The secrets of my success story at VON – Jijiwa

For 10 years, you served as Director-General of the Voice of Nigeria (VON).  What was your experience directing the affairs of the federal  government-owned media outfit?It  was not that much challenging because I am a strong believer in the importance of human resource. From day one, I believed the foundation to a successful administration was […]

For 10 years, you served as Director-General of the Voice of Nigeria (VON).  What was your experience directing the affairs of the federal  government-owned media outfit?
It  was not that much challenging because I am a strong believer in the importance of human resource. From day one, I believed the foundation to a successful administration was the ability to carry the staff along,  therefore I was determined to work with my staff and they gave me all the support that I needed. Throughout my tenure, there was no time I regretted not paying attention to the human resource element of my management style.  For me,  that was what kept me going as the DG of the Voice of Nigeria even in the face of other challenges like lack of funds and lack of cooperation of some government agencies. The long and short of my tenure was that whatever I had achieved I did because I enjoyed very strong support from my staff on continuous basis from day one to the end.
What were the immediate challenges you faced as D-G and how did you tackle them?
The immediate challenge I faced was the division among my staff along different cleavages. There were regional and ethnic problems among the staff. Some people came together under this guise and became a kind of pressure groups within the organization. I felt the first thing to do was to break down these cleavages and give everybody a sense of belonging and let them begin to realise this is our organization to which we all belong and to which everyone must put in his best.
I was able to overcome this by giving confidence to every member of staff. I introduced a concept that we called ‘Broadcast Metrics’. This idea, in Mathematics, is to try to include everything into a set and the various elements in it working for the overall achievement of whatever you want to achieve.   I decided to introduce it into broadcasting to bring to bear on the need for everybody  to know that whether as an operation staff, a non-operation staff, duty staff or whatever everybody, has  a duty. The ultimate desire of every broadcasting station is to be heard on air. If it is a TV station, it is to be seen.  For us as  a radio station, we want to be heard all over the world and ensure our end-product  is delivered.
We, therefore, felt everybody must work towards getting that end-product delivered. In the past, the reporters, producers and engineers were the core operation staff. They  were the ones in charge. Those in administration, in the stores and audit wouldn’t  be bothered about the operations. But in the case of broadcast metrics that we introduced everybody was involved.
Let me give a practical example of how it worked. On shift duty till, let’s say, 12 midnight, only the news people, the producers and editors would hitherto be there. But we said, no, there must be an admin officer there to give the necessary support that may be needed; there must be a fuel clerk to make sure that there was fuel for vehicles that would drop those on duty when they sign off; there must be a clinic staff in case somebody suddenly fell sick and needed to be given first aid. Everybody had a role in ensuring that the final product of broadcasting, which is to be heard all over the world, was efficiently achieved, irrespective of whether he was a core staff or a non-core staff.
This is one of the things that we tried to achieve, and whatever was due to every member of staff to achieve it, we gave. During my tenure, we made sure that every year, there was a promotion exercise.  Those who  qualified were promoted and those who were not promoted knew why they were not promoted.  We were doing this so that we wouldn’t have a backlog of many years of non-promotion. This was how we were able to overcome the challenge of internal divisions and lack of cohesion I met at the beginning of my tenure.
At the end of your tenure at VON, were you able to achieve your objectives? What would you say you achieved as its DG?
Well, I am always a bit careful because of my cultural and religious background, I don’t sing praises of myself. I will want posterity and  history to do that. I will also want the staff of VON to pass their judgment. But I must say one or two things. Most of the things I had hoped to achieve I was able to achieve them. For those that I was not able to achieve, I clearly showed the road map for those coming after me to do them. I told you earlier how we achieved internal cohesion and unity among the staff of VON. I left the organization much more united, cohesive and as a happy family.
In terms of physical infrastructure, when I came in, only about 10 per cent of the staff were in Abuja. About 90 per cent were in Lagos. Everything operational was in Lagos. Over the years I was able to build a brand new transmission station in Abuja, which is probably one of the best in the world today, and definitely the biggest in Africa.  In terms of the technology  that we used, it is number seven in the world.
You achieve that kind of broadcast technology through a system of rotational antenna which enables you to tune to any country that you want to broadcast to with the press of a button. For instance, if by this time of the day, Brazil is alive and awake but we are sleeping here we can tune the rotational antenna to Brazil and with that we can broadcast to the people of Brazil. This is different from the fixed antenna that we were using, which was fixed to a particular region of the world. As you drive on the expressway from the Abuja metropolis to the Abuja International airport, at Lugbe, you will see on the left side some huge antennas with iconic towers. I am so proud anytime I see them because it was a huge investment that we were able to do when I was there. I was  able to get the funding over the years. It took a long time to complete and the Vice President  came to commission it. This to me was my biggest achievement.
We also did other things. We modernized our equipment and at a point in 2012, VON was adjudged the most IT-compliant broadcasting organization in this country because things like computers and laptops are just ubiquitous in VON. Everything was paperless –  from news production to programming, administration, finance and everything.
We also took time to modernize our studios. When I came in, there was no single digital studio but today in Lagos we have four digital studios and another four in Abuja. They are all IT and digitally compliant. We have as well done something which has never been  done before.  We  built a commercial recording studio  that gives opportunity to musical groups to come to VON to record  and wax their CDs. Even live performance and others can be recorded there. We also have equipment for post-production editing, which is another complete newly-built studio. This is to give those who come to use the musical studio the opportunity to do the post-studio editing. Advertisement agencies and film makers from Nollywood can as well use the studio to synchronize voice with image.
We have also done so much in terms of infrastructure. In our Ikorodu transmission station, we tried to modernize as much as possible. It was built during the Shagari administration, I think in 1980. It is a very old station so it gave us the challenge of ageing but we have kept it running. We also ensured we had consistent power supply through the provision of alternative power source so that we didn’t have any break in transmission. We realized that our land at Lugbe was too big and we didn’t need much of it so we went into a public private partnership which gave almost 100 of our staff the opportunity to have their houses at VON Garden City at reduced prices through  balloting.
Before we came in, many people didn’t even know VON but today we are well known and relevant. As the DG for 10 years, I was privileged to head many organizations. I was Chairman, Broadcasting Organisations of Nigeria (BON),  throughout my tenure, which was a measure of confidence reposed in me by the body. I was privileged to be president of the Commonwealth Broadcasting Association for  four years. I was also elected into the Executives of  the International Association of Broadcasters, which is an independent body in London. I was the only African in that association. This shows that our profile has risen to a level of international acceptability. It is a glory to Nigeria that I was given this kind of honours.  

