How & why The Guardian Post was created

By Kristian Ngah Christian in Yaounde

 

Ngah Christian

Trekking home in frustration after a disappointing job interview at Cameroon tribune in 2001, the crazy idea to start a newspaper crossed my mind. As I mulled in the sizzling heat of the sun over my chances of making it in the complex, complicated and poverty-stricken newspaper venture, I lost sight of a brewery distribution truck that was driving towards me. Within yards of crushing life out of me, the truck screeched to a halt.

Neither the screams from on-lookers and passers-by nor the insults from the truck driver could get me to weigh the enormity of the narrow escape from joining the heavenly-choir. I only found time to take-in the significance of that incident when I got home.

The dramatic events of that ill-fated day marked the end of an era of total dependence on Cameroon’s ailing job market and the debut of an epoch of self-dependence. And so within barely weeks after that experience, I summoned the courage to garner resources to get the first edition of The Guardian Post on the newsstands. That precisely was on August 30, 2001.

 We are proud to say and without any fear of being contradicted that thirteen years after that commencement, The Guardian Post has matured into a media product that has occupied more than a comfortable place in many news-hungry Cameroonian households.

Though at creation, it was entirely a one-man show, today, The Guardian Post is no longer about me alone. We are not just a team but a very formidable team. The alluring project has trudged valiantly on the path to journalistic excellence with unbending consistency-reputation in regularity, objectivity, middle-of-the-road editorial policy and quality.

Thanks to which The Guardian Post has easily emerged from the madding crowd as the most regularly-published and most widely-read English Language newspaper in Cameroon. It makes meaning to recall that the Bamenda-based authoritative weekly newspaper, Chronicle, just recently distinguished The Guardian Post with: “The Cameroon Leading English Language Newspaper Award.”

Notwithstanding the above, we have, just like any other human enterprise, had our own share of problems. Problems which I must insist are born out of jealousy and envy especially by our own Anglophone “competitors”. They have been doing all but with little success to throw tons of banana peelings on our way.

Their leg-pulling efforts even though might have succeeded to a little extent to hold us back have only given us time for great reflection and rejuvenation to bounce back stronger than ever with an unflinching zeal to remain as Anglophones’ leading and authoritative daily newspaper.

There is no denying the fact that we might have stumbled and fell on the banana peelings our detractors have been throwing. Heaven knows we tried because we stumbled and fell not out of our own making. Detractors and prophets of doom might have succeeded to keep us on the ground for some months but today, we are up. What matters to us is not that we fell. What matters is not even with those who pulled us to the ground.

Rather, we are preoccupied with the fact that we are up and will keep walking with more ardent determination to satisfy our readers and contribute to nation-building. We do so in the hope that lessons have been learnt by those who spend time strategizing to mess us up.

But while detractors are at work to thwart our efforts, we are pushing the frontiers further to maintain our most regularly-published and leading English Language newspaper position. This of course, is possible; especially with the streak of good luck lingering in the horizon.

Pushing our dreams beyond the confines of a weekly or bi-weekly newspaper is certainly a tall order. But, we are eager to march on boldly. We ventured into publishing The Guardian Post daily not because we thought we made it as a weekly newspaper. Far from it! We are simply driven by knowledge of the fact that it is easier for a horse to pass through the eye of a needle than successfully running a private daily newspaper in Cameroon. No doubt, we have endorsed the maxim that it takes tough people to get tough times going.

Make no mistake about it. Times have indeed been tough at The Guardian Post during the last thirteen years of our existence. Top government functionaries and regime booth-lickers have made it an open secret to us that so long as The Guardian Post continues to be critical of the Yaounde authorities, no single advert from any state institution would be given to us! These gloomy moments have been emboldened by threats from some who feel violated by our frank stance on burning issues. They might have caused us nightmares but their threats are vital to make us strong.

Others might have willed and wished us to run out of steam when we refused to play fiddle to their covert interests, but their vacillations taught us to survive.

But while the refusal by government institutions to advertise in The Guardian Post and threats from some quarters continue to knock at our doors, a lot of smiles have been put on our faces by our legion of ever-growing readers who have never relented in keeping the sales of The Guardian Post high. We can never sufficiently thank all those who wished us well and all our readers; spread in all of Cameroon’s ten regions. We can also not forget the remarkable contributions; both formal and informal, from illustrious social pundits and intellectuals who often rushed to the rescue with the kiss of life when oxygen ran out of supply.

      As we blow the candle on thirteen years of consistent journalistic excellence, it is our desire that the not-so-comfortable lessons learnt from history must take a holiday. We hope you share that dream!