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Tributes continue to pour in for late pioneer Managing Director of the Guardian Newspapers, Dr Stanley Macebuh, Here One month after his death, Broadcaster, Poet and essayist, Eugenia Abu writes of her meeting with Macebuh at an incredible height.
It was 1981, and I a child of the federal Government of Nigeria was headed back to Lagos from Makurdi where I had attended a wedding in the family. As "Government pikin" as we were then referred , I was a national youth corps member with barely enough to work and play, but I chose to fly.
This constant reminder of the sad state of my finances did not deter me from flying. By nature, I was an adventurer and felt that although flying cost a bomb, I could spread the cost across uncles and aunties, afterall I was a corper and the bonus...... the awesomeness of it all, my uncle was an Airline pilot and so I occasionally got a side seat in the cockpit. Those were heady days.
And so here I was in 1981 aboard a Nigeria Airways Boeing 737 and cruising at an altitude of 37,000 feet above sea level. Airline travel at the time was some form of luxury . Personified and interesting people flew, although not all could afford it, those who had a certain sense of self and a high sense of adventure tried it from time to time, even if it meant saving to get on with it. Cut through long gruelling journeys, save time, encounter polite and well dressed cabin crew, have bite size, well made snacks, and a thrill of cultured persons in your company.
And so It was this fine evening, as I made my way from Makurdi to Lagos, that I was in the company of a most cultured man, very civilised. His name was Stanley Macebuh and I knew him not . Had never heard of him.
My romance with Newspapers had not become skin -deep at this time, but my love life with books had long been established. Macebuh was to become the unwitting exordia in my journey to newspaper reading and column writing.
I was struck by his eloquence, the deliberateness of his use of the English Language, each word in place, his elocution, a broadcaster's dream. I was at once intrigued and totally bowled over.
Gracious and fairly bemused by my audacious lack of recognition of his person and craft, he asked me in a half smile if I read the Daily Times. I was vaguely aware of Newspapers at the time and told him " well not really". He chuckled and told me he wrote for the paper, "a column" he volunteered, never offering information on the executive position he held at the Daily Times. I had no idea how I was expected to react to this information but I concluded that this Stanley Macebuh man had to be a big newspaper man and addressed him respectfully.
At the time I met Macebuh , I was only twenty and I guessed he was old enough to be an uncle in addition to his big Newspaper title which I could not decipher beyond his toga of being a columnist. He was humorous without being condescending and wanted to know what I was doing at the time. "Broadcasting", I said to him between mouthfuls of a well- made air borne sandwich. "OGBC Abeokuta, I am a Corper, I really cannot remember my ID serial number". He laughed easily through the flight and commented on my quirky flight tales and use of language.
"Broadcasting mmh" he said every once in a while pensive. Then he made an interesting comment. "Your wit and engaging personality will make you a good columnist"
I was writing short stories and poetry around that time but columns? Newspapers? Journalist? That was far-fetched. But Macebuh proved prophetic and Sonala Olumhense's column in the Guardian of March 14th titled "Stanley Macebuh, the brightest and the best" captured it brilliantly when he said "Every Nigerian Jounalist has a little Stanley Macebuh in him or her, all you have to do is scratch a little. I have had mine for 27 years". To Sonala I have to say I have had mine for about the same number of years. It seems to me with the number of tributes pouring forth for this incredible man and the description of his persona, his intellectual vigour, his discourse and his "savoir faire", that Mr Macebuh not only held his own in whatever turf he found himself except the business of doing business, but one of his essential gifts was the ability to be near clairvoyant in talent hunting and spotting.
Returning to Sonala's Piece he validated this thought as he wrote of Stanley's assemblage of a phenomenal group of Columnists Intellectuals, and experts when he started the Guardian."That was why, himself a man of tremendous intellectual guile, he seemed to associate only with people he deeply respected or could respect. Resenting and rejecting the negative practices he had observed in the profession, he decided he would develop his own reporting corps........ He said he was looking for the brightest and the best. As the entire nation came to know, he did find his diamonds, older or younger....... and he polished them himself". True without an iota of doubt, but I digress.
My Flight with Mr Macebuh came to an end and he an executive, touched down to his driver while I, a corper of no fixed financial status, began to do the math of getting a reasonable taxi to an address I had never been. Totally unfamiliar with Lagos at the time, I felt and looked lost. We had arrived Lagos at about 10:pm our flight from Makurdi had suffered a delay at the onset. This was an abnormality at that time and the Airline staff had been extremely polite through it all (Did I hear you sigh at today's Airline staff etiquette?). However, Mr Macebuh had returned to check if I was okay. " You are un-familiar with Lagos" he said gently in his clear, well spoken articulation of the English language. It was a statement not a question. A summation of our conversation on board.
