TRIBUTE: How Solomon Serwanjja and I became the dynamic news duo

Bits of ME

If I tell you that Solomon and I were friends from the moment our eyes locked, I would be a liar.

We were fire and ice. Whenever he would try to light me up, I would put him out! For those diagnosing our first interactions, it seemed our pairing was destined only for disaster.

Lethal tongues wagged as we battled each other. I would swing at his ego that tried to unseat mine. He believed I was a misfit in his colourful news world.

When the cameras were on, it was magic but when the off button was pressed, it was war!

We just didn’t exist in each other’s world –yet we needed each other to be the enviable on-air couple (incidentally- it was the only fantasy we shared).

How were we going to work together? PASSION…

For it coiled the demons, and lit-up our aspiration ‘to be the best’ The passion for the flair was there but the partners to steer it were worlds apart.

Conversation on the strength in our differences is a remarkable asset in extinguishing conflict, yet it often eluded Solomon Serwanjja and I until we finally accepted that what makes us uniquely different as ‘news artists’ may actually be our mine gold (strength).

Today as I say ‘ciao’ to my mate Solomon Serwanjja embarking upon his new journey, I can strongly follow it with; "We did it, mate…our anchoring duo was epic…Ulala!"

Yes, you can too!

Bits of YOU

Perceptions often blindfold us from opportunities in front of us.

"I had heard that you’re a tough person, anti-social; I thought you had ‘lugezigezi’(wiseacre) and I imagined ‘she is hard to deal with’ and it would be hard to anchor with you! That is the perception I had towards you," Serwanjja once revealed.

The ‘magnetic duo’, like many fans often dubbed notwithstanding, he admits ‘we fought and people didn’t even know we used to quarrel offset’.

"We were at a different equilibrium having come from different wave lengths” he recalls, “but ultimately with time we found ourselves: understood each other’s weaknesses, worked more on our strengths and also complemented each other and hide each other’s weaknesses.

To allow a window in our lives where criticism of one another is accepted is pure gold! ‘It’s okay for your colleague to critic you…Somehow we rebuked each other to even be better.

Thinking that you are going to outshine the other defeats double anchoring.

Leaning on each other’s shoulder for six years since 2015, Serwanjja and I co-anchored NBS TV’s prime news bulletin LiveAt9 but he had for 14 years immersed himself in the trade as a radio presenter, investigative reporter and News Anchor.

The boy whose dream was to be a doctor and had been a science major throughout his education career had been dragged, almost against his own will, by his natural love for journalism.

In telling stories, he dared to go where many dread. In 2019, Solomon Serwanjja won the BBC World News Komla Dumor Award for outstanding individuals living and working in Africa with strong journalism skills, on-air flair and exceptional talent in telling African stories.

Fourteen years later, Serwanjja is the executive director of the African Institute of Investigative Journalism purposed to enrich the vineyard of investigative reporting at home and the mainland.

"It is the right time to concentrate on this baby and grow it more, nurture the next Solomon Serwanjjas and live a legacy…’ Serwanjja said about his decision to leave NBS TV.

"…. Who knows the world of television is open, maybe one day I’ll make a comeback."

For now, though, Serwanjja’s dream today, for tomorrow, is a futuristic investigative journalism 20-acre complex built to lead from the front. One of the halls in the facility is called the Solomon Serwanjja Hall....

Ulala! what a way to ‘ornament a wall of fame’ for a deserved candidate. With a successful media career that has been dipped in humility and hard work, I see him live the reality of this new beginning, don’t you?

My parting shot to my mate is, "Make that step if you feel it is the right time to jump and never regret the decision that you’ve made Solomon Serwanjja."