Francis Doku: Yes-Sir-eee, Uncle Nab
When I was very young, and perhaps because of my love for reading articles by some of the best at the time, I always wanted to become a writer.
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Most especially, I wanted to become a columnist in the make of The Kwatriot, Araba Season, Merrari Alomele, Baffour, Joe Aggrey and Kwabena Yeboah.
When I found the arts, or rather when the arts found me, one person took my young mind into the space where actors, musicians and all who practice any form of arts back in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s had their works properly critiqued and I longed to do same one day.
The column in The Mirror at the time known as Backstage with Uncle Nab was one place you got the best form of arts appreciation and critiquing back then. Guess who wrote it? The current editor of Graphic Showbiz, Nanabanyin Dadson, who was then the go-to guy on arts at The Mirror.
I loved the humour and irreverence of the authors of Kwatriot and Baffour, but I fell in love with the no-holds-barred style and the truth with which the author of Backstage… tackled his subjects. He didn’t use big words and he didn’t kiss arse, he went straight for the jogular and he dealt with it appropriately. I wanted to be like this man when I grew up.
In early 1998, a couple of months or so after Graphic Showbiz had hit the stands and its popularity had been catapulted into the skies by the infamous Swedru sex scandal, I walked into the offices of Graphic Communications Group Limited and sought audience with the maiden editor of the paper, Mr. Emmanuel Lee Acorley.
I told Uncle Lee, as he was popularly known, that I had a strong desire to write about arts, culture, tourism and entertainment and so he should let me write for the Graphic Showbiz. Uncle Lee then asked me to go home and write something on any subject at all and bring it to him to have a look at and then we would decide whether I qualified to write for the paper.
I did as I was told and the rest, as they say, is history. That’s how I cut my teeth in showbiz reporting, arts appreciation, events review and the whole nine yards.
No sooner had Uncle Lee got me initiated into the showbiz circles than Uncle Nab, who was on leave, returned. This diminutive man who responded to every greeting from everyone with “yes-sir-ree” had some air around him that attracted many people. The then deputy editor of Graphic Showbiz came across as affable and yet strict.
Attraction
I will know the real Uncle Nab – the one with editorial gene inserted in him – when he edited my first work that found its way to his desk! The script came back differently from what I had written. It had been mutilated, butchered and practically decimated with red ink all over the paper.
Indeed, I would get to know, and so did all the people who worked under him, bar none, that he had his standards and your write-up must rise up to that. It didn’t matter if you were Professor Akilakpa Sawyerr, if you wrote a piece to be published in the Graphic Showbiz, Uncle Nab will edit it to meet his standard and you could swim in the Korle Lagoon for all he cared.
I recall one instance when Uncle Nab, who had become the editor of the paper changed an article written for the paper by one of its very earlier columnist Yaw Asare. The late Asare was a lecturer at the School of Performing Arts, Legon who used to write a brilliant column in the paper.
Previously his articles were published untouched, but when Uncle Nab sat in the editor’s chair, he edited it and Asare was not happy with that. Let’s just say he was told in no uncertain terms that his articles would be edited and if he didn’t like it he could stop writing. I think that put a death knell to what was a great column at the time.
Once when Uncle Nab was acting as the editor when Uncle Lee had gone on leave, he called me one day and said “Francis charley, these radio presenters get away with a lot of things, why don’t we create a column for you in the paper where you can bash them and praise those who do well?”
I hid my joy because unbeknownst to him, this was all I ever wanted to do, critique radio and TV shows, presenters and stations. “What do we call the column sir?” I asked. “We can temporarily call it Listening and Watching until we find a more suitable name,” he said. The name has remained so till date.
That was how come in July of the year 2000, two years since I had been writing for Graphic Showbiz, I got my own column where I could critique radio programmes in a no-holds-barred manner. A column that would bring me fame and vilification over the last 16 years. It all started from one man who wanted some standards to be set in the radio and television industry.
Uncle Nab is a very tough boss when there is work to be done and yet he is the most affable person when work is done. He is not the one to rain praises on you too much when you do a good piece of job, but you knew it when you have satisfied him with a piece. When you go for the work you presented for editing and the red ink is less spilled on the paper then you know that you passed a standard.
Commendation
Of all the time that I worked under him in the same space, it was only three times that he called me and said “Francis this is good.” In those days when musicians produced albums on cassette and CDs we used to do a lot of album reviews and on the three occasions that he commended me, I had done three great reviews of Castro’s maiden album, Esther Smiths Gye No Di album and Adane Best’s Maafio album.
Back when I was in the newsroom, Mondays to Wednesdays were days you would dare not monkey about. However, post production and editorial meetings on Thursday and Friday were days you could joke with your colleagues or even with the boss and not have your ear eaten.
I remember it like yesterday when every Friday, Uncle Nab will drive the entire office to a fufu joint and pick up the tab for our lunch. Places we visited for fufu include Cornet (both when they were at the Apollo Theatre and when they moved to Kokomlemle), El Gringo (the original place), that place close to the National Museum (where the boss always asked for zoo soup) just to name a few.
Back then there were young people like Zuleika Lorwia, Jayne Buckman-Owoo, Joe Antwi-Darko, Juno Abena Turkson, Evelyn Loh, Linda Safoa Antwi and others who either came for on-the-job training from the journalism school or on national service who enjoyed these Friday afternoon fufu trips. Those were fun days!
Since he took over as editor of Graphic Showbiz in 2001, there have been in all three main people who have worked with or under Uncle Nab as deputy or assistant editor – Nii Addokwei Moffat, Emmanuel Andam and Adwoa Serwaa Bonsu. They each contributed to the success of his 14 years in the seat of the editor.
So why am I going on and on about this no-nonsense arts critic, who has dedicated his entire life to the arts. Let me be blunt and say that Uncle Nab turns 60 and will be going on retirement in the middle of May and therefore will no more be the one running affairs at the paper.
I could say without a doubt that I am a protégé of Uncle Nab. Yes I had the talent to write and the fire in my belly to succeed at it, but if I have become finer today, it was through his mentorship.
You don’t push 30 years without some people recognising your efforts and so Uncle Nab has been the recipient of professional awards including the Artswriter Prize of the Ghana Ministry of Information (1986, 1988), GJA Arts and Culture Writer of the Year (1996), GJA Recognition Award for Journalism (2004) and MUSIGA President’s Choice Award (2015).
The story is told that in 2003 when Kwaku Sakyi Addo declined to accept the Journalist of the Year Award on that grounds that it should be given to someone else since he had won it before, the mantle fell on the board to choose between Komla Dumor and Nananabyin Dadson. It was a tough call, but they chose Dumor over Dadson. That’s how close an artswriter came to being named the journalist of the year.
For 30 odd years, he has been strutting the arts turf both as a practitioner and a critic.He may be a relatively short man, but he will leave big shoes to be filled by his successor. It is my hope and prayer that whoever takes over from Nanabanyin Dadson (and I have no doubt that it would and should be Adwoa Serwaa Bonsu) as editor of Graphic Showbiz will chart a path that will make the work that this man has pumped into the paper worth his while. Take a bow, boss!
Twitter: @TheGHMediaGuru