Alex Ibru 1945-2011

As students in the great Igbobi College in the late 1970s and early 1980s, we had some school “champions”-role models that our principal, the late revered Mr T A Ojo and tutors consistently held up as examples for us to follow. Usually old students of the school, they fired our imagination and ambition and gave us a sense of the reality of the words of our school song-“…wherever there’s an Igbobian, there also is a noble Nigerian…” In my time that list had some outstanding names-Justice Teslim Elias, Professor Adeboye Babalola, Chief Kweku Biney, Professor Bolaji Akinyemi and the Ibru Brothers. Chief Michael Ibru and Architect Felix Ibru were the most well-known of those famous Ibrus (with Michael in particular reputed to have been a charismatic Senior Prefect of the school) and few of us had heard of the quietly successful Alex Ibru as at 1981, when I left Igbobi College for the University of Ife, but he was soon to burst most powerfully into national consciousness. In 1983, Alexander Uruemu Ibru launched the Guardian effectively changing the face of print journalism in Nigeria. As a young undergraduate, I was a huge fan of the newspaper, and it is probably partly because of the Guardian that I am a columnist today. It was an intellectual’s delight and had a large body of first class brains, and opinion writers whose articles inspired me to want to emulate them “when I grew up”. The list was long-Stanley Macebuh, Yemi Ogunbiyi, Pat Utomi, Sonala Olumhese, Femi Aribisala and several others carrying on robust debate of unprecedented quality and insight on the pages of any Nigerian newspaper. It was the Guardian that effectively transformed news reporting and journalism from something done by graduates of the Nigerian Institute of Journalism (NIJ) and other post-secondary school types into an intellectual art in which university lecturers, PhDs and high intellectuals could partake. That trend may have started somewhat with the post-Jose era in Daily Times, but it was The Guardian that concretised and made it irreversible. The Guardian did not just redefine Nigerian journalism, it also attempted to retrieve national values from the vainglorious, materialistic and non-reflective path, the full maturity of which now threatens to destroy this country. The Guardian’s motto “Conscience, Nurtured by Truth” and its initial “simply Mr” were powerful representations of the papers values and of Mr Alex Ibru itself-simple and discreet; focussed on integrity and higher principles rather than vanity; abhorrence of the Nigerian “big man” syndrome; and a willingness to let your impact, rather than your noise speak for you! The fact that even the Guardian buckled under the weight of pressure to abandon the “simply Mr” policy speaks to the power, resilience and maybe the “irredeemability” of Nigeria’s power elite! Ibru reportedly founded the Guardian with a mission of making it one of the five best English language newspapers in the world. If the paper didn’t achieve that lofty height, it certainly came very close! Without doubt, it earned its appellation as “the flagship” of the Nigerian media. Very few Nigerians have gone into government and returned with their integrity and reputation intact. Alex Ibru was one of the few! In 1993, ten years after founding the newspaper, he accepted appointment as Minister of Internal Affairs and member of the Provisional Ruling Council under what later turned out to be Abacha’s murderous military dictatorship. Abacha evidently expected that having offered Ibru a high government office, he would turn his newspaper into a propaganda machine or at least a silent collaborator with the government. Ibru’s principled refusal so-to-do was high treason in the dictator’s goggled eyes, and Ibru almost paid with his life on February 2, 1996 (Igbobi College’s Founders’ Day-probably why the assassination attempt failed!) having left the Abacha government in 1995. While he was a serving Minister, the Abacha government shut down the paper in 1994 and security agents allegedly tried to burn down the paper. Alex Ibru was also silently active in the realm of philanthropy and especially spirituality founding the Trinity Foundation and Ibru Centre in Agbarha-Otor in Delta State in support of Christian theology, reflection and propagation, especially of his Anglican denomination. The youngest of the famous Ibru brothers of Urhoboland, Igbobi College and Nigeria, Alexander Uruemu Ibru aged 66 was born on March 1, 1945 and died on Sunday November 20, 2011. He was at Igbobi from 1960 to 1963 and later studied Business Economics at Trent Polytechnic (now University of Trent) and worked with his elder brother Michael before going into business in his own right and founding Rutam Motors Ltd. Alex Ibru was an untypical Nigerian, a quiet but courageous and principled individual, a change agent in the Nigerian media industry and nation, and a man of proven integrity. He proved that not all Nigerians are corrupt or corruptible; that those who abandon their integrity and values once they get into government probably never had those values; and that it is possible to stick to your principles in the face of intimidation and even danger.

