(LIFE and LIVING) Social media destroying Nigerian youths – Veronica Ngozi Osokoya, media expert, ex-FRCN Director

Dr. Veronica Ngozi Osokoya (Ihebuzor) is a retired director at the Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria (FRCN) and a media professional. Her areas of expertise include advertising, standards, customer relations management, marketing management, brand development, corporate communications, child communication, writing, and business intelligence, media research, sponsorship drive skills, public relations.

 In this interview, she explains how one can drive business sustainability in this age of data and technology disruptions, and how young breeds can excel in marketing, advertising, and public relations in this turbulent business world, among other issues.

 

One of your core competencies is “conflict management”, let us take it to the secular space. How can the conspicuous socioeconomic and political conflict in the country today be resolved sustainably?

This first question referencing conflict management which is part of what I had done in my case, in different work fields between my clients or customers and the organisations that I had served as a publicist, public relations person,  marketing person, salesperson, and indeed an advertising person and a caregiver. Going forward, there are usually legally binding contracts between partners, principals, clients/customers, and myself as representatives of my organisation and these are either in form of mail exchanges, endorsed industry contracts, MoU or reminder notes culled from minutes of meetings. Taking my knowledge of conflict management to the secular space, you would like to know how this conspicuous sickening political and social economic conflict in our country can be resolved. I will give a few leads which should be useful.

One of my Master’s degree courses was on International Relations. I had an elective in the area of conflict management and resolution by Professor Sola Ojo and Professor Owoeye. There were cases on issues of conflict management and mediation. What I need to advise anyone interested in these issues to focus on are drawn from my experiences as a student, travel, exposures, experience on my career path, the rather unfortunate happening in the Nigerian political space, and now as a research student. There are very scary local conflicts, inter-tribal conflicts, and humongous national conflicts.

We must, however, first identify these conflicts before tagging them as either political or socioeconomic or as being caused by such alienations. We then reflect on the causes of these conflicts, the dragon-headed effects of these conflicts, and the very nature of the political crisis in Nigeria. However we see these, the truth is that our leaders have due to selfish reasons tried to ignore fair play while sponsoring inequality and all the ills that have kept us apart. The parties or regions who suffer denial stop at nothing to defend what they know is their national cum natural birthright.

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There are different types of conflicts in Nigeria. We have a conflict of values, interest conflicts, inter-ethnic relationship conflicts, and structural conflicts among so many others. One can expand this scope but an in-depth understanding will reveal that almost all conflicts can be captured here because these are all drivers of man’s inhumanity to man, favouritism, ethnic divide, intolerance, injustice through quota systems, territorial or land conflicts, religious superimposition conflicts, unequal distribution of resources where one is robbed to pay other. Often the law is also tilted and made rigid to favour another.

Religion, again, sadly has been captured outside the confines of what it’s meant to do. Creativity when stifled through bad leadership or government creates a gap and leads to conflicts. We must think outside the box, and emulate international best practices to see how we can salvage our nation from the ills that have divided us and are dispersing our young and vibrant forces like a storm whose end is not near.

To be able to address these issues, we must be ready as a nation to sustain the resolution. The way to go is to take these issues from the basics. With full knowledge of the types of conflicts, we as Nigerians experience such as earlier enumerated and summarized as – Religious – (Christian-Muslim), ethnic – (farmer-herder) host community – business operators (Niger Delta).

Towards any type of sustainable resolution, we must identify and understand the drivers of the conflict, take into account the views of critical stakeholders, and examine best-case scenarios from the point of view of the protagonists. Establish pain points from the viewpoints of the parties in conflict, reconcile viewpoints based on principles of equity, justice, and fairness, work towards a win-win situation, and set up metrics for tracking and monitoring progress. My worry is with the political class and those whose selfishness and self-aggrandisement are funded by the existence of these conflicts. They instigate, sponsor, and engineer conflicts as they cannot survive unless there is chaos.

Are Nigerians bold enough to identify these drivers without fear of intimidation, suppression, and oppression by those who by power either at the clan, local, regional, national levels, or international levels have sponsored these conflicts? 

My sincere prayer is that we must focus on the issues and make time for them, craft sincere solutions as to how we can avoid them. At some points, there must be deep overlook and tolerance, compromise, no life-threatening accommodation, and collaborations or we may just be stuck. We must thereafter work towards sustaining, and milestones must be achieved.

