Newly Elected President, Desmond Nwachukwu Reveals
Enugu State born Comrade Desmond Abiodun Nwachukwu is the recently elected president of Freelance and Independent Broadcasters’ Association of Nigeria (FIBAN). And the Abeokuta, Ogun State based fair complexioned consummate broadcaster who speaks English, Yoruba and of course, Igbo languages fluently is apparently ready to start the ball rolling as the new leader of the prestigious association considering his lofty but achievable plans for FIBAN. In this interview with SAHEED OJUBANIRE ONLINE conducted at the luxurious office of the chairman of the Ogun State chapter of FIBAN, Comrade Akinyemi Olatoye better known as Alawiye Federation, few days ago, the new president spoke about what contesting for the high office cost him, how he was lured into the contest in the first place, his plans for FIBAN and some other sundry issues. It is very interesting all through.
Q: For the purpose of this interview, please give us your name…
R: My name is Desmond Nwachukwu. Some people add Comrade to it as a prefix. And I’m the national president of Freelance and Independent Broadcasters’ Association of Nigeria (FIBAN).
Q: You have just been elected as the president of the prestigious
association, so how does it feel to be the new president?
R: Wow! Honestly, that is a tall one. I must confess that—how does it
feel—well, it is a position of responsibility. It is quite challenging an office and I must also add that, like you said, it’s indeed a prestigious office, so it is really an honour to be the president. And
how does one feel when you are honoured? You feel excited, you feel happy, and that is the way I can describe it. But, to summarize it, I know that it is going to be tough and at the same time, pleasurable.
Q: You were once the Ogun State chapter chairman of this same association, so when would you say you started nursing the ambition of becoming the president?
R: You see, that is quite interesting, I must confess. Yes, truly I served as the chairman of the Ogun State chapter between the years of 2011 and 2014. I actually handed over to the incumbent on July 17th, 2014. I must confess that I nursed any ambition of becoming the president; certainly not at this point in time. My immediate concern when I left office was to just go back to my business; restructure my business that I left to suffer when I served as the chairman. Restructure it and move on with my personal business and pay a little
more attention to my family that also bore the pains when I served as the chairman. Those were my interests; those were the concerns I had at that time. And I sustained that up until late October, 2016, when a very good egbon, his name is Gbenga Allison popularly known as Shoshogirisho challenged me to contest for the office of the president. I must confess that I turned that idea down three times. After he told me about it, another very good Aburo and very good friend, a guy that I have a lot of regards for, his name is Musiliu
Sanni popularly known as Mr. Bebe who actually came in company of Gbenga Allinson to persuade me on the need to give the idea a deep thought. And Mr. Bebe is a guy that has my ears, not because of
anything but because I know that he is one young man who stands out in everything and wants the best at all times. He doesn’t just talk but very well calculated and articulated too. So, when he up with that idea too, I gave it a though and that was the second time. And at some point, they sold the idea to the incumbent chairman of the Ogun State chapter, another very good friend, Akinyemi Olatoye popularly known as Alawiye Federation who joined them and I remember we held a meeting in one of the eateries in Abeokuta where he actually challenged me to go ahead. And after that second meeting, I felt that the signals I was
getting were not too palatable and I still insisted I was not going to run and I left. But I know that after that, they called another meeting and I said I was not going to attend that meeting and I was going to avoid that meeting until I ran into another friend of ours, Taiwo Oguntade popularly known as Big Tee, he is a musician; and he told me he was aware of the fact that I was gonna attend a meeting and I said no, I wasn’t gonna attend and he said no and encouraged me to attend the meeting. And I said to him, these guys that said I should come and contest; my worry is that pressure at some point will be mounted on them and there will be issues. So, if I was going to run I felt I should have % 100 assurances that my base, Ogun, would be %100
for me and we can now begin to reach out from there. He (Big Tee) again encouraged me to give it a trial. I remember his words that: look, if you run and you lose, it doesn’t change anything, you know. And I said okay and I started some levels of consultation. I spoke with my boss, mentor and leader, Dr. Ambrose Olutayo Somide, I discussed it with him. And he also said that I should take my time and do some findings while he decided t do his own study too. Meanwhile, these same guys went to meet with another leader of mine, Gbenga Adebayo Oladunni better known as Imalian Boy and sold the idea to him. But in his characteristic manner, he decided to be a little bit indifferent studying the handwriting on the wall. But at the end of it all—I remember that I had to speak with Ambrose twice on it—and one thing that so many people didn’t know is that I did not pick up the nomination form to run for that election until I got clearance and the consent of Dr. Ambrose Somide to contest. And I knew the moment he told me to contest; I knew I had gone at least, %60 chance of winning because he is not a man that just talks. Very quiet but very calculative and very deep; and I was sure he must have done his findings before asking me to run. So, that was how it all started. But the truth is that I never had any inkling that at this point in time, I would be the president. The election was January 19th, 2017, and we started all the struggle from about late October to early November, 2016, and the rest as they say, is history.
