The only reason I can think of that made the then Managing Director, MD, Katsina State Radio and Television Services, KTRTV, Ibrahim Hamisu, transfer me from the TV to Radio section was because he wanted people he had worked with closer to him; he had been a radio man all his working career and was the General Manager, GM, Katsina State Radio before he became the MD when the two stations were merged under one management.
The TV section was the headquarters of both the Radio and TV stations from where the MD administered the two stations.
The reason upon which his conscience relied to convince him to transfer me was really nothing I could be blamed for.
It so happened that on that fateful day, the newscaster failed to turn up to cast the day’s news. Now this is a taboo in the broadcast media. It’s an unpardonable offence for the news to fail for whatever reason. But I don’t see how I could be blamed for that offence. For one, although I was the Manager News, the newscaster was a presentation staff under the programmes department, not news department which I headed. For another, the news department had done its duty by producing the news bulletin.
But because the MD was looking for a reason to shift me from that position, he seized the opportunity and made it look as if I was to blame. And because he knew it wasn’t my fault, he couldn’t even query me but simply eased me out and brought over his candidate, late Ibrahim Murnai Saulawa, from the radio section to take over my position (Ibrahim later became the GM Radio and I became the GM TV, when the two stations were separated). And the culprit newscaster ended up not being punished because he brought some people who lobbied the MD on his behalf.
Since the day the MD transferred me, I became his in-law of a sort. Wherever we met, he couldn’t look at me in the face. And from that day, I made up my mind to find another job. How I was going to do it, I had no idea at the time, but my mind was made up.
I took the whole issue in my stride, without complaining. I went back to the radio, not as Manager News, but under the Manager News, Shehu Ibrahim Bakori, as he was my senior. To console me, I was made the Head of Current Affairs Unit. I immediately created a magazine programme which I produced weekly. In addition, I was one of the news editors.
One of our sources of news to produce the news bulletin included newspapers. About five months at the radio house while going through the newspapers to produce the day’s bulletin, I came across an advertisement for vacancies at the National Broadcasting Commission, NBC. Without hesitation, I applied. Within a month, I was invited for interview. I attended the interview and within another month, I was offered a job by NBC. How I got the job without any Godfather is a story for another day.
But I can still remember it was Sani Garba Kuringafa, the current GM, KTTV, who brought the letter of appointment to me at the radio house from the TV house. He even joked and asked whether it was an employment letter, to which I smiled. I opened it in his presence and, indeed, it was. He was the first to congratulate me.
I took the letter to the MD and showed it to him. He immediately jumped up and said, “NBC? My congratulations, Malam Ahmad. I’ll never be in your way. Go and decide whether you want to transfer your service or go on secondment, I’ll endorse it for you”. He was probably trying to make up for what he had done to me. So I transferred my service.
As fate would have it, three and a half years later, I was appointed the General Manager of the TV station. And guess what? the MD that removed me from the station had retired at the time. And soon he came to ask for a favour from me, to which I gladly obliged.