Though he studied secretarial administration at the Federal Polytechnic, Ado Ekiti, Louis Odion had always loved journalism profession and on account of this he distinguished himself as a fearless campus journalist. He ended up becoming the editor-in-chief of a top rated press club at the institution. He was honoured with the school’s Best Writer of the Year Award 1991. He was also at various times a management staff of some of the country’s A-list newspaper outfits like Concord, THISDAY and the Sunday Sun. By 2008, he teamed up with some contemporaries to float the National Life newspaper. It was from this establishment that the Edo State Governor, Comrade Adams Aliyu Oshiomhole, ‘poached’ him in July 2011 to become his commissioner for information and orientation. Here he speaks to Special Correspondent, ISAAC OLAMIKAN, about his role as the mouth-piece of the Edo State Government
Louis Odion
Sir, this is your second tenure in office as the commissioner for information and orientation in the Comrade Adams Aliyu Oshiomhole led administration in Edo State. What value can you say you have added to governance in the state?
Basically speaking, I assumed office in July 2011. That was on the eve of the election so to speak. And to God be the glory, my boss, Comrade Adams Aliyu Oshiomhole, won his second term election overwhelmingly last year. That speaks about the confidence the people of the state have in his leadership. For me, my work is made easier because I have a principal who is hard working and who has been able to deliver on his mandate. To that extent, I don’t see myself as a propagandist or somebody who needs to tell lies to convince the public. When I say that Oshiomhole is busy constructing roads people can see. So, that makes my work a lot easier. It has been a wonderful experience.
Many people are of the opinion that as a journalist your assumption of office as the commissioner for information and orientation will bring relief to some workers in the state-owned media organisations – Edo Broadcasting Service (EBS) and the Nigerian Observer, who for years have been classified as casuals. So, why is the problem still lingering?
If you run a newspaper or TV outfit as a private sector person, an investor, your aims and objectives are different. When government set up such an organ its aims and objectives are also different. Not necessarily to make profit. Of course, when I came in, in 2011, EBS was in a terrible shape ditto the Nigerian Observer newspaper. As a matter of fact, the signals of the EBS were hardly received beyond certain quarters within Benin. In the last two years the story has changed which speak to the fact that we’ve been able in our own modest way to positively impact on the service. The truth of the matter is that, until the Comrade Governor (Adams Oshiomhole) came on board, the Nigerian Observer and EBS have not really had what one may call quality attention from successive governments. As a matter of fact, the transmitter the EBS was using was functioning below 10 percent of its installed capacity. We’ve been able to install a new transmitter for EBS. As I speak to you, EBS has greatly improved. The signals are sharper. Once we’re done with EBS our next port of call will be the Nigerian Observer. You need to understand the environment in which you are working. We don’t have all the resources. If we’re running in the private sector we’ll probably be driven by profit. Of course, when I say profit you also look at your in-flow. If you look at the structure of the Nigerian Observer, today they have more than 200 staff. Now, you want to sit back as a professional, what is their print-run? Their earning per day; does it justify that size of workforce? In a newspaper I was running before I came here, National Life newspaper, our workforce was less than 120 staff. It was a national newspaper circulating close to 20,000 copies daily. The Nigerian Observer which has a far lesser print-run having more than 200 staff. It goes to illustrate the point I was making earlier, the purpose of private sector is different from that of government. Government set up institutions, offer employment as a social responsibility whereas the private sector is out to make profit. You want to ask yourself the number of staff you’re employing, will the turn-over of the company be able to take care of your wage bill? But that of government is different. And in our own circumstance we’re battling with competing interests. We don’t have all the resources that some of our neighbours within the South-South geo-political zone have. They may have resources to subsidise their state organs heavily but in Edo State we don’t have that kind of luxury. So, what we have to do with the resources we have is to prioritise. We’ll rather spend money on what will impact on the people directly – roads and all that. Having said that, we’re not closing our mind to the fact that we needed to decide what we want to do with the Nigerian Observer. Talking about casual workers, the easiest thing to do is to say: ‘Ok, we have 100 casual workers at EBS and also at the Nigerian Observer. For populist purposes let’s employ them.’ That is the easiest thing to do. But at the end of the day it has cost implications. Whereas, in the private sector, as a managing director of a newspaper, I can take decisions on how to run the paper; all I need to do is to probably clear with the board of directors. In Edo State, you don’t spend a kobo that is not appropriated. If the house of assembly has not appropriated an amount of money for you, you cannot spend that money.
