Immediate past president of the Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE) and the incumbent Osun State Commissioner for Information and Civic Orientation, Mrs Funke Egbemode, in this interview by Saturday Tribune’s SAHEED SALAWU, speaks on sundry issues, including the state of the media, 22 years of democracy in Nigeria and the scorecard of her principal, Governor Gboyega Oyetola.
Democracy will be 22 years old in Nigeria next week. How would you assess its impact on the lives of the average Nigerian?
Democracy is where we are at the moment. It’s been a long journey, and considering where we are coming from, I think we have not done too badly. There is plenty of room for improvement but when we look back to the military days, to the freedom we were deprived of, the many issues of people not being able to express themselves, to call the government’s attention to what they want; when we look back to the days when it was just about obeying the last order, the days when the rulers did exactly what they felt was right for us, not necessarily what we want them to do for us, the days of leading by the butt of the gun and citizens afraid of bullets; those are days that we do not want to return.
The average Nigerian is now used to making their grievances known, asking questions about how they are being ruled and being able to make plans knowing that they are free to express themselves. Of course, we have improved on even the democratic process – things are not the way they were in 1999. We have fallen along the way, but we have picked ourselves up. We have learnt lessons about voting, about monitoring votes, etc. Nigerians now know that they can protect their votes, and by the day, we are learning the art of protecting our votes. No politician right now can do whatever they like with the Nigerian citizens. You do not just take people’s votes and stay idle for four years hoping to earn the people’s votes again. Voters now ask questions, they want to know what you have done with their investments in you. These are part of ways democracy has impacted our lives.
It is work in progress for us. We look to America as a model with respect to democracy, but they have been at it for about two centuries. If we study their processes about a hundred years ago, and what it is like today, we will see that they have improved on a lot of things. So, democracy is a process, and I think that Nigeria has put one foot after the other on the journey. Hopefully things keep getting better and the next elections bring us better fortunes.
You recently blamed journalists for the infiltration of quacks into the system. Can you explain what you really mean by this contention?
What I said was that we condoned the infiltration of quacks. The practitioners not only condoned it but gave recognition to those who are not trained to do the job. I will always insist that for you to be a professional in any field or endeavour, you must be trained and experienced in that line of business or profession. You do not get called a lawyer simply because you can argue or put your points together. What makes you a lawyer is that you went to school, read law, and certified qualified to practise by the Council of Legal Education and the Bar Association.
That is how it is done, and that is how we should treat journalism also. Journalism should be about those who know about the ethics of the profession. Journalists should be people who know what needs to be done in the newsroom. They know the rudiments of newsgathering, protection of sources, how to avoid banana peels in the production of stories and pushing opinions out, know the difference between news and opinions, know the difference between investigation and blackmail, and a lot more rudimentary issues. Those fine lines are getting blurrier and blurrier by the day, and that is why I said we as professionals need to protect our territory, our profession against the infiltration of quacks.
It is okay for people to desire to express themselves; it is a fundamental right in a democracy. But you cannot just grab your device in the name of expressing yourself and violate the ethics of the profession. You cannot just say because you have the opportunity to witness an accident, decide to circulate gory pictures or expose the face of a child that has just been raped. A professional journalist cannot do this kind of thing because he is guided by principles of social responsibility and sensitivity to his environment.
We should be clear on the fact that we need more hands in the profession, but we really need to get those who desire to be journalists, those who are ready to be trained appropriately. We are the watchdogs of the society and there is the need to be prepared for the undertaking.
Your principal, Governor Oyetola, is said to be interested in a second term of office. What gives you the impression that he deserves it?
You see, whatever is good is good, and what is bad is bad. In the course of being a reporter over the years, I have had to report what other governors across Nigeria had done, and then I became an editor and had the opportunity to read reports of correspondents who were on the ground in different states. And so, coming here to work, I saw a man with passion for his people. So, before I start reeling out what he has done, what he promised to do and what he is doing, let me say that the first thing that eminently qualifies anybody to lead in Nigeria is passion for the citizens; because the constitution even recognises that the main essence of governance is the welfare and security of lives and properties, and you cannot attend to these issues without passion for your people. In Governor Oyetola, there is passion. There is that milk of kindness in him that makes him desire to make a difference. In spite of the predictions and the negative opinions that preceded his assumption of office, that he would not be able to do anything, he has startled observers, shamed the naysayers and even converted those who said that nothing good could come out of the Oyetola administration.
He has touched every sector, and that passion for the people was what drove him to first ask the people what they wanted without assuming for the people like in the military days. The thank-you tour that he undertook after he was sworn in provided him with the opportunity to assess the needs of the people of Osun. Goverrnor Oyetola knew what every community needed because he went round all the federal constituencies and listened to the people. So, what he has done is to stretch the little resources available to his government to fulfill the promises that he made to the people. Also, it takes passion to work the kind of hours the governor works; he does work very hard, day and night. You will notice that he has brought down the temperature of the state. He is a man of peace.
