Ogunbiyi… Chattering And Song For Tanus Man
ON Ola Ayeni Stree, Computer Village, Ikeja stands an imposing building, which houses Tanus Group. I arrive at the building for an interview with Dr. Yemi Ogunbiyi, but the stream of visitors at the reception this afternoon makes me feel the appointment will not hold.
"Oga will like to see you," the front desk officer says, surprisingly, as I give her my call card. "His office is on second floor."
I climb up to the floor, excitedly, only to meet some other visitor. Ogunbiyi breaks off from the visitor to apologise. "I will soon be with you," he says.
Five minutes after, the tall, imposing scholar and administrator calls me into his large office, furnished moderately with leather seats.
"Welcome, please sit down," he says.
I take a seat on a leather couch a little far away from him, waiting to roll my tape.
"Do you prefer the boardroom or you are okay here," he asks offhandedly.
"The boardroom is okay," I offer.
Dressed in blue trousers and a crisp sky blue shirt, with a gold wristwatch, the clean-shaven publisher walks in measured steps to the boardroom and I follow. You can literally feel the pulse of his warmth, as we sit to chat.
"Nwakunor, are you from Agbor or where?" he asks.
"No," I answer. "I'm from Ogwashi-Uku."
"My mother is from Abor, do you know there?" he chips in.
"Yes," I answer.
He is courteous and measures his words before bringing them out.
"Your midget?" he asks, softly.
"This is it," I answer.
"Oh… we're going to have real fun together," he adds.
I bring out my telephone, check the recorder, and everything is in order.
He calls an aide to bring another recorder in case there's a problem along the line.
Ogunbiyi, jokingly, narrates his experience when he visited Libya to interview the late Col. Moammar Ghaddafi.
"We — he and the late publisher of The Guardian (Alex Ibru) — had arrived on a Saturday for a scheduled Sunday appointment with the 'Leader,' as he was then fondly called in all of Libya. The interview did not hold until four days after, and when it did, something funny happened. We had three recorders, but only one was okay. That is why I always made sure I have with me as many as possible, you can imagine what it would have meant if there was none that worked," he exclaims.
Ogunbiyi is a literary icon, great administrator, academic and media expert; the highpoint of his journalistic and administrative career was, perhaps, his stint as Managing Director of the Daily Times Newspapers.
He gave the Daily Times a new sense of direction and lease of life. He infused new blood into its editorial content and made it readable again to its former customers and admirers. This, he was able to accomplish with the good sense of management, part of which was the ability to motivate people.
He was part of the literary activist movement of the 70s through the 80s, during which a great body of literature, as well as performances was produced. This streak he took to The Guardian when he joined the newspaper organisation from his teaching position at the University of Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University).
He thus coordinated the literary services of The Guardian, which yielded the famous books, Perspectives in Nigerian Literature, Volumes I and II. He also edited what has been referred to as the bible of Theatre studies in Nigeria, Drama and Theatre in Nigeria, A Critical Source book, which is undergoing reproduction due to popular demand.
How does he feel that 30 years after, no other book of such magnitude on theatre studies has emerged in the country?
"I'm sad," he says.
Ogunbiyi's voice is gentle and cultured. As a board chairman, he has developed the habit of allowing others to pour out their minds, while he listens. This moment, he pauses to hear me say something.
"I had expected that by now, some other works, which would improve tremendously this journal, would have emerged, but none has," he says, regretfully.
According to him, "the pressure from people like Prof. G. G. Darah and Prof. Jeyifo to re-issue the book led me into the second edition, which will be out early next year. What we have done is to update the book. We have added two new essays, one by Prof. Jeyifo on Nollywood and another by Dr. Wunmi Raji on the new Nigerian playwrights. This revised edition will carry new introductory comments and foreward by Prof. Abiola Irele."
His Evolution In The Media/Publishing World
BORROWING the words of James Weldon Johnson, the glory of the day was in Ogunbiyi's face, and the breath of the night was in his eyes, as he talks about his transition from academics to media. He regales his guest with the fun and excitement of the Newsroom.
