Wednesday, 29 January 2025 14:29

[OPINION] Leo-Stan, His Son, Thisday And I - Ethelbert Okere

Perhaps just a few would have taken special notice of it but for me, the most spectacular aspect of the THISDAY Awards that held yesterday was the investiture on Chief Leo-Stan Ekeh and his son, Nnamdi Ekeh, respectfully as CEO Of The Year and Young Global Leader Of The Year. I have tried to make some research but could not find where, in our recent history, a man and his son got so highly honored by the same institution at the same event, on the same day.

That Chief Leo-Stan Ekeh has risen to the top in Africa’s corporate landscape is certainly not new. What THISDAY did was merely to corroborate that evidence with its highly prestigious award. What is quite refreshing about the senior Ekeh is that his son has also been recognized, entirely on his own, as an up and coming, upwardly mobile entrepreneur. One is not privy to the criteria used by the board of THISDAY newspaper in finding the junior Ekeh eligible for the award but if my knowledge of the founder of the newspaper does not fail me, then it certainly must have been after a clear conviction that the young man, independent of his father, deserves the honour.

The junior Ekeh is CEO of Konga, an e commerce company which was acquired in 2018 by the ZINOX group, a Nigerian Tech. company chaired by the senior Ekeh. In 2019, Konga underwent a merger operation with Yudala to offer a composite (online and offline) platform, the first in Africa.

Yes, there was a father figure to act as a guide but it is not common that fathers successfully guide their sons to the top. Or, to put the same thing differently, it is not always that sons allow themselves to be teachable enough to be guided into success stories by their illustrious fathers.How the two Ekehs did it should be a subject of further inquiry and their joint success story – in these days of pervasive familial disharmony – should serve as a source of inspiration for other families.

Besides this interesting aspect of this year’s THISDAY Awards, however, I have another fascinating story about Chief Leo-Stan Ekeh and me concerning awards. Leo-Stan, as he is more popularly known, is not new to awards from prestigious organizations. As far back as 1992, his publishing outfit, New Concept Media Ltd, received an award from the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA) for publishing my book, NIGERIA: AGENDA FOR A MODERN POLICE FORCE, which won an ANA price for Literary Excellence in the category of First Author, Non Fiction that year. The THISDAY award is quite prestigious but the ANA awards was – and is – no less prestigious, especially in those days when the Ken Saro-Wiwas, the Odia Ofeimums, the Wale Okedirans, the Femi Oshofisans etc were involved. As a matter of fact, the late Saro-Wiwa was the national president of ANA at the time Leo-Stan, his company and I received the awards. The event, which held at the prestigious Sharaton Hotel, Ikeja was witnessed by so many corporate moguls and the crème de la crème in the national media.

I remember one reporter posing a question to express surprise that Leo-Stan was also into publishing, quite apart from TASK SYSTEMS, his foundational enterprise that was then playing a pioneering role in the nascent Information Communication Technology (ICT) sector in Nigeria. It was in answer to that question that Chief Ekeh prophesied that both TASK SYSTEMS – his ICT company – and New Concept – his media outfit – were two entities “to watch”. TASK SYSTEMS had, as early as 1992 – the date of the event I am writing about here – become an ‘office-hold’ name in the Nigerian media landscape, having computerized virtually the entire newspaper publishing in the country.

Ironically, New Concept has renamed unsung despite publishing my two works after the one that earned it and Chief Ekeh the prestigious ANA award while TASK SYSTEMS has since given birth to a multinational, the ZINOX group. Still, I have every reason to believe that just like in the ICT arm, Chief Ekeh’s prophecy about his publishing company will also come to pass. Fortunately, this writer, whom New Concept Media and its owner, Leo-Stan, helped to announce to the world, is still writing.

Just last December, Chief Ekeh sent me a commendation message for “doing what you know how to do best”. He was responding to my invitation to chair the unveiling of my fourteenth book – after the one he published in 1991 – last December. Even though he gave a good reason why he was not going to be there, he did not fail to acknowledge the fact that I am still in the book writing business, thirty three years after he, so to speak, introduced me to it. Chief Eke was to receive more honors, including three national honors – the Order of the Federal Republic (OFR), the ICON OF HOPE award and the National Productivity Merit award.

Since we are talking about THISDAY newspaper, which is celebrating its thirty years of existence, it would be incomplete to conclude this essay without saying what I know about how it built the foundation of its huge success since I was part of its beginning. I was not there from Day One but I qualify as a pioneer staff member of the newspaper. As a matter of fact, anyone who joined the newspaper at Ribadu road – I can’t remember the precise address – off Awolowo road, Ikoyi, Lagos – which was where the newspaper took off – is a pioneer staff member. We were occupying the first and second floors of a building said to belong to a family member of the founder, Mr. Nduka Obaigbena. I joined the Business/Economy Desk then headed by Ndubuisi Okereke but I was later detailed to coordinate the editorials of the newspaper. The chairman – he did not like to be addressed as “publisher” – did not like the idea of an “Editorial Board”, as was then fashionable. So, what he did was to invite the title and line editors to his office every afternoon to discuss editorial topics which were then assigned to individuals to write.

Later, Dr. Godwin Ogbogodo of the University of Benin began to join us at weekends. The company normally lodged him at Ikoyi Hotel and I would go to his room on Saturdays for both of us to discuss editorial topics. He would pen down some before heading back to Benin on Sunday while we, the regular staffers, took the rest. It was only after Sam Omatseye joined that we began to have what looked like an Editorial Board because he was recruited solely for that department. The pioneer editor of the daily title weas Okagbue Aduba, while Niran Malaolu was the editor of the Sunday title. Mr. Ide Eguabor was initially managing editor but was later promoted Assistant General Manager, publications.

