MOSES EKPO: VESTIGE OF THE JAKANDE/ONABANJO SCHOOL

By Umo Robinson

Thursday, the 17th of October, 2024, the National Secretariat of the Nigeria Union of Journalists, NUJ, rolled out drums to celebrate its own bright stars in an event at the Lagos Airport Hotel, Ikeja, Lagos, tagged: “Milestone Recognition of Media Icons In Nigeria”.

The ceremony afforded the NUJ the opportunity to honour journalism veterans such as the immediate-past Deputy Governor of Akwa Ibom State, Mr. Moses F. Ekpo, MFR; Pa Felix Adenaike; Dr. Ladan Salihu; Ms. Comfort Obi; Dr. Yemi Farounbi; Dr. Haroun Adamu; Professor Tonnie Iredia; Professor Umar Pate and Mrs Bisi Amagada. Other honorees included the Akwa Ibom State Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Comrade Ini Emembong; Mallam Yakubu Mohammed; Mr. Dan Agbese; Dr. Eddie Iroh; Mr. Lade Bonuola; Mr. Nosa Igiebor; Mrs. Toun Okewale Sonaiya; Ms. Comfort Umanah; HRM Eze Joe Anika; Mrs. Aina Lewis; Chief Dare Babarinsa; Pa Jola Ogunlusi and Usman Shuaibu Leman, amongst others.

Non members of the Union, such as Pastor (Dr) Umo Bassey Eno, Governor of Akwa Ibom State and his Katsina State counterpart, Mallam Dikko Umar Radda, PhD; CON, were honoured as friends of the Media.

An assemblage of wordsmiths, the event lived up to its billing for the remarkable speeches it engendered in the form of remarks from the honorees. But the words of Moses Ekpo particularly went to the cradle of journalism in Nigeria, and the limitless growth opportunities which the profession offered the conscientious pen pushers of yesteryears who were willing to go the extra mile and think out of the box. 

“I am dedicating this award to Masters and my mentors of the profession: Alhaji Lateef Jakande and Bisi Onabanjo, former Governors of Lagos and Ogun States; Herbert Unegbu (alias Unu Habib) my boss at the West African Pilot newspapers, all of blessed memories,” Mr Ekpo reminisced.

“I also dedicate the award to all journalists, living or dead, who have worked hard to give our profession a place and name.

“I dedicate the award to the government and people of Akwa Ibom State, under the leadership of Governor Udom Emmanuel who gave me an award at the 30th anniversary of the creation of the State, for my contributions to the development of journalism in Nigeria.

“Finally, I dedicate the award to my late wife, Martha, who at our wedding reception told guests at the prestigious Presidential Hotel in Enugu that she had no regrets marrying a cub Reporter”.

Cub Reporter! That seems to be how most journalists in those days started out – perhaps including the Lateef Jakandes and the Bisi Onabanjos. But why would a young damsel such as then Miss. Martha put so much stress on the “cub Reporter” status of her new husband, while also emphasizing her lack of regrets marrying him? Just the insightfulness of the women of those days who were able to spot gold even if it was wrapped in rags. She saw through the conundrum of the “ordinariness” of journalism side by side its capacity as a vehicle to greatness. Just name any of the cub Reporters that you know from those days of small beginnings, and check out what he or she went on to become. For our sampler, Mr. Moses Ekpo, the following dossier illustrates the point:

Born on December 22, 1941, in Ikot Obiodo village in Abak Local Government Area, He attended the former Government Primary School, Abak,  and the Holy Family College (HOFACO), Oku Abak for his post-secondary education. He attended the London Polytechnic, London, the Institute for Mass Communications, Berlin, Germany. He is a  graduate of the University of Wisconsin, United States of America.
 
Mr. Ekpo started his working career in the private sector when he joined the Amalgamated Press of Nigeria, Publishers of the Daily and Sunday Express newspapers.  He also worked for the Daily Times, the Morning Post, the West African Pilot newspapers. He was a staff of the Western Nigeria Broadcasting Service and the Eastern Nigeria Broadcasting Service.

At the creation of states in Nigeria, he was absorbed into the government of the newly created South Eastern State, which was later named Cross River State. At the creation of Akwa Ibom State he was absorbed into the State Public Service. He transferred his services from the erstwhile Cross River State to the Federal Civil Service from where he retired in 2000.

