Ali M. Ali: How To Be A Smart Journalist

Mr. Ali M. Ali is one of the liveliest journalists that I know. Equally very cosmopolitan and charming, I got in touch with him for this interview, barely weeks after his appointment as the new Managing Director of NAN (News Agency of Nigeria).

The well grounded journalist who learnt the ropes and also made his mark at The Triumph, The Independent, ThisDay and People’s Daily shared the exciting story of his past, present and future with me. But above all, how he’s been able to come this far and again, his plans for NAN.

This was on Sunday, November 19, 2023 and below are the excerpts…

How and where did you receive the news of your appointment as the MD of NAN?

Well, it’s kind of strange. I was with a few friends and then there was an event; a gathering of journalists actually in Abuja earlier in the day. All the big names you can think of in journalism were there. The likes of Reuben Abati, Azubuike Ishiekwene, Akpandem James and all the guys we worked with in different places like The Independent in Lagos, and some of my other colleagues from way back in ThisDay. It was actually the third anniversary of Naija Times. So, much later in the evening, around 4 O’ clock, the news came to me that I had been made the helmsman of the News Agency of Nigeria. From that moment, my phone started ringing and it hasn’t stopped ringing.

What was your first reaction on receiving the news?

My first reaction was that of surprise. I was really surprised and taken aback. Genuine surprise! You know, the truth is that I wasn’t really, really expecting it. Well, a lot of people had expected that given the role I played during the campaign. I was a deputy director in one of the media campaign councils. I was deputy to the great Bayo Onanuga. So, when Mr. Onanuga was appointed a few days earlier, a lot of people were expectant, but I wasn’t. Notwithstanding that a few days to that, I was asked a few questions concerning that. It wasn’t until 24 hours earlier when the Minister of Information informed me about something imminent. But I didn’t know it was going to be that soon. Yes, I knew that something was cooking. And there were lots of expectations on the part of those who thought that one way or the other, we were going to be part of the government, especially some of us in the media directorate. As you know, it was one of the most rancorous campaigns in the history of Nigerian politics since the dawn of this Republic. The 2023 election will go down in history as one of the most acidic campaigns. But we tried to be very professional, as a media man myself, as a media manager and as someone who has gone through the mill of reputation management or public relations and even into the blazing furnace of journalism for over three decades. So, we were circumspect in our assignment. We said we were going to be different, we were not going to be like the rest of the crowd. What I mean by the rest of the crowd is the combative, quarrelsome crowd. We said what we were going to do was to sell our candidate, project our candidate as the unifier that he was and that he still is and then as a pan Nigerian and also as someone who had supported others before him. That was the line we took in the media campaign directorate.

What are your plans for NAN?

We want to reposition the News Agency of Nigeria to compete with other global news agencies  like AFP, Reuters… We want to report Africa, we want to report Nigeria to Africa and Africa to the rest of the world and one of the things we said we will do is first, to retrain the editorial staff of the News Agency of Nigeria. With the right training and the right work tools, they will fly higher. If you get the right training, then you must have the right work tools. Since we took charge nearly four weeks ago, what we’ve been doing is to study the existing infrastructure, our human resources – to identify the right talents and the right attitude and then place everyone according to their abilities. There are people who certainly, if they can’t shape up, will have to ship out. We want to see the editorial department being the most important part of the entire agency. We will reposition it so that it can compete well, and also for those in the editorial department to  understand the nature of news. I see a lot of them working hard. Some of the workforce, not all of them, work hard, but they are not working smart. Only a few of them are working smart and this is something that we’ve all agreed in the course of the last couple of weeks that we’ve taken charge; that look, people need to work smart. And for you to work smart, you have to have, first, the knowledge, the skills, the right work tools and for you to work smart, you need a smart environment, you need a smart device and the individual also needs to think smart. Not hard. When you work smart, you’ll dust people who work hard. And one example I always cite is that your news surveillance, your news instincts must be top notch. There are stories literally on the streets of Nigeria and beyond. But people are used to routine stories. We are waiting for the President or the Governor or the Local Government Chairman for stories. No! That shouldn’t be so. So, these are some of the plans we have to equip ourselves with the right tools, with the right training, with the right attitude and with the right equipment. And with all that, we can conquer the world.