You once said your desire was to see VON competing with Voice of America, BBC and others. Would you say you were able to achieve that before you left office?
After we built the Lugbe transmission station, I can say that we are side by side with all the international broadcasting organizations such as Voice of America, BBC, Radio France International and Radio China.  But we must have the necessary funding to maintain the equipment. We are using VON to sell Nigeria to the outside world and to give broadcast support to our foreign policy. These are things we have achieved but they are being threatened very seriously by lack of funding.  
One of  the things I was unable to do is the VON television. It is an idea that its need has now come. All other former broadcasting radios have moved on to television. You have Radio France Television, Voice of America Television and the BBC World Service Television. Iran, Germany  and China also have their own, so the Voice of Nigeria cannot be left behind. I know the NTA has its own international television but this is a different concept. We need to have Voice of Nigeria Television and I hope that VON under the new leadership will be adequately funded and supported to embark on the VON Television project.
How many countries was VON able to reach when you were in office?
We wanted to ensure that we reached every part of the world and I am happy to tell you that VON now reaches every part of the world. Where we think we are not getting them very well, we use our new technology, the Rotational Antenna, and beam directly to the place. This is also in line with the letters we get from our listeners across the world. Before I left office last month, I received about seven letters, from the US, Bolivia, part of UK and North Carolina, among others. These are things that encourage us and we feel we are covering them better.
If you are talking in terms of our correspondence, we now have one office in South Africa, Pretoria precisely. We have a producer and a correspondent there.  Our plan is to expand to some other cities of the world. The cost of owning a foreign office is very expensive.  We were able to appoint stringers all over the world and we pay them on the basis of the stories they send to us. This is working very well for VON because it is cheap and easy to get their reports without sending people out there. If the funding improves, definitely, VON must expand its operations to all zones of the world.
Before you left office, what was the level of VON’s effort to digitalize its operation as instructed by the federal government?
With the commissioning of the Lugbe station we are 100 per cent digitalized. But we are still on analogue because many of our listeners are using analogue handsets so we have to keep the digital technology aside. Even at that, we broadcast two hours every day to North-America and Europe because they are already digitalized. If, by tomorrow, the government says we should stop our analogue operation, VON is ready to switch on to digital because we already have the technology, the staff and everything.  
A few days before you left office, you chaired the NBC/stakeholders meeting where it was agreed that broadcasting stations should stop running hate speeches and offensive documentaries sponsored by politicians. Would you say you are satisfied with the level of compliance now by the broadcasting stations?  
The Nigerian Broadcasting Commission is expected to do the right thing and the stations are supposed to do the right thing too. If they  refuse to do the right thing, the NBC should sanction them. Whether it is a government station or a private one, it should sanction them. The NBC broadcast code clearly states what should be broadcast and what should not and what manner of broadcast should be done. All these things are clearly stated.  I feel so sad and embarrassed when I see some of these things on our air waves. But it is NBC’s responsibility to enforce these laws by sanctioning any erring station. Many of those documentaries I am sure are not covered by APCON’s certificate of clearance. I know APCON will never clear such things that I see being run on our air waves.
How do you feel leaving an organization whose affairs you directed for 10 years?
It was with mixed feelings. Not only that I directed its affairs for 10 years, I was there for 22 years as a staff. I went to become a Commissioner in my state for four years. If you remove the four years it would be that I was in VON for 18 years. These were  many years.  I have built and nurtured a formidable relationship with colleagues and staff. We were like brothers and sisters and I cherish the family spirit of VON a lot.  It was very touching but life must move on; you cannot be in a place for  ever.  The law says after two terms you should give way to another person. I thank God because some people could not even finish their first term, may be due to ill-health or whatever. But I thank God I am healthy, I have finished two terms of 10 years, I am still in good shape and I have achieved a good number of my dreams as DG.