How I got a foreign correspondent offer

I am often asked how to get signed on as a freelance correspondent for international news organisations. In this article published in Stop Press Newsletter in 2004, I explained how I became the Nigerian correspondent for a News Agency in Kenya. The article is published below: Sometime last year, I got an email from the editor of a US based magazine containing the bulletin of All Africa News Agency in Nairobi Kenya. After reading through the particular story she wanted to draw my attention to, I read through the whole bulletin made up of news and features. What immediately struck me was that although the publication was supposed to be continental in coverage, it had nothing on West Africa. Based on what I had learnt about seeking opportunities for international reporting, I checked on past editions of the news service and confirmed that coverage of West Africa was rather shallow. My suspicion was that the agency had no correspondents in the region like East, Central and South Africa which stories dominated the bulletins. I immediately sent a mail to the editor of the news service whose address was included in the bulletin. I commended him for the good work he was doing, but noted the poor coverage of West Africa. It took almost a week to get a reply from him. He admitted the need for more reports from West Africa but said he was still searching for a freelance correspondent for the region. Because the service was largely charitable in nature being a funded project, he said their payment for stories was as low as 10 dollars per story and 50 dollars for features published in their weekly service. Since the stories did not require much financial cost, I agreed to write for the agency. More than for the money, I considered writing for the news agency as an opportunity for exposure of my writing since materials from the weekly bulletin are reused by other international agencies. Due to my other commitments, I managed to send twelve reports in about two months which earned me 120 dollars. This money came in very handy to pay for the registration at a conference I attended in Nairobi in September last year. I could have earned more if I had written more stories and features. Most of my stories were reused on various International Agencies like allafrica.com, Aman News etc. The Internet is no doubt a goldmine waiting to be tapped by interested journalists. FAST FOWARD 2015: Since 2004, I have been hired as a freelance correspondent by other foreign publications with higher pay as much as $250 per story.

FLASH BACK: THE UNTOLD (UNPAID MEDIA SALARY) STORY

Nigeria journalists have done well reporting the plight of workers. The pathetic story of the media, however , remains untold. Lekan Otufodunrin and Theophilus Abbah in this piece published in June 1999 provide a glimpse of the true state of the media. The sole Administrator of Daily Times Newspaper, Mr. Peter Enahoro, is not known to be a religious person. However, at a press conference last month on the pathetic situation of his company, he had to resort to a biblical verse. " Even the Bible talks about the labourer deserving his wages", he said while sympathizing with his staff who were been owed about nine months salary. In a no-hold bared briefing, the veteran journalist on whose intelligence and integrity the distressed workers of Daily Times depended for the revival and revitalization of the oldest newspaper in Nigeria, threw up his hand in brazen surrender to failure. His words " two and half years ago, when I returned to the Daily Times after an absence of thirty years, I was hailed as the man who had walked on water.... (who) had come to restore the Daily Times to its old glory. It has not happened". The situation in the company has become so bad that one of its editors at a recent worldnet programme organised by the African Independent Television (AIT) and the United States Information Service (USIS) at Alagbado, Lagos, introduced himself to the audience as an editor from the distressed Daily Times stable. It is not only Daily Times that is depressed. Concord Press, perhaps the highest paying media house in Nigeria before the June 12, 1993 presidential election, won by its late proprietor, Chief M.K.O. Abiola, is also distressed. Its staff were paid their November 1998 salaries in April 1999. Also at the Diet Newspaper, the story is that of sadness. Its proprietor, Chief James Ibori, now governor of Delta State, has apparently abandoned the organization. For several months now salaries have not been paid, while transport claims for reporters to cover their beats have been stopped. There are no off-cut or writing pads for reporters to write their stories.

At ThisDay Newspapers, the award winning newspaper, the situation is just a little better. Despite the huge volume of advertisements that the newspaper attracts, reporters are sometimes owed salaries for at least two months. It took a strike recently to get the management to pay salary arrears owed staff in April. The story is the same at African Independent Television (AIT) and RayPower.

