Close up, he emits energy, reminiscent of an active volcano. In a sense, he is one. At the level of small talk, you could hardly get the better of Mr. Sam Nda-Isaiah, founding Chairman and Editor-in-Chief of the LEADERSHIP Newspapers Group. After primary school, he gained? admission to Government College, Kaduna (1974-79). After graduating as the best student, he sat for the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) examination and secured admission to the then University of Ife, Ile-Ife, in South Western Nigeria (now Obafemi Awolowo University, OAU), in 1979, to study pharmacy.
At Ife, an early interest in the media, sparked by his journalist father, blossomed and he became the national editor-in-chief of his department’s magazine, The Touch.
He graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Pharmacy, in 1983. His first love was to study medicine but because of the longer course duration, he opted for pharmacy, which he felt was the closest course to medicine. But then, medicine, his first love; pharmacy, his eventual field of study; and the media, his current berth, all revolve around the human condition.
His foray into print journalism was inspired by his late friend, Salihijo Ahmed. In his life’s journey, the greatest early influences were his grandmother, his parents, Government College, Kaduna, and the University of Ife. These helped define his philosophy of life, a compass he has navigated with to date. At the core, his philosophy revolves around the imperative of leadership as the most fundamental factor in positive change.
He detests immoral leadership, dishonesty, indiscipline, slothfulness and excuses. That his 50th birthday coincides with a period of intense soul searching and considerable loss of faith in the national journey provide a dramatic background to his full expression on ideas of leadership.
A theme on which he speaks consistently and with alarming frankness, he passionately believes that leadership, or? the lack of it, determines the human condition and can lift humanity from ignorance, bias, socio-political and economic regression to genuine national progress. In taking this position, he has often challenged political orthodoxy, a scenario seen as a hazardous affair in these parts.
In this interview with CHINYERE FRED-ADEGBULUGBE, IYOBOSA UWUGIAREN, SULEIMAN UBA GAYA and LOUIS ACHI, the quintessential Sam Nda-Isaiah reveals himself…?
Sir, can you to share with us your childhood experiences.? What was growing up like?
I was born in Minna, Niger State, 50 years ago. I lived with my grandmother up to the age of five when I went to Kaduna to join my father to start primary school. My father joined the New Nigerian newspaper as the pioneer sports editor. That was when I was taken to Kaduna to start school, but? during most holidays, I went back to Minna to see my grandmother. After primary school, I went to Government College, Kaduna. I remember that it was the then managing director of New Nigerian that got me enrolled at Government College, Kaduna.
Then, after five years and after graduating, I passed the JAMB exam, which is what all graduating students of secondary schools have to do. JAMB was feared and disliked by students from the North because only few northerners were passing the exam. There was the fear that JAMB was anti-North.
In those days – I don’t know whether it has changed now – the best students went on to read the sciences.? Still, the best of the lot would study medicine. Though I passed with flying colours, I refused to go for medicine because I felt it needed too many years to graduate.? I therefore went for a course that was closer to it – pharmacy.
I got admission to the then University of Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University). In many ways, this school really shaped my life.
What was the experience like?? Did it prepare you, in any way, for what you have became today?
Yeah! In Ife , I became the National Editor-in-Chief of the magazine of the Pharmacy Department, called The Touch. I remember that Sam Omatseye, who is now the chairman, editorial board of The Nation newspaper was also there, and I can remember that he was a year behind me in school. I think he was in the social sciences.
When I graduated from Ife, I did my internship in Minna for a year, after which I was posted to Ondo State (present day Ekiti State) for the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) programme. I was posted to Ikere-Ekiti where I spent the mandatory one year.