The bottom line is that people must conscientiously accept to cooperate while being diplomatically assertive on what they deserve. A government that cares for the good and interest of the people and nation must drive this.

Another one is social media/digital marketing, do you agree with the federal government’s previous and intended moves to profile the use of social media? Are Nigerian youths maximizing the space especially in deciding their fate politically?

When one considers that an average of 31 hours is spent weekly by a youth, and imagine how much funds go into data, it becomes a huge concern if no positive self-development issues are met. Social media offers both the possibility of media democratisation, and its misuse and abuse can be catastrophic. What is the case with the Nigerian youth whose whooping minimum of four hours daily goes on Facebook alone because the tool in his or her hands called the mobile telephone is used for practically everything?

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Excuse this language ‘the pinging, ponging, popping’ often cannot be ignored and so they bury useful, youthful time and energy for a whole day if care is not taken. To my mind, the dominant model of social media use among Nigerian youth is destructive, adversarial,  confrontational, emotive, and non-evidence based, leaning towards sensationalism and fake news.

Truly, social media is expanding its horizon. It is developing and getting more popular among our youth and the young generation. Its popularity is overwhelming with impacts that negatively stare us in the face as it promotes vices and very negative impacts especially when it has no link with their jobs nor scholarly works.

Social media is a huge concern for most people in Nigeria as it’s seen as important. Is this truly so? 

There will be a long-term impact of social media on the Nigerian youths of today especially those who through stories told think being on social media, and possession of Android phones are status symbols. In brief, it has sadly turned out to be a sponsored tool in the hands of politicians and their stooges who take it as an abusive model that is undemocratic and suited more to exploitation and adoption by cheap rabble-rousing demagogues!

Profiling is expedient which in the end could be abused, so it’s the wrong way to go. The best solution in my opinion is to lay down norms for social media use and enforce these and block the accounts and platforms that refuse to abide by these norms. The warning here is to be fair and not deny those who do not dance to the regulator’s tune.

The major justification is the theory of summum bonum. Permit me to share a personal experience that rattled me. Recently, I updated my status with information about my new business which had my website and I was denied access for 16 days by Facebook. A very frustrating experience but they are working in conformity with their community standards and rules. This is sanity and control.

Politically today, Nigerian youths through the impactful bang of #Endsars protests, have registered an indelible impression that they exist and sufficient attention has been drawn to social media as the platform of the Nigerian youths. You can be sure to reach them through those platforms. Who do we blame? Boldly, sponsors of their frustration and unemployment because their mates in other countries are employed and not allowed the use of telephones while at work.

Our youth have built huge followership. It has gradually maintained a status of a vehicle for and of information dissemination to their peers and a voice that must be heard. I call it a vessel or missile or weapon to catapult its messages to its members and attack the government or those who err. Advertisers and policymakers rightly or wrongly visit social media and those wishing to address the youth or wish to know their opinion do so too. It’s up to the Nigerian youths to emulate international best practices and a wise government ought to look into their concerns and agitations or the nation suffers the consequences.

You are currently running a PhD in entrepreneurship and family business in Nigeria. Today, very few family businesses have survived more than five decades. Many factors are responsible, including a dearth of succession and sustainability plan, what’s the way forward?

I have chosen a very thriving serious family business for this research work. I will share a bit of what I intend to dig into for posterity. The most important, however, is to build the capacity of members of the family; adopt democratic approaches in managing the family business; have sub-committees in the family business, including audit, media, credit, risk, finance, and general purpose; hold and keep records of meetings of the business entity; and succession plan. Please note that succession intentions are my main focus.

Though this research would focus on succession intentions in Nigeria, it will in addition address all aspects of how family influences business and business influences family. Based on the confidence imposed on the family head to oversee family inheritance, this tested and proven person and all that is considered his partners and allies cum proxies strive to earn the family’s trust through their doggedness, resolve to carry on commitment, and doing so in a closely-knit way.

Relationships must be nurtured so as not to let the family inheritance, and investments go unrecognised should be encouraged. The tradition of continuity or succession intentions which I have identified as critical to family business sustainability, and registration for posterity to judge the generation are indelible marks in the sands of time. Succession is success and longevity. The business must have great entrepreneurship drivers and rating indices which sadly are lacking in most contemporary Nigerian businesses, leaving the playing ground for only a few.

