By Bill K. Jarkloh
Oh death, why cannot you run away? You know everyone fears you – Why should we then do to avoid you? My thoughts were plagued with these words that state nothing but a myth, since the inevitable cold hands of death snatched away a celebrated broadcast journalist, a profound statesman, a legal erudite, an administrator and an academician, Professor Joe Wolorbah Mulbah.
But yes, death is indeed inevitable. Over the years, there is no doubt that this unavoidable melancholic agent of the 'Great Beyond' has built a community of Liberian journalists beyond the veil. In that community are acclaimed journalists like Rufus Darpoh, Bill Frank Enoyi, Stockton Peabody, John Vambo and John Elliot. No! Those are not all; there too is Nigerian trained prolific writer Ebenezer Wureh Worrison, BBC Correspondent Klon Hinneh, The INQUIRER's roving reporter Emmanuel Nah, Bobby Tapson of The NEWS, Attes Johnson of the Daily Observer and the list continues.
Why has death continued to ruin our profession? On Friday, the 18th of November, my thoughts were preoccupied, as though it's a possibility, a declaration of war against death for the unforgettable pains its piercing swore has caused the media - having listened to a Radio VERITAS broadcast that broke the death news of the famous journalist and patriotic. I was stunned by the breaking news though, I momentarily rediscovered myself as the details of the newscast unfolded about the demise of Chairman Mulbah of the Department of Mass Communication under whose tutorship and guidance I was awarded my undergraduate degree in Mass Communication and Sociology.
Surely, I would have blown the horn for the declaration of war against Death like a field marshal for such a mischief to which one of the supreme generals of the inky fraternity has fallen. Burning with frustration, I painfully listened to the radio narrating that the setting of this sad event was the Duside Hospital.
Oh impossibility, why defeateth thou me at the frontline of preventing the irreparable losses journalism suffer in Liberia? Truly, reality realizably prevails over the imaginary. So as I look about myself, I realize that mobilizing the inky fraternity to warfare against death was not possible. I was therefore left with the option of first trying the phone number of the fallen professor. It was of course dead as the LoneStar GSM reminded me at each call trial that “The LoneStar cell you are calling is at a switch off or out of coverage area.”
Oh no! Is this real? Has Prof. Mulbah truly join ranks with those in the “Great Beyond?” I then continue to verify. I started calling professional colleagues, some of whom confirmed the striking news. The following day I hurried to the Department of Mass Communication at the University of Liberia. There an aide to the fallen professor, Comrade Seyon Kieh, further confirmed to me that Prof. Mulbah joined the other colleagues beyond the veil.
Hmmmmmm!!!!!! I took a deep breath with a moment of recollecting my encounters with him. I remember that shortly before the elections, he and some Ghanaian authors wrote African Election manual. This his Ghanaian counterpart sent him an email he could not easily access. I remember he gave me his laptop to download the message from the Ghanaian Colleague of his, and dictated to me a short reply that I sent through his Yahoo account.
The late Prof. Mulbah was always fond of soliciting my opinion on national issues. Just in October on the day of the first round of the elections when I was in the heart of Lofa to train some community radio stations, Prof. Mulbah called me on his mobile phone and asked of me my opinion on what would possibly be the result of the presidential race. I responded thus: I believe there will definitely be a second round. “Why do you think so”, he further asked me. “Because of the plurality of the election for the presidency. The presidential race had 16 candidates. Therefore, producing an absolute result of 50 percent and one vote was logically impossible,” I explained to him.
I further told him, “I believe the second round round will be between the governing Unity Party (UP) and the mainstream opposition party, the Congress for Democratic Party (CDC).” He interjected with a question: But don't you see the CDC winning narrowly, considering the crowd it pulled at its rally at the ATS – meaning Antoinette Tubman Stadium - shortly before the elections?” “No prof! Crowd-wise, both CDCians and UPists have pulled almost equal crowds at their respective rallies.
Regarding the question of narrow victory, it would be obtained only if the race was not flooded in addition to the equally crowd the two leading parties pulled at their pre-election rallies. This is because the rest of the contestants too have their respective followers that possibly will rob either of the two leading parties a narrow win in the first round,“ I told him. The last statement I heard from him was, “Brilliant analysis!”
Consequent to this mobile conversation, I fruitlessly called the Professor's phone to chat with him on results of round-one of the polls for the presidency announced by NEC – the National Elections Commission. Again LoneStar GSM kept reminding me that the phone was at a switch-off or out of coverage area. It was thereafter that the news of his demise was broken while I had just return from work on that fateful Friday, November 18.
Surely, like he did in the lives of other colleagues, Professor Joe Wolorbah Mulbah touched my personal life. He was my guidance during my last days of undergraduate studies at the University of Liberia. He was even my instructor during my pursuit of a Certificate in Print Journalism. In fact through out my college education, he taught me Public Relations and Broadcasting. It was partly based on the knowledge he inculcated into me that I edited several papers, splendidly performed as Executive Officer for Information at a foreign embassy accredited near Monrovia for more than five consecutive years and has been able to train community radio stations across the country.
During my 21 years of encounter with the late Joe, as he was affectionately called by his contemporaries, I admired his passion for journalism, his love and interest for the brilliance of students of the Department of Mass Communication, his statesmanship and patriotism with which he ably reconciled a divided Liberian media.
