IN recognition for his many contributions to the flowering of entertainment journalism in particular, and showbiz in general, friends, colleagues and associates of Femi Akintunde-Johnson (FAJ) will on Thursday, October 27, stage a special event in commemoration of his 50th birthday anniversary. Tagged An afternoon of letters and laughter, the programme holds at the Combo Hall, LTV Complex, Agidingbi, Ikeja, Lagos.The event, which will open with a special purple carpet interactive session starting from 11a.m, will witness a public presentation of Lifelines and Footprints, two books written by the renowned entertainment journalist to mark his golden jubilee.While the Deputy Managing Director of The Sun Newspapers, Mr. Femi Adesina, will review Lifelines, the Serving Overseer of Latter Rain Assembly, Dr. Tunde Bakare, will handle the presentation. The second book, Footprints, will have the publisher of Ovation International, Chief Dele Momodu, as the reviewer and presenter.Already, a number of frontline artistes have signed up to give their very best at the action-packed event in honour of a man who is no doubt in the rank of journalists that redefined showbiz reporting in Nigeria, and by extension, the west coast of Africa.Thursday's event will feature a special Songs of Praise by Telemi and Friends, followed by FAJ's Testimonials by his friends and colleagues, among other spicy activities.With the executive chairman of Ideas Communications Ltd, Mr. Yemi Akeju, as chairman, special guests of honour expected to grace the event include Mr. Biodun Shobanjo of Insight Communications; Mr. Leo Stan Ekeh of Zinox Computers; Dr. Sunny Obazu-Ojeagbase of Complete Sports, Dr. Raymond Dokpesi of DAAR Communications and Mr. Richard Mofe Damijo, actor and Delta State Commissioner for Tourism.'A group of friends decided to organise something in my honour; I think it's even better. If it were left to me, it will just be a church thing and a small 'come chop' with my inner caucus and friends. I wanted to launch a book; I don't want an owambe party. Initially, I was talking about five book, but we later settled for two --Lifelines, which is a book on my life; and Footprints, a book on my joining the entertainment,' he said in a chat with The Guardian in his Ogba, Ikeja, office.FOR the FAJ, turning 50 is a normal thing, except for the grey hairs.'You face the same challenges and routine activities, but I just realised that some grey hairs are growing here and there. Physiologically, I don't feel anything; physically, I still don't feel anything; it's still normal.'Despite his many achievements in the industry, FAJ believes some things would have been done better than he did.'Anyone with a quantum of intelligent would know that there's always a mile to go; you would never be able to exceed your dreams and aspirations. There are a lot of things I've done, which I would have loved to do in a different way.'For the former Punch reporter, if given another opportunity, practising journalism would not be an option. For him, a professional job such as Law and Engineering would have been a better choice.'If I had been more perceptive while growing up, I probably would have not done journalism. Journalism is diminishing; it is materially non-gratifying and intellectually dissipating. It is virtually a thankless thing; I wouldn't have done that'.At the time he joined the profession, it was all about satisfaction and passion for the arts; making money was never considered.'I didn't know anything apart from the art and journalism; it just transposed into journalism as a professional calling. I grew up reading about Tai Solarin; even when I had no money, from the day The Guardian started, my best portion was the arts section. We had those people in Daily Times and Sunday Times writing under pen names; it was crazy at that point in time. Those periods for us, the in-thing was just to come together blow grammar and write poetry.'As for making money through writing, 'I never knew we could make money from that until I became a publisher; it was all about satisfaction on the job. The first job I got was not about collecting money; it was about 'let me work'.'After his graduation from the University of Jos, Akintunde-Johnson craved to join The Guardian, where he had freelanced for years. But somehow, he missed the slot into Rutam House.'I couldn't get into The Guardian, but Ben Tomoloju (then Arts Editor of The Guardian) gave me a note toThe Punch, where I met Demola Osinubi, who was the editor then. He was just telling me, 'oh, we don't have money'' I said, 'no, don't give me money, let me be working; just give me allowances and whatever I need to move around'. But by the fourth week, they realised that my allowance was getting too much because I was crazy about writing; I was just writing any column, any page. That was how I started.'In the 80s when showbiz reporters were treated with little or no respect, FAJ held his grounds with so much pride.'I didn't realise that people didn't have respect for entertainment reporters; I held my job with so much respect. At that point in time, of course, they appeared to be vagabonds and all that, but even though my attire was like that of a radical, I took my craft very seriously. So, I was not engaged in that after 'press conference, you stay back for food, waiting for envelope's, even when I'm penniless.'Unlike today when most entertainment reporters tend to stay away from core arts reporting, covering the arts, especially art exhibitions, was an intellectual challenge for FAJ.'It's not as if I studied arts, but I needed to understand how to appreciate art and write it from my own perspective. So, I studied a lot. Along the line, I realised that people I didn't even know started calling me about things I'd written; at that point, I knew I had to take it serious. I just wanted to do things right; I wanted people to enjoy each item in the story.'With just N480 salary in Punch then, FAJ created a lasting impression in the minds of the management and readers alike, but had to move on when the opportunity called.'Punch was like a training ground; it would take everybody that comes, but people usually dropped when they couldn't cope with what is expected of them. There was no hampering, no stress, no distraction whatsoever; it's just the hunger of youths to do something else.'I didn't start with entertainment; I was doing more of arts and society writing. So, when my friend, Azuka Jebose Molokwu left the country, I just generally flowed into it; we had been working together. Few months before Weekend Concord started, we had been planning to do Saturday Punch and the bedrock was supposed to be Saturday Highlife, which I was handling. Along the line, Sunny Ojeagbase (then publisher of Climax magazine) showed up. But just before that, we had been toying with the idea of doing our own magazine on our own; we wanted to do something extraordinary.'All efforts to stop FAJ from leaving the Punch for Climax magazine proved abortive as Sunny Ojeagbase, the publisher of then magazine, had