High Chief Raymond Dokpesi has become a household name for his pioneering efforts in private broadcasting in Nigeria. In this interview with JOHN ALECHENU, he sheds light on his relationship with Nigeria’s past leaders and the controversy surrounding his rumoured nomination for the post of Chief of Staff to President Goodluck Jonathan
You have been described as the Ted Turner of Nigeria by pioneering private broadcasting in the country, how do you feel about this description?
I have had the privilege and opportunity of meeting Ted Turner 20 years ago; that was 1994 in Atlanta. I had the privilege of inviting him to Nigeria although I didn’t have the privilege to be part of the delegation that formally received him thereafter. That was in 2010, 2011 when he came to Nigeria but then, I was very instrumental to it. I took the letters myself to Atlanta to get him to come to Nigeria. But straight to your question, Ted Turner has been a great mentor; he has been a great visionary. He has been a strong achiever, somebody who pioneered global distribution of television broadcasting on satellite. I made an effort to do same for Nigeria and for the black race, so, a description of me as the Ted Turner of Nigeria or the Ted Turner of Africa, is only a recognition of my tremendous efforts in spite of the difficulty, hardship and challenges that we are confronted with in achieving that feat. I believe that Ted Turner was more successful. Looking through his biography over and over and for those that have had the opportunity, they would have found a lot of similarities between us in terms of character traits, habits and in the push to attain excellence. I think the only difference between us is that he is a white man while I am a black man.
Why did you venture into private broadcasting?
Let me say that when I came back to Nigeria, I worked at the Federal Ministry of Transport where I was a director of water transport and later moved to the Nigerian Ports Authority. Originally I trained as a seaman, I later went to Gongola State, (the present Adamawa and Taraba states), for Alhaji Bamanga Tukur’s governorship campaign. I had the privilege of coming back to set up the first indigenous ship company-the African Ocean Lines together with Chief MKO Abiola, General Shehu Musa Yar’Adua, and Alhaji Bamanga Tukur. I built the only shipping company on the whole continent of Africa that owned ships built directly from the shipyard. At the height of our operations, we were running close to about 180 ships a day across the whole world, it was quite a successful enterprise. It was after I finished that that I had the opportunity of coordinating Mallam Adamu Ciroma’s presidential campaign and then later Alhaji Bamanga Tukur’s presidential campaign. It was when I was going round the country that I discovered the gap that existed between Lagos which was both the electronic and print media headquarters as of that time, and other places. I felt that it was necessary to bridge that gap. I thought that it was necessary if democracy was really going to thrive. I felt it was incumbent on us to make sure that people had first-hand information to be able to make up their minds.
With your experience so far, would you describe the venture profitable?
Let me say that profit can be measured in different ways. If you are talking of financial profit, I will tell you that in my earlier years, my years in shipping were much more exciting and much more creative; it was much more rewarding. All the resources I had, all the monies that I made in shipping in those days, I invested in broadcasting. In Nigeria, broadcasting is perceived as a social service. It is about the people; it is protecting and projecting the interest of the people. But the determination and the will to sustain it has carried us on, the sacrifices of the entire members of staff of DAAR Communications have carried the organisation on since 1994 when we started formally. Since when we went on air up till today, it’s been a great rewarding experience, full of challenges.
Have you not been compelled to use the platform to curry favour from government because of these challenges?
The records are there and Nigerians are free to check. I have never gone to government to look for any contract or favour from people that are in government. This is out of the fear that in Nigeria, it is very easy to blackmail and label people. The moment AIT or Ray Power takes a stance on an issue, people can easily say oh, it is because he bid for this contract and didn’t get it. That is why I have kept my cool and stayed off. I have been contented and satisfied with the efforts, the sacrifices and the insistence by my news department to be independent. They have enjoyed complete independence and I have had to live and stand by their editorial judgement irrespective of what side of the divide I personally feel I believe in. To answer your question directly, I have never had cause to go and curry or seek any favour or award of any contract from anybody.
How do you cope with broadcasting in the face of the country’s poor power supply?
I have not been able to weather the storm. I can tell you that with almost about 28 stations across the whole country where power is poor, where power is almost not available, we have had to depend on generators and diesel. If you look at the high cost of running generators in 28 TV stations and 30 or 32 radio stations, then you can imagine the heavy burden. Power supply has been an agony and we have been looking forward and praying and hoping that this challenge of power supply in Nigeria will be resolved for the good of all.
People have alleged that staff welfare and salary are very poor in DAAR Communications, what is responsible for this?