I then got a job with the pharmaceutical giant, Pfizer. I worked there from 1985 to 1989. I decided I had had enough, and therefore resigned to start on my own. I was involved in many things, but it was much better. I also contributed many articles to the then famous Citizen magazine, spearheaded by the foremost journalist, Malam Mohammed Haruna. When the Weekly Trust newspaper was established in 1998, I became a member of its Editorial Board. I also contributed a lot to the New Nigerian. I remember living in the staff quarters of the New Nigerian, a very exciting experience that I still remember with nostalgia. The editors were great men who I interacted closely with even as a young man. I took a great liking for them, and I think they did the same for me.
Let us take you back to your days in Ife . It was one of the most reputable universities in those days. How challenging was it to have someone like you, coming from the North to far away South West, to study?
It was very interesting. As I said, it was a very important point in my life. When I went to Ife, I was the only student in the whole North studying pharmacy. Virtually, everybody took notice of me.? They used to refer to me as ‘that Hausa boy,’ though I was not Hausa. They thought everybody coming from the North must be Hausa. In the whole school then, there were about 16,000 students; only 16 of us were from the North. We knew ourselves as we were so few in number. We formed a small group. Many of us were respected because we were lucky to go to school with some of the best results. Along the line my lecturers picked interest in me. Pharmacy was a very difficult course. For instance, at the time I was graduating after four years, less than half of? those from the original class graduated. Some repeated part one, some part two and some part three, so that, by the time we were graduating, there were very few of those we started together with.
Was there anybody in your family that went to university before you?
I was the first in the extended family to go to university; indeed, the first to venture beyond Niger State. So, even to my family, it was another experience.? In those days, there were no handsets to communicate; we had to write letters and post them.
Talking about the media, will you say your journalism career started in the campus or that your father was the main influence?
I knew my father all my life as a media man.? I don’t know him to do any other thing apart from media work. His career started in the defunct Northern Region where he worked for the region’s own Citizen newspaper. When the New Nigerian was set up, most of them left to form the core of its staff membership.? From there, he went to The Triumph, owned by the government of Kano State. I was deeply influenced by him. I remember that whenever he was returning home from office, he would bring not just Nigerian newspapers and magazines, but foreign ones as well. He would specifically bring them to me, seeing that I had a lot of interest in reading newspapers, magazines and books. It was from him that I started reading such foreign magazines as Time.
By the time I got to Ife , I had gathered a lot of knowledge about the media, writing better than many of those that read mass communication. People were getting interested whenever I wrote for the New Nigerian, wondering how a science student could become so good in the arts.
At that point, was there any inkling that you were going to end up with what you are doing now?
No, there was no inkling at all. In any case, even my father didn’t want me to read journalism.? Even now, I tell people that I am not a journalist.? I am a writer and newspaper proprietor.
Moreover, when I was growing up, there was no way I could dream of owning a newspaper because even those in existence in the North were owned by the government.
There was this theory that you had a penchant for the name LEADERSHIP as far back as your days at Ife? – that you had the name written and pasted on the wall of your hostel.? How true is that?
I have always been fascinated by the word, LEADERSHIP. I very much believed then, and even now, that leadership is everything. In my discussions and arguments, I have always maintained that when you see anything going well, it has to be because of the quality of leadership. But my first attempt to start a newspaper – my very first attempt – was influenced by my late friend, Salihijo Ahmed.? He was the one who practically forced? me, saying, ‘Sam, forget about everything you are doing, including pharmacy. You are going to change Nigeria and change yourself. Leave pharmacy.’ I laughed.
The late Salihijo was always more mature than all of us even though we were all friends; we were always together. He was the one that sincerely told me that I had to start this venture.? He was always full of admiration whenever he read my articles. He started by giving me some jobs in media consultancy and generally encouraged me to start a newspaper. I told him I didn’t have money, but he helped me come up with a strong team about two years after Weekly Trust was founded. It was supposed to be similar to that newspaper, but he died in 1999. The paper was supposed to have been called The Blueprint. We registered the name, The Blueprint, and still have it. We still have a company called The Blue Print Construction. When he died, I was invited into the editorial board of Weekly Trust. After some time, people encouraged me to package the articles and? publish in a book form. I did and launched it, garnering about N15million at the launching.? The book was entitled, Nigeria: Full Disclosure.