If the EBS has casual workers it is our ambition to regularize their employment but we can only do that within the confines of due process. As a matter of fact, the governor has always been against casualisation. But of course, whatever decision we take has to be something that is realistic.
Properties that belong to the government-owned media organs have either been illegally acquired or encroached upon. What are you doing to rectify this?
I won’t say most of the properties. That would be a wrong way to pose the question. It is true some of our lands, particularly assets belonging to the EBS, have been encroached on over the years, it is not a recent development. As a matter of fact, where you presently have EBS at Aduwawa, when that facility took off in 1978, as Radio Bendel, the entire area was virgin. There wasn’t any habitation in that area.
Over the years because successive governments were not keen about securing the asset they didn’t take steps to do a perimeter fence the place. Over the years different governors came with different temperament, different ideas and different orientations. So, increasingly land speculators moved in. They started building houses on the property. The good news is that the ministry under my watch is taking steps to ensure that those who have encroached on our lands at Aduwawa, Auchi and other locations vacate the lands. Last week, we had a meeting with the house of assembly committee on information together with my counterpart in the ministry of land. The resolution was that we should issue an ultimatum to those who are occupying government lands to vacate them within two weeks failing which steps would be taken by the government to recover the lands. So, it is not true to say that most of our lands have been taken over. Yes, some of our properties have been encroached on and we are taking steps to recover them.
There is a belief in certain quarters that some of the properties in question were actually traded-off as political gratifications.
That is not true. What we were told at the meeting we had last week was that some of the so-called trespassers have what you may call valid documents to back-up the structure they build on those lands.
But what we are saying is that whoever gave you permit to build a house on government land did it illegally because we have a copy of the masterplan for that area and from it the dimensions of the land were clearly stated. If you went ahead to enter into any deal with unscrupulous officials of the ministry and they gave you permit that is at your own peril. So, it is not true that the lands were traded-off; at least to the best of my knowledge. Certainly not under the present dispensation of Comrade Adams Oshiomhole.
There is an impression that the information unit of the state government is not well organised as some assignments that are supposed to be handled by the ministry of information and orientation end up been handled by the government house press unit.
We work as a team. If you expect me as commissioner for information and orientation to appear on TV every day or be seen daily in the newspapers issuing statements, that will be belittling the office. As the commissioner for information my brief is to speak for the government of Edo State. If there are issues pertaining to the office of the governor he has a Special Adviser on Media and Publicity. He speaks for the governor while I speak for the government. There is no clash whatsoever. As a professional I am not hustling for publicity or photo opportunity. I come out to speak when it is necessary and we also decide who to sign statements depending on the seriousness or weight we attach to circumstances. There are statements that we issue and we think that the best person to sign is the Chief Press Secretary (CPS). There are policy statements we make and I will sign that. Propagating government activities is one thing, promoting self is another. Making noise is not the same thing as making sense. As someone who was managing director and editor-in-chief of a national daily newspaper, I should not be seen to be hustling for photo opportunities at this point. My brief now is helping to promote the Oshiomhole brand which is already a viable brand anyway. The state television/radio and newspapers are public trust even though they are all under me. That does not mean I should force my face on the television station daily. As a professional, I would then be abusing public trust.
The in-house magazine of the Ministry of Information and Orientation is not well circulated in the remote areas where it is most needed.