I do not know if the staff are now poorly remunerated. I do not know what the salary structure is between AIT and Channels or NTA or anybody right now. But at a time, NTA and others in the industry depended on AIT salary structure to be able to structure their own salaries. This much I know. From the last salary review, I am very much aware that even the members of staff themselves claimed that the salary structure of AIT was commensurate and competitive with all others in the industry. The challenge we have is the backlog and the inability to pay those salaries when due which is not peculiar to us. This is the major challenge of the industry affecting both electronic and print media. The fundamental issue that still needs to be cleared and which I have continuously championed over the years, is how to really differentiate public broadcasting from private broadcasting in terms of funding. If you take Britain, United States of America, Poland or Russia, what stands very clearly is that public broadcasting is funded from tax on radio and television sets, from the treasury but they steer clear of commercial broadcasting. But here, in Nigeria, the government-owned stations collect subventions, get monthly allocations and so on and still come to the market to compete with the private ones.
But the battle to correct this has been very daunting and tortuous and people are not looking at the industry. If you are looking at DAAR Communications, people don’t say it is DAAR Communications Plc, they just see Raymond Dokpesi. But service to the people is important, somehow we have been able to continue and take care of that. That is why I said perseverance and belief in the growth of the industry had sustained us. In spite of all the challenges that we have had, nobody has the kind of spread that we have in this country, not even the NTA or the FRCN can challenge us. FRCN has 26 stations across the country whereas Ray Power has 32. Nobody has invested in ultra modern, first class equipment like DAAR Communications. We’ve given top priority to that. We’ve given priority to training and retraining of members of staff. But having provided all that, the economy has not helped matters. It is easy for the station to be only in Lagos or Abuja and transmit via satellite and be attending to 400,000 people. But if I want to touch say one million persons in all the states, we are territorially available.
At a time, you cut salaries of workers. Was it as a result of poor returns?
I am not aware of that.
Before the appointment of the new chief of staff to the President, your name was prominent among those touted for the post. Did you lobby to be appointed?
It was news to me because I never lobbied, I never applied to be Chief of Staff. I never asked anybody under the sun, including the President. I never requested to be made Chief of Staff, never. I was not in the country anyway. I was outside the country when all that controversy arose but I was very conscious of the fact that Chief E. K. Clark made some unacceptable remarks about me which I said should be replied to, accordingly.
What is the origin of the problem between the two of you?
We belong to different generations and we have different understanding and perspectives about the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the people of Nigeria. I believe that I am a bridge builder. I believe that he belongs to a generation whose time has come and gone. I think that somebody aptly said that he (Clark) had spent his own time, he has spent the time of his children, he has spent the time of his own generation. He is spending the time of his grand children and he still wants to be relevant. We want to do away with his parochial and divisive concept about Nigeria. We want to build a new and united Nigeria. I don’t care where any Nigerian comes from as long as he is a Nigerian. If I am in Britain, I don’t ever ask a Briton ‘are you from Southampton or are you from Glasgow?’ It is the quality of what a Nigerian contributes that makes me respect him. It is not because he is a northerner or he is a westerner or an easterner or a southerner. I am an unrepentant believer in Nigeria, he is not.
Are you a card-carrying member of the Peoples Democratic Party?
I have never denied the fact that I am a card-carrying member of the party. I registered in my ward in Agenebode as a card-carrying member of the PDP. I have always been a member of the PDP since inception.
How do you manage to separate your media business from your politics?
I think my colleagues will be better placed to really explain that but the truth of the matter is that the editorial board and the newsroom are absolutely independent. It is very clear that DAAR Communications must report all sides all the time. It must be very balanced but Raymond Dokpesi is just only an actor. There is a very clear demarcation between the person of Raymond Dokpesi and AIT news and AIT reporters and Ray Power, they are totally independent. They discharge their duties according to the ethics of the profession.
Why did Bamanga Tukur take interest in you?
Alhaji Bamanga Tukur is my father. I grew up literarily with him. Everything that I can say I attained academically and in life, apart from Almighty God, I can say I owe to him. He supported and encouraged me and was with me all the time. He did not pick me; my mother took me to him. I am telling you that I am the first son in Alhaji Bamanga Tukur’s home. I met him for the first time in Lagos as a port manager of Apapa Port. I was an indigent student. My mother who had her roots in Numan, Adamawa, cried to him. That was the beginning. Apart from God, I owe Alhaji Bamanga Tukur first and foremost for what I have become in life. From that moment, I grew up in his house, he supported me all through. I went abroad on scholarship, came back to work at the Nigerian Ports Authority and went ahead to the ministry. I went with him to Gongola for elections and we have been very close since then.
How did you feel when Tukur was forced to leave as PDP chair, being one of your benefactors?
As a family, we spoke to him to leave the PDP chairmanship for the younger generation. We told him not to allow anybody to rubbish what he had achieved in life. In the history of the PDP, there is no chairman that had gone without some form of blemish; Myself and Awwal, his biological first son discussed with him and asked him not to stay on but then, he had a superior argument to the effect that the way PDP was drifting, the younger generation didn’t appear to understand what they, the founding fathers, wanted to achieve. He said he needed to organise things properly and leave. I had my fears and I expressed my fears to him. Tukur is a committed patriot, a detribalised Nigerian but I was sure he would be messed up by the people he wanted to help and I was in agony. I was in pains because I believe he didn’t deserve it. I went to him and pleaded with him again to leave the position. When I had the privilege of going round to meet all former heads of state, all the governors that have now left the PDP for the APC and prominent leaders from each of the zones and so on, what they told me was, ‘Why don’t you ask your father to leave this thing?’ It was very painful to me.