Was that the seed capital you used to start LEADERSHIP?
In many ways it was. I will say it was scandalous to start a newspaper with N15million, but I trusted in God and started. When we started, I became the advert manager.? We were relying on adverts to be able to publish the next edition. But before then I had started LEADERSHIP Confidential which was a subscription-based newspaper.
That was how LEADERSHIP started; and, gradually, we started growing. Many of my friends thought I was crazy, saying I was too reckless. Some said it in good faith; even some people that were working in LEADERSHIP at that time were saying I was reckless.? They thought it was a dream that could not be sustained.? But here it is, getting stronger by the day.
Did you ever entertain any doubts?
No, the truth is that I have never relied on my power.? I believed that if God would not be in it, then, of course, it would fail. But, to be frank, there was never a time I thought LEADERSHIP would fail or that we would not come out the following day or the following week. Of course, there were huge challenges at that time, as there still are. At times, it would look as if we would not be able to come out, but we always did. We give God the glory.
Sir, you mentioned several influences that impacted on your life. We want to know what your philosophy of life is, particularly that philosophy that has driven your life to this time?
Perhaps the most fundamental influence in my life was my grandmother, whom I lived with very closely, and then my parents. Virtually everything you see me do now is the product of that influence. For instance, even as a child, my father held such a strong moral banner that he would not do anything that he would be ashamed to repeat in the presence of his children. So, most often, this makes me wonder at all these atrocities that we see people committing, stealing money left, right and centre, and doing all kinds of horrible things. Could they do them in the presence of their children? In all modesty, that is the kind of value I grew up with; it shaped my philosophy of life.
It was from my father that I learnt the virtues of discipline and hard work. My father takes public service very seriously; he put in everything and I am sure all those that worked with him still remember. I have always known my father to be very serious person.
The quality I took from my mother is selflessness. My mother would always talk more about others and not herself. Even up until now she is always ‘harassing’ me when it is Christmas, New Year or Sallah period, that I should send money to this person or that person. She would make a long list every time and, up until tomorrow, that is what she does. It is from her I learnt the virtues of selflessness – the real meaning of the word.
Another person is my Sunday school teacher, Pamela Saduaki, a former deputy governor of Kaduna State .? She was very strict and hard. I think that was even before she got married and then in the early stages of her marriage.
From my grandfather, I think I took the virtue of forgiveness. No matter how anyone offends me, I get very angry, but it doesn’t take me time to forgive, and I am sure I took that virtue from my grandfather, because that is what I remember of him very well. And then, of course, there was also the influence of my teachers in the primary and secondary schools and in the university.
I was also particularly close to Dr. Adebanjo in the University of Ife . He was my course advisor. Apart from being my counselor, he was the person to guide me throughout, and then he became my very good friend. He lives in Abuja now. He was also my project supervisor. The Niger State scholarship used to be N1,200, which was so much then that some people actually bought cars. I remember that in my final year, Dr. Adebanjo wrote to the Niger State government to give me an extra N400 (a very big amount then), and they sent me the money in school. He did it quite casually because he thought I should deal with my project very comfortably. In fact, we forgot that he had written it but the government sent the money to me. That’s? how serious the system used to be in those days.
Can you round off in a sentence your philosophy of life?
This is something I have never put in a sentence before. I don’t know how to narrow it down. But really, I hate dishonest people: I hate lies; I hate people who are chameleonic in character. If you say something today that ends up being a lie tomorrow, I will only condone it if, at the time you said it, you did not know that it was a lie. I also hate unserious people: I hate slothfulness; I hate excuses; I hate it when you think you can achieve something without working for it? – you sit for exams without reading your books and you are surprised that you failed; you know you didn’t read your books and you are surprised that you did not pass. That is one of the things we see in this country. I think the moral capacity of our leaders is at a very low ebb. When my father was in the New Nigerian, there were no computers, sophisticated equipment and all these kinds of software. Yet, there were no errors in the newspaper. We are more educated today than they were; yet we make errors; that is slothfulness.
