I did many funny things preparing myself for the TV programme – Owoeye -Wise

Your discipline was not journalism. How did you venture into the profession?I have always had the flair for journalism. From as far back as my memory can take me as a child, I remember that many times my mother would send me to her room  to go and get some stuff for her and I […]

Your discipline was not journalism. How did you venture into the profession?
I have always had the flair for journalism. From as far back as my memory can take me as a child, I remember that many times my mother would send me to her room  to go and get some stuff for her and I would go there and forgot what I was there for. I would sit in front of the mirror, take my father’s old newspaper and begin to mimic the characters I saw on the network news.
Then I had no idea what they were talking about, no clue about what they were doing I just liked what they were doing. So I would move my head up and down and just be miming the stuff. I  remember one word that stuck with me is ‘committee’ I would pronounce it several times. I think I was five years at that time and my mum would walked into the room and shouted at me. ”I told you to go and get the stuff for me. You like the mirror too much” She would say all that kind of thing.  I  remember that was my formative years as far as this profession is concerned. I grew up and found that I love writing, I love talking, I love the TV and the camera and here we are today.

You didn’t start with broadcasting even though you love the TV and camera.  You started with the print and later switched to broadcasting. What happened?
When I was with the print media, I always knew I would end up with the TV.  I  have my eyes there.  I needed the background in the print to give myself the solid background in journalism because I was not coming on TV as a face or empty head.  I was coming as a sound and balanced journalist. A journalist who not only open her mouth to read other people’s scripts but one who would write a script and read.  I was coming on TV to be on top of my game, as a balanced reporter and a balanced journalist. So,  it took years in the print to build myself in writing, having a nose for news, knowing the angle to report and  also used those years to train myself in preparatory for the TV.  
I didn’t go to any  training school to develop  myself. If I tell you the funny things I did in preparation for the day I would come on TV, you won’t believe it. I had at the back of my mind that if I come on TV and open my mouth to speak people must listen to me. So I prepared myself, I took time to prepare, brush up myself , brush up my English, my diction and took time to understudy a few phenomenal broadcasters within and outside the country.

How was your first day on TV like?  
I started my TV career with Silverbird Television. We started what you see today as STV news. My boss then  was Stella Din.
She is now Stella Din Jacob. I was in the reportorial and was just covering assignments and do a piece, that you call stand up arts now. I was just  building myself.  I left the Silverbird for  the MINAJ (MBI) to start a programme called ‘Matter of Truth’.  I didn’t have any butterflies, it was just me.  I was there, I did my thing and I left.  I came to Abuja as the Head of Bureau for MBI and I was still on the news. It was when I got to AIT that I went on International news.  My first day, it was like the news was going to fail because there was nobody to read it. The Head of Presentation then, Jire Kuforiji  had to asked me to come on air and read the news.
They have been asking me to come and read news before that day but I had always tell them to give me sometimes to study the House style of AIT.  So that day, there was no way of escape for me even though I was in English dress I went and read the news on an international channel. There was no big deal about it, I was on top of my game. I am not being proud about that, it took me a long time to arrive where I was that day and where I’m today. I actually took time to prepare myself for it, so it was no big deal.

You have the flair for investigative journalism but it seems you have dumped it. Why?
I think my years at TheNews Magazine brought out that aspect of journalism in me. I happened to be fortunate. Maybe unfortunate if you want to look at it from another angle, to have worked with TheNews Magazine during the  Abacha  era.  At a point in time, I was the only female in that organization who was a reporter. All the others had resigned, all the others  had left but I was the only female who remained there. I had to work with guys.
They closed down our building so we had to do what they called Gorilla journalism. We had to hold Editorial Board meetings at the beer parlours. I don’t drink, I don’t smoke but I had to hold meetings with them in the night at beer parlour where people drink and smoke. We would decide right there where our next meeting would hold just in case they know we are holding meeting here.
We took the meeting round and you can imagine the kind of commitment that we had then towards reporting the truth and dig up facts in the midst of tyranny and wickedness, in the midst of so much gag. Yet we had the spirit to go the whole hug to bring out the truth for Nigerians and the world to know what was happening.  That brought out the investigative journalist in me so much that when democracy was restored it was difficult to drop it.
I kept looking for things to unearth, things people didn’t  know about  to tell them.  My years in the News Magazine really prepared me. When I was at TheNews I worked with TEMPO which was Abacha’s headache at that period and the AM News. All these years actually prepared me for that.
 What story earned you the Wole Soyinka Investigative Journalism Award. How did you do it?
I am actually the first female to win that award. The story that earned me that award was the pipeline fire disaster that happened at Ilado, in Lagos. I was the first journalist to break that news for Silverbird television. I was the first to get there put on my visual and report what happened. Then the government came with the usual policy statements. We are going to protect the environment, we would erect a security post, Policemen would guard the area 24/7.  
They made so much noise and promises. But after the whole thing, few months afterwards it just occurred to me that : What is happening at Ilado months after  over a thousand lives were lost? What happened to all the policy statements that were made? Nobody is even talking about the place again, is live back to normal there? Are the people protected? I told my Head of news that I would like to visit the place again. It was very scary because nobody wanted to take me there from the shore. Nobody wanted to take his boat to ferry me and my cameraman because they knew what was going on there.
The vandals were back and they were armed. They had threatened that anybody who dare to come there would be killed. So nobody wanted to go there. I had to pay three times the usual fare to chatter a ferry and begged the man to take  us there. He was scared and was worried. He kept telling me to do whatever I wanted to do there quickly and get out of the place. When we eventually got there I discovered the vandals were back there with their tools of trade. Our saving grace that day was that they just finished an operation and had moved out and you could see their footprints, you could see their tools of trade.
I went to the security post that was erected but it was empty and does not look somebody had slept there one day. It was erected but nothing was happening there. The security post was where the vandals were using as their store. That was where they kept their tools of trade and other stuff. I quickly took my shots.
When I left there I went to the Oba’s palace, the Onilado of Ilado, Oba Oyekan and had an interview with him. He was so excited we came. He said  he didn’t know how to raise the alarm again that the vandals were back and were threatening the lives of his people. I did the story and to the glory of God security was restored to Ilado. The Oba called me to thank me and to let me know that I saved the lives of his people from eminent death because another fire disaster was just waiting to happen if had not done that report.

Are you more fulfilled doing news reporting than investigative reporting?
I am more into news reading because of the reorganization that took place here last month.  I am now the Head of Presentation for AIT and Raypower . I am still more of a reporter like I used to tell people. Even if you are the owner of the media organization you are still a reporter if you were once a reporter. I am happy to say that with every sense of modesty, I am an all rounder . With every sense of humility, I am a reporter, news anchor, an editor and Head of Presentation.
What are the things you would have preferred to do considering your potentials?
I would have love to go back to investigative reporting even though it is very risky. One thing I didn’t tell you is the fact that hired killers were sent after me at a time. I don’t want to go into the details now. It was just God’s mercy that saved me. I was pregnant and was just moving I didn’t know until one of them came to tell us. If it is a sane environment and I had the tools of trade, the gadgets  and wherewithal  I would really, really love to do investigative reporting because there is so much to unearth, so much have been covered up , so much have been shielded away from Nigerians, there is so much to be accounted for and most journalists are just satisfied with them say, them say.
They would go to conferences, eat meat pie, drink coke and come back to write he said, speaking at the occasion and then he said and that one said. That is not journalism. If you ask me, we owe society the truth and you get the truth through investigative journalism. I also have my eyes on the talk show and we are working towards it but I won’t let the cat out of the bag yet.