"It was tough," he says, cheekily.
"When I first came to work in The Guardian in 1983, I was told to write an editorial by the late Dr. Stanley Macebuh. I couldn't write it. I battled with it as if I was battling with a research paper or an essay; and Macebuh said to me, you are writing an editorial, not a term paper," Ogunbiyi confesses.
He says with a broad smile, "I remember going for an editorial meeting one day, and I had all these reference books, and Sonala Olumese looked at me and laughed. He asked me, 'Where do you think you are going? We have an editorial meeting, not a seminar'."
Ogunbiyi says he went through the process of learning the rudiments of editorial with keen interest until Lade Bonuola challenged him to write a news story one day, which he did and the man gave him a pass mark that he had done well, "but not exactly well."
He says, happily, "I went through that process, but what it takes to move from one to the other is a measure of modesty. You must subject yourself to a learning process; coming from the academia or not, you must subject yourself to the rule of journalism because the rules are different, most of their engagements are different and you must be prepared to learn new rules and the same rules you are used to in the academia. You must do the right thing, be straightforward and don't cut corners."
Ogunbiyi's foray into business was by chance, not something he planned for. He was enjoying himself as the managing director of Daily Times before General Babangida sacked him. He got the news on the eve of the new-year in 1991, and was completely depressed for weeks, before he picked up himself to set up Tanus Communication on May 2, 1992.
He says that looking back 20 years after he started the company, he is grateful to God. Though he was a miserable man and thought it was the end of the road, now he is happy. "Though 20 years may appear small, the organisation has cause to thank God for His favours," he retorts.
What could have been the secret of Tanus' crowning glory?
"I don't know if there has been crowning glory, after all; but I do know it would survive itself," he declares.
While noting that certain elements such as luck and being able to reinvent itself have played prominent role in the company's story, Ogunbiyi says, "when we started business 20 years ago, we started by checking social events and doing calendar. So, we said what could we do differently, and we set out to do calendar on old Lagos, for instance, and it became an instant hit."
"We also did a calendar on young achievers, National Merit Award winners and others; we even did one for the Union Bank when it was 60; we showcased the history of the bank from when it was called the Barclays Bank. We went as far as Manchester, England to gather the necessary information.
"We have always been publishing from the beginning, but now we have got there and what we hope to do at the end of the year, is to develop our own reading tablet called the palm book. It will be like an iPad, but will carry all our text books electronically."
He adds, "It will be our specialised product. Our foreign partners are designing it for us. However, we still sell books, but tablets will contain more books, for, instead of selling Book 1, for instance, we now sell series of books like Book 1 to 6 through the tablets.
"If a child enters the school from Basic 1, he or she would be privileged to use the tablets through his/her primary school course as the tablet would contain books from the Basic 1 to 6; which means there would be no need to buy books again for the child. The life span of the iPad would be about three or four years, just like the GSM.
"We are moving towards e-book and the child can do online activities. These are some of the things we are working on, but we are not there yet. However, it is good for one to re-invent oneself, want to do something that will help us to stay afloat, whether publishing diary, books, calendar or anything."
Coming from the academia to the media, and now business world, how has he been able to cope with the challenges?
He has this to say: "You must be modest. You must be ready to learn, open your mind because nobody can teach you everything you need to know."
According to the literary scholar, "If you set off with the wrong mindset, then you are about to make mistakes and go wrong. That has been my own rule and this I have passed on to others, whether they are in their own business or starting something new."
He notes, "To excel, you need to make certain rules, which is discipline; you put your hand into the accounts, those rule should be applied and this the reason I say you go back to your mind and do the right thing. For, you need to be disciplined to know that you can start a business and become a millionaire over night."
He states that though the company, at some point, made mistakes, it has, however, done well and the staff and friends should be acknowledged and commended for the roles they played in the success stories.
