. Daily Times was bought over by the Federal Government which proceeded to run down the company. The paper was probably the oldest newspaper that was still being published at that time (it was founded in 1925). It was the largest newspaper company in Nigeria and it published many newspapers and magazines, had one of the largest printing presses. It owned the Times Leisure Services (guest houses, motels, entertainment promotions) and also owned the Miss Nigeria beauty pageant. The government destroyed all these businesses.

The newspaper became quite boring, did not actually report the news and was filled with obituaries and so we staged a revolt and convinced Old Man to switch to two similar, newer and more exciting newspapers, Vanguard and Punch.

Vanguard had one of the best sports pages of any newspaper in the early and mid-1980s and it had a “National Newsreel” and an “International Newsreel” on its second and third pages. The National Newsreel had pictures of events that had happened across the country, while the International Newsreel had pictures of events that occurred around the world in the previous 24 hours. I followed the 1987 Palestinian Uprising (I’m not going to type the proper name because I’m scared of the anti-spam bot) on Vanguard’s International Newsreel.


The paper also had a “Page 3 Girl” feature. These were pictures of girls in skimpy swimsuits and bikinis which were published on the third page of the newspaper. Several other papers also had the page 3 girl feature. The Buhari government forced the papers to stop the practice in 1984.

Vanguard had great journalists and columnists like Bisi Lawrence, Chris Okojie, etc. It also had a full page of cartoons and it had the famous Mr and Mrs cartoon on the front page.

The Mr and Mrs cartoon was started by a cartoonist called Lawrence Akapa. He was not satisfied with starting one of the most famous cartoon strips in the country, so he left the Vanguard and started a magazine called Top News. It was one of the worst magazines in the history of Nigeria. It was filled with fake news, doctored pictures and outright lies. I remember that it ran a crazy story about a Nigerian girl that it claimed was Michael Jackson’s girlfriend. It also claimed that Tosin Jegede had died during an attempted abortion. Lots of people petitioned the police and the NUJ about the activities of Akapa’s Top News and the NUJ was forced to launch an investigation and publicise its findings at a press conference. The NUJ’s press conference about the magazine was shown on the NTA Network News. Tosin Jegede was at that news conference with her parents (so that everybody could see that she was alive). Michael Jackson's supposed Nigerian girlfriend was also at the news conference. She said that she had never met Michael Jackson and that she didn't know how Lawrence Akapa superimposed her picture on a picture of Michael Jackson (remember that this was before Adobe Photoshop became popular). There were many other people at that news conference that complained that Akapa used their names or pictures to cook up false stories. He was also in the habit of stealing pictures from foreign magazines and concocting fake stories about the pictures.

The Punch had very interesting entertainment pages (especially the Saturday Punch) and the paper was far more interesting than the Daily Times. I think it also had the page 3 girl feature. The National Concord was the backup newspaper that was bought whenever the vendor did not have Vanguard or Punch.

Then, in the late 1980s, National Concord introduced Weekend Concord. This was a magazine within the Saturday Concord newspaper and its primary focus was entertainment. Weekend Concord had interesting interviews with music and TV stars, information about concerts and fashion shows, song lyrics, etc. Therefore, Saturday became a three paper day; a day when we bought Vanguard, Punch and Weekend Concord.


2) West Africa Magazine

West Africa Magazine was an international magazine about West Africa and it had some of the best African journalists on its payroll (and many more stringing for it). The magazine was owned by the Daily Times for a long time, but it was published in London and maintained its editorial independence, even when the Daily Times was owned by the Federal Military Government. I would have loved to list all the star journalists that worked for and with the magazine, but I’m scared of the anti-spam bot.

The first few pages of the magazine were dedicated to the major stories about (and affecting) West Africa. Then there are news columns that highlight the local stories in each West African country. This is done in a country by country format and the major countries like Nigeria, Ghana and Ivory Coast get more space (sometimes running into several pages for a single country), while the smaller countries (e.g. Gambia and Cape Verde) might only get a half or quarter page column.

The columns that fascinated me the most were the 60 years ago and 40 years ago columns. West Africa magazine was founded in 1917 and major stories that were published in the magazine 40 and 60 years ago (1920s and 1940s) were published in those two columns. I remember an article that was published in one of those columns. Adolf Hitler had written to African, encouraging them to fight against the British and French who had colonised them and the Sultan of Sokoto, Sir Siddiq Abubakar (1933-1988) wrote a reply to Hitler.

Old Man got free copies of West Africa Magazine for 15 or more years. They were stamped with the words “Complimentary Copy” and this was how I knew what “complimentary copy” meant.



3)Time Magazine & Newsweek

These were the two main international (political and business) magazines at the time and we got them weekly. These magazines also featured other areas of human interest such as music, fashion, automobiles, movies, TV, etc. but their primary focus was on international politics and economics. They covered the Iran-Iraq War, the Lebanon Hostage crisis, the Challenger Shuttle disaster in 1986, the 1988 US presidential election, the assassination attempt on Pope John Paul II, the US Embassy bombing of 1983, etc.

There's something missing in the list below and coincidentally that thing has been on my mind in the past 2 weeks.

Nigerians read voraciously before SAP. There were very many magazines, newspapers, comicbooks and other publications in the 1970s and early 1980s and they made a lot of money.

However SAP came and sapped Nigerians so how would you think of spending money to buy magazine when you don't even have money to buy food? So many publications died off.

There's a type of publication that came just as SAP was beginning to SAP Nigerians.

I'm sure that you've heard of Marvel and DC comics. Well, they belatedly realised the power of the Nigerian market and they made Nigerian versions of their comics.

