What Ajimobi govt intends to achieve with Ibadan Media City project —Yomi Layinka

Mr Yomi Layinka is the Special Adviser to Governor Abiola Ajimobi on Ibadan Media City Project. He speaks with MOSES ALAO on the import of the vision for the project, how it will be funded and its importance to the state.

You were recently moved from your position as Special Adviser to the Oyo State Governor on Communication and Strategy to head the Ibadan Media City Project. What is Ibadan Media City Project really about?

I served as Special Adviser from October 2015 till March 2018. Before that appointment, I was Chief Operating Officer in the Broadcasting Corporation of Oyo State between June 2011 and May 2015 when the governor dissolved his first cabinet.

But before the governor joined the build-up to the election in 2011, he had conversations with several people, as to be expected, in building his plans and vision for the state. He sought inputs from across board and I happened to be one of those who had conversations with the governor over a series of meetings. On his assumption of office, his focal point was transforming Oyo State into a truly modern state and the first individual appointment he made, perhaps apart from the Secretary to the State Government and his Chief of Staff, was the setting up of a 5-man steering committee to come into BCOS to review its state of affairs and recommend to him. That 5-man committee was headed by Mr Yanju Adegbite and I supported him with three of our other colleagues. That committee was as a result of the governor’s belief that BCOS ought to play a more important role in the transformation of the state than it hitherto was playing. That was why he seconded the five of us and eventually retained the two of us, Mr Yanju Adegbite and I, to carry on, because you know, for any state in the process of transformation, communication is key. This is because you do need the stakeholders buy-in at every stage of the journey; you do need a medium that is credible, that people can believe, which would, therefore, be a medium for transmitting the vision of the government. Such medium will also be available to get feedbacks from the people, to know whether government was doing well and getting suggestions on how to do better. So, BCOS was central to the governor’s vision of a new Oyo State. Don’t forget that the media plays a significant role, and perhaps even more so the electronic media, because of the immediacy and their capacity for visuals and sounds in mobilising people, creating new images and identities. BCOS was always a central part of that transformation mechanism for the governor and that was how we got into the system.

So is Ibadan Media City Project all about an evolved BCOS or it involves other things and if it does, what are the other things it involves?

The Ibadan Media City is an emanation from BCOS. It is the natural next step. You know BCOS has a pedigree of not only being a television station that has had a glorious past and has a huge future ahead. It also belongs to a state where we have a history of firsts; first television station in Africa, first university in Nigeria, first FM Station in Nigeria and first Olympic-size stadium. So, in the area of education and leisure and media, Oyo State has always been the pace-setter and therefore it was natural that we step up the game.

Now, the concept of Ibadan Media City is to create a hub of media and entertainment businesses and practitioners that will propel the very proud heritage of the Yoruba people not only to us at home but also to the Yoruba in diaspora and to the black world in general. The Ibadan Media City is modeled after a few ones around the world; it will be the first of its kind in Nigeria that is a dedicated media city estate. But we have such projects around the world; there is the Dubai Media City in the United Arab Emirate, there is the Media City in Salford, Manchester, there is one in Seoul, Korea and other ones in Egypt and Copenhagen, Denmark. The idea is that urban city planners have found the idea of a concentrated media city project to be a major feature of urban centres in need of regeneration. In most of these cities, the concept was to create a hub that acts like an energy-giving source for that region. So, our ambition with Ibadan Media City is to create a regional media hub that is located in Ibadan and can serve the whole of West Africa.