It is difficult to establish the causes of distress in the media. However the greater part of it is attributed to greed and poor management. The story of one of the defunct media houses illustrates this. The publisher of the promising business newspaper was contesting the governorship of his home state, and the best source of fund was the newspaper's account. After owing his staff salaries for months, he decided to close the paper, saying he was using the money to fund his election campaign. The staff of the rested title have called in vain for justice to be done but all to no avail. At another media organization which was owing salaries for two months something dramatic happened. The publisher approved the payment of salaries one morning, and the pay-officer commenced the payment. After eleven employees had collected their salaries, the publisher sent an aide instructing the pay officer to stop the payment and give the money to the aide, who was detailed to change the "staff salaries" into dollars to enable the boss travel abroad!. At the Daily Times, a former Information Minister is being indicted for withdrawing huge amount of money from the newspaper account to sponsor his trips. This is the true story of media organizations which prefer to point out the speck in other people's eyes ignoring the log in theirs. In the spirit of dogs not eating dogs, journalists have been suffering in silence while shouting themselves hoarse over the inability of government to pay minimum wage. At the Sketch Newspaper for example, the average journalist salary is less than what is to be paid as minimum wage to civil servants. In one of the worst typical display of using and dumping journalists with the slightest regards to their right to decent living, the management of the Tribune Newspapers recently sacked more than half of its editorial staff. A few media organizations like The Punch, Vanguard, Tell and The Guardian deserve commendation for their attention to staff welfare but the general feelings among their workers is that they (media organisations) can do better considering the enormours profit accruing to them. The pathetic situation in the media deserves attention of all concerned as it has put journalists in a very difficult situation. We have graduate journalists who cannot pay their house rents or provide for their families because their salaries are unpaid. Some have to walk long distances to cover assignments and in due process be subjected to ridicule when they insist on "brown envelopes". The situation explains why very good hands are now searching for opening in other sectors where their lots could be bettered. No wonder standards keep falling. As the country begins in a democratic era where freedom from oppression, that journalists suffered under the 15-year military regime, is expected to thrive, let us pray to God to touch the industry and create positive change. Journalism is a noble profession. It is not a curse to be a journalist. Pray for Journalism in Nigeria so that it will be well with the profession.

Unpaid salaries: The Mobutu in media owners

As the Nigerian Union of Journalists continues its campaign for the payment of salaries of journalists owed for several months by various media houses, a renowned media scholar and columnist, Professor Olatunji Dare has written an interesting perspective on the matter. As part of his Tuesday Home and Abroad column in The Nation Newspaper of July 14 he wrote on what he subtitled Call it the Mobutu Principle. The piece is reproduced below: In Zaire, as the Democratic Republic of Congo was then known, word reached President Mobutu Sese Seko that enlisted soldiers who could not recall when they last received their salaries had mutinied. He summoned the mutineers from one military to his palace. “ I hear you are complaining that you have not been paid,” he said. The mutineers murmured in confirmation. Pointing at one of them, Mobutu asked,”What is that you are holding? “A rifle, Sir,” the subaltern replied. Mobutu pointed at another solider and put the same question to him. The same response: A rifle. “I have given you each an assault rifle and you are complaining about unpaid salaries,” Mobutu intoned with stunned incredulity. “What salary can be more assured than the rifle in your hand? The message was clear: Use what you have to get whatever you need. I will not be surprised if media people who have not been paid for months on end finally yielded to the temptation into which their employers had led them and used their columns and news holes and air time to fend for themselves, as indeed some of those selfsame employers had indeed urged them to do, I gather.

Vacancy: Writer/editor, freelancers

Quartz Africa, a business news outlet focused on African innovation, requires the service a writer/editor for a full-time employment in Lagos and freelancers in Nigeria. According an announcement on ijnet.org, journalists who have experience in business and economics reporting can apply for these positions. Suitable candidates must understand social media and have original ideas to tell the stories around Quartz's obsessions with the next billion people to come online and the innovation and disruption happening across the continent. For more information or to apply, contact Africa editor Yinka Adegoke at yinka@qz.com

Salary debts : NUJ gets three months pay for Thisday staff

Here is the update on the picketing of Thisday by the Lagos Council of the Nigerian Union of Journalists( NUJ) over non payment of staff salaries. " We succeeded in getting three months pay for Thisday staff on Wednesday evening while the remaining five months will be cleared by August . " The picketing exercise stands suspended. " Meanwhile, we are mobilising towards storming Daar Communications in a matter of days," Deji Elumoye, Lagos NUJ Chairman said in an email reply to my enquiry.

Breakdown of salaries owed by media houses

A number of media houses in Lagos are owing their staff salaries for many months. Here is a breakdown of the debt owed according to the Acting President of the State Council of the Nigeria Labour Congress Mr.Peter Adeyemi. Thisday Newspapers, nine months Africa Independent Television (AIT), 17 months Daily Independent, nine months Tell Magazine, eight months National Mirror and Newswatch Daily, seven months The News/PM News, nine months Daily Champion, 18 months Hallmark Newspapers, eight months Daily Times, six months

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