What part of the lives of the citizens has he not touched? I will say none. The roads are there, plenty of them. The health sector also has lot of indelible marks. He started by disputing the blackmail of mismanagement of intervention funds by revitalising 332 primary health centres across every political ward in the state. These are not ‘audio revitalisation’, the evidence are there for verification. It is not just the PHCs that he did in the health sector; he also attended to the welfare of medical workers and health professionals by fully implementing the Consolidated Medical Salary Structure (CONMESS) and Consolidated Health Workers Salary Structure (CONHESS). Here, you will not find medical professionals going on strike because of poor payment. By implication, the state has also been able to attract consultants and more medical professionals for the benefit of our people.
By extension, we are able to satisfy our workforce in the state (not just medical professionals alone). We are one of the few states in the federation that have implemented the new minimum wage in spite of the fact that we are supposed to be broke. Governor Oyetola has been able to manage the resources in the state, work hard at improving Internally-Generated Revenue, working hard at opening up different sectors of the economy so that we can bring in investors, and so on. This administration has also done a lot when it comes to empowerment of young people, improving small-scale businesses through easy loans and micro-credit facilities that do not strain or stress the beneficiaries. That has also helped to open up the state as more young people are going into small-scale businesses while the existing small-scale businesses are graduating into medium-scale. Even during the highpoint of Covid-19, the government still trained and helped people to manage their finances because Covid-19 brought along with it many troubles.
We have done a lot of roads, in spite of the fact that we are supposed to be struggling financially. During Comrade Yinka Odumakin’s burial, a lot of people who attended were shocked that whichever way they plied to Moro, the road was good, either coming through Ife-Ibadan Expressway or coming through Sekona. It wasn’t a shoddy job, it wasn’t a pick-and-drop, scrape-and-patch kind of road that led into Moro; it was smooth and nice. That road in Ife-Ijesa senatorial district is a classic example of what Oyetola has done on roads across the three senatorial districts. Also, if you have travelled from Gbongan to Ode Omu recently, you will observe that the situation is different and travel time is greatly reduced compared to what it used to be about a year ago. That dualised road is a freshly done one. The other parts of that road to Osogbo are ongoing. It is the same thing with Ede to Egbedore in Osun West. It used to be a nightmare. Now, the road is another success story.
This government has done a lot with infrastructure. There are a lot of road projects that are ongoing apart from the ones that have been completed and commissioned. In Osun Central, Osogbo-Ikirun-Ila Odo Road is a lot better than we met it. Osogbo-Kelebe-Iragbiji Road is another project that perhaps the people in their sixties can describe its value. You do not need to ply the Osogbo-Kwara Road to access Iragbiji, Ada, Ororuwo and Aagba. The roads I have mentioned are just samples from a long list of what our government has done. A lot of things have happened, but governor Oyetola has remained focused, he has found creative ways to make funds available for roads, especially through the alternative-project-funding approach. Also, we are looking forward to the commissioning of the Olaiya Flyover. That flyover is a major one because it is at the centre of town. We must be reminded that Osogbo is a state capital now, not a town under the old Oyo State. The volume of traffic has increased, the number of people who have moved into Osogbo has increased, things are no longer as they used to be and we need this flyover to ensure safety and also save travel time.
Governor Oyetola has touched sports and issues that pertain to the protection of the womenfolk. We at the information management wing have also benefitted tremendously from the economic wizardry of Governor Oyetola. We are working hard to retool and reposition the state broadcasting corporation. It’s been tough, but the governor has been able to juggle the balls of managing the finances of the state. Most importantly, it is about his passion for the people, otherwise, he would not have been able to take headlong the things he did in education. The people said they wanted a change in the way our education sector was run. It is work in progress getting the kind of education system Oyetola desires, but he listened to the people. The review in that sector showed the stuff of a leader who listens to the yearnings of the people. So, I will say going forward to the 2022 election, Oyetola remains Osun’s best bet and the state is safe, very safe, in his hands. And, fortunately, the people know. That is why they are firmly with goverrnor Oyetola.
That leads us to Governor Oyetola reversing Mr Rauf Aregbesola’s policies in education. Supporters of the former governor are not happy about this. What is your reaction to their misgiving?