Later, the Saturday title was introduced with Eniola Bello, the current Managing Director of the newspaper company – he has served in that capacity for upwards of twenty five years – as editor, with me as his deputy but I was reassigned not long after and appointed managing editor. The line editors were Victor Ifijeh (Political Editor), with Eziuche Ubani as his deputy; Ndubuisi Okereke (Business/Economy Editor) and Jones Okwara (Foreign Affairs Editor). Others were Augustine Sam, Ada Ibekie, Ijeoma Nwaogwugwu, Austin Oguma etc. Nwaogwuwgu was in charge of a special pull out in the newspaper culled from the Financial Times of London under an agreement. Her first assignment every morning was to go to Ikoyi hotel and get a copy of the Financial Times.

Later, an incident occurred and which prompted our immediate relocation from Ribadu road. As a matter of fact, the movement was so urgent that Eguabor and I were mandated to get a place immediately and we got one at Unity road, off Toyin street, Ikeja; an entire building with four floors. The new place was like a paradise.compared with what we had before. From just two flats in Ikoyi, we now had an entire building. Soon, the chairman made an arrangement with UAC to supply us with furniture and even rug carpets with which the offices were tastefully furnished.

The new location also brought us closer to our printers, Torch Press, located off the same Toyin street and that made the production of the newspaper less Herculean. Hitherto, our production crew shuttled between Ikoyi and Ikeja every night. We had a lithographic unit where we produced plates which were then taken – in batches – to the printers at Ikeja. As a matter of fact, the chairman, who loved to supervise the printing of the newspaper himself, was the fellow who did the shuttling most of the time. Prince Nduka Obaigbena is probably the first Nigerian who had the courage to start a daily newspaper without owning a printing press. On one of the nights, he was attacked by armed robbers somewhere around 7-Up bottling company near the toll gate along the Lagos-Ibadan express way.

Bringing the newspaper to the attention of the public posed its own difficulties also. Initially, the paper was being given out freely but one fateful morning, the vendors at Kakawa street, in central Lagos confiscated the copies from our circulation staff and began to sell the newspaper. Apparently, they did not understand why anybody would prefer to give away such a beautifully packaged newspaper when there was a dearth of newspaper to read. During that period, three of the nation’s major newspapers, The Guardian, The Punch, and Concord were all off the streets, having been banned by the Abacha regime.

Once at Ikeja, both the editorial and corporate management of the organization got greatly enhanced. The chairman constituted what he preferred to call Editorial Advisory Board that was made up of senior editorial staffers of the newspaper and some veterans from outside. Among them were the late Prince Tony Momoh, Mr Udoma Udo Udoma, Mr Nduka Irabor and a few others whose names I cannot now remember. I was a member of the board in my capacity as managing editor. Most of the title editors and desk heads were also members.

However, I left the organization sometime in July 1997 to join the Daily Times as a member of its Editorial Board. Going to the Daily Times was something I had desired for a long time because I felt that I would not have done enough journalism until I worked in that citadel of the news industry. I had started my journalism career in the weekly magazines, initially The Nigerian Economist and, later, The Financial Post in 1989 as a Staff Writer but I was so much desirous of joining a daily newspaper. However, I later crossed over to Newsbreed magazine as an Associate Editor – and later editor of The President, in the same stable, after I was poached by their publisher, the late Chris Okolie. Still, but the craving to work in a daily newspaper grew even larger.

Hence, my arrival at the Champion newspaper sometime in late 1989 as its pioneer Business/Economy editor and member of its Editorial Board. I was to, however return to The Financial Post in 1991 as the magazine’s editor and shortly after, I was appointed the General Manager and Editor-in-Chief of the publishing company. Again, providence took me back to a daily, this time the Satellite newspaper published by Chief Jim Nwobodo, first as Deputy Editor of the daily and later the Acting Editor. It was while I was with Satellite that THISDAY was started but following the decision of Chief Nwobodo to close his newspaper apparently as part of deal with the Abacha regime – the Sunday title that was edited by a Yoruba chap, one Mr. Ojo, was rabidly pro-June 12 – I went over to THISDAY.

Although I had concluded arrangements to join the Daily Times, I found myself in a sort of a quandary. I had gotten my appointment letter and even though Mr John Araka, the editor of the daily title and who facilitated my appointment, had kept sending messages to know when I was going to resume, the decision to leave THISDAY was tough in arriving at. The chairman, Mr. Obaigbena, was quite fond of me and had no difficulty in giving me assignments. I remember that I was the only person he took along for a meeting between our organization and the late Professor Obumselu, then the managing director of Torch Press, our printers. The meeting was in the Law Chambers of Professor Ben Nwabueze at Ebute Meta. I can also remember that at a point during the meeting, Professor Nwabueze lost his cool and literarily walked Obumselu out, following the latter’s uncompromising stance on the issue that Nwabueze wanted to sort out between his organization and ours.

However, something happened at Unity road that prompted me to finally make up my mind to leave THISDAY. It was after an argument with Mr Eguabor during which he physically removed my pair of glasses from my face and flung it away. There and then, I decided to leave. I went to my table, wrote a resignation letter and took it to him and in less than an hour, he wrote back accepting my resignation! Eguabor as Assistant General Manager (Publications), was the highest ranking officer of the organization after the chairman, Mr. Obiagbena, who was out of the country at that particular period.



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