Can you share with us what you have been up to in the last few months?
I have been involved in so many things. The first is at the political level where I went all out to support the movement for Change. I am not a member of APC; I remain a member of the National Conscience Party. But I took a sabbatical and I decided to join other Nigerians for good conscience who felt our country was heading for a total collapse at the centre. Mercifully, we were able to achieve that aim. So, we effected the regime change in Nigeria.
I believe I was most effective on social media. I did a lot of TV interviews. I coordinated a lot of things in the background. I worked actively with people like former Gov. Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers, Bukola Saraki, I was very inspired by them. As a journalist, I also continued to churn out my column on the back page of ThisDay newspaper on Saturday which Uncle Sunmi Smart-Cole told me few weeks back that has become a must read for most adults in Nigeria and beyond.
At the level of Ovation, we have maintained our lead by producing a compendium of lifestyle stories and a bilingual magazine in English and French.
And recently, we went into Television which I have been working on for over a decade. The idea was first mooted by Senator Ben Murray-Bruce. He said to me years back, on a flight from Abuja to Lagos that, Dele, why are you not putting Ovation on TV? That is how he set me thinking.
I took my time to package that. I looked at what would make me a leading participant in that genre immediately. We thank God we have done it professionally.
On May 16, at my exact age of 55, God answered that prayer. On that day, we released Ovation Television, as a one hour syndicated programme. Our aim is to be the most syndicated 1 hour programme globally, which we are already doing. We are already on Silverbird, we are going on the AIT platform, we are talking to my father, Uncle Steve Ojo at Galaxy, Alhaji Gbadeyanka of MITV. The whole idea for us is to provide Entertainment across platforms.
We are already on GH One in Ghana every Saturday. We are on Ben TV in London, so we cover the whole of Europe on Sky Digital platform, Channel 182. We have just reached a deal with Afrotainment in the US and Canada. We are talking to TV stations in Kenya, Liberia. It is a dream that is slowly but surely coming to fruition.
Our programme appeals to both the old and the young. We have a pot pouri of segments from Ovation Diamond Weddings to Luxury goods, to the lifestyles of the rich and famous, and our biggest asset is Access. We have Access to the Rich and Famous and to the not to famous and to our leaders. We hope it will develop into a full grown TV channel. But we are not in a hurry.
How was your recent meeting with Pres Buhari?
It went extremely well. I was pleasantly shocked when I got a call from my childhood friend and brother, Femi Adesina, the SA Media to the President. I had written a desperate memo to Pres Buhari.
Why?
Because I realize that men of power, hardly know what is being said about them outside. By that I mean the mood of the nation, the mood of the people. And as a stake holder in this change movement, I was alarmed that people were already rubbishing that change by saying the man was too slow, he does not know what he is doing, bla, bla, bla.
And I took advantage of the fact that I know Pres Buhari to be a reader. He is a voracious reader of newspapers and magazines. And indeed he read this one. And his aides read it too. And they told him Oga, this is a column you cannot ignore. Mr. President was gracious to accept that I should be invited.
What kind of man did you meet?
I met a man who obviously knows what he is doing, a man who truly wants to be part of change in Nigeria, a man who may appear slow but he is being methodical in his ways. He told me that the madness that has gone on in Nigeria for years required some methodology. He said if you jump into it you are likely to make more mistakes, and plunge the country into making more mistakes. He took me through all the challenges. We didn’t have too much time. But I maximized the time I had with him.
I found out that many don’t know Pres Buhari well. For instance, before I went in there. I had been told by everybody that the man does not talk, he just listens and after that he will just sit quietly and go on to do other things.
But I met a man who after the usual niceties, pleasantries, photo opportunities, he sent everybody out and it remained just me and him. So it was like a father talking to a son, which for me was a very rare privilege. I have never seen a President who will say I want you to tell me, what is on your heart. He w as jovial, cracked jokes, he was forthright and straight to the point. He is not the kind of man who beats about the bush. He does not engage in Rigmaroles. He looked at me straight in the eyes. I told him what people are saying that his government is slow and I told him what I think he could do.
He accepted and he also told me about his own challenges. We discussed so much that when he was seen seeing me off to the door he was still discussing with me, It was like he found a soul mate he could pour his heart out to because I didn’t go there to go and beg or ask him for contracts. I didn’t go there to go and ask him for an appointment. I went there to talk to him as a patriotic Nigerian. I have been involved in the struggle for a better Nigeria since 1978 at the University of Ife.
Many people don’t understand the issues. A lot of people keep asking me, hey! Bob Dee, are you now going to be made a Minister? That is beside the issue. How will I know? I am not God. That is not the issue. My mission was to talk to Pres Buhari about how to move Nigeria forward, not to ask him for Ministerial appointment. So, if it pleases him and it pleases God that one Dele will serve Nigeria in any capacity, I will be most delighted. But that is not the priority. When I supported ex-President Jonathan, I was not a member of PDP. When late Yar’Adua was President, I wrote articles about him and he read.
That is another President who reads newspapers. I remember my encounter when Mallam Nuhu Ribadu and I were having our battles. Segun Adeniyi actually called me and said the President read your article today, 3 times. And President Yar’Adua asked them to call me to let me know that he is very proud of me. He said he liked the brilliant way I wrote on EFCC at that time. I remember when the former NCC Director-General, Ernest Ndukwe, my senior at UNIFE and late Prof Dora Akunyili were having their brickbats, and I got all the documents then and I wrote about it, Pres Yar’Adua called Dora Akunyili that Dele has just simplified the matter and now he, the President, has a better and clearer perspective of what the problem is.
Prof Dora called me and was rejoicing on the phone. She said you don’t know what you’ve done for me today. The President just spoke to me. So, that is some of the impacts that journalists can make in a society.
So, what were your conclusions as you left Aso Rock that day?
That we have a long road ahead and that road is not straightforward. That road is long winding and we have to meander through it. We have to navigate through a labyrinth of issues, a lot of problems, of unimaginable proportion. But I believe President Buhari is able and capable to handle them. By the time he appoints his cabinet we would have a better direction and a deeper understanding of what he is trying to achieve.
For those who are always quick to judge and those who want to rubbish his government and those who don’t want the government to succeed would find every fault. The thing about the man is that he is not the kind of man you can distract. He is a military man to the core. He is disciplined. My view of him before I went to see him and what I found was not too different. My opinion after I left him that day was a validation of what I already know. But there are times you begin to doubt if he hears or knows what people are saying about him or is he aware of the magnitude of the issues at stake.
After meeting him, I was reasonably reassured that the man is on top of the issues and he is aware of what the people are saying about him. He knows people have accused him of all sorts of things. I had always known that most of those things are unfounded. My first encounter with him was in 2011. I met him 3 times. I met him in 2011 in Abuja. When I was contesting against him, Jonathan and others.
I met him earlier this year the day he spoke at CHATAM House in London. Thereafter, former Rivers Governor, Amaechi invited me to the General’s apartment somewhere in Mayfair. I saw him as a man who is not different from the man I met in 2011. I now met him again in Aso Rock this time around.
He is still the same man. I was impressed with the serenity I saw around him. I didn’t see hangers on. I didn’t see people hanging around who had no business being in Aso Rock. I didn’t see frivolities. I didn’t see anybody drinking Champagne. I saw a serious atmosphere. I didn’t see women of easy virtues lurking around. I didn’t even see a bottle of water. Everything, right from the gate till I entered his office was professional. The security men were courteous. I was very impressed. The new message Buhari has sent out is that if you don’t have any business around Aso Rock, don’t go near the place.
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