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| The SK with the GDA |
part of the exclusive 50th birthday interview with City People Magazine Publisher, Dr. Seye Kehinde who clocked 50 last
Friday, April 24th, 2015. This part two is a never-told-before hot
tale excusive brought to you by your Africa’s number celebrity encounter blog Asabeafrika. The amiable publisher for
the first time told us the story of his several near death encounter under the
regime of late Nigerian Head of state General
Sani Abacha as he was one of those
who played prominent roles in the anti-military journalism of the era. We
equally backed our report with some of the epic political stories that brought
about a death warrant on the City People
publisher’s head during that gloomy era. Enjoy the excerpts.
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| Dr. Seye Kehinde to Asabeafrika….’Great People like Mike Awoyinfa & Late Dimgba Igwe inspires me’ |
Why Abacha wanted my head
journalists who rattled the late General Sani Abacha’s regime with your
articles and reports which were direct to the heart of the military junta of
that era. Could you recall some of your near death experience during the time?
so many, I can’t limit it to one or two experience because they were so, so, so
many because at that point it was quite challenging. There was even a time they
declared us wanted that they asked people for a fee, that if they see us they
should inform the nearest police station. The news was on NTA and few other media platform and that was the time we decided
to go underground and from that point onward we ran both THE NEWS and TEMPO as
guerilla publications. And it was very challenging but very exciting too and
one learnt a lot of lessons from it because it made me know that once an idea
has come, there is no stopping that idea because the military did everything
humanely possible to make sure we don’t come out but we kept coming out every
week without failing because we were not operating from a conventional point of
view, it was from an unconventional point of view and we continued to survive
until that era passed away and that made me know that you don’t need money to
get so many things going, all you need is an idea which time has come and you
put passion to it because we were very passionate about it, we didn’t use to go
home we used to just move around and all that, we didn’t have an office. We
operated in a very hap-hazard manner but believe you me, we sustained the
publication all through the period the military was in power.
“There was even a time they declared
us wanted that they asked people for a fee, that if they see us they should
inform the nearest police station. The news was on NTA and few other media platform and that was the time we decided
to go underground and from that point onward we ran both THE NEWS and TEMPO as
guerilla publications”.
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| The ABACHA Story that made SEYE KEHINDE become THE MOST WANTED MAN in Nigeria |
Day I came face to face with Abacha’s
goons
death experience you had with the military goons?
times, like I said there were so many experiences. There was a time we were at the
Concord Press where we went to print
and the security people came and they wanted to arrest us, Mr. Bayo Onanuga and I were there together. That was even the first
edition of TEMPO and it was so agonizing because when they met us, we pretended
as if we were just journalists that we were packers in the press hall and they
got us to pack the maiden edition of TEMPO, we packed into their truck and they
took it away. It was after they had left the place they now realized that the
two of us were actually the two people they were looking for because they got
information that we were printing there; so, they stormed the place and met us
in the heat of production but we pretended as if we were packers, we quickly
rolled our shirts and trousers and we started doing as if we were machine
operators and all that; so, by the time they set their eyes on copies of TEMPO
Magazine they said we should pack everything into their truck and we did but
while we were packing the publication into the truck, we disappeared and by the
time they knew we were the ones they were looking for it was the following day
after information went round that we were actually there but they didn’t get
us.
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| Dr. Seye Kehinde to Asabeafrika…’I dont believe in acting big and drinking champagne like a big boss’ |
There was also a time the police stopped me at a check point and they
decided to search and they searched my car and they found so many documents and
that was the time journalists were being arrested during the crazy days of General Sani Abacha and of course if I
didn’t play fast one on them at that time I would have been taken to the
military cantonment or any of the junta’s gulag but of course I played a fast
one and I set myself free from that ordeal. There are so many, there was even a
day they stormed our former office at THE
NEWS, the one at Ogba near NIJ
(Nigeria Institute of Journalism), I think Sweet
Sensation (Eatery) occupies the building now. I think they came
specifically looking for me because they heard I was in the building. So, they
stormed the building and they created a barrier at the gate and they said
everybody should come out, that we should come out one by one that they wanted
to ransack the building looking for me and all of that. I don’t know where I
got the raw courage, initially I wanted to stay back but I said ‘if I stay to
the end, I will probably be the last person they will be looking for and they
will eventually get me but if I go now that the search is fresh, I could escape’.