given FAJ a VIP treatment for his services.'When Ojeagbase approached me, he took me to Sheraton; we ate dinner and all that' me, a poor boy! He wanted me to come work with them, so, we discussed and I had to go. My editor in Punch did not believe me, but I told him I was going. Though my salary in Punch had improved over time, it was still about four times of what I was offered.'The FAME YearsLater FAJ teamed up with fellow entertainment journalists and friends to start FAME magazine, which again was a redefinition of society affairs magazines, that had been dominated by some titles that were later dubbed 'soft sell', 'gossip', 'junk' or 'gutter' tabloids.FAME was a breath of fresh air, benefitting especially from the intellectual resourcefulness of FAJ as editor, and the street-wiseness and business acumen of his friends and colleagues ' Kunle Bakare and Mayor Akinpelu.The magazine also went beyond being a mere publication to champion the larger developmental cause of the entertainment industry. It launched among others the FAME Music Award, FMA, which became the industry's first choice of a Grammy Award- sort of project, especially after the recurrent disputations and acrimonies that usually followed the results of the Nigeria Music Award, then organised by the Performing Musicians Employers Association of Nigeria, PMEAN. The magazine also staged The Movie Award, THEMA, to chaperon the growth of the then just emerging Nollywood industry. In all of these, FAJ was at the driving seat as coordinator/director of the projects ' aside his work as editor of the magazine.Few years with FAME magazine, there developed conflict between the partners and their financier. Of course, this gradually impacted strain on the partnership among the three youngmen, not just on business front but also in the personal relationship among the friends, who had become more of a family.'Such is life', sighed FAJ at our encounter on Wednesday, decades after the business duel; a distant look in his handsome, usually cheery face.He continued, 'the kind of money we started with was big for our age and we were not that intelligent businesswise to mix well. For instance, we didn't have partnership agreement, no roles' it was just about publishing a magazine and making money. The stress came; the usual thing -- we grew up. But by the time we left, we were all married and had children. The long and short of it, we broke up. We were just a little immature about the work as a profession and when money came, it turned our heads; we didn't handle it well.'Though years have streamed by, the FAME magazine impasse is still fresh in FAJ's memory.'There were crisis; court cases, we were detained; we went underground, running up and down. There was a point when the entire staff had to resign and joined us to start Encomium magazine; we started in one small shop. The court case was between us and the chairman of FAME board; it was all about money, but there was a lot of highhandedness on the other side, a lot of stupid aggression on our own side. If you break it down, there were mistakes from both sides. At a time, it became irreconcilable, so, we had to break up, which led to the starting of Encomium.'The Encomium also inherited the industry development dreams from the FAME days organizing among others such events as AMEN award for music and the Reel award for the movies ' FAJ was also the driver of these projects.Few years down the line, the same story repeated itself in Encomium. This time, FAJ decided to walk away.'Well, I didn't want it to become internecine like it happened in FAME, that's why it appeared I walked away. I felt there was no point going to court for the same thing again; as usual, there was no partnership agreement because we were friends. Encomium was a child of crisis, so, we didn't have time to fix things; we just got anything we could get and started out. Sometimes, you have to move on.'Coming on his own termsTODAY, FAJ is more involved in the publishing of Treasure magazine as well as offering consultancy services for individuals and group.'I'm no longer full time into journalism; I do consultancy. I help package magazines and newspapers, but I'm not a PR person. I also do political campaign strategies, but they are usually intellectual works.'As far as the award-winning journalist is concerned, there are rooms for improvement in the industry.'There's always room for improvement, but I'm miffed that there are entertainment reporters, who are entrepreneurs. There are businessmen who are reporters; they have clients and they are reporting the industry; it scandalises me. So, if that is the trend that is fairly popular, then I don't know what you guys are doing.'One important area of improvement in showbiz reporting, according to FAJ, is the language.'Language of the collection is not good. I love football; if I watch a match, I still have to go to BBC or the blog of the clubs to read the story; the report is virtually similar to what I watched. But when you go to a concert or a social event, and you read the report the following week, it won't look like the one you attended.'To him, most showbiz reporters have turned themselves to columnists, thereby denying readers the opportunity of firsthand information.'People don't report; they just opinionate. You can create a column if you want to opinionate, but report the event. The essence of a report is for people that did not go, to read and assume that they were there. There should be element of passion in the job. The vision was there, but they are not following well.'As for retirement, 'I will just wait on God; everything I do now is like retirement. I love writing; it doesn't cost me anything. If it gets to your paper and you used it, hundreds of people will buy it. So, it helps me; it puts money in my pocket. I can't plan the next day because I'm totally given to God. I can't make resolution because it will fail, as they have been failing. My retirement is just watching out for what God wants me to do next.'In some quarters, it is believed that becoming born again affected FAJ's approach to the job. However, he lost a lot of friends for that singular decision.'I wasn't a bad person, but when God came into my life, everything changed. I stopped drinking and smoking; my health improved. In terms of writing, my skills improved; I became more careful about life. I lost all my friends, except people that are my Lifelines. You can't come to my house and ask for beer; there are certain things you can't say in my presence.'To some of his colleagues, the decision to serve God at the peak of his flourishing carrier seems like madness.'A lot of them thought I was mad. In fact, before I left Encomium, Gani Fawehinmi said to, 'God is making you mad.' To some people, who do not know what you are carrying, it is madness. A lot of people misrepresented me in areas I would have even benefited, but that's how God wants it.'FAJ's birthday wish is, 'for God to make me know him more and teach me how to express it well.
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