With the theory of succession intentions in mind, I have chosen a vibrant Nigerian organization as a model as I am confident it will enable me to understand the methodology and this should be a possible template to encourage and guide growing entrepreneurs.

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My research needs to dig deep into the tradition of continuity or succession intentions which I have identified as critical to family business sustainability, as poor succession arrangements and poor feasibility study ahead of investment can cripple family businesses. Growing up, I easily recall the names of some business empires associated with success but suddenly got extinct. This research will seek to x-ray some manipulations while providing a clearer picture of the nature of family businesses in Nigeria, reveal true entrepreneurship, and their styles, and thereby provide an additional template to the existing of how known businesses have through commitment survived and weathered the storms of times. The woes of many businesses are lack of infrastructural support, power, staffing, bribing regulators, and instability cum insecurity all of which are the problems created by governance at all levels.

How can we drive business sustainability in the age of data and technology disruptions?

Data and technology as reliable as they are suffer disruptions. To avert most of the effects of such occurrence on technology, the best options amongst many are to adopt digitisation, build capacity in digitisation across all levels of the organization, be nimble and agile, adopt lean management systems, accept disruptions and be ready to use them to your advantage. You must create alternative means and use those to have access to all documents, data, and qualitative information stored in such a way that empowers investors to take action on investment decisions easily.

How would the young breeds excel in marketing, advertising, and PR in this turbulent business world, as experienced fellows in these fields?

Who is the young breed? Where are they? Do they believe in Nigeria? The current business world is characterized by a typical rate of change, frequent turbulence, and unpredictability in direction of change. The solutions are many. First such young breeds must submit to being admitted to the professional bodies that regulate such practices. Enroll in courses and training. Seminars, symposiums, and workshops are essential. Capacity building and reading are key. The on-the-job practice of learning the ropes and not the tricks must be emulated. They must submit to being upgraded, and obtain bulletins on industry watch to be informed.

The challenge is that most refuse to learn at the feet of the more experienced. To excel, you must take time to learn and understand the essentials of marketing, sales, advertising, public relations, and trade management. Tap from the fountain of knowledge is often my advice to those who worked with me. I often find ways to commit them to a culture of continuous learning. The story of how I rose to my current status as a fellow of many professional bodies through focus and perseverance is like a daily nugget to all who come around me.

Anyone willing to learn and excel must ask questions and know the codes and ethics of the profession as this helps the would-be core competent professionals focus on enlarging their competence and broadening their horizons. My success story began through very decent processes from the cradle as I had very humble parents, and education was important. Mediocre can’t survive in my family. Again, I found strength from books and journals and I am happy to pass on these batons. I made sure I never focused on misconceptions. I was more than willing to submit myself to be taught and gradually built some humble confidence. I was admired by junior workers because they made me feel like an instructor.

I worked on my communication skills which made me believe in myself. I loved my name and took my surname as a brand which must be defended by reflecting on the adage which says to remember the daughter of whom I was. This taught me to embrace discipline, especially being decent, fashionable, clean, respectful, and passionate about my job.

Very readily I volunteered to serve and this made me become highly strategic and encouraged me to set behavioural targets. I had a female boss who I admired and there were industry bosses who I leaned on seeking knowledge. Those who worked with me realised I never found any job too tasking because I found ways to make negatives into positives. This boosted my confidence and made me delight in doing extras  At some point, I realized I had paid my dues and so it was time to train some trainers passing the knowledge baton. I became a teacher of weekly and bimonthly stand-up meetings. Gradually, I turned into an industry mentor who would always attend to my subordinates.

As a retired director at FRCN who undoubtedly connected with the other side of the profession, what differences did you see between the private media organisations on one end and the government/public media organisations such as FRCN, NTA, others? What are those things each needs to import from the other?

Private media often are too profit-driven and often megaphones for their owners. Professionalism suffered in the hands of revenue and the wise ones would pick professional staff from the government media whose salaries though are stable but too meagre to start theirs. What they had going for them was access to funds to replace parts which ensured they remained on air without disruptions.

They often had automated loggers which made reconciliations easy when principals or clients had