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| Dr. Seye Kehinde with Owu born billionaire, Aare (Dr.) Bolu Akin-Olugbade |
So, immediately the line-by-line thing started I joined them. Of course I
collected an ID card belonging to one of the staff and of course I immediately
change my countenance because I am a very casual person, I don’t like being
extravagant and I was casually dressed that day. So, what I simply did was to
roll my sleeve, changed my shoes to slippers. I just joined the queue. Of
course, at a point, they will say ‘next person’ and they will look at the ID card
and try to match it with the face. They kept doing that, kept doing that, kept
doing that until they got to my turn. They looked at the ID card, looked at my
face and matched me to go and I left. Of course all the staff knew what was
going on; so, immediately they saw me going, they were like “Ah! This people
have really missed” and that was how I escaped.
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| Dr. Seye Kehinde to Asabeafrika….’How i survived Abacha’s Killer Squard was an act of God’ |
So, it was much later again
like the Concord Press experience that they knew the person they were actually
looking for was within the building but by that time, I have escaped. So, there
are so many close shaves I have had, so many. So, many close shaves I have had
with death but I was able to make it away without a slight hurt. Because I just
believe there was nothing we did wrong at that time for anybody to be harassing
us and all of that, I mean there was no any reason for me to willingly hand
over my self to them for terrorism. Yes, if they had arrested me on their own
strategy without my knowledge, then, no problem but not that I will willingly
just walk into them, why will I do that? I don’t see any advantage that will
give to me because we were just doing our job.
“So, what I simply did was to roll my
sleeve, changed my shoes to slippers. I just joined the queue. Of course, at a
point, they will say ‘next person’ and they will look at the ID card and try to
match it with the face. They kept doing that, kept doing that, kept doing that
until they got to my turn”
diabolical mean to escape your assailants?
just a luck I have. I have had so many close shaves with death and terror but
for some reasons, God has been very faithful and I will just walk out of it and
I think by nature I am not somebody who is usually afraid of things like that.
I just take it in my stride and I try to make the best out of it.
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| Dr. Seye Kehinde with His Excellency, Governor Babatunde Raji Fashola (SAN) |
I am doing a book on role models
so many role models, so many of them. For some time now I have been trying to
do a book on people who have inspired me up in the course of my life and I have
to learn different things from different people; perseverance, humility and
ability to build up others, to create other people, to influence other people.
I can go on and on with names of people who I have seen or people who I have
had encounters with and who changed my life, it is a long list, it is not one,
two or three persons. I mean I have had so many, so many people, not only
physical role models but those whose books I have read and they have inspired
me and prepared me. I thank God that I have started reading very early in my
young life and that enabled me imbibe so many leadership principles from people
because even if you don’t meet somebody in flesh, if you read the person’s
ideas, opinion and articles and all that, it would influence and shape you in a
way.
“Like I always tell people, if I want
to drink Champagne I can buy Champagne on my own and drink. So, I
don’t need to attend all the parties in Lagos for me to be able to drink Champagne. If I want to drink wine I
can go into a wine shop and get one and drink but some people don’t see
journalism from that perspective and I guess we all have different views but
the school I belong to is the school where one has to be serious minded in what
we do because what we do is a very serious minded business”
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| Dr. Seye Kehinde @ one of his event with Lagos state first lady, Dame Abimbola Fashola |
Why I work so hard….
that you work so very hard, it is a very popular opinion about you. You conduct
interviews and even transcribe the interviews side-by-side other administrative
works. Why do you overwork yourself?