Mr. Ekpo was recalled from his overseas postings to head the War Against Indiscipline (WAI) in the Federal Ministry of Information. The agency was mandated to inculcate discipline, orderliness and cleanliness in the Nigerian polity. The WAI programme was adjudged a huge success.

He was the first Director of the newly established Nigerian Copyright Council and Director General when it was upgraded into a Commission responsible for Copyright Administration in the country. He was the first African to be elected Chairman of the World Intellectual Property Organization, WIPO, a United Nations Agency responsible for the management and administration of Copyright and Intellectual Property in the world. It is worthy to note that it was during his tenure as Director General of the Nigerian Copyright Commission and Chairman of WIPO that Nigerian signed into various International Conventions of WIPO. The result is that today the country’s foreign and domestic earnings from copyright and intellectual property is quite enormous, with motion pictures and music recordings alone, accounting for roughly 154 billion Naira (197.6 million US Dollars) of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2023.

Mr. Ekpo was also a Federal Commissioner in the National Population Commission and member of the Governing Council of Akwa Ibom State University.

He was Director, Nigeria Information Services in Europe; and Director, Nigeria Information Services in the Americas. He was Commissioner for Information, Social Development, Youths, Sports and Culture in Cross River and Akwa Ibom States. Prior to these, he was Chief Public Relations Officer to the Government of Cross River State; Chief Information Officer, Cross River State and later Sole Administrator, Cross River State Newspaper Corporation. He was Founding Editor, Nigerian Chronicle; Lineage Correspondent for the British Broadcasting Corporation, the Voice of America and the Voice of Germany. He was Senior Reporter, Western Nigeria Broadcasting Corporation, News Editor, Eastern Nigeria Broadcasting Service; Chief Reporter of the West African Pilot; Reporter, Daily Times of Nigeria; and Proof Reader/Reporter, Daily and Sunday Express newspapers.
 
Mr. Ekpo has won several national and international awards, including the award of Member of the Order of the Federal Republic (MFR); 1994 MAN-OF-THE-YEAR AWARD by the American Biographic Publishing Company and The Sun Newspaper Lifetime Achievement Award. 

He is a member of several professional bodies: Fellow, Nigerian Guild of Editors; Fellow, Nigerian Institute of Public Relations; Fellow, Advertising Practitioners Council of Nigeria; Fellow, British Institute of Management; Fellow, World Intellectual Property Institute; Fellow, Institute of Managers and Administrators of Nigeria; Member, Nigeria Union of Journalists; Member, British Institute of Public Relations; Member, British Institute of Journalists and Associate Member, Guild of American Newspaper Editors. 

A devout Christian of the Catholic denomination, the former Deputy Governor is also fervent in his religious life, and has been honoured with the St.Thomas Moore and St. Joseph the Worker Awards by the Roman Catholic Church. He is also Grand Patron of the Catholic Men Organization of Nigeria in Ikot Ekpene Diocese. He is a War Prisoner of the Nigerian Civil War, 1967 – 1970. These and many other service feats culminated in his election in 2015 as Deputy Governor of Akwa Ibom State, serving two consecutive terms under the joint ticket of Mr. Udom Emmanuel, former  Governor of the State.

Indeed a breathtaking trajectory for the “cub Reporter”! No wonder his imprint on the lives and careers of many journalists, including the inimitable Ray Ekpu of the Newswatch and Daily Times fame, and other proteges.

For the sake of the reporter of today who may righteously envy and wish to travel a similar grass-to-grace route, Ekpo volunteered this secret: “in my day the journalist typified the legendary ‘restless one’ who was driven by the heuristic philosophy of learning; he was like the ‘jack of all trades and master of all’ and the newsroom was his basic university”.

These are obviously the lenses with which the late Mrs. Martha Ekpo judged her spouse from day one, when she said she had no regrets marrying him! She turned out vindicated in the course of time; with acknowledgements from several awards, the latest being the NUJ Milestone Recognition of Media Icons in Nigeria. 

My take: he that the cap fits, let him wear it! Hearty and Iconic Cheers to this vestige of the Jakande/Onabanjo School, who never ceases to recall with nostalgia how Alhaji Jakande advised him to accept the virgin assignment of setting up the Copyright structure in the country, saying:”as Moses you should be familiar with getting water to flow from a rock”. That is exactly what happened on that assignment; that is what this Media Icon award, and several others before it, ultimately confirm.