It was just after I stepped out of the Jumma Mosque this afternoon and reached for my phone that I came across the sad and shocking news of the passing away of my mentor, Chief Timawus Mathias.
The last time we got together face-to-face was in December last year (2021) when a group of former NTA Yola staff decided to have a reunion and celebrate the local NTA station that produced and moulded some great names in television journalism and television production.
Unbeknownst to us, the gathering would turn out to be not just a merry-making event and for exchanging banters with old colleagues, but a real postmortem and eulogy on the professional life of our mentor, Chief Timawus Mathias, nearly nine months before his death.
In a gale of tribute that almost moved him to tears, dozens of former staff showered encomiums on the former General Manager who was visibly overwhelmed with emotions and acknowledged that he didn’t see that coming, but was grateful that his contribution was appreciated.
I personally told the story of how he changed my fate in 1979 by recruiting me as a news reporter with the then newly established NTV Yola. I was on my way to Kaduna to take up new appointment with the FRCN Kaduna, when fate deemed it othetwise.
It was around nine o’clock in the morning when I set out in the company of a good friend, the late Alhaji Abdulrahman Pate, Kaigama Adamawa, who was senior programmes producer with FRCN, Kaduna.
I had few months earlier, underwent a three months course in Basic Reporting at the Federal Radio Training School, Kaduna. Our course Principal, Khalifa Baba Ahmed, convinced me that I was good enough to transition from my job as Information Assistant with the defunct Gongola State Ministry of Information, Yola, to join the FRCN and later NTV Kaduna.
On several occasions during my training period, I worked as continuity announcer, mentored by Alhaji Abdulrahman Pate. In fact, it was the late Kaigama Adamawa and elder brother to Professor Umar Pate, the current Vice Chancellor of Federal University, Kashere, Gombe State, that put pressure on me to accept the new job in Kaduna.
As I bade goodbye to Yola and relaxed in the front passenger seat with Abdulrahman driving, he suggested that we drop-by the NTV Yola main temporary office on Mubi Road to say hello to his former colleague and friend, Alhaji Ahmed Abdulkadiri Tafida, who was redeployed from NTV Kaduna to kick start the new station, along with Chief Timawus Mathias.
When AA Tafida, as he was fondly called, heard my story, he said I was not leaving Yola. He called “Oga” Timawus, who was the head of news and current affairs and introduced me. And they both insisted that they had just started staff recruitment and with my background as information officer and the training I recieved in Kaduna, I would be perfect in the newsroom as one of just three other news assistants they have already recruited.
That was how I became one of the few pioneer staff of NTV Yola. It would be almost four to five months later before the station started broadcasting. It took time for the transmitter to arrive from France and be mounted. Luckily, the Outside Broadcast (OB Van) that was the temporary continuity operating room was brought just in time to be married and tested.
With tons of interest and hardwork and dedication as my watchword, it took no time before I became one of Chief Mathia’s favourite reporters and newscasters. In the early days of the Barde administration, I was virtually embedded to the Government House. I also had the privilege of being assigned to cover high profile personalities and events.
When President Shehu Shagari visited Yola to lay the foundation ceremony of the Shagari Quaters and also visited Jalingo, Oga Tim assigned me to cover the President’s activities. I came back early enough to write the news, and was the newscaster on the 7:00 pm Channel 8 News, of which the broadcast was relayed to the NTA Network live through the Domesat and later made the top headline on the 9:00pm Network News – all thanks to the team leader.
I also told the story of how creative and innovative Chief Mathias was. The occassion was the swearing in ceremony of Alhaji Bamanga Tukur as Governor of Gongola State on October 1, 1983. He assigned me as the lead commentator of the semi-live event, assisted by the late Mika’ilu Hamman. The OB Van was deployed at the Ribadu Square and we sat at a specially elevated podium from where we ran the commentary. The entire event was being recorded and every 30 minutes, the tape would be rushed to the station for transmission. For our viewers, it was live transmission and they did not miss a bit.
Chief Mathias also anchored the popular political programme Verdict 83 that made made him a household name in the country.
The story of my working relationship with Chief Timawus Mathias is a long one and only a book of several hundred pages can accomadate all. I will surely miss him. We will all surely miss him. His demise is a great loss to not just Adamawa, but the nation at large and especially the broadcast community.
At the December 2021 reunion, we recommended for the naming of the NTA Yola station after him, which was approved by the management of the NTA headquarters, Abuja.
It is however yet to be implemented. It was to his credit that the main building and the entire premises was gifted to the NTA by the defunct Gongola State Government. I hope that this should be done in earnest to immortalize him.
May his soul rest in peace.
- Iyawa is a former Nigerian Ambassador to Mexico