dad (Late Gilbert Ademolu Kehinde) shaped me that way, he works all nights. Then
I read one of Awo’s book and it was
written there, it is actually a speech delivered in the 1950s, he said the
biggest problem with our youths is that they sleep too much; then, he analyze
sleep and equally analyze the hours a young man who is still virile could sleep
and I think that thing stuck in my brain straight away. So, from my days in Ife
(Obafemi Awolowo University) I have always been a book warm. In fact some
people who see me now will ask that ‘how come I was able to soften up?’. If I
didn’t go into journalism I would have probably gone into academics because I
was very close to all my lecturers, the Doctors, the Professors in Ife at that time and at other
instructions I studied. I was too much into academics and candidly inclined to
academics. I was surprised myself that I never ended up in academic because I
love reading and I love writing and all of that goes hand in hand, writing,
reading and research.
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| Dr SK to Asabeafrika…’I work hard with no rule for fitness but it is now a priority @ 50′ |
So, if I had wanted to go into academic it wouldn’t have
been a big deal. So, that culture of discipline has been there for me and I
believe that journalists are like footballers or athletes, if you do not
constantly horn your skills you will go rusty I don’t want to go rusty at fifty
something. I mean, why should I write one story now and be procrastinating for three
days, four days to a week before I write another one; then I will no longer be
a journalist. I will probably be an arm chair person but I want to be alert, I
want to be fit, I want to be able to horn my skills at all times. I get touched
when I see old foreign journalists who travel down to Nigeria to come and source for stories. Some of them in their 60s,
70s and 80s and they come into a country where they don’t know anybody and as
they are interviewing you, they are asking you if you know anybody that can
link them up with someone higher they want to meet and they are working with
deadline. They just have maybe 48 hours to spend in your country before they go
back to their country to file their reports and I am here still in my 50s and I
will now say because I am the publisher I wont file in stories.
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| Dr. SK to Asabeafrika ‘Greatest Lesson @ 50 is to always plan ahead’ |
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| Dr. Seye Kehinde with Veteran Journalist Akogun Tola Adeniyi (L) with a guest |
And of course,
the likes of Mike Awoyinfa and the
late Dimgba Igwe showed us the way that if you are leaving your house in the
morning, one of the first things Mike
Awoyinfa will take with him is a tape
recorder. For me, that is the kind of person that has a passion for what he
does, those are the kind of people I want to emulate not people when you ask
them when last did they do an interview, they will say ten years ago. I mean I
am a reporter and I will continue to be a reporter because that is what makes
the whole thing exciting meeting new people, taking people’s views and getting
to know why people do what they do. I am not one of those who went into
journalism because of the fancy side of it, no, it is a serious job. I read all
of Awo’s books on journalism, I read
all of Zik’s books, and these are
guys who were very instrumental to the independence of Nigeria. The nationalists and the journalists; so, if you reduce
the pedigree of a profession that is instrumental to the independence of a
country to butter and bread or drinking of wine and champagne, I am very sorry
for you. Like I always tell people, if I want to drink Champagne I can buy Champagne
on my own and drink.
