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Mr.
Sunday Antai is the personal assistant to Governor Godswill
Akpabio on press affairs in Abuja. He spoke to journalists
in Uyo recently on the challenges of his job. David
Augustine was there, Excerpts.
Good afternoon Sir,
Good afternoon gentleman. It has been a long time.
Let's take-off from this point. You are the personal
assistant to Governor Godswill Akpabio on press affairs in
Abuja, what are the challenges?
Yes, there are challenges. Challenges in the sense that you
have to reach out to your colleagues and establish a
relationship. And of course, a lot of them have been
cooperative. As soon as I got there, I identified myself
with the union there, that is the Nigeria Union of
Journalists, FCT chapter. Also, I have known many of them;
some were national officers of NUJ. So, we started off from
where we stopped when I was the zone F national officer. I
must give kudos to them, particularly Akwa Ibom sons and
daughters who are practicing journalism in Abuja. One good
thing that has made my job easier is about the performance
of my boss. He is one person that will say something and
when you come to Akwa Ibom, you will see what he has done.
Many of my colleagues are already aware of his achievements.
So, they have been very understanding. Each of them that I
talk to will tell me, your governor is doing well. So, the
challenge, like I said, is just that Abuja is only next to
Lagos in terms of media intensity. There are so many of my
colleagues there and it is tough getting to know all of
them. But we are doing our best. On the whole, it has been
very impressive and challenging
And what about some of the problems?
Of course, you don't expect not to have problems, but those
problems cannot stop us from going ahead with the task.
Sometimes, your colleagues will just come and say how about
this? So, you keep explaining to them and they leave
satisfied.
So, the problems are not so many, except like I said
managing such a big number of professionals. And sometimes,
you also encounter quacks. Someone comes around and tells
you I am a journalist, then you ask him certain questions
and he feels uncomfortable. But the good thing is that as
somebody who has been in practice for a long time and
participated in NUJ activities, I know how to handle them.
You just ask one or two questions about the organization
they claim to represent and they flop. Yes, we have some
difficulties in terms of managing that crowd.
And of course, there are certain people who want to pull the
governor down for certain reasons. And sometimes they have
to do trouble shooting, but the advantage is that I don't
believe in approaching my job from what I will call the
fire-service approach; you allow problems to crop up and
then you try to address them. What I did was that I visited
almost all of them to solicit their support.
And they will say you have done well for coming. But then,
there is a political angle; as the governor said recently,
somebody will tell you that there is a petition at the EFCC,
that the mother owns a company. But the mother died several
years ago. The problem there is that some of these guys are
not professionals; they think that the more you say the
governor has done this or that, the more you sell your
papers. But you need confirmation, you also need to
investigate. Most of the problems are from the political
angle in terms of those who try to insult the government or
drag the name of the governor into the mud.
From all indications, the governor is a good product
that sells itself without packaging!
(Cuts in) Sure. I have said that before. But what I am
trying to add is that, some of my colleagues will tell me
your governor is trying, but they will point out certain
areas. For instance, they will ask you, the Fresh Facts
issue, what happened? This problem with the Igbokwes, these
are issues which, to me, have been settled already. You
don't need to bring them up.
So, when they bring them up, trying to blackmail us, and I
tell them no, that issue has been settled. To answer your
question directly, of course, you cannot sell a bad product
no matter how regular you advertise it. My governor is a
very good man. That is the truth. I am not, he is not, but
in terms of service delivery, service conception, he is
good.
Have you reached out to your colleagues in other
northern states, outside Abuja?
The answer is no. The reason being that Abuja hosts two
major print media establishments which are owned by
northerners The Leadership and Daily Trust. There are so
many, it is not possible to know everybody. But once you are
able to fraternize with those at the top, you can be sure
that somehow they will be able to hold down some of these
people. I am in touch with the bureau chief and others.
What is your effort in cultivating the support of
local media practitioners in Abuja?
I only know of one major local print medium and that is the
Medocat. As I am talking to you, if I am to talk to the
editor-in-chief or the associate editor, I have their mobile
phone numbers in my phone. But there is another upcoming
one. The local media in Abuja are not as vibrant as they are
in Akwa Ibom. The local media in the South are very vibrant.
They may not be hard core professionals, but they are still
very vibrant. That is not true of Abuja. Take for instance,
the Triumph newspaper published by Kano State government. I
cannot recall the last time I saw the newspaper on the
streets of Abuja. The deputy president of NUJ is one of the
top men there. The immediate past president of the Nigeria
Guild of Editors is working there.
How much do you think Akwa Ibom is reported
nationally?
Thank you for that question. But answering that kind of
question is that, it will be value laden. You need
statistical analysis to know how much and what have been
reported. You need to do what we call the expected and the
actual. Having said that, the Nigerian press has really
reported Akwa Ibom State. I can tell you this, in terms of
the press, used in the original sense, print. In terms of
the print, Akwa Ibom State governor, Chief Godswill Akpabio,
apart from two other governors, belongs to the first three.
What we do is not always news, for instance, I sat down and
watched my governor talking this morning on the TV. Before
he was through, I had already made up my mind on what to do
with what he has said.
There are times you heard the governor, not
necessarily in Akwa Ibom, making far reaching decisions.
What do you do in that kind of situation, because the
feeling here is that journalists in the state should have
the feel of the information first so that they will be able
to project the issue accurately in their reporting?
The answer to that question is this. You must take the tide
when it is right. For instance, if my governor is in Abuja
and he speaks with journalists, then he is confronted with a
particular question he did not quite want to comment on,
maybe whole process has not been fully exhausted. He could
say, yes that is in the works. But the important thing here,
I must stress at this point, is at least to hear what it is.
If it comes from you, I hear it. If it comes from him, I
hear it. That is what is important. But generally, the
people should know what the government is doing. And the
people have the right to know. It is the people's
government. If he does not inform them, they will ask
questions. What is happening, we need to know this, we need
to know that.
When the governor was a commissioner of local
government and chieftaincy affairs, he was so close to
journalists. That led to the conclusion by journalists that
when he becomes governor the relationship will be stronger.
But it appears that is not the situation now.
You should know that there is a big difference between the
two positions. When he was commissioner, he was looking at
only one ministry. But now, he has the whole state on his
head. That means he has little time to do certain things he
used to do. But I know the central thing here is about
welfare. I am aware that welfare still works, except that it
is in an expanded form.
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