On Monday, October 28, The Pointer newspaper marked its 30^th anniversary. Owned by Delta state, it was established in 1994, three years after Delta state was excised from the old Bendel state in 1991 by the regime of flamboyant military President, General Ibrahim Babangida.

In those good old days, Bendel state had a newspaper, The Nigerian Observer. It was the newspaper of first choice among Bendelites (Edo and Delta inhabitants). Zesty, with a rich mix of political and economic reporting, it also offered a panoply of unputdownable news and punditry in sports. Bendel was (and still is) Nigeria’s nursery and hatchery of sports. All sports in all age grades. Bendel dominated. On Fridays, vendors moved from town to town, village to village to drop the days’ edition of The Observer which deliberately had very provocative offerings on pools betting, a pervasive pastime in those days among the adult.

Pools betting then (in the 80s especially) was the forerunner of modern day gaming and betting. And The Observer feasted on the fad to make quick cash in copy sales and advertising. Yours sincerely, then still dragging his big textbooks in physics and chemistry, as a science student at St. Anthony’s College, Ubulu-Uku, my home town, was a volunteer pools clerk. No pay, no reward, just the fun of writing ‘Perm 3 from 4 or 5’ as the case may be. I still recall Austen Allen’s pundits in football. His column was a must read.

Back in the day, a beer vendor operated from a shop in our house. The shop was once used by my father. The beer seller smartly augmented his income by offering agency services for Flash Pools and others. The Nigerian Observer, Daily Times and Sporting Record (a wholly sports betting weekly newspaper from the Daily Times stable) were religiously supplied by the newspaper vendor on Fridays. Those newspapers were the only ensigns of modernity in the village. And I read them all voraciously. That exercise in a sense connected me to the heart and soul of newspapers and journalism. A passion for writing welled up in me but never enough to sway me from my childhood fantasy of becoming a medical doctor.

Many years later, destiny wheeled me away from science and thrust me into the arms of journalism. It’s been a long, convoluted story. How an A-grade science student could switch or be switched to journalism. I wonder each time my heart wanders back in time. How the unseen hand of God could redirect the course of a man’s life. In my case, it was not just a mystery. It was a miracle. A confirmation that as mortal beings, we can only propose, but God disposes. But I ad-libbed. This part was not meant to be in this script.

So, let’s return to The Pointer, our newspaper of pride, the Delta state counterpoise to The Observer. For 30 years, The Pointer has marched on, cutting through the blades of time; through the storms of military jackboot, overawing the treacherous turbulence of bureaucracy especially under democratic governments. The Pointer is not alone in this journey of grit and guts. The Nigerian Standard (founded in 1992 in Jos); The Tide (Rivers state, 1971); Triumph (Kano, 1980); and The Herald (Kwara, 1973) form the ensemble of state-owned newspapers that have continued to trudge on against vicious odds. They are among the survivors. Many other state-owned newspapers have not been lucky. They have long been consigned to the compost heap of history. The print media in Nigeria has a high mortality rate. Many good, well-packaged newspapers have graced the stage. Some dazzled in form and content; some dour and unappealing; and some abrasive, adventurous and pesky. Yet, they all died.

It is for this reason and more that The Pointer and its management over the years deserve plaudit. And when they rolled out the red carpet to mark the pearl anniversary of the newspaper, no one should begrudge them. And they celebrated it with aplomb, honouring Governor Sheriff Oborevwori with The Pointer’s “Exemplary Democrat and Transformational Leadership Award.”

The governor seized the moment to rouse journalists to responsible reporting.  He advised journalists to downplay news that promote religious and ethnic bigotry in the country. That way, journalism would become an effective tool for the promotion of “enduring peace and sustainable national development.”

Oborevwori is spot on. Journalism in Nigeria has morphed from a tool for advocacy for unity and development to a catalyst for national disunity through overt partisanship in reportage. In some cases, some journalists have become more partisan than politicians. They spew hate, trade religious extremism and promote ethnic bias in their analysis, news reports and editorials. Away with such primitive proclivity, Oborevwori charges the fraternity of the pen.

The governor ended his admonition with laudation for The Pointer. “In three decades of its existence, I want to say without any fear of contradiction that The Pointer has done well in playing the traditional media roles of information, education, and entertainment. Even more significantly, The Pointer has been a strong ally of the Delta State government in promoting the policies and programmes of successive administrations, while respectfully advocating for unity and peaceful co-existence,” he told the audience.

This is a testimonial that bears all the insignia of excellence. Coming from the governor, their boss, The Pointer team should serenade themselves with fresh palm wine, the type that succulently teases the taste bud, and an assortment of bushmeat as a fitting memorial for this moment in the life of the newspaper.

But there is still so much to do to keep The Pointer on sound props. The government should increase funding for the paper. The fund is not to buy printing machine or newsprint. Skip that. More people read news on handhelds, in digital format these days. The Pointer must as a necessity improve its online offerings and presence. To effectively report government activities to Deltans at home and in the diaspora; and market Delta to the world, it must have ubiquitous presence on social media. To achieve this requires upskilling staffers in digital journalism and marketing.

The Pointer’s pearl anniversary should mark an epiphany for Deltans and Governor Oborevwori; a realisation that the cup is not half empty but half full. It should mark a fresh impetus for the government to turn the page, to wit, less emphasis on hard copy and more push for digital, borderless journalism.