Q: Despite all those strong supports, how true is it that “some powers that be” still never wanted you to be the president?
R: (Laughs) Well, when you say powers that be, I really don’t understand what you mean by that. But one thing I know very well is that during electioneering period, you don’t expect everybody to be on your side. Particularly when you are not going in un-opposed; you have an opponent. And your opponent is not just an opponent; he served as the treasurer of the immediate past administration. He was one of the founding fathers of the association. He had been very active in the association since the formative period and up till today. He is also a big factor in broadcasting and much older than I am, and also reasonably financially stable. So, you cannot rule out the fact that when you are going into a race with such a person, who has, you know, a very large followership too, there is no doubt that the house will be divided during the electioneering period. So, I know there were a number of people who were for him, who stood by him and who wanted him to be president. Just like a number of people felt that it must be Desmond and they stood by me. So, coming from that perspective, I want to say yes, at that time, the association was divided; there were people who didn’t want Desmond, perhaps not because they don’t like Desmond but because they felt that they preffered my opponent to me. But the most important thing right now is that I can tell you categorically that FIBAN after January 19th, 2017, election is one!
Q: I like your very diplomatic approach to the question. But then, looking back, how easy was it for you to win such a strong opponent?
R: You see, it was a tough one, I must confess. And that was the very first thing that Dr. Ambrose Somide told me when I told him about my intention. The first thing he did was to find out my plans. He asked for what I intend to do if I become the president and I told him. He analyzed. Then next—I was the National Publicity Secretary when Ambrose served the association in the capacity of the president—I understudied Ambrose because I was with him all the way and knew how he gone through it. And he reminded me that he had to campaign in practically all the states at that time to sell his candidacy to our members across the country. So, coming from there, everything that Ambrose did, you know it is expected that the sons must go beyond the level of the father. And you know up and until now, Ambrose is a highly respected individual in this industry and even beyond the industry. So, if with all his clout, all the money, the connections and all of that, Ambrose still had to tour all the states, I knew I needed to do much more than he did. So, it was a very tough one because we had to— Ambrose probably travelled with himself and a few other guys—but we had to travel as a team. The state chapter of my association had to set up a team, a campaign team that was following me all around. So, at every point in time we had between 3/4/5 cars on the road at a go. And visiting people across board wasn’t an easy one. Raising the required fund to execute that project was another tough one. Remember, it was during recession. So, all those you even thought would come to your aid and say look, I support you with this, weren’t forthcoming, you understand. So, it wasn’t really easy to get the required fund that was needed to do it. Engaging people, taking people out of their base for days, putting them on the road wasn’t another easy one. You had to ensure that even where you are going—I even need to mention that one or two states, I didn’t have access to campaign there, because the leadership in those states did not give me the opportunity to come in. And the state belongs to them, you know, so, except they give you the access to come into their state, you don’t have a choice—in that same manner, there were chapters that told me that you don’t need to come, we know you. Abuja is one of those chapters that said don’t bother coming, you have our votes. And I got bulk votes from such states, you know. So, it was not an easy thing like I said, Dr. Ambrose Somide established it from the word go that, it’s not going to be an easy one and it wasn’t really an easy one. Look, in the course of the campaign, my mother’s funeral took place
December 30/31st 2016; I couldn’t attend my mother’s funeral because I was still on the road. That is to tell you the kind of things the campaign took away from me! But again, it is not how far like they say, it is how well. It was tough going round campaigning, it was tough talking to people; and like you know, if you are seeking people’s votes it is usually not an easy thing because that is when some people will start looking at you and say: yes, yesterday you looked at me in a very funny manner, so this is the time for me to deal with you. You know, they cook up all manners of things to frustrate you, your ambition and all of that. But by and large, we are happy; we give God the glory because all is now for good.
Q: Quickly, can you remember the margin between you and your opponent in the election?
R: It was 72 to 25 votes, or thereabouts.
Q: In how many states of the federation do you have chapters of FIBAN?
R: Well, you see, FIBAN has representation in practically all the states of the federation. But the fact of the matter is that before now so many states had been allowed to be sleeping. I think we should be
looking at how active they are, you know, across the states. The level of the vibrancy of the association is not same across the states and we are making efforts already, setting up membership mobilization committee to go all out and re-awaking the sleeping giants across these states. And that is already on, so I can assure you that within the next couple of months, you’ll be surprised that FIBAN will be vibrant across all the states.
Q: As the new president, what are some of your plans for the association?