So you would see Superman, Spiderman and other such comics, but they were published in Nigeria by DC and Marvel, they had Nigerian office addresses, Nigerian adverts, etc.

As I said, these came in the late 1980s when SAP had started sapping Nigerians, so they didn't last long.

I posted this on September 28th, 2018.

Many people still do not understand that Nairaland is not a news website, rather it's a general interest forum.

News and interests

There are two posts that I often created on Nairaland a long time ago. The ideas are in my head, so I can create them many times.

I wanted to quote them, but I can't find them and I have no time to search, so I will recreate them.

News

A journalism professor taught me my favourite definition of news around 35 years ago. I am not going to quote her word for word, because it was a long time ago, but the ideas are in my head, so I am going to explain the ideas.

She said that there is no universally accepted definition of news. She provided definitions by many scholars and then she said (this is not word for word) :

⚫️News is stories about things that affect a lot of people in society.

For example, the Lagos Marathon is about to take place and major roads in the city will be blocked. Therefore journalists need to report about it so that people will know about something that will affect them. Some people call this "News you can use".

⚫️News is stories about major events in a society.

I was in South-West Ikoyi one afternoon in the early 1990s when I heard a loud bang. Everybody was wondering what it was, but nobody knew. As the day progressed I heard that something had happened to Ring Road Bridge. Was that what caused the bang?

Later that night I found out the cause on the NTA News. Yes there was an issue with Ring Road Bridge, but that was not the cause.

They were moving some kind of sensitive chemical at Apapa Port and they mishandled the container and it fell. I think the chemical exploded and that's what caused the bang that people heard across Apapa, Lagos Island and Ikoyi.

⚫️ News is stories about famous or important people in the society.

"Victor Osimhen moves to Real Madrid". That's news.

"Arike Ogunbowale gets married". That's news.

"Pastor XYZ is sick and has been rushed abroad". That's news.

"Davido celebrates his wedding anniversary". That's news.

"The minister of finance fell down while presenting the budget". That's news.


⚫️ News is stories about interesting events.

"Enyimba won the African Champions League". That's news.

"The circus is coming to town". That's news.


⚫️ News is deviation from the norm.

"There is a town in Nigeria where all the men urinate blood" That's news (this was a real news story on News Line on the NTA in the 1990s).

Remember the popular saying, "Dog bites man' is no news, but 'Man bited dog' is news".


⚫️News is news is news.



Interests

I always told people that Nairaland is not a news site. It is a general interest website.


In fact, I have found my 2018 version of this post and I am going to quote it in the next few posts.

BItt:
This issue of Boko haram started over 10 years ago. I want to believe humans naturally avoid conflict prone zones and move to much safer areas.

How come, over there years Boko haram always have enough fighters and funds to over run military bases?

Where do they get fighters from since people are supposed to have left that area

I'll give you a perfect example.

One of Boko Haram's most hardened members was a Christian. He was a youth corper that was kidnapped by the sect. He was kidnapped along with another man who was a pastor.

The Federal Government did a deal with Boko Haram for the release of the two men, but the youth corper refused to go. He had been brainwashed by Boko Haram and became a member of the sect. He was one of Abubakar Shekau's most trusted lieutenants.

Boko Haram has used kidnapped teenage girls as suicide bombers, has used kidnapped teenage boys as load carriers and fighters, etc.

EBEk101 is another one that can only think about money. The obsession is so much that he does not know that people can create threads without being paid.

Did the Super Falcons pay me when I created threads about their matches?

These chidlren on the internet sef.

CrownedPhoenix:
Chief Naptu, I hold you in high regard. I read the interests you have in sports, especially writing on our sportswomen. I have known about many of their career exploits through your writings.

At the core of this thread is to show pictures of her wedding with fellow woman. To what end? Knowing well that the practice is criminal within our shores.

It will not be wrong for anyone to conclude this thread is glamourising same sex marriage.

Terrorism is illegal in Nigeria, yet there are threads about terrorist attacks on the home page. It's also all over the news.

I repeat, are you sure that you know the definition of news? News isn't only about good things or things you like.

DuttyChuks:
😂 😂 😂 show us the pictures or videos of the engagement! These people are liars.

He didn't post pictures (maybe he didn't take cameraman), but someone else posted pictures (maybe that person took cameraman) and those pictures will be in an upcoming thread.

CrownedPhoenix:
This is probably the first Naptu thread I find worthless.

What's exactly is this media coverage for Naptu?

One can do with her career exploits to inspire younger stars, not a horrible private life.

What's the news with her lesbian affair at the center supposed to inspire? More lesbians?

So news is only meant to inspire? So what how does the news of people being killed in Gaza or in Iran or Israel inspire?

Are you sure that you know the definition of news?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUB1EeTcLTw?si=sPNOEfgzNdIt8qVm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXUb9Mm48rI?si=zhh07pTHHjXxMpe1

Pastor Umo Eno @_PastorUmoEno

I returned from the United Kingdom, where I accompanied His Excellency, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR, on a State visit.

In the course of the visit, I had the opportunity to engage with investors, particularly in the power sector, as we continue to position Akwa Ibom State for greater economic growth.

Our administration remains committed to strengthening the power sector and advancing the Ibom Deep Seaport project. These are critical investments that will unlock new opportunities and drive long-term development in our State.

While these projects take time and careful processes, we are making steady progress and recording strong investor interest. By the grace of God, we will achieve these goals.

We will continue to work diligently to improve power supply and realize the Ibom Deep Seaport for the benefit of our people.

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