News is the staple diet of the curious and the pragmatic. The “need to know” transcends race, gender and nationality. Arise News supplied that demand until recent events stopped the information flow.
Arise, owned by Nigerian multimillionaire, Nduka Obaigbena, was founded in 2013 with the ambition of being the Afro-centric rival to CNN. Less than two years later, the network is in shambles and in debt.
Obaigbena is an enigmatic figure that rose from moderate circumstances to start THIS DAY, a popular Nigerian Newspaper in 1995. In 2008, revenue from THIS DAY was estimated to be $100 million. Fueled by his success, he announced in 2013 that he would begin a 24 hours news service focused on Africa with an inclusion of generic international news and entertainment.
The network was launched with quiet fanfare. Soon, viewers in London, Lagos, Johannesburg, New Zealand and New York were able to view news about Africa broadcast and staffed by a group that represented people of color including former newscasters who had worked for CNN such as Jeff Koinage.
Mr Obaigbena said: ‘We will attract a global audience interested in emerging markets, developing countries and evolving politics. With headquarters and bureaus throughout Africa, Asia, Europe and the Americas, we are ready to speak to our audience and give them a voice as well."
But no sooner than Arise, arose, it began to sink slowly into the sunset. Rumors of staff not being paid went from rampant to reality. Reporters and editors at the main outlet, THIS DAY staged strikes and threatened lawsuits. Obaigbena countered in a memo to staff sent April 4, 2013 wherein he promised to pay all outstanding salaries within 30 days. He blamed the salary problems on costly repairs that insurance policies didn't cover following an April 2012 suicide car bombing on the newspaper's Abuja office that killed three people and wounded others.
"No one planned for a terror attack in Nigeria and so we were left to fend for ourselves," Obaigbena wrote in April.
Despite his self-declared good intentions to improve the image of Nigeria, the reports of his failure to pay staff and suppliers continue to plague him. Arise International, has seen staff unpaid in London. He failed to pay war reporters who were involved in recording the bombardment of Gaza in 2014. Employees are often paid two or three months late, and only under duress. Payments of more than $10,000 are overdue by between six months and two years.
Locally, staffers at Arise in New York had not been paid since May 2015 until a long-awaited windfall arrived on October 7. Salaries owed ranged from a low of $2,000 to a high of $45,000 according to workers who have requested anonymity. Approximately 100 people were impacted. It is alleged by some that those monies were withdrawn from Nigerian Banks that imply that his accounts are in the red.
Nduka Obaigbena, is living on debt, according to his lawyer, Samuel Zibiri. Zibiri disclosed this on May 7th while responding to a Garnishee Order in respect to N19,723,854.61 and N200,000.00 in a judgement debt entered against Mr. Obaigbena and Leaders and Company Limited in a suit instituted by Paul Ibe, a former editor of THISDAY
Obaigbena's trail of debt extends to suppliers also. The Arise production house in New York was shut down for non-payment of rent as of September 3, 2015 and the London broadcast was simultaneously denied delivery by the digital platform service, Freeview.
But despite his financial woes, Obaigbena has been able to maintain a financial status quo befitting a king.
While maintaining a villa in Lagos and a penthouse at the Ritz Carlton in Washington D.C., he was able to garner the finances for a stay in NYC in September at the NY Palace Hotel where rooms start at $400 per night. In addition, he sponsored the annual Lifetime Achievement Awards gala event, held on September 6th in Nigeria featuring honorees who are awarded for their contributions to that country. This year, those honorees included former US secretary of defense, Chuck Hegel and former Central Intelligence director, Robert Michael Gates.
In 2011 and 2012, Obaigbena paid former US President Bill Clinton $1.4 million for speeches made on behalf of the THIS DAY publication.
Although according to Obaigbena's lawyer, Sam Zibiri, he is “living on debt”., that debt has managed to fund the site of a new Arise production studio located at second avenue and 47th street. It is scheduled to begin operations in New York on October 12th, 2015. The "debt" also provides his own private jet.
But according to him, it's all about business and it's frailties:
“Let’s be honest. There’s not a business anywhere that is without problems. Business is complicated and imperfect. Every business everywhere is staffed with imperfect human beings and exists by providing a product or service to other imperfect human beings. “
Thus, the people who toil to fund the Obaigbena empire labor with uncertainty. And the promises of a man who once identified himself with the struggling masses are slowly fading into the archives of yesterday's news.