Ibadan is a critical space in the landscape of the Yoruba nation and it must take the initiative in developing and evolving into the modern society that we must continue to aspire to have. So, the Ibadan Media City is a hub and you know what a hub is; it is like the attraction point where every other thing takes off. And because of the geographical, socio-cultural and historical place of Ibadan in the Yoruba nation, no better place is suited to lead in the reinassance, using culture as its platform and media as a transformation agent. So, the Ibadan Media Project is physically located in the BCOS complex in Basorun, Ibadan. What we intend to do is to use the latent resources within BCOS as the take-off ground for this ambitious project. BCOS sits on a considerable estate of lands, about 65 acres of lands, of which less than 20 per cent has been used. The land has been there and the question is what do we do with it? So, what we want to do with it is to build this media and entertainment city, which would preserve BCOS and expand it and then have about five business units that are related to media and entertainment. For instance, we intend to build a theme park and resort where families can come for holidays. We intend to build a sound stage where a lot of major productions can hold and not just for producers in Ibadan but for producers across Nigeria, across Africa and across the world. We are talking about a sound stage that can host major events like Big Brother Nigeria, Big Brother Africa, major sporting events, drama, films. A sound stage where one can hold major quiz programmes; fully-equipped and at major international level such that whether it is a BBC or CNN crew that is using it, they won’t even flinch, because they know that all equipment that they want are available in the studio. We also intend to build an entertainment mall that will comprise cinema, shopping centres and so on.

Similarly, we intend to build in the media city as support for all the other facilities, a four-star hotel, such that visitors can come into the city and spend their weekends. They could attend events, watch movie down the road, go to the production studio and see what is going on there and take their children to the theme park to see what is going on there. And lastly, we intend to build a Media Academy, which is primarily to train a new generation of creative workers, be they producers, software code writers, fashion designers, music stars and managers in the entertainment sector. The academy will be a place where you supply the manpower needs of the hub and by extension expand such that producers or software code writers in Akure, Ado-Ekiti or Lagos would find a convergence here. Don’t forget that I said it is a hub and so it will be a community of creative artists and media practitioners who are at the cutting edge of their crafts and who can cross-pollinate in a contemporary, dynamic and energetic manner and by extension impact their immediate community in Ibadan, South-West and certainly across Nigeria. The major reason we need that is because these are the times that call for innovative thinkers, for people who are thinking out of the box and have the energy and capacity to bring new ideas to the table. As you have probably heard, and rightly too, Senator Ajimobi has been described as the builder of modern Oyo State and all of this is predicated on his vision of creating a new place altogether that is sustainable, especially for young people; that is expandable and that can impact the immediate environment and all aspects of our national life.

• The state of the Nigerian nation

The media city project is a lofty idea that sounds pleasing to the ears. But how do you intend to fund such huge project in a state already hampered by dwindling federal allocations? You mention Copenhagen, Dubai, Manchester and all that but you know they are not facing the same challenge as Oyo State that is struggling to pay workers’ salary.

The driver of every project, especially under the Ajimobi government, has been the Public-Private Partnership model. It is the wise way to go. The governor came from the private sector background and understands that the sustainability of projects requires that the managers have a clear plan of their Return on Investment and not the traditional system in which government creates projects especially for patronage and political gift-making. PPP is the model because not only does it free government to concentrate on its core functions, especially in the face of dwindling resources, it also invites private sector participation, which brings in financial resources and more importantly management capabilities, to ensure that the decision-making processes are sound and based on business considerations and not frivolous political considerations. So, when you have private investors involved in a project of this magnitude, they know what it costs, they have their contacts, they have experiences and can create partnership and alliances in terms of where the product is made and how it is sold across the world. That is the model that is being used; the government essentially is creating an enabling environment for its major take-off in terms of the land assets it would yield and how the private sector will come in. We are inviting and talking to a major multi-national corporation already involved in entertainment businesses, big brands that will come in from across and outside the country to have a stake in the project.

But have you thought of what might happen to the project if a new government, which is due to be in place in the next one year, does not see reason for this project?

Yes. We thought about PPP as one major tool for ensuring sustainability of projects. It is the prerogative of every government to take decisions on whether projects are viable or sustainable, because it was ostensibly voted in by a majority of the people having considered the manifesto of the candidates and their pedigree. People will vote for the new government trusting that it would do good on behalf of the community, so if that government comes in and does not think that this idea or any idea for that matter is viable, it is its prerogative.

However, it is also the prerogative of the people that vote the government in to tell it what they want and what is desirable for them. That is why there are mechanisms like town hall meetings and so on for telling government that the decisions it takes are either good or not good. So, I think there is a moderating mechanism for ensuring whether the project continues or not apart from the PPP strategy that as said is likely to guarantee sustainability because it is beyond the government; it is a business concern that must keep running on its own.