For those who may not know, what really is NAN all about?

NAN is the acronym of News Agency of Nigeria. It was established in 1976, but in 1978 it opened shop, as a major news content provider. NAN is like a hub. It gives every subscriber; we have thousands of subscribers, content. We provide them with the right content. The core mandate of NAN is to provide authentic, balanced stories without prejudice to anyone or anybody. As authentic as possible, and then report Africa, report Nigeria to the rest of Africa and then Africa to the rest of the world. NAN is one of the three news agencies from the continent of Africa recognized by the United Nations. NAN is actually the only news agency from West Africa that has opened shop in New York. This was a long time ago. NAN has offices in New York, in the UK, in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire, in South Africa and other places. But unfortunately, over the years, and with the declining fortunes of NAN, coupled with the arrival of the digital media, which has posed a serious threat to the global media community, its influence waned. Social media, like you know, is a menace to the mainstream media. And as you know, most social media practitioners lack the training and the expertise to report what is the truth. What they do is called citizen journalism. So, NAN stands for authentic, well balanced, well researched reportage and without prejudice to anyone. As much as possible, NAN will only report what is truthful, factual and accurate. That’s what NAN stands for.

You’ve been in the saddle now for about four  weeks. What have you achieved in those weeks?

I will say that there’s a reawakening. Again, I don’t think I’m the best person to answer that question. But what I would say is that I see a shift in the attitude, I see a lot of reawakening, I see a lot of positive responses to the new management, because the new management is part and parcel of the larger media community. I’ve been in the media for over three decades and at NAN, I still have a lot of professional colleagues some of whom we are actually contemporaries, and some classmates. So, I see the enthusiasm for work. There’s this renewed hope in NAN. The attitude has been very positive and with a positive attitude like that, there’s the preponderance feeling that this is a new dawn. Of course, we’ve done a few of what we could in terms of addressing certain inadequacies like work tools; we are building new relationships, we are building new partnerships, we are meeting people who will one way or the other boost the quality of work in NAN. For example, training. We now have an understanding with some training institutions that as we move forward, we will work with them even though we are still charting the course of what exactly we need to do. One of which is that before we set forth, before our ship finally sails into the stormy waters of greater editorial efficiency, we want to sit down to have a retreat; to talk to ourselves about what  our expectations are from the management and what is the management expecting from us; what are the targets. We are doing that ASAP (as soon as possible). Now, with that, we’ll chart a way forward. Already, the management has some specific ideas of what to do, because we know, given our exposure, having traversed the nation’s media landscape and having worked in the Lagos press… As you know, I started my career more than 30 years ago in my state-run newspaper, and then moved to Lagos. In Lagos, I worked in two newsrooms. In Abuja again, I worked in two newsrooms. And also worked across media – broadcast and print. So, we are bringing this vast experience to bear. Yes, the digital media is quite competitive and NAN is basically a digital media hub. So, we are beginning to have this shift in attitude. The moment we have that, then we take off from there.

Yes, you just got into the office. But at the end of your tenure here, what would you want those that worked with you to say about you?

The legacy I want to bequeath is this quote by this guy who said that the mark of a leader is someone who can instill in his colleagues the ability to carry on, even if he’s not there. That’s what I want. And then the ability to do what would stand the test of time. We don’t want to be cosmetic. What we want to do is to leave something in the people. In the sense that they will be able to carry on, to build on the legacy we intend to leave. And one of the legacies we want to leave is that NAN will reclaim its pride of place as the leading content provider in the continent of Africa.

Let’s move back a bit. Your romance with journalism, how exactly did it start?

It may interest you to know that my passion for journalism started as a kid; from secondary school actually, and from the moment I realized the power of the media. I was also enthralled back in the day by great television journalists…

Can we have their names?

