Ismaila Funtua: Why Abuja won’t forget him

It has been gratifying to note that nothing has taken any steam out of the controversial story of the rechristening of the NUJ house in honour of the late Isa Ismaila Funtua. I have received diverse responses across platforms on my article on the Funtua saga last week. There is but one mind in most of the reactions: Funtua was a good man who helped many journalists out of troubles from the IBB regime till the present. Even my respected boss and publisher of the premier newspaper in Abuja, Abuja Newsday, Malam Bukar Zarma responded from his Kaduna base. He sent a note to me this way:

Ismaila Isa Funtua loves above anything else to be known and seen as a pressman. But, unlike the likes of Mamman Daura, Adamu Ciroma and others, fate did not push him towards that path when it was still possible to become one. What he ended up doing; publisher, chair of a Governing Council of a journalism school, etc, is merely shutting the stable after the horses have bolted away! But, give it to him, he remained a keen friend and supporter of journalists to the very end. You will recall, Martin’s, that day in July, 1993, in the wake of the June-12th impasse, when the DSS raided our Wuse office, Abuja and you and myself had to go underground? You also recall that the DSS goons traced me to my farm in Kaduna? Well, you should not forget the role Isa Funtua played to get us off the hook. He went all the way to IBB and explained the dangers of their actions. He it was that took me from Cell and drove me to our office — after spending three days without bath or change of clothes…

This is the same background that must have influenced the NPAN big men, including pro-Funtua commentators such as our iconic Ray Ekpu.

A response by one of our brightest and the best, Mr. Kingsley Osadolor, former deputy managing director and deputy editor-in-chief of The Guardian and now NTA’s Good Morning Nigeria anchor thrilled me. He appreciated my institutional memory as a ‘detective’ but would like me to clarify two facts that may cause some datelines confusion in my article. K.O as he is fondly called in ‘Rutam House’ would like me to clarify that the offensive editorial, ‘Ibru: Time To Go’ in Funtua’s The Democrat had actually been published shortly before The Guardian on Sunday lead story: Inside Aso Rock: The raging battle to rule Nigeria, Sunday, August 14, 1994. He also would like me to note that Jackson’s School of Journalism, at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN) is the first Journalism Training Institution in Nigeria, and not the NIJ, Lagos. He should know better. Mr Osadolor wrote the exclusive story (Inside Aso Rock…) with his byline (name) as Editor of The Guardian on Sunday. He is also a first class graduate of the Jackson’s School of Journalism, UNN. Interpretation: The scoop of August 14, was the last straw, the Abacha government was waiting for to execute the agenda set by Funtua’s The Democrat.

My big brother, a master of scoops in his days as a reporter and a notable columnist, Mr. Eric Teniola who is now 70+called me last Sunday too ask the re-christening impresarios where they would like to put the iconic Henry Townsend who established the first newspaper in Abeokuta, Nigeria in 1859. This is the crux of the whole matter as so many have asked: despite the good that the amiable Funtua did to so many afflicted individuals and the funds he committed to the NIJ in Ogba and the bank grant he facilitated to build the NIJ house, Victoria Island, Lagos, how can he be more iconic than the icons such as Herbert Macauley, Ernest Sisei Ikoli, Adeyemo Alakija, Nnamdi Azikwe, Obafemi Awolowo, Lateef Jakande, Uncle Sad Sam, Amuka Pemu; M.K.O Abiola, Adamu Ciroma, Tight Rope Walker, Babatunde Jose, James Aboderin, etc? Let’s go back to the drawing board, lest we will face the wrath of history.

Meanwhile, I would like people who are interested in this Funtua and NPO saga to read the seminal views of Mr. Sonala Olumhense in his syndicated column last Sunday in The Punch and Daily Trust and Professor Olatunji Dare’s un-put-down-able piece on the issue. According to my big brother Olumhense who has always been worried about decline of independent journalism, Isa Funtua cannot symbolize Nigerian journalism. For Olatunji Dare, The gesture is ‘A misbegotten re-christening’.