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| Dr. Seye Kehinde with Billionaire Lagos Prince & Boardroom Guru, Adekunle Ojora |
So, I don’t need to attend all the parties in Lagos for me
to be able to drink Champagne. If I
want to drink wine I can go into a wine shop and get one and drink but some
people don’t see journalism from that perspective and I guess we all have
different views but the school I belong to is the school where one has to be
serious minded in what we do because what we do is a very serious minded
business. Because a lot of people depend on what you write, so, your
information has to be right and of course you are always a role model to people
coming behind. Don’t also forget that you are dealing with people’s egos and
reputations. You have to be on your toes at all time because running a news
room is like a general running a platoon or a captain of a football team, you
must be athletic and as the leader of a team you must be ready to compete with
your team. What I do here is to compete with my team, go out there and bring
the information and I will also go out and get the information and at the end
we compare notes and that is why most of my guys here (City People) cant say I
am exploiting them because before you get here, you will meet me. By the time
you say you are going home, I am still here working. So, people will say to me
‘you overwork yourself’ but I want to experience what my staff go through and I
belief the future of this profession belong to those of us who are innovative
and hardworking. We can not let the internet culture take over journalism
because journalism is different. E-journalism is just an aspect of journalism
that is being developed with much potential for development. I don’t see how I
will be part of a culture that will not pay attention to books or encourage
scholarship for people to develop serious minds. I know my pedigree and where I
am coming from, so, I also want to develop my terrain and let people take it
from there. So, it is not about seeing Seye
Kehinde with one governor or the other, our brand of journalism is much deeper
than that.
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| Dr. Seye Kehinde with wife, Mrs. Funke Kehinde (M) and a female guest |
Why I want to have an exercise regime
that you can’t afford to do again at 50?
think there is any; for me 50 is just numbers.
try and do more of that; that is the only area I think I am lacking. Because of
the kind of person I am, I work too much and I don’t give room for exercise.
So, I am seriously looking at the day of the week that I can take time off even
if it is just for two, three hours to do some exercise, jogging and all of that
because it also helps, it refreshes you and makes you fit.
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| Governor of Ogun state, His Excellency, Senator Ibikunle Amosun with eminent Nigerians conducts the cutting of Dr. Seye Kehinde’s 50th birthday cake with family |
What do you think journalism will be
like in 50 years from now?
50 years I don’t think it will be the way we practice it today. I think everything
is going to move online. Why I said so is because the new generation of readers
we have now, I can call them the online generation or the facebook
generation, they are not open to the rigorous developmental nature that
we went through, they are not inclined to it at all. We are seeing this
generation now, what about the generation coming behind? They are even going to
be worse. The kind of generation we have now; one; they don’t even study
history any longer in schools. They don’t study Yoruba, Hausa or Igbo and I remember the late sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo said before you become a good Nigerian you must be a good Yoruba person, you must be a good Hausa or Igbo person because your base forms your identity but
unfortunately the new generation of youths don’t even know history of Nigeria
talk less of knowing the history of the world. But in my own generation we read
history and it helped to shape our orientation about life. But today history as
a discipline becomes optional, how can history be optional for a group of
people? If you don’t know where you are coming from how would you know where
you are going?. So, in the next 50 years and even before then and with the
emergence of a generation that is fastidious to I-phone, I-pad and other handy communication gadgets, journalism
will move online but of course great scholarship will sustain it.
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| Dr. Seye Kehinde with Ogun state Governor, Senator Ibikunle Amosun |
Greatest Lesson I learnt @ 50
a lot, life has taught me to be humble and it also taught me to take life more
serious because you realize that if you come into this world and you do not
realize what makes the world thick, you will just come and go and that is why
the likes of Bishop Oyedepo and lots
of preachers will always talk about finding your purpose in life, define who
you are. Know what you have passion for, what are your dreams and how are you
planning to achieve them. If you don’t know all of that, you will find yourself
flowing with the world and before you know what is happening, you have wasted
so many years but if you know specifically what all of these is about, you will
know how to plug yourself into the society you belong to. Like you are asking
me now, what will journalism be in 50 years? You need to be able to think
ahead, in ten or twenty years, how do you prepare yourself? How do you position
yourself? Because the world is all about positioning, you must know what is
going to happen in five years. I was reading somebody’s autobiography last
night and he was saying there that he comes up with a 5 years plan for himself
every year and after every 5 years he reviews it to assess his achievements and
that for me is instructive.
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| One of Dr. Seye Kehinde’s controversial storiees in the April 25 (A day after his 19th years birthday) 1994 edition of THE NEWS Magazine that got him into trouble with government of the day |
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| The majestic 50th birthday cake depicting his love for books and biros |
