Reporter’s Diary
OFONIME UMANAH
More than a year after the creation of Bayelsa State, there was no presence of a privately owned newspaper anywhere in the state. Many correspondents posted to the state operated from Port Harcourt. They would go into Yenagoa in the morning and return to the Rivers State capital at the close of the day’s work.
No privately owned newspaper saw any economic sense in opening an office in Yenagoa. Some other journalists who worked as correspondents for privately owned newspapers who had their headquarters either in Lagos, Ibadan or Lagos operated from their homes in Yenagoa. The state was barely 16 months old when I was transferred from Anambra to Bayelsa State as the pioneer correspondent of The Punch.
Ironically, the transfer to Bayelsa State came after I had spent six months restructuring The Punch office in Onitsha, Anambra State. I met fellow journalists who had no operational base. Everyday, I would hit Yenagoa from my home in Port Harcourt. There was no telephone. News reports were filed in our Port Harcourt office.
Many times, my reports were written inside the commercial buses conveying me from Yenagoa. I made a case for the company to open an office there. The request was granted.
Getting an office space was a herculean task. My search took me to Imgbi Road, where I paid for a spacious one bedroom apartment. I paid for it even when the landlord, Mr Egbide, was yet to complete the roofing
While the construction was ongoing, my landlord offered me a space in the veranda of his personal house, offering me two white plastic chairs-one as my chair, and the other as my table. So, every morning, as I arrived Yenagoa from Port Harcourt, I would report there to also see the progress of work on the building which was in the same vicinity.
The landlord kept his promise and handed the keys to me on record time. The Punch therefore became the first newspaper in Bayelsa State to have, not just an office, but a fully functional, well-equipped office. We had all the needed facilities-a fax machine, a NITEL telephone line and an indigenous office assistant that I employed. The office was even better furnished that many government owned offices in the state, at the time.
I spent close to five years in Bayelsa before I was transferred to another state. But before I left, the landlord bought a new shirt for me as a parting gift. I treasured that shirt for years.
The road where the office was located has since been named after Punch. I don’t know who did, though. But I can say that there is hardly anyone in Yenagoa who does not know Punch Road in Yenagoa.
As Bayelsa celebrates 30 years of existence, the first and oldest privately owned newspaper office in that state should be 28 years old. I am happy to be part of the history of Bayelsa State, as the journalist who opened the first newspaper office in the state.
- Mr Umanah, now the Publisher/Editor-In-Chief of TNN Newspaper, is also the founding president of the Association of Niger Delta Online Publishers, ANDOP.