…FCTA/FCDA Will Remember Him
While not a few would always remember the quite resourceful Katsina icon, Ismaila Funtua as a controversial ‘champion of press freedom’ and a successful construction contractor in Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory Government would forever remember the late Chairman of Bulet International Company as the man who artfully caused the rain to beat them in the nation’s capital they built without a befitting edifice of their own – 44 years on. This is the origin of the rain: on 28 May, 2007, the Obasanjo administration who had just a day to leave office, laid the foundation stone of a befitting FCTA Complex to be built by a construction giant, Julius Berger, Nigeria. Out-going FCT Minister then Malam Nasir el-Rufai who had done a good job had packaged everything. The site of the FCT edifice is located in the Abuja Master Plan but the FCT authorities had a Shakespearean complex: ‘whatever concerned us shall be last served’. Meanwhile, the building site isn’t far away from the office complex of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation and Foreign Affairs Ministry complex. The construction firm got the multi-billion naira contracts to build the two sprawling offices. So, his equipment were kept in some temporary shacks on the site of the FCTA’s proposed office complex. So, as soon as President Umaru Yar’Adua was sworn in, the Development Control Unit of the FCDA got cracking to clear the site for Julius Berger to begin work. But surprisingly, Malam Funtua rushed to the FCT High Court where the Chief Judge, Justice Lawal Hassan Gummi granted an injunction restraining FCT authorities from touching the shacks and the equipment at the site. Even the Abuja Chief Judge, now an Emir in a northwest state, ordered the arrest of the then Director of Development Control for contempt of Court. On October 28, 2009, a High Court of the FCT awarded the sum of N150 million worth of damages against the FCDA for demolishing the construction yard of Bulet International Limited. The court ruled that the 2007 demolition was illegal, unconstitutional and amounted to self-help. 13 years on, FCTA/FCDA hasn’t been able to access its site, no thanks to the powerful Funtua. Why won’t the authorities in Abuja name the Federal Secretariat in his honour since he built part of it?

I had wanted to write a note in honour of Mrs. Afolasade Adenola Omole, the beloved wife of the former Vice Chancellor of the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife and our Editorial Board Chairman, Professor Wale Omole. She was called home on July 15, 2020. I have found a better tribute from Professor Omole. Read on.

SADE, it is crushing for me to write this. Yet I must. We met over 47 years ago at a small private party on UNIFE campus. The beginning between yourself and I was ordained by God. Seeing you for the first time ever, I knew you were different. Without even talking to you, I intuitively decided and informed my friends that you were going to be my wife. My friends hardly believed me; but I had an inspiration that it was a message from above.

Simple, elegant, delicate with a very gentle persona. You got yourself a glass of drink, unlike most others and without attention, you gently folded a white serviette paper to form a coaster and placed your drink on a wooden stool. You then took a sip and covered the glass, I was totally impressed. You always paid attention to the minutest details around you. Ever so sensitive to everyone’s needs well above yours. Sade a rare gem you were!

Mama Alasho, who was our mother, was the only one that understood how fortunate I was. She always reminded me how much God loved me to have sent me an angel for a wife.

Your attitude was exemplary. Attitude was what determined your very high Altitude in life. It was your greatest endowment. You always made a difference anywhere and in anything you participated. Whenever you convinced yourself that there was no need, you would listen earnestly to learn or remain quiet. You were such a great listener. Honesty was your greatest asset, while Humility was your lifestyle. You were lover of Peace at all times. Contentment

Sade, I know definitely you were the only woman who could have lived with me all these years peacefully. You measured your words carefully, a deep thinker, very soft spoken. You demonstrated utmost contentment at every point in all our years together, whether it was turning down a more lucrative job outside the country, in order for the family to be together or giving up some measure of comfort for everyone’s general well being.

You were simply elegant, in your dressing, walking, talking and even sitting. Everything had to be done properly and thoroughly in the kindest possible way. There were no half measures with you.

Sade, I forever thank you in life and in death, for your deep understanding. You were not a material woman at all in this material world. You were very angelic.  Thank you so much for being there at all the critical times and decisions of our lives.
For Kindness Indeed, you were such a great blessing. Whether it was the family, inlaws, the Aluta Continua students or whoever came visiting, you insisted must be offered a meal. Even times I was not at home, you made them so comfortable. You served the most delicious meal in accordance with their choices.

Despite having two Masters degree, with one in English, you ensured the children were brought up speaking Yoruba, which was very important to me. Sade I THANK you.

God will bless you in death as He did in your lifetime. All you asked for always was a peaceful exit whenever it was time. God answered your prayers and you just slept off. Glory be to God in His majesty.
For humility, I never found anyone as humble as you. Anyone you met for the first time, you assumed was older than you, and addressed them as “Eyin” (plural) rather than “Iwo” (singular).

There is nothing like end of life between you and me. The chant “Until death do us part” was not relevant to us. Though you are physically gone, your soul remains with mine.

Sade, Good night.

Your Wale Omole.