No. That is not correct. The supporters of the former governor are not averse to the review of education policies in the state. The people that are making noise about the steps taken to rejuvenate the sector are people who just wanted to make political noise and everybody is allowed to express their opinions. The former governor, when he was leaving, acknowledged that he was different from the incoming governor, and that anything that needed to be adjusted would be done by the incoming governor. That is exactly what Governor Oyetola has done. Those who said they were not pleased by the changes in the education sector are definitely people not affected by the former state of things. For instance, we know that having a First School Leaving Certificate (Primary Six) is important in our system, but the previous policy moved children from being children to becoming young adults without the opportunity to satisfy the requirements for obtaining the First School Leaving Certificate. The approved national standard was a 6-3-3-4 education policy, but the state ran 4-5-3-4 system for many years prior to the demands for changes. Also, we had instances of boys carrying WAEC certificates of girls’ schools in the state when single-sex schools were transfigured to mixed schools. Imagine boys carrying certificates that show they attended girls’ schools. They merged schools but the change was not effected with WAEC and this left innocent children with the risk of being labelled for fraud for no faults of their own making. We are already being looked at as a nation with records of frauds, and some of these issues have the likelihood of further complicating things at individual and societal level.
The naysayers are probably those whose children were not affected by some of these realities.
It was tough. Discipline broke down, because different hoodlums randomly grabbed the public school uniform in the days of unitary uniform, and committed different unwholesome actions. Our innocent children were tagged unruly, but it was very difficult for the security operatives to spot the difference.
It’s been a whole lot of issues, but the way things are now is the way the people of Osun want the sector to be run. We will continue to do more to elevate the standard of education in the state, which is why we are recruiting teachers to fill the gap in manpower. It is not just about erecting structures or changing uniforms; it is about getting the children educated.
Security is a major reason for any government to be in power. How secure is Osun in the hands of Oyetola?
Very secure. You cannot achieve anything in an atmosphere devoid of peace. So, peace is very important. We need to stay secure, and so, a lot of things have been put in place to ensure that we all stay secure. That is why we have the Amotekun Corps, local vigilantes and the likes. You may say that these people aren’t carrying sophisticated weapons, but we should also remember that security doesn’t start and end with sophisticated weapons; intelligence gathering is a major ingredient in security. This is one thing we have in Osun without making noise about it. There are people who are not uniformed that gather intelligence for the state.
We also have all the security agencies in Osun, the police, the military, the civil defence corps, and all agencies working together. So, the hate, the tension that is usually generated by feelings of superiority, inferiority or envy in other places, does not exist here because we have a united security network. Everyone works together, and that is why we are able to douse tension quickly and keep social misdemeanor to the minimum. We know when people are likely to do something bad, we get information quite early and are able to nip situations in the bud.
Security is a security matter, so I may not be able to stress this point further than this.
How does it feel leaving the excitement of the newsroom for the anxieties of managing the media of a government?
The excitement is just different, but there is still excitement in managing the government’s image. But definitely, if you have done something for 30 years, there is always that feeling of nostalgia regularly that you have left your comfort zone, you have left your territory and the terrain that you understand.
Here, I am doing my best to fit in to do what needs to be done. But definitely, I miss the newsroom. I miss the camaraderie and the air of the newsroom. I miss the jokes and banters. Here, it’s a bit more serious and unpredictable. The hours are endless and your head is always at work until you drift off to sleep out of fatigue, and when you snap out of sleep, you check your phone first to see what is happening in the state and even in neighbouring states that is likely to affect us. Here, it is about taking the management of the newsroom to a different level. But I have a principal who does not make my job difficult – Oyetola does not court trouble, he does not court controversy, he does not want to fight, he does not want to encourage distractions, he does not want us to look for ways to antagonise anybody. His instruction is: talk about what I have done, talk about what I am doing and avoid those who are trying to distract us.
All in all, it is a learning curve that I am enjoying. It has been a huge experience that has made me understand human nature more, our polity more, the desires of the people more and the things that make us Nigerians.
Again, leaving Lagos for Osogbo to work and live was quite radical for you. What has the experience been like? What have you missed in Lagos?
Sincerely, I don’t miss Lagos. I like the quiet here. I started journalism in Lagos in 1989, and this change of environment in 2019 is welcome. I like being able to drive back and forth, visit four local governments before noon. I like the opportunity of attending an event in Ile-Ife and being able to return to the office before the official closing hour. I like the opportunity to come serve my people and understand them more. I like the fact that I don’t have to spend long hours in traffic. I can take a walk at 6.00 a.m. or 6.00 p.m., and I am fine because it is quiet and nice. Food is cheap, accommodation is cheap. I have had to shuttle between office and home three times in a day without having to spend the bulk of my day in traffic. It is a radical change definitely, but because I am someone who loves her space and likes to stay under the radar of not being a party animal all along, this is fine for me. I am adjusting to a city that goes to sleep. Osogbo goes to sleep at some point even though there is nightlife here. I don’t miss that life of horns blaring very late in the night. I love it here.
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