R: Well, we have quite a number of things in mind we feel are important that we do right now. The association itself requires total restructuring and that is the truth. At the same time, we also realise
that we need to raise the bar in terms of how people become members of the association. The criteria to be our member that are stipulated very explicitly in our constitution; we would ensure that we entrench them. We will ensure we stand by our constitutional provisions. Another area that is very germane is the issue of training and retraining of our members. You will agree with me like I have said at different for a that the decentralization of the media in 1992 by the Ibrahim Babangida Administration came with a lot of good and at the same time, came with its own challenges. The good side is that quite a number of private stations sprang up and created platforms for our members and gave jobs to quite a number of people. But the unfortunate aspect of it is that it made the job an all comers’ profession. So, you now realize that every Tom, Dick and Harry now comes around, sit behind the microphone and they automatically assumed the status of a broadcaster. You know, putting that job and the respect on the line. So what we intend to do is to ensure that we entrench training and retraining of our members. We want to ensure that our members are up
to date in terms of the nitty-gritty of broadcasting. In terms of the ethics of the job; we want to ensure that they comply absolutely. Particularly now that we are switching over, few months from now, to digital broadcasting; we have to get that done. And what are we doing so far? We have set up a Training and Orientation Committee, a 5-Man Committee to help organize training and orientation for our members both locally and internationally. But that is going to be on a short term basis. We are actually looking at setting up a Training Academy for our people such that all the expectations of the regulatory bodies will be adequately met. We want to start with issuance of National Diploma and move it up from there. And I am very hopeful that we will kick start work on that at the latest, the end of June, 2017. And by the first year of this administration we hope that admission will be open to our members and of course those who are not our members but are intending broadcasters to be able to get adequately trained in the art of broadcasting. That is very important. There are few, like I said, restructuring, that are going to take place within the association. And we also hope that when we do all of these, the federal government of Nigeria through the National Assembly would be able to give us due recognition in terms of recognizing us as a true professional body that we are. If you look at our functions, our operations, you’ll realize that whether anybody likes it or not, like
I always like breaking down broadcasters into three: those who are permanent staff of a broadcast station, those who freelance—some of our members—they go into a station, render service for a fee and they can do it for as many stations as they want. Some people call them contract staff, I don’t know or freelance artistes that they are. Some will render service by way of news casting, by way of reportorial and what have you. But it is not on a permanent basis. And you have the third categories who are people who walk into a station and pay for a belt, say look, ten to eleven, how much does it cost? They tell them, they negotiate, they pay and they go all out to get their stuff together and place it on that belt. Okay? So, these are the three categories of broadcasters that I know as far as this country is concerned. And members of my association form the two of the categories that is the freelance and independent content providers. And these two categories of broadcasters control the larger chunk of content on any radio or television, you know. So, meaning that we are the largest content providers you can find on any radio or television station. And when we look at all of these, we also hope that, considering all we do, considering the fact that we are employers of labour, considering the fact that we play an integral role in revenue generation of this country. Meaning that the sustainability of these stations, a whole lot of them rest on our shoulders; when you look at all of these generally viz-a-viz our contribution to the social-economic development of this country, you will realize that the National Assembly do not have a choice than to give us that recognition that we deserve. So, they can actually, through the act of parliament, give us that required recognition. This again we hope to work on. We have established contacts with the National Assembly since we came on board. We have spoken with quite a number of people: the Senate Committee Chairman on Media and Public Affairs, Distinguished Senator Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi; he is a fantastic gentleman. We have discussed. And we have certain things to put on ground before we now kick-start by way of Bill Sponsorship at the National Assembly. I also know that his counterpart too at Hous of Representatives is also a fantastic gentleman. So, these people are favourably disposed to helping to ensure that the needful is done in terms of what we are doing. So, getting that government recognition, ensuring that our people get adequately trained, restructure the association the way it should be, and few other things will follow. These are some of the major projects of this administration.
Q: Who are some of the other members of the Executive Committee working with you?
R: Well, my First Vice is Sulaiman Adegbenro, my Second Vice is Helen Njoku, My General Secretary is Akin Adenuga, my Treasurer is Seun Awodele; those are some of my excos.
Q: Which secretariat are you operating from as the National Secretariat?
R: Well, the fact is that the National Secretariat of the association is in Abuja. Efforts are on right now to fix the secretariat to the taste of the president. Don’t forget that the president seems to have an idea of what should obtain. He believes in standard and such standard must be met. Meanwhile, we also have an annex in Lagos that we are also working from. So, what this now means that the president has the responsibility of operating from both Lagos and Abuja. And that is in deed, another step from what it used to be. But certainly, we will get there.
Q: On a final note, as the president of an association of the major
content providers for radio and television stations in Nigeria, what
your message for the Nigerian listeners and viewers on behalf of your members?
R: I want to thank them for being with us over the years because they are the reasons we go on air. I want to also encourage them to keep standing by us. I want to assure them that it can only get better. We
will continue to ensure that we meet up with their expectations because, the fact is when people hear anything on radio or television, the first thing that crosses their mind is that it is authentic because if it is not, they won’t talk about it. And that is one confidence they repose in us that we cannot afford to toy with. I want to admit that in very recent time, that are times you hear very unfortunate things on radio. It is in deed, very regrettable. So, we want to apologize for disappointing them some times but we are certainly ready to sanitize the airwaves by way of ensuring that professionalism becomes key in our operations.