Many people, more often than not, look at you as a perfectionist who does not condone even human failings. Do you subscribe to this perspective about your person?
It is possible for people to think like that, but you would find that most of those who think along that line are those who don’t want to do anything correctly, and I do not believe there is any human being that is not capable of doing the right thing. I accept there are mistakes that are human in nature, but more often than not, people hide behind that to excuse their incompetence or slothfulness. Some people are just not serious about anything, and honestly, I can’t stand unserious people. For instance, if you know that you don’t have talent for newspaper work, you should not come to newspaper; it is not your job and I mean it. If you want to come to the newspaper, you must know it has responsibilities. And even when you do, you should choose the section where you would discharge your best: a proofreader, a subeditor or a reporter – you must have the gift for that.? The same applies to the management section. If there is a mistake, you must accept there was a mistake. It will annoy me when you don’t show any concern, or you remain indifferent. People can say that I am a perfectionist, yes! but the reality is rather that I try to be perfect: if I don’t get there, at least I will try to get close. How can you, for instance, condone an editor telling you not to query him or her because the errors on the cover of the newspapers are only five or six? You need no one to tell you that that person should not, and cannot, be an editor.
Sir, in the course of this interview, you have mentioned twice that leadership is everything. What specifically do you mean by that?
The problem that we have in Nigeria today is leadership. Let us look at Ghana, a country that started with us. We are many times bigger than Ghana in all respects. We are not supposed to be their mates. Somehow, they got good leadership, whether by accident or perchance. Someone did what he had to do and then he became a democratically elected president. He created an electoral system and law. After two terms, he conducted an election and his candidate lost, but because of leadership and love for his country, he did not attempt to rig or manipulate the election. They now have a democracy that is working. Ghana is more mature, even their economy is stronger than our own. People that left Ghana years ago have gone back there. It is all about the leadership of one man. Nobody can tamper with the system in Ghana anymore.
In South Africa, Mandela was the first president in 1992. If their first president was like the typical Nigerian leader, the story of South Africa would have been different today. We are talking about somebody who was kept in prison for 27 years. He thought the country was bigger than himself and refused to be used to punish those who visited serious injustice on him. That is why South Africa is flourishing today.
Look at Singapore, which got its independence after us. It was so poor and such a hopeless case that Malaysia virtually gave it up in 1963.? At that time, it was like a society without any hope. But they were lucky to be blessed with serious leadership.? And the first decision the founders made was to tackle corruption in all its ramifications.? These leaders believed – and rightly so – that unless they tackled the monster of corruption, they were going nowhere.? So they went about it with all commitment. Today, Singapore is virtually crime-free.? They are not an oil producing nation, yet they refine more than two million barrels of oil daily which come from other countries.? They are one of the most advanced nations of the world.? It all boils down to leadership.
Being the owner of one of the major national newspapers in Nigeria positions you as an important voice in the country, especially in the North. Now, the North is in crises and that, in many respects, endangers the whole of Nigeria;? what is it that must be done for the North to come out of these crises?
The North is in problem today because of the same reason: corruption in all aspects of life. When you rig an election, that is when the whole problem starts. You know, when you lie, you must continue to lie. I always say it but people think that Sam is talking too much. First, when you rig an election, you steal public funds to bribe the judge – and that is like double jeopardy; then you still go to the Supreme or Appeal Court to bribe them, at the end of the day there is injustice and anger. Then you come back because you know that the people didn’t put you there, and because of that you steal the money and deprive them of even the basic things of life. The scholarship that I got from Niger State was enough for me that my parents did not need to give me anything extra to go to school. And it was not just me, but many others, because the scholarship payment was lavish enough for you to do what you wanted to do.