At a time, you described former Rivers State Governor, Dr. Peter Odili, as your mentor, why?
He is not only a friend; he is a brother. We have come a very long way. He is somebody that is highly disciplined, a strong intellectual, a great patriot, a believer in development and a man who has a large heart.
Some people believe he played a big role in financing your media business.
Very far from it. I started this business in 1994. I believe that those that were grown up at about that time would know that I had been in the Nigerian public scene since 1976/77. I became a multi-millionaire at the age of 26 and a half.
People say you are a specialist when it comes to campaigns, what is the magic?
It is very easy for me because I am a bridge builder. I have at least five, 10 persons across the 36 states of the federation and all the 774 local government areas whom I can call upon to say this is how I think we should be able to go. Over the years, we have sustained a positive and good relationship.
Did you get close to ex-military leader, Ibrahim Babangida, because of your license for private broadcasting?
Unfortunately no. May the soul of Admiral Aikhomu rest in peace. You know, we are both from Edo State. Thank God Peter Pan, Mr. Peter Enahoro, who was chairman of the National Broadcasting Commission is alive, Dr. Tom Adaba, pioneer Director-General of the NBC is alive; they will confirm the fact that at the very beginning when TV broadcasting licences were allocated, I was supposed to be in Abuja. I applied to be in Abuja just as Triple Heritage, which was suspected to be owned by IBB at that time. Aikhomu struck out AIT licence on the grounds that it should not compete with Triple Heritage. That’s not the only aspect of it. You will probably get to know that I was to be appointed the first Director-General of what is today the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency.
I was invited to Abuja from the UK to be sworn in. But on the very day, General Babangida said because he was involved in ECOWAS matters, we should go to Lagos and wait for him. We went to Lagos and I was seated waiting to be invited and sworn in when B.U Ekong was announced as the director-general. My kinsman, Aikhomu, said I would become the DG over his dead body. We became very close thereafter. That’s life. I will also tell you that I brought the first set of tankers to carry crude oil, got two ships in. General Babangida had given approval. Thank God Professor Aminu Jibril, who was Minister of Petroleum at that time, is alive. Approval had been given for me to bring the vessels in, I brought the vessels in and made down payments and we were supposed to lift oil over an eight-year period. The two vessels came to Nigerian waters but my kinsman, Commodore Tony Ikhazobor, who was Minister of Transport at that time, went to President Babangida and cancelled it. I ran into serious debts. I struggled to pay because they didn’t want any Nigerian to penetrate into the carriage of crude oil. That was why I left shipping and chose broadcasting. It was my life’s entire resources that went down the drains. So, I am used to disappointments and frustrations.
Ray power and AIT are household names in Nigeria today; are you satisfied with the reach so far?
There is nobody that is stronger in reach than our outfit but whether I am satisfied? Yes, the vision is good but the quality of the content and the things I wanted to see out of the stations, I am not quite satisfied. I wish I was younger, I wish I had more energy. There is still a lot of room for improvement but the infrastructure to be able to attain it is already on ground.
As the only son of your mother, would you say you were pampered by your parents to the point of being a spoilt boy?
Pampered by my father? Or pampered by my mother? Or pampered by the Nigerian environment? No, I think I was inspired. I was encouraged by the difficulties I had at that time to attempt to succeed in life. Life at that level was quite challenging. Don’t forget the fact that unlike my contemporaries, I could not talk at an early age. A lot of children talked but I was not talking until I was almost 12 years. I only tried to write. I was very sick so, you could say I was pampered by my parents because they were never sure that I was going to survive anyway. In my biography, I stated very clearly that I sat down beside my father in 1957 or 1958 when a good friend of my father said he was wasting his time and money on me because I would eventually die. Well, if that was pampering, yes I enjoyed it. I was not spoilt.
You said it is natural for you to like women, but do you have the time?
I made that comment in the context of the fact that I am born amongst women. I am surrounded by women and therefore the love and passion for women must be there. But, do I have time for women? I crack jokes with my drivers, asking them how they still have the time to impregnate their wives with all the tight schedule of driving around. They tell me that oga, where there is a will, there is a way.
Why did you choose to be a polygamist?
Obviously, I am an unrepentant one. I am an unrepentant polygamist. The reason why there was polygamy in the past was because of life expectancy. You were not sure of which child would fall ill or die. You were not sure of the number of hands you were going to have in the farms to be able to run errands for you to get things going on. People had the tendency to want to have as many children as possible. But in my own case, I was an only male child and for my mother, there was nothing sweeter and better than having more children and seeing more boys and I am very proud of them today.
Copyright PUNCH.
No comments:
Post a Comment