"We hope our little achievements will motivate others who may be scared of taking decisions," he says.
He advises young entrepreneurs to be committed, believe in themselves, don't cut corners and don't get involved in business they know little about, if they hope to succeed.
With the aim of filling the vacuum that existed in the communication, publication and public relations sector of the economy, Ogunbiyi says the company has 230 textbooks, ranging from core school subjects to entrepreneurial and specialised titles for technical schools and colleges in their stable.
He adds that in their desire to support the current national campaign to encourage reading, Tanus has embarked on the massive reproduction of a wide range of English classics such as Tom Sawyyer, Gulliver's Travels, The Wizard of Oz and others, in their rewritten versions for younger readers.
The company currently produces textbooks for Cross River, Akwa Ibom, Ondo, Rivers, Borno, Adamawa and Jigawa states, among others.
On the challenges of publishing books, he says with a chuckle, "my academic background prepared me for challenges. I never dreamt that I would one day work for The Guardian Newspapers."
The Tanus boss says, "challenges are several and the same faced in other sectors. They are also not different from the common challenges in the education sector. We don't have, any more, people that are good at editing; and piracy is another problem. Government should make people to read more by bringing in those things that are associated to publishing, which will make book easier and cheap to publish or by slashing to zero tariff on books. Government should make Nigerians read more by action, not by words."
What are the requirements to be a good publisher?
"It is not complicated," he laughs. "What you need is a solid academic background. Academic works are rigorous; it makes you have an eye for details, keep to them and as well be highly committed to what you have set out to do. Not frivolous or skimpy, that's what book publishing is all about. They are the only things I have. Book publishing is not taught anywhere in the university that I am aware of. I don't think there is a degree in book publishing. You can have a degree in any field, but the training of an academic is crucial."
His Projections For Tanus?
OGUNBIYI flashes a grin. "I hope government will keep on doing what it's doing. But for Tanus, we are trying to constantly adjust to our working environment and produce more books. Books are not going to die, but I think e-book will surely make a hit and anybody in the publishing business should be thinking along that line," he says.
"If you watch, you will discover that some people are no longer reading the newspapers, they just go online to check the latest news. However, despite the coming of the Internet, books will not go away. There might be those who would choose to remain old fashioned and the electronics with its shortcoming will still keep the books. Though the young generation may just insert their card and get access to e-books and other materials, but that would still not change the sell of books."
He says, "Living in Nigeria at these times is tough. Question of security! Well, it barely exist; problem of poverty, which has fuelled violence and many others. As a Nigerian, I think there are the problems of security, unemployment, power supply, infrastructure and others. No country solves all its problems at once. American has its problems, India has its and Nigeria is no exemption. But, unfortunately, I am not so sure that we are handling our problems headlong as countries like India and even, the US, where social problems are seriously looked into."
The Secret Of His Youthfulness
THERE is no secret," he says. "I am lucky to be what I am, and some people are luckier. Some age better than others. There are many factors that are involved. It is a bit of luck and purely genetic factor. If providence gives a better deal, good. I watch what I eat and drink. And I play golf once a week."
On his guiding principles, he says, "it's the same rules my parents taught me: don't claim to be what you are not and don't tell lies. Don't be greedy, be self-satisfied. They are simple rules parents taught their kids while growing up. I have obeyed these rules over the ages."
Ogunbiyi, who loves eba and okro soup, says, "when I was young I used to love ogbono soup and when I got married, my wife took over from there. My eating habit has changed. Now, I eat continental dishes, but all those are not my priority, now. But the fact remains that I love local delicacies."
Is he a man of style?
"I don't know," he says.
But somehow, the way he appears in public functions will show him as one: fitting suits, shoes, shirts and ties. "My father was a tailor and very meticulous. He comes from the background that believes you must polish your shoes; when you wear a blue blazer, you must wear grey trousers, and you must look neat. He had this British background and that is the background I tend to follow. So, I can't say I am a man of style," he stresses.
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