Education has collapsed, not to talk about job creation – which they are not even talking about. Add the injustice to the stealing of public funds, to bribing institutions and also not funding education -? that is what has caused all this collapse. I don’t know why they are surprised that the whole place is upside down. If there is no Boko Haram, there will be something else. I wonder why people will not read and they are surprised that they fail exams. They do all these things and are still surprised that the North is in turmoil. It is not magic; it is very clear why the North is in turmoil, and until we get serious about governance … we are not serious at all.
Those who rely on waiting till the end of the month to go to Abuja and get their share from the Federation Account must know that it cannot last forever.? It just cannot be sustained.
Do you entertain any fear that these kinds of things could one day lead to a revolution?
I am not a prophet so I don’t know if there is going to be any revolution, but I am surprised that it has not happened.
Many people have been describing you in different ways. How would you describe yourself?
I leave that to people to do. It is very difficult for me to describe myself because I don’t look at myself. I know things I don’t like and I know things that excite me. I think I will leave that for people to do.
These same principles that inform the way you perceive and run things; do they also apply in the way you relate to your wife, children and everything?
Yes. I do get seriously upset when they don’t, for example, do well in school. They know that and there is no reason for them not to do well because they get all they need. They know the kind of things I want and when it is birthday, they will say, ‘Daddy, buy me a present’ but not a book.? I just find it difficult to condone indiscipline or when people become averse to doing the right thing.
Can you tell us about your wife and how you proposed to her?
She was a very serious person – a virtue she very much still possesses – and she had exhibited that at Afri Projects Consortium, where I met her in 1998. They were the main consultants to the Petroleum Trust Fund (PTF). I told her I wanted to marry her, and that was even before she knew my name; I think she just walked away. Not long after that, I took her out to lunch, and she just went on her way until February the following year when I just went to their house in Kaduna. She was surprised that I came and that was when a kind of relationship now started. I got married to her in August that same year.
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It is hard to imagine someone like you with a romantic side…
(Cuts in) I don’t know about that. You should ask her because I will not be competent to answer that.
What was it about her that made you believe she was the one on the first day you saw her?
I thought she was a very serious person – her seriousness and commitment to everything she believes in. There are some things that we share in common. Of course, it is a normal marital relationship. At times we have our own share of disagreements, but it would have been very difficult for me to survive any other person. I think that is the best way I can put it.
Will you say she has tolerated you?
I am sure she has.
What are those things that you do that she doesn’t like? For instance, you travel a lot.
I think it is better you ask her.? As for my frequent travelling, I think she has become used to it. But I want to add that even though I travel a lot, I am not an absentee father or husband. I travel a lot but I keep in touch. But I also ensure that, at least twice in a year, especially in the summer and during Christmas, we as a family travel together, and we always chose a new place that we will all go to, especially during the summer period. But during Christmas, there are some places we don’t go to because of the weather.
What are those things that you used to do as a young boy growing up that now, as a father, you don’t do anymore?
When I was a bachelor, if I kept my toothpaste in a particular place, it must not be moved from there. If also you took the toothpaste and start pressing it from the middle, in those days you could not do that to me because I would get angry with you. But now your children will take the Vaseline and throw away the cover and, no matter what you do, it will still happen the next day and there is nothing you can do. I would just call them to pick it up and put it where it should be and they would agree and go away. It happens at times.? As they are growing up, you have to get them to do the correct thing. Now, Joshua is 12 and David is 10. As I said, they are growing up, so you have to bring them up well. I grew up like a normal child but there are some things I didn’t do. For instance, I have never tasted alcohol in my life. When I was a child, my parents would buy me bicycles. Now when I travel abroad, I can go to cinemas and all that, but as a child I didn’t do that.? It is not as if anybody stopped me. No, I was not just interested.
Of course, I was involved in all the mischief of that age, but you didn’t have to tell me to read my books. During the holidays in primary school, when I was going to form three, I would know all the text books I needed; during the holidays I would give the list to my daddy to get them for me and I would finish reading all the books before we resumed school. That perhaps explains why, from the first day I entered secondary school to the end, I was the best in my class.
