‘Broadcasting has opened a new world for me’

The Zaria-born indigene of Plateau State, in this interview, bared his mind on how he ventures into his new found love- broadcasting, how it has opened a new world for him and why his FM station is fast gaining acceptance in Abuja among others. What would you say is the idea behind WE106.3 FM?The idea […]

The Zaria-born indigene of Plateau State, in this interview, bared his mind on how he ventures into his new found love- broadcasting, how it has opened a new world for him and why his FM station is fast gaining acceptance in Abuja among others.

What would you say is the idea behind WE106.3 FM?
The idea of WE106.3 FM is to provide a platform for people who are intelligent and forward-thinking to be able  to discuss with each other progressively and find solution to problems. We noticed there was a communication gap to the extent that a lot of people are in the habit of just viewing issues sentimentally, as opposed to strategically.
So the whole concept is to get people together and let them start talking so as to trace the beginning of conflicts or issues,  look at where they are now and begin to proffer solutions. It is all about finding solutions to issues.

You anchor a programme called ‘Morning Mojo’. What is it about?
As a matter of fact, when the idea was first mentioned to me, it was very funny because of its name. It stemmed from the word “Mojo,”  meaning  morning power, the mystical power that we get in the morning.  Having that extra energy in the morning is basically what I do: wake people up very early in the morning  and get them prepared for what they are going to face in the day. It is a news and current affairs programme, focusing on society, lifestyle and a bit of entertainment. Interestingly, guests come to discuss topical issues that affect our daily lives. We cover just about every area.
From security, which has become a major problem to us now, education, which we feel is one of the long term solutions to our security, economic problems and just about every problem we have in the country today. We also discuss business, particularly the agricultural sector, which offers a great promise. It’s a bit instructional, helping  people to be able to access funds when they wish to and having them learn how to use those funds to grow their businesses.
We talk about how we can shift our economy from that of a consumer-based economy to that of producer based economy and we also talk about, instead of producing people-who will need jobs, why not produce people who will create jobs? We share ideas even on government and politics. We discuss our differences, we have our little national conference on the show every day. People call in  and they share their experiences and say how they feel.

How would you describe the response to your programme?
Oh, the response has been fantastic.  I will tell you the truth, when I first tuned on the radio, I didn’t  know what to expect. From the first day, that was on January 28, this year when I put on the microphone and I spoke to Abuja, they listened to me. They actually accepted us from Day One. As a matter of fact, we are said to be the first fast growing FM station in Abuja that has received that much acceptance within a short period of time. It has never happened before.
We started test transmission in December last year and started rolling out our programmes  with the ‘Morning Mojo’ that I’m anchoring. I’m the pioneer voice of that radio station. It was a heavy burden placed upon me because I had not actually done radio before. But I took the bull by the horn and, come what may, I felt blessed by the acceptance. Not only acceptance by way of quantity,  but by the numbers and quality of people who are calling in to join the conversation.
Many times I have had interviews in which I asked my questions. Before you know it, somebody would  call in with a different dimension and new perspective to the question and raising questions that I never thought of before, and it threw the discussion to another direction. I was actually surprised to find a lot of people hungry to have progressive discussion, not based on where they come from, tribes or religion, but are interested in unifying Nigeria and believed in Nigeria that works. We have skeptic, of course, who would tell you what is the use? But it is my believe that the more we talk the more we find common front.

You are a man of many parts. You were in print, graphics design, advertising, marketing communication and now in broadcasting. How did it start?
I’m actually not the first member of my family to go into broadcasting. My elder sister was in television. She started with the NTA and I have another sister who was also in television. I have been in print and advertising for many years. I run a printing press in Jos. But I have reached a point in my life.  After doing everything I thought I have reached a point in my life where there was no fresh challenge. It was more of the same every day, so I was in search of a new challenge. Somebody asked me, at my age where did I want to start from. I just turned 40 and why would I want to start a new career and Why move to a new direction?
But right inside of me it was not just about seeking profit for myself.  I believe when your time is about finishing you should be able to make meaning, inject something, give of yourself and make a difference in people’s life. That is what is most important to me and I get true satisfaction.

Are you saying print was not fulfilling to you?
I got to a place where it was not fulfilling to me. I was in commercial print and it was a choice really to go into publishing but later shifted to broadcasting.
After much thought, much meditation I decided to give it a shot, got reconnected with a friend who is the Managing Director of WE FM and he shared his vision with me and where he wanted to take this dream to. I felt it would be a huge honour to be a part of that dream and I made the choice, sometime last year, to go into broadcasting.  
This is business of connecting people I have introduced experts to people who have been struggling with education, with poverty or with one thing or the other and they have seen some difference in their lives. For me, there is no reward that is greater than that.

How was your first day like as a presenter?
Wow, everybody told me I did very well. They said I was calm and collected and that was what they liked most. Except that was not true, I might be calm and collected outside but inside my mind  it was like World War III. There are lots of technology at WE FM. I had in front of me three computers to process all the information.
At the same time I needed to be communicating with my producer and I had to listen attentively to my guests. I also had to listen to my callers. I had to remember every single person that called and what he said because that would be the only way I could address his problem.
Sometimes, in 20 minutes down the line you might want to make reference to comments somebody made 20 minutes ago and you must be able to remember that person’s name and exactly what he said. There are so many things to balance in my head. It was crazy, I thought my brain was going to explode. But over time I got used to it and, honestly, the public has been very kind.

Would you say your programme has impact on its listeners?
I will say it has made a lot of impacts. There are certain ideas that have been discussed on our show and we have seen within, a week or month later government, took steps to address them. I remember the Abuja bomb blast in Nyanyan was broke on my show. That morning, I had just started at 5.30 am and just about 30 minutes into the newspapers review segment somebody called to tell us there was bomb blast in Nyanya and straight away our news crew got there.
Most of the radio stations were still playing music because they hadn’t heard about it. For about one or two hours, we were the only ones talking about this incident. I think that day was a bit of a turning point for us because we were able to cover it quite extensively and we were able to talk to many people who were on ground and we got a lot of information.  
On the impact, I think this idea of school safety initiative was our idea. A guest mentioned it on our programme after the Chibok girls were abducted, that there was need to take inventory of all the schools and let see if we can improve on security situation there.
Not longer, we heard that the Prime Minister of the UK and the Ministry of Finance were working together on the school safety initiative. Talk has power and I believe our leaders are listening. Broadcasting has opened up a new world for me. It has made me feel that my work matters, my career makes the deference as opposed to just improving my own lot in life. I now have a voice and can be used as a voice for positive change.