There’s Joan O’Dwyer on NTA and there was Mike Enahoro. His diction, his mastery of the English language, his delivery… These were the people who enthralled and thrilled me. So, I was always glued to them. As a matter of fact, I wanted to be a television journalist, but the woman who taught us English in secondary school, a Canadian English teacher, and also a British science teacher, said I wrote well back then. I would have also been a medical doctor. I studied science all through my secondary school, but the pull to the media actually was irresistible. So, I abandoned it. But first, I abandoned soldering. I come from a family of soldiers. So, I abandoned the military, I abandoned science and took arts and humanities. Actually, I studied English for my first degree because they said without the mastery of language, without linguistic competence, you can never be a good journalist. I equally wanted to be a multi linguist so that I can be comfortable with all the known major languages of the world – English, French, Arabic. But in all, I think I got one. So, that was the fascination from childhood. Even my friends from secondary school will tell you that.

Which has been the most memorable story that you’ve written in your entire career?

I must give it to the one I wrote about the late First Lady, Maryam Babangida. Till today, I think that story, actually in a way, marked me out as someone destined to go far. This was sometime in 1991 or thereabouts. I wrote something critical of the Better Life for Rural Women programme and that earned me an interview with the former First Lady in Abuja. When I returned, I wrote another story about her and that again stood me out…

What was the story of the former First Lady about?

The story was about the Better Life for Rural Women and some of the things I said were actually not complimentary, and rather than scold me, I was invited for an interview. Well, along with other editors. And I found that to be quite an eye opener.

Of all the interviews you’ve conducted, which is the most memorable and why?

I must give it also to the one I had with the First Lady, Maryam Babangida, because when I sat face to face with her, I asked her how would she react if her husband, General Ibrahim Babangida, took on a second wife and then she looked at me and said, well, she had options. And one of the options was to either walk away or to tolerate it.  But she never gave a clear cut answer. So that was quite memorable to me. 

What’s the biggest mistake that any journalist can make?

The biggest mistake that new journalists make is to see themselves as authorities before they get there. I see a lot of young journalists trying to get noticed because of the social media. Back in the day, you had to go through the mill before you got to be an editor of a title. Even a line editor. You had to pay your dues. You had to really sweat for it. You had to go through the requisite training, you had to go through a mentorship training. It was really tough back then. But now we have more editors than we have reporters. Everybody is an editor. So, they are in a haste instead of first learning the ropes.

What is the biggest challenge facing the journalism profession?

It’s a cocktail, actually. A cocktail of challenges. First, there’s the knowledge gap. Most journalists, even back in the day, were the worst consumers of our own products. Especially those in the officer’s corps. When you get to become a line editor, or chairman, editorial board, by the nature of that office, you have to have the appetite for reading. You have to be abreast of developments; your news surveillance has to be top notch, you have to be all the time hands on. So, the biggest challenge is ignorance, lack of knowledge and secondly, the challenge posed by the social media. Social media, unfortunately, because it’s cacophonous, it’s noisy and it’s an all comer’s affair. It’s the biggest threat to journalism. I will give you an example – I have this argument back and forth with my wife, who is an excellent accountant, I must say of her. But then when it comes to consuming media products, she consumes everything. So, every now and then we argue. She will say I read this in so, so place, I saw this in Twitter, bla, bla, bla. I will say but that doesn’t make it the truth; it’s not factual. She will say you like to defend your people and I will tell her that social media is just social. Don’t take it to heart! And then because social media gives a platform for people to inundate consumers with all kinds of information, both fake or real. In social media, facts and fiction are generally mixed and presented as gospel truth. So, that’s another major challenge to mainstream media.

What is the greatest thing that journalism has done for you?

Journalism has opened my eyes. It has taken me nationwide and even beyond the shores of Nigeria. Without journalism, I probably wouldn’t have gotten there, especially if I had taken a different career trajectory. 

What do you still want journalism to do for you that it has not done?

That’s a tough one. Journalism has done virtually everything for me. It has given me a name, it has given me recognition… So, what else? According to Abraham Maslow, in the hierarchy of needs, you have food, shelter, and the next thing is self actualization. In journalism, I have actualized myself. It has given me everything, it has given me respect, it has given me honour, and it has given me contacts. Contacts that ordinarily I would have leveraged for other things. I mean, journalism has done everything for me and I wish to end my life journey as a journalist.