(Cuts in). I don’t know what your parameters are. I know that the ministry publishes a news bulletin and that it is well circulated. I am aware that copies are made available at the NUJ Press Centre in Benin where journalists congregate daily. We have email addresses of all the reporters based in the state. When we have any news item we post it to them. We also publish a magazine, Edo Light. It is a monthly magazine and we make thousands of copies available for free for all those who are interested in having copies. We don’t have limitless resources, if we do may be we’ll be producing millions of copies. What should interest you is, are we able to get our information across? I will say yes. If you pick any of the national dailies you’ll see that Edo State is being over reported. This has some disadvantages in the sense that when things you may consider irrelevant happen in the state it gets all the media attention. For instance, when there is a kidnapping of a teacher in the state it gets all the media attention whereas kidnapping is the order of the day in other states but it doesn’t get
reported. As I speak to you now, as part of our information reforms, we have also opened our information portal, an online interactive platform through which government information get uploaded and you can actually engage us in any corner of the universe on our activities. That speaks about our culture of transparency because we don’t have anything to hide.
Edo chapter of PDP recently dismissed the Oshiomhole’s administration as a failure for five years. What is your comment?
We would have been surprised if PDP had said the opposite. You don’t expect them to be happy when the generality of the good people of Edo, from the royalty to the ordinary masses, were rejoicing at the fifth anniversary of the Oshiomhole administration, happy that the state has been redeemed, you don’t expect them to be happy also. Few days ago, I watched a funny television documentary cobbled together by Edo PDP where Mr. Daniel Orbih comically told lies all through. I almost choked with laughter. He laboured hard to deny the positive developments in Edo today. Well, I understand Orbih studied History at UNIBEN and reliably gathered he was not exactly a brilliant student. But one never expected he would permit himself the liberty to attempt to rewrite verifiable facts of recent history so crudely. What Oshiomhole achieved within two years, PDP was unable to achieve one tenth of it in the 10 years they were in power. It is very cheap indeed to take a video camera to a remote part of town and film some bad roads and now tell the whole world that that is how all the roads in Edo State are. Only a comedian will tell that kind of kindergarten lie.
On the contrary, I think what every reasonable commentator is saying today is that, ‘If only PDP had in 10 years done a fraction of what Oshiomhole was able to achieve in five years, Edo would by now have become a small Dubai’. The truth of the matter is that Oshiomhole has had to build from nothing. You see, Daniel Orbih and his lord and master in Abuja are so shameless. That is why they still have the boldness to raise their voices while decent men and women are talking today. They used to tell Edo people there was no money to do capital projects once workers’ salaries were paid. But with Oshiomhole in the saddle, Edo people now know better. Oshiomhole is a prudent manager of tax payers’ money. In the past, it used to be the loot of the godfather and his political slaves. Whereas the godfathers became billionaire overnight, Edo State grew poorer. So, no one is deceived by Orbih’s funny lies. Well, some of us have known addresses before taking public office. I was managing director/editor-in-chief of a national newspaper before now. Comrade Oshiomhole’s last address was the president of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC). Well, Orbih’s last known address before becoming a stupendously rich state party chairman is a small cement shop in Port Harcourt. So, the difference is quite clear.
When you eventually leave office as a commissioner what do you want to be remembered for?
That verdict is better left with historians. I wouldn’t want to be in a hurry to write my own epitaph. That will be jumping the gun.
Will you go back to the newsroom from here?
Definitely, I told people I am on a sabbatical. Something I miss so much is not been able to write. For me, writing is life. Coming over here I haven’t been able to exercise that part of me. I miss writing greatly.
I will also say I have learnt a lot of lessons here. Before now, I would say I used to be an idealist. I had the privilege of writing a weekly column; that afforded me the opportunity to be a social critic. I always wanted to hold the government by high standards. My experience in this side has opened my eyes to a lot of things to realise why things don’t work. It is one thing for a political leader to have a vision it is another thing for that vision to be translated to reality. I have also learnt the virtue of patience. As a newspaper boss I was impatient. I was always out to get results; you have to drive reporters to be productive because you’re driven by deadline.
But in public service the work ethic is different. You are dealing with civil servants who operate between 8am and 4pm whereas in the newsroom, life begins from 4pm until midnight. For me, it is a totally different experience. I believe I am a better person now. To survive in this kind of environment you have to be patient. You’re dealing with people with a totally different orientation.
When you leave here are we expecting memoirs of your experience in public office?
Every day I stay here I have a diary; I keep notes. I won’t be doing justice to my calling and myself if at the end of the day I am unable to put my experience together in a coherent form that can serve as an inspiration to others. So, I can’t wait to return to the newsroom.
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