OBITUARY: Maida, Buhari’s ex-spokesman and media giant who co-signed Funtua’s condolence

As a popular saying goes, “everybody knows death is inevitably coming, but it never fails to catch everybody by surprise.” Nothing better captures such surprise as the case of Wada Maida, who weeks ago co-signed the condolence statement the International Press Institute (IPI) issued on the death of Isa Funtua, former president of the Newspaper Proprietors Association of Nigeria (NPAN).

Funtua died in Abuja after a brief illness on July 20, 2020. His death was so shocking that Ben Murray-Bruce, a former senator, who said he spoke with him three hours before the news of his demise broke, said the deceased promised to call him the next day.

Maida’s death was as sudden as that of Funtua, who drove himself to the hospital where he drew his last breath. As for Maida, he slumped in his living room in Abuja after a return trip from Katsina. The media icon lived most of his life associated with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) which he joined as a pioneer editor shortly after the agency was established in 1976.

He was also close to the corridors of power, serving once as chief press secretary to President Muhammadu Buhari when he was the military head of state between 1983 and 1985.

LIFE AT NAN ABROAD AND IN THE BOARDROOM 

The late Maida had a towering career at NAN where he served as zonal editor between 1978 and 1981. He later relocated to London as NAN’s foreign correspondent, overseeing western Europe, a position he held from 1981 to 1983 when Buhari, as head of state, appointed him his chief press secretary.

Upon completing that assignment in 1985, he returned to NAN as the agency’s editor-in-chief and in 1994, he was appointed its managing director. He served in that capacity until 2003 when he bowed out.

His “second coming” at NAN was in 2017 when the president appointed him as the chairman of the agency’s board of directors. Only last year, the board under his leadership set up five new departments at NAN to enable the agency “adapt with evolving trends in the media industry.”

While speaking after the agency’s board members met in Lagos, the late Maida had said the board took the step to make NAN “come up with speed in terms of modernisation” and take advantage of the revenue generation potentials in those sectors.

REACHED ‘THE PINNACLE OF QUALITY, INDEPENDENT JOURNALISM’

In June 2019, Maida was elected into the executive board of the International Press Institute (IPI), a global network of editors, journalists and media executives “who share a common dedication to quality, independent journalism.”

At the time, he had been a long-time member of IPI national committee in Nigeria and a member of the institute since 1999.

In a condolence message on Tuesday, Markus Spillmann, IPI executive board chairman, described Maida as a “great asset to journalism and press freedom in Nigeria,” saying his death is “a huge loss to the global IPI community and journalism in Nigeria.”

Long before he was elected into the executive board of IPI, Maida had become a leading figure in Nigeria’s media landscape. Apart from being chairman of NAN board of directors, he was president of the Nigerian Guild of Editors; chairman of Peoples Media Limited, publishers of Peoples Daily Newspaper; and chairman, Daily Trust Foundation (DTF).

As far back as 1971, he graduated from the Nigerian Institute of Journalism (NIJ) before proceeding to study at the United States-based Indiana Institute of Mass Communication, where he graduated in 1975.

PREPARED THE GROUND FOR GARBA SHEHU TO SERVE ATIKU

The late Maida played a key role in the first meeting between former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar and Garba Shehu, spokesman of President Muhammadu Buhari, in 2000. 

In an interview in 2013, Shehu, who was spokesman to Abubakar until 2015, narrated how Maida influenced him to make “an instant buy-in” into Abubakar’s activities as vice-president.

According to him, Abubakar ran into trouble with northerners after he kicked against Shari’ah which was declared by some states in the region.

He recalled: “My senior brother and mentor, Alhaji Wada Maida, the then Managing Director of the News Agency of Nigeria, NAN, called me to a meeting of a media strategy group under the National Democratic Project, NDP, an office set up by the Political Adviser to the VP, Dr. Usman Bugaje. 

“When he met us, the VP did not mince his words in telling us that he had a problem and said he needed us to assist him. These words, “please help me” touched me deeply and made me make an instant buy-in.”

‘HOW CORRUPTION CAN BE STOPPED IN NIGERIA’

As a veteran journalist, Maida was of the opinion that as the watchdog of the society, it is only investigative journalism that can rid Nigeria of corruption. 

Speaking during a training programme for journalists, the late Maida had said the only way the media can help fight corruption in Nigeria is through digging beyond news at the surface level, “especially at a time the nation’s commonwealth is being hijacked by few individuals.”

“Investigative journalism makes an impact in society and engenders change. Although many say it is a deadly zone; it is the only form of journalism that can rid Nigeria of corruption and bring the needed change,” he was quoted to have said.