By Muyiwa Akintunde
I met him before I finally met him.
Who is that lover of elegant prose who’ll say he has never met Ray Ekpu in the era when profound columnists were celebrities. There is no better meeting place than on the hallowed pages of their news publications.
I finally met ‘Oga’ Ray late 1991. I interviewed him at his Oregun Road (as it then was) office for my weekly people page in TimesWeek, a Daily Times newsmagazine. Upon publication, his nephew, Census, who was on the Back-of-the-Book desk I headed, brought the feedback that his uncle was wowed by the narration. He told me to watch out for a vacancy advert for editorial positions in Newswatch. He said his uncle would like me to apply.
Apart from The Guardian, which I eventually reported for, the other media organisation I desired to work for was Newswatch. I had been a student of Newswatch. I bought – and kept a library of – all its copies from when it hit the newsstands on Monday, 28 January 1985. Its founding Editor-in-Chief, Dele Giwa, came to give a fascinating inaugural lecture at the Nigerian Institute of Journalism, NIJ, while I was a student a few months after the soon-to-be-acclaimed magazine got into the market. His namesake, Dele Olojede, then became our News Magazine teacher at the NIJ.
The vacancy advert was finally published, specifically seeking Assistant Editors with first or second degree as minimum academic requirement. I submitted my application with credentials to Census as he requested, to be handed over to ‘Oga’ Ray.
Census could not hide his surprise that I only had NIJ Diploma at that time. But he said he would deliver my application all the same. ‘Oga’ Ray must have prevailed in the circumstances as I was called for an interview and got employed as Assistant Editor of Newswatch. A dream come true!
One of the traditions of Newswatch was that if you were assigned a story, you’re the boss of the team working on it, particularly if it was a cover story. It didn’t matter that the Editor-in-Chief was in your team. Somehow, ‘Oga’ Ray liked being on my team.
Following General Ibrahim Babangida announcing his “stepping aside” and the coming of the interim government of Chief Ernest Shonekan, the Information Secretary, Comrade Uche Chukwumerije, invited media chiefs to Dodan Barracks. I had been assigned the cover story for that week. And ‘Oga’ Ray was in my team. We both headed for the engagement.
“This meeting is only for publishers or editors,” came the announcement as the session was about to commence. “And we will only allow one per medium. So, if you’re not so designated, please excuse us.” Oga Ray sat a row ahead of me and introduced himself appropriately. He must have been sure I would be asked to leave when it came to my turn.
I didn’t know where the wisdom came from to tell this fantastic lie. “I am Muyiwa Akintunde, editor of Quality Magazine“! I knew that Bala Dan Abu, the authentic editor of Newswatch’s second line publication, was not in the hall. I was passed to sit at the meeting.
‘Oga’ Ray gave me a thumbs up. I saved him the trouble of having to give me a report from that all-important media briefing.
‘Oga’ Ray is an editor’s editor. You have to be up to the task to enjoy working with him. Every moment is a learning. He is a perfectionist. He passed his column to me a number of times to review before it went to the production desk.
The prose master is now 75! And he is aging gracefully. God bless you for impacting positively on your protégé. May you continue to enjoy the grace of the Almighty.
75 hearty cheers, ‘Oga’ Ray!!!
Akintunde is publisher of breezynewsnigeria.com