Reflections of a Columnist

I have not written this column for four weeks, the first such absence since its inception in 2006. At first it was simply overwhelming work pressure; then a realisation that I was physically and mentally exhausted, and unable to secure the level of inspiration and stimulation required to gather my thoughts and put them down on paper-or rather my laptop!; in the midst of that, an overseas trip during which my schedule and activities made it difficult to write; finally a recognition that I really needed to take a break, reflect on the column and its primary subject-Nigeria, and re-assess the column’s purpose and strategy. Writing this column was not a random or accidental event. It followed a personal trajectory, and was a result of a deliberate decision, after much frustration at Nigeria, to acquire a voice, hopefully for good in our drifting nation. I had always been passionate about “current affairs”-I started reading “Daily Times” as a five year old, starting with the diplomatic and sports pages. News about Israel and the Palestinians, Europe, America and Asia, world leaders like Begin, Anwar Sadat, Gaddaffi, US and UK leaders, OPEC, the Arab-Israeli Wars, the boxing exploits of Cassius Clay aka Muhammed Ali, Joe Frazier, George Foreman etc always caught my attention. In domestic matters, it was the exploits of Haruna Ilerika, Yakubu Mambo, Victor Oduah etc and their teams-Stationery Stores, Mighty Jets of Jos and Bendel Insurance and the other “super” teams-IICC of Ibadan, Rangers of Enugu, NEPA of Lagos and Sharks of Port Harcourt that captured my attention. The end of the civil war; Gowon’s proclamation that 1976 was “no longer realistic”; the retirement of “Black Scorpion”-General Benjamin Adekunle; the Murtala coup and Dimka’s failed attempt were some developments that stuck in my young mind. When Nigeria returned to civil rule in 1979, politics became interesting. Then in secondary school, I closely watched the bold attempt by Chief Obafemi Awolowo to attain the Nigerian presidency. For a form 2-3 student in Igbobi College in 1978-1979, it was amazing how much interest I devoted to the politics and campaigns of that era! I read all the political news, had my own exercise book for my analysis, and on election days, stayed up all night recording the seats won by the various parties. By the time the military returned in 1983, I was already a law student at Ife and my focus shifted to economic issues in line with the times-oil glut, austerity, import licenses, counter-trade, structural adjustment, deregulation etc as our economy took a turn for the worse! As I graduated, attended law school and made my way to Benin for national service in 1986, I had made up my mind to try in my own way to affect public opinion. Thus started my “letters to the editors” of weekly newsmagazines from 1986-1990 until I settled on Nduka Obaigbena’s defunct THISWEEK. My persistent letter-writing indeed earned me an invitation from the editors of THISWEEK to their Surulere offices. But then, my public endeavours were truncated (or at least suspended) by a career in banking from 1989 and I begun to slow down and eventually stop my letters and articles. Until Abacha!!! In 1998, frustrated like most Nigerians by Abacha who had become a human obstacle to the country’s development, I again picked up my pen and wrote an intellectual critique of Abacha, which fortunately perhaps was rather too sophisticated for Abacha and Al-Mustapha to understand. Many of my banker colleagues wondered at my temerity, but then I got away with that one! A few months later, Abacha was dead, but he had forced me out of my sabbatical from public commentary and I would continue with occasional pieces on the op-ed pages of The Guardian. My writing picked pace in 2003, as I consciously began to wind down my banking career (as my self-imposed exit date from the profession approached-I had decided to become self-employed and “free” by the age of 40!) and I was impressed by the outlines of economic reforms then been sketched by Obasanjo”s economic team, to at first sceptical reception from the Nigerian media and public. I was initially alone in supporting the pro-reform case, at least in the media. When I agreed to start this column in January 2006, I was clear what it would be used for. It would be pro-economic reform and anti-corruption. It would seek to advance the policy ideas I had pushed in my political economy and business strategy classes at the Lagos Business School. It would seek to educate the public and policy makers on policy, strategy and the economy; and it would seek positive change in our politics and governance. Very many readers tell me the column has had an immensely positive effect on them and the nation. Indeed I was very gratified at the expressions of concern and even alarm at the column’s absence for a few weeks. I am not so sure however that all policy makers agree! And some others may have celebrated (prematurely) the end of our interventions. The column will of course continue. Our work is not done! The effort to establish good governance, sensible public policy and sound economic management, and a better polity in Nigeria is far from accomplished.