Interviewed
by Benjamin Ngah
Around the
Ghana Street neighborhood of Bamenda The
Times Journal spotted one of the most venerated Journalists whose voice on
CRTV kept everyone fascinated; a man whose wittiness and demeanor pulled
everyone who came into contact with him even for the first time to like him and
sought to have a chart with him. Though on a deserved retirement, his views of
life and his frankness on issues ranging from journalism to politics are quite
exciting, thrilling and stimulating. For 15minutes, he granted this heart
breaking interview which everyone should read. Excerpts
Who is Charles Sama?
First of all, I will like to
thank you for having be a guest in your credible newspaper the Times Journal. I
will like to appreciate the job you guys are doing in the Times Journal in
terms of layout, language and the quality of news. In fact your paper is an
incarnation of good journalism. I would also like to say kudos to someone like John
Mbah Akuroh who also contributes in the paper. He is that kind of journalist we
need for vision 2035. That said, Charles Sama is a gentleman who hails from Oku
in Bui Division. I am a journalist who got retired about three years ago on the
31st of December 2010. I worked with CRTV which is a public media
for twenty nine years and I now try my hands in the private media. I work with
NDEFCAM radio where I am a consultant though I also go on the air, I present
news and I do just what journalism entails. That is just what I am now. I am
well married with three children.
Comparatively what do you think are the difference between
practicing as a worker in the public media and in the private media? What are
some of the challenges?
As a matter of
fact there is a big difference. For example, CRTV as a public outfit is being
sponsored by government but here in the private sector, you have to look for
the money from adverts else you cannot survive. If you do not look for adverts,
you cannot pay your staff and the business will crumble. I am a journalist, I
was not used to go and scout for adverts or things like that. People who did
marketing or advertisement are better placed to do that, but in the private
sector you are tempted to do all. I have had occasions to tell my boss that you
cannot use everybody to go look for adverts because not everybody has the
knowledge and expertise to do so. The challenges are that in the private
sector, you must work very hard else you will not get a stipend. I use to call
it pocket money and in my life time I was not use to spend small money but now
with five thousand in pocket, it looks like gold.
Another
challenge is that those who own the enterprises are sometimes not honest. Their
management is like opaque. At times they just tell you there is no money and
yet you do not know what they mean by there is no money. They are so ambiguous
and so ambivalent. Here you see
capitalism at work. One question how come you recruit people to work and yet you
cannot pay them. So there is this element of dishonesty at the level of the
private sector.
You never know
what comes in and what goes out. But since you have to get yourself busy, you
keep on while hoping. As I always say, when you work hard, you win the heart
and mind of the population and you start having adverts. Challenges are in
every domain but the bottom line is to work hard and be honest.
What would you be transferring to the young journalists that you
have made here by first of all making an appraisal of what you know about them
now and what they are up to?
I know that
here, there are many young people who have the potentials. You know in
journalism, you must have the potentials, the basic background knowledge and
the skills. In journalism you have to go through stages and in life every stage
takes you to the next stage and that is how you get experience. When you look
at NDEFCAM radio for example, you find people there who have the enthusiasm and
the skills and are ready to learn. They love the profession which is the basis
because when you love something, you then put in an effort to improve. I am
there to lay the foundation for the young people like we like saying in NDEFCAM
radio “the Radio of the new generation.”
I know some
people would be grumbling out there and saying, “That man left his mark at
CRTV, why is he coming to take the chicken fee reserved for some young man.”
But you must lay a solid foundation for the future. Journalism simply is
educating the people, entertaining them giving them the opportunity to
equivocally, precisely and clearly to understand issues happening in society
and persuading them to change their bad habits.
In terms of relevance and news content, when you compare the
public media and the private media, what would you say in the situation in the
private media especially in the North West region?
In terms of
content, I think the private media is doing a very commendable job. The news
generally is weighty. It is not skeletal. It has flesh and contrary to what
people might think make an extra effort to go and get the news from the source.
So they contribute enormously to in the growth of the society. They speak the
truth because if you do not speak the truth you lose credibility. So I think
they are doing a commendable job despite the harsh conditions under which they
work. Sometimes they even betray the tenets of the profession simply because
they want to survive. I think they have to be motivated and motivation should
not be misconstrued for bribery. You know there is what we call in journalistic
parlance courtesy. That is giving someone a glass of water or bottle of beer to
say “thank you.”
One of the trademarks of Charles Sama at both CRTV and NDEFCAM
radio has been his voice. That is what carries the whole message across to the
population and they describe you as the man with the golden voice and a media
guru. Would you say, is the voice nature or nurtured?
Yes, you have
nature and nurtured. They move hand in glove. You can have a good voice and do
not know how to use it and the other has a bad voice and knows how to use it.
They are many fellows at CRTV with a good voice but do not know how to use it.
You must work on your voice. This must be a conscious effort. You must work on
your articulation, pronunciation and eloquence. You must do some extra work. It
can be argued that every voice is beautiful but it all depends on how you use
it. Louis Armstrong, the famous musician adapted his music to the kind of voice
that he had and went so far with it.
You have been in this system for long and reported event since
the reintroduction of multiparty politics in Cameroon. How would you appreciate
the political landscape of Cameroon at moment?
I am not very
happy with it. Even though I would tell you that we enjoy peace in Cameroon, we
do not really have peace. Can you have peace when you are unemployed? Can you
have peace when you go hungry? When children leave school and spend five years,
ten years without jobs and are always going back to beg for food from their parent,
we can say they have peace. Peace does not necessarily mean lack of war, there
is psychological peace. When you see stinking injustice, favoritism and
tribalism, how can you talk of peace?
Did you vote in the last elections?
No, I would not
waste my time voting when the results are known before hand. I last voted in
the 1997 presidential election and after a while I realized that there was no
objectivity in the political system. I do not trust it generally and I do not
pretend. I would not waste my time voting because elections in this country are
already a foregone conclusion. The powers that be do everything to frustrate
free and fair elections. I am talking as somebody who have observed the system
for thirty years and somebody who was there before Biya came to power. We have
listened to his numerous promises but many of them have not been kept.