What is your vision for LEADERSHIP? What do you want it to become in the foreseeable future?
I want us to be the most authoritative newspaper in Nigeria. I want people to trust us, and, you know, it is a very difficult business in this country, because if this were to be the United States, we don’t have to struggle to circulate beyond Abuja; we would? just publish it in Abuja and other states will just easily get it. In Atlanta , we have the Atlanta Post; in Washington, we have the Washington Post; in New York, we have the New York Times – all of these are national newspapers. But here, in Nigeria, we must circulate all over the country.
So, one of the immediate things we want to do is to have another press in Lagos, and then another one to serve the South East and South South. Once we get that, everybody will be able to see the paper and buy it early, and not wait till 2pm.
I want LEADERSHIP to be trusted and respected even by those who may not subscribe to its views. We know that we are telling the truth, but not all would agree with us.
Have you ever considered venturing into the broadcast industry?
My problem with broadcast is that government can just decide to withdraw the licence and then send soldiers to go and seal the whole place within an hour. That is the only problem, and I think we need to fight that: the government should not have that kind of power. Anything about the media should go beyond the control of the government, because the media is the only other vocation that is in the constitution. That means that the constitution has given us that role; it should not to be under the control of another arm. And it is not so in any other country. That is what I have against broadcasting.
Is there any call on you to contest the 2015 election?
Of course, and though it started like a joke, it has become quite serious. Some serious people are coming out to say, ‘we are now moving to a new generation and we think that, from our calculations, if we are to move forward, you should be involved’. First of all they said I should start thinking about it, and then said that I must. Surely those advocating it are not people that you will start to say are not serious people. The whole thing became more serious about three months ago when I was not even in the country. But, like the president said, I have not expressed an interest.
You are dressed in white most of the time; what is your fascination with the colour?? ??
Yes, white. I love cleanliness and I go the extra mile to be clean in my environments. If I go out of this office now and I see a paper on the floor, I will feel offended and ask that it be removed. Do you know how much we are paying the company that is cleaning these premises? It is colossal. I have loved cleanliness since I was a child; that was one thing that was put in me by my parents. And, you know, you can’t use white twice. I started it deliberately in the early 90s. At the weekends I can use other colours, but when going out for official duties, I go in white. I can’t remember during the weekdays when I don’t wear whites. It is something that I choose and that is how I want it to be. It’s? like my decision not to drink alcohol; I chose it myself. Most of the things I do or that happen to me are deliberate. It is very difficult for me to get into anything by chance. I always want to do my things differently; I would not want to do anything that I would be forced to do.
People generally believe that there are three vices for men; now you told us that you don’t drink, and I have never seen you smoke. What of the third one, womanising?
(Laughs) You said it – like since I don’t drink and smoke, that means you are not sure that I don’t womanise. I don’t think it is possible to hide these three vices. Just like you can’t have money and hide it. Let me put it this way: even before I got married, there was a year I made a decision not to have a girlfriend unless the person I was going marry.? I was the last among my friends to get married and they used to say that I was behaving as if I was older than them.
Are there habits that you dislike?
I have been told by my friends that I have to learn to tolerate, but it is a very hard thing for me to sit down and listen to someone talking rubbish. But what I really hate is what has happened to our country – the corruption, and we appear to be helpless.
And the worst thing is the level of opportunism among my generation. If I don’t believe in a government, I can never serve in that government because it means I will become a critic inside the government.
For instance, I don’t know how Aliero is able to be in PDP, then ANPP, later he? left ANPP to join PDP and then left PDP to CPC and he is now back in PDP. In fact, I am ashamed and embarrassed for Aliero. I can’t stand it and I don’t know how I would be able to stand someone like Aliero, who is my friend. That opportunism is more common in my generation and I don’t know the skill they use.
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