Let’s even look at your journalism journey and where you had the most memorable experience…

I started with the defunct Gongola Broadcasting Corporation as a youth corper. I was retained afterwards because I won a National Merit Award. But then, I returned home, because home is home, and that’s talking about Kano. There, I started with The Triumph. From there, I crossed over to the radio and later the print. That was also the only place that I sat for a formal interview to work. From then on I was headhunted. For example, in 1993, Bayo Onanuga and Dapo Olorunyomi set up The News magazine. They were headhunting. I was then the head of news in The Triumph. So, an offer was made for young people to join The News. But you see, then, I thought I wasn’t prepared enough to join the Lagos press. Besides, the brand of journalism of The News at that time was very combative. You have to understand the psychology 30 years ago of a young adult from a largely conservative north and then in came The News. So, I declined that offer. But years later, after I had conquered that, when I became editor of The Sunday Triumph, I was still quite young, I wasn’t even 30 at the time. But the pull after you had conquered the local scene and then because someone now guided me. He said, look, Ali, if you want to be a complete journalist, go join the Lagos press. I was comfortable, I was chauffeur driven, I had a car, so you can imagine making that transition. But I didn’t get to Lagos until The Independent newspaper was established and I was headhunted. Actually, you could say I had a second interview there. I became the pioneer group political editor of The Independent in 2001 or thereabouts. There, again, I reunited with my old schoolmate, Dr. Olayinka Oyegbile. We graduated from the same school in Kano. I was the politics editor, he was the life editor and then there was Paul Ibe, who was the news editor; Ben Alaiya was the sports editor and others. From there, I moved to ThisDay. It was at ThisDay that I had the most memorable experience. When you’re working with a maverick like Nduka Obaigbena, then you learn a lot of things, one of which is that he instilled in some of us this supreme feeling of confidence; that you could take on anyone and actually win. It was from Nduka that I learnt quite a few things and of course, some of the great editors I worked with there. One editor that really made quite an impression was Simon Kolawole. We worked on the Saturday desk together and later when he became the editor of the paper in 2007, I became his political editor. Then, from there, it was one position to the other. But finally, I exited ThisDay as deputy editor. I joined the Leadership newspaper, I became the editor of The Nation Capital in Abuja in 2010. A year later, in 2011, I became the chief executive officer of The People’s Media, People’s Daily and People’s Daily Weekend. That’s my journalism story. And then in between I had served as a media adviser, member of the state executive council in Kano and Bauchi States.

So, what has sustained your interest in the media?

First, journalism is about the only job that takes you places and gives you some kind of access to a lot of things. And especially if you have the perseverance to rise through the editorial ladder. I have always wanted to be a writer, and if you like, an anchor. And everything else that goes with journalism, the mass media. In all these years, I’ve been able to do that. For example, I’ve been an anchor of a political programme in Trust Television. I was given a platform, I was presenting Sunday Politics, very much like what you have in Channels Television or AIT. In AIT, they call it Democracy Today while Channels calls it Politics Today. So, I had the opportunity to be an anchor, to be a presenter of politics and then before that, a persistent, a consistent newspaper analyst or reviewer on AIT for more than a decade. I remember the likes of Marc Imoni Amarere of AIT actually, way back in 2011, introduced me as one of the newspaper reviewers. It’s one of the hit programmes, every morning, on AIT. So, with that and then occasional interventions on contemporary issues; that drove the interest and sustained it. 

From experience, what makes a good story?

What makes a good story are the usual elements – elements of drama, elements of unpredictability… Something that is so unusual. People give this common example that when a dog bites a man, it’s no news, but the moment the man bites a dog, that’s news. So, every element that is dramatic, sudden and unexpected. Another example is when a plane crashes, when there’s an inferno, when there’s a storm, when there’s a typhoon. People run away from them. But a journalist will go there. That’s what makes journalism interesting. While people are running away, you are running there. When there’s a bomb blast, people are taking cover, they are taking shelter, but the typical journalist will be attracted and interested in knowing what happens next. So, this element of suspense, something unusual are some of the things that make a good story. Of course, bad news is good news. But there are others, like what we call the soft stories, the human angle stories. People are also interested, depending on their level of exposure, depending on their political and even business inclinations. You know that in some places the media is compartmentalized so neatly. It’s either you are left wing or right wing or middle of the road. But in our clime, the media has been battling this ageless question of whether it’s a social service or business. Till this day, media organizations that tended to be strong on perspectives, and not business-inclined, rarely do well. They usually go under. We’ve seen that happening. One newspaper that came out strong, trying to redefine Nigerian journalism, they went under because of lack of patronage.  

