By Nestor B. Udoh
In my secondary school days, we used to take turns scrambling to read RAY EKPU’s column in the Sunday Chronicle. We would wait expectantly for the newspaper to appear, read the column excitedly and look forward to seeing new English words in his write-ups. The most interesting part is that he coined some of those words. And the mechanical accuracy of his grammar would make you think he may have been an English man in his last incarnation.
I still have the first edition of Newswatch magazine he co-founded with the late Dele Giwa, one of the greatest journalists that walked the planet earth. For these men, money was not an equivalent of journalism. Giwa was sent a parcel bomb during the regime of Ibrahim Babangida, and Ray was persecuted during Shehu Shagari’s regime because he yabbed Umaru Dikko, the then Transport Minister by saying he would sell words instead of selling rice.
I proudly say today that, if at all, I know how to write, it is because of Ray Ekpu and his Newswatch magazine. As a university student, vendors wound slip a copy every week under the door of my hostel room. I would pay them when they showed up, and read the journal cover-to- cover. Till today, I have never seen any magazine either here or abroad that matches the grammatical flair and adroitness of Newswatch. Moffat Ekoriko’s NewsAfrica magazine comes close. But Moffat would tell you he himself was groomed from Newswatch.
Ladies and gentlemen, this is the same Ray Ekpu that some youths in our new Akwa Ibom State where insulting elders has become an engaging pastime, are disparaging with glee and reckless abandon. Recently, Governor Udom Emmanuel has had cause to cry out against young men disrespecting elders. I can understand when they insult him and Senator Godswill Akpabio in the name of politics. After all, as Napoleon Bonaparte said, “In politics, stupidity is not a handicap.”
But it baffles me to think that anyone, youth or elder can insult an international journalism monument of which we should all be proud. Abacha did all sort of things in the country, yet I have it on good authority one of his highly placed kinsmen said he never stole any money. Forget that here and there, the international community talks of returning “Abacha loot.”
Some of these insulting young men have never read an article written by Ray Ekpu, otherwise they’d know that the man is Mr. Point blank. We who followed his Newswatch magazine till it was killed by the Satans among us know that he tells it as it is. It is immaterial whether he told it this time around in uncouth language. The truth is that he must have lost his cool in the midst of the journalistic brigandage that is going on in our state. Still, no one in Akwa Ibom State with his right senses should insult this legend for whatever reason.
Those who know me well know that I’m not given to being angry. But now, I’m very angry with the fact that instead of learning from Ray like I did, those who will replace us have not only allowed his legacy of good grammar, sound fact-finding journalism and fearless reportage to die, they are trying to diminish him to the bargain. But none of these rookies insulting him now for telling the truth can honestly claim they match Ray in any way.
Finally, as I urge this journalism grand father not to join issues with nit-wits, I would like to remind our youth that anyone who hopes to see further than others must stand on the shoulders of giants.
Udoh retired as a Permanent Secretary from Akwa Ibom State Civil Service