I started active journalism in 1985. The breed of journalists at those early days of my career life are, in most cases, executives of contemporary Liberian media. At the time, plunderers of state resources, corrupt bureaucrats and military dictators were critical of the media. Often, journalist were referred to as “mere high school graduates” interested in soliciting bribes. This was an overstatement then, anyway, because bureaucrats themselves were dishing out money to the young journalists for cover-up of their misdeeds and for the makeup of their obscured images.
Journalists that stood for principle were branded unprofessional and agents of blackmail. The reference of unprofessionalism bordering on their level of education was only intended to coerce them to subjection to praise-singing. I clearly remember when the Defense Minister of the time, Gray D. Allison, referred to journalists as “bableh”, a Southern Liberian word referring to a species of fish preyed on by wild species of fish.
Professor Joe Mulbah, a former presenter of the “Window on the World“ Program on the ELWA, and other senior journalists of interest then took seriously the imperatives for higher professional education that could curtail this robust criticism of young journalists by bureaucrats. They prevailed on the Department of Mass Communication of the University of Liberia to inculcate into its curriculum, a compressed one-year certificate course for working print and broadcast journalists, of which I am a beneficiary.
Accordingly, Professor Mulbah taught Public Relations/Public Affairs reporting at the time. Frankly, the course upgraded the skills of the young journalists and delivered unto them the mantle of middle-level media leadership; the serious minded ones took editorial positions with various media outlets.
Passion drives people to going beyond the seeming impossible. A radio station that was required for practical broadcasting, could not be achieved by the Department at the time though; the station is now broadcasting through the instrumentality of Professor Mulbah after he took over the Department of Mass Communication as Chairman. During the One-Year certificate program, the need for a University Radio Station was inevitable for practical for broadcast students. Unlike those who read broadcast journalism during the program, print journalism students had the Varsity Pilot Newspaper providing them the opportunity to practicalizing their studies.
Notwithstanding, Professor Mulbah's assumption of the Chairmanship of the Department of Mass Communication chronicled the establishment of the first university radio in Liberia to host Mass Communication students. The fallen professor wrote and follow up proposals to UNESCO for the radio which is now called LUX FM 106.6 now broadcasting to the Liberian publics. .
“My dream is to make sure that a television station is attached to this station - LUX FM,” Prof. Mulbah told me during one of our chats at his office. But he expressed misgiving about the way his dream was being thwarted by the University of Liberia authorities. He said the UL Administration instead have opted to remove the LUX FM from the Department of Mass Communication to the Department of Public Relations. In his opinion, the LUX FM and the conceived university television station should remain under the Department of Mass Communication because it is the arm of that institution that trains students of journalism – print and broadcast journalists. He wondered why the University is fighting to take over the radio station, without contending for the Varsity Pilot in like manner.
“The LUX FM being controlled by the department of Mass Communication does not stop, in any way, the University administration from using the radio if it wishes to,” Prof. Mulbah contended. He said to me, “In the first place, removing the station to the Public Relations Department will throw into question its purpose for which UNESCO had supported its establishment; besides, the concept of objectivity with which every journalist must operate when it comes to training the students will be lost as a training component if the station should solely broadcast PR materials.” He then rhetorically asked: Do you want students to be trained on a radio station which is a Public Relations tool and will not be objective? He then challenged us, alumni, to rise up to defend the stay of the radio station under the Department of Mass Communications.
The professor was a disciplinarian who wouldn't give anyone a free ride at his lesson. He in fact made me to repeat Comm 313 for failing to take a quiz he administered when I was not in school due to my office engagement at the Embassy of Ghana. “Bill I cannot manufacture the grade for that serious quiz. I will be cheating those who sat for it. Re-register the course to clear it,” he advised me. And surely I registered that course and cleared it under Professor Weade Kobbah-Wureh.
Before he assumed the Chairmanship of the Department of Mass Communications, Prof. Mulbah served as Minister of Information, Culture and Tourism over a divided media in the country. The Liberian media was divided between “Greater Liberia” of former Liberian rebel leader Charles Ghankay Taylor and Monrovia Liberia then of the former Interim President Amos C. Sawyer. Notwithstanding the fact that Honorable Joe Mulbah was from the Greater Liberia divide, his posture as a Minister was reminiscent of a twin mother.
He successfully dealt with and reconciled journalists of both divides and ensure a united Press Union of Liberia under which all journalists were accredited members. “This was good statesmanship and symbolizes patriotism,” a female graduate of the Department of Mass Communication eulogized the memory of Professor Mulbah.
But life was so cruel to this fallen hero. The first blow he suffered was the death of Mrs. Doris Mulbah, his darling wife. Following that, his leg was amputated at the Duside Hospital due to diabetes.
He was not perturbed though by these melancholic occurrences in his life, he continued his academic engagements with the University of Liberia as Chairman of the Mass Communications Department. Besides, he ended his studies at the Louis Arthur Grimes School of Law At the University of Liberia and became an honored valedictorian for his class with a Bachelor at Law (LLB) Degree. However, Life has dealt a third first against him - taken him beyond the veil while his students and graduates gazing in the air for his replacement at the Department.
Oh professor Joe Wolorbah Mulbah, if an oracle that could bring you back alive was available, I believe that I could commit all that I have for now to the cause of bringing you alive. Yes, my eyes of faith have seen some lawyers and members of the inky fraternity standing out to support me in this venture for your resurrection. But oh no Prof, we love you but God loves you best. May the soul of this fallen hero and the souls of all faithful departed rest in perfect peace and light perpetual shine upon them.