What makes a good interview?

It must be something that is contemporary, fresh; something that is really contemporary and then you get someone who can let down their guard. Like one TV anchor that is quite popular or unpopular. He has this tendency of getting under the skirt of his guests. You know, when you really want to know what people think, you provoke them and one of the interview techniques that I know of is the ability to get your interviewees to let go of their guard. Then, to me, the things that are left unsaid or the things that provoke them, that is what makes a great interview. Also getting guests to throw perspectives on contemporary issues, like some television stations do. 

For one to succeed as a journalist, what must the person do?

The person must have multiple skills, especially now. For you to be an excellent journalist, you have to be knowledgeable. Everyday, I seek out ways to be a better person than I was yesterday and that is the thing. You have to be abreast of issues; all kinds of issues. You must have multiple  skills. You must be at home and should be able to discuss virtually every topic under the sun. You must be good in everything. I’m not saying that I’m good in everything, but certainly, as a journalist, for you to succeed, you must have your finger in every pie. So, knowledge is key. For you to be a great journalist, you have to be knowledgeable, you have to expand the frontiers of knowledge, you have to learn to observe and then more than anything else, perseverance. Because if you are looking for any material glory, journalism is not the place to get that. 

Despite the quantum of knowledge at the disposal of journalists, why do we still have so much poverty in the profession?

That’s what I said – if you are looking for material glory, you can’t get it in journalism. You rarely get it. But you can get by, you will get recognition, you will get respect. But like my kids will argue – how much of that has put anything on the table, Baba? So, that’s why I said depending on the attitude, the cadre, and at what level. At the level of news hunting, most reporters at the bottom of the editorial ladder,  how do they think? Most of them. Not all of them. But those in the officer corps think differently. For example, I see a lot of journalists retiring into the classroom. A lot of journalists now have Ph.D. So, with that kind of high skill, you don’t expect them to be in an abject penury. There are journalists who are also scholars; they are in journalism, they are editors, but they are also scholars. Let me use this language, their side hustle is to teach. They are called to be resource persons, they are using that to augment whatever they get. This is legitimate earning. Deploying their intellectual skills, their intellectual assets to make some extra Naira on the side. So, unless journalists expand the frontiers of their knowledge, get more formal education, it will continue. Thirty something years ago when I started journalism, most of the people I met in the newsroom were actually products of the NIJ (Nigerian Institute of Journalism). Only a few of us were graduates of universities or even polytechnics. But now, if you go to our newsrooms, some of the title editors that I know have Ph.D. I think the tide is changing. Again, there’s a change in social attitudes. Gone are the days when you see journalists, well, not all of them, that their lifestyles leave nothing to be desired. Just like in other professions too. Especially those at the bottom of the ladder. So, I think that is changing gradually.

At some point you had your eyes on the Nigerian Guild of Editors’ presidency. Are you still interested in that or have you moved on?

Maybe that’s the thing I’ve never gotten to achieve in my wishes – in my to-do list. I’ve been questing for the presidency of the Nigerian Guild of Editors for ten years now. In 2013, I wanted to run against Femi Adesina. But he managed to get there by the skin of his teeth. Later, I wanted to run against Funke Egbemode, but it didn’t work. If I had the chance again, which from the look of things may not be possible anymore, I still nurse that ambition. I had mentally prepared myself for years thinking that it would happen. I had been questing for it since 2007 or thereabouts. So, if I have the chance again, I want to run for it. 

In the event that you eventually become the president of NGE, what should the editors expect from you?

We will see how we can expose them to international training. One of my desires is to see how we can get editors to go on short training across the continent of Africa and other parts of the globe. If we can, we will go into partnerships with similar associations. This is my ultimate ambition and my ultimate dream – to get editors to go for training. I want to see how some of our outstanding editors can go have an internship with the New York Times or Washington Post or even elsewhere. But I think Eze Anaba, the current president of the guild, has his job cut out for him, because he’s a very well grounded journalist and he’s also undergone a lot of tutelage under the likes of Gbenga Adefaye and of course, Uncle Sam (Amuka Pemu).