I nodded weakly not wanting to be take advantage . And so It was that Mr Stanley Macebuh Chairman Editorial Board of the Daily Times offered a frightened corper a ride to her uncle's house in the dead of the night. Indeed every Nigerian Journalist has a little Stanley Macebuh in him or her.
We met severally after that, life taking me to broadcasting and providence and Macebuh steering me to my first love, writing. But it was his words that resonated when Amma Ogan then Sunday Guardian Editor published my first feature article in 1983. It was like becoming royalty, being published in the Guardian was a big deal. And Sonala is right as he opines "In my view,........ every journalist alive is a professional relative of stanley's. You are either someone he has inspired or you are standing next to someone with a direct bloodline" Well said, Very well said.
From that featured article in 1983, I went on to write several feature articles for the Guardian Newspapers culminating in a collection of essays mostly from the Guardian in my first book "In the blink of an eye" a fledging writer at the time, I became an adopted child of "The brightest and the best" from the Eddie Irohs, to Ndaeyo Uko, to the Edwin Madunagu's, the Sully Abu's, Yemi Ogunbiyi, the Amina Ogan's, and the Eluem Emeka Izezes for Stanley gathered the intellectuals, sacristy, great essayist and storytellers. It is therefore to his credit that most of the best columnist, writers and essayist across Nigeria Newspapers today are from the Guardian stable of scholars where I learnt from, where I drank from, where I got adopted.
It was a shamefaced Eugenia Abu that recounted the "My not knowing Macebuh tale" to the trio of Dr Yemi Ogunbiyi, Ndaeyo Uku and Dr Chidi Amuta many years later. And the Vanguard publisher, Sam Amuka described him as a "fine man, a beautiful person too....", Poet and essayist Odia Ofeimun adding his voice said Macebuh brought "a new stretch of intellectualism to Nigerian Journalism" while Professor Jide Osuntakin with whom he was at the University of Ibadan in the 60's added that "Those of us who knew him well will always remember him for his erudition, scholarship but above all for being a renaissance man......"
Dele Cole who engaged him at the Daily Times as Editorial Adviser shares the thought of many when he opined that "he had probably the best brain I have met since I came into Journalism". The Champion Newspaper Editorial of March 15 2010 capped it by handing Macebuh the description of "a man of rear mythical proportion" tributes have not abated for the master of elegant prose.
Dr Olatunji Dare, another Journalist relation of the essential Macebuh paying Tribute in The Nation of march 16 2010, adds his voice to Sonala's when he says "It remains to acknowledge that, in a large measure, I owe my entry into full time Journalism and my continuing engagement in the national policy dialogue since then to Stanley Macebuh's example and his seductive entreaties".
But beyond us all being relatives of sorts to Mr Macebuh, Dr Dare's Tribute, written in celebration of the man in 2005 when he became policy analyst to President Obasanjo is a great read. Dare wrote in arresting prose giving us words so nimble, so true, so beautiful. It is easy to write fine prose when writing about a man such as Macebuh, but this has to be Dare's maecuppa using the very language Macebuh elevated to pull him out for all to see Macebuh in all his finery. Dr Dare's article, "Macebuh: The style was the man" is at once timeless and quintessential. Here are some takes to remember Macebuh by "Macebuh's own specialism is the arcane field of history of ideas. If you want to see him on the top of his form try to stir up debate on some idea- the State, Power, Authority, Justice, Equality or for that matter Poetics, Ethics and Aesthetics. Using his right hand to delineate, the stages through which the idea has evolved, the shades of meaning and the connotations it has acquired over the centuries he would clarify and amplify and refine until all confusion about it was removed. And he would have conducted this intellectual excursion without pedantry and pomposity and seeking to appear clever or superior".
As a "G" man (Government man) Dare adds " in his occasional press interviews, he has emerged as the most articulate exponent of government policy and of the vision motivation and constraints of President Obasanjo. To this inenviable task, he has brought a razor sharp mind, candour with insight and an elegance of language rare in these parts". Dare has played back an article written in 2000 which Macebuh himself felt sounded like an obituary returning it to the pages of the paper to pay tribute, to capture a man of style who touched us all.
I met him at 37,000ft above sea level but he has ascended beyond those heights. For people of faith., Macebuh now has no need to worry about anything. He will be a great addition to the heavenly poets always waxing lyrical, speaking in those special accents that will endear him to the heavenly saints. Adieu........ Dr Stanley Macebuh......... your relation grow by the day.
Eugenia Abu, Broadcaster and writer is the Author of "Dont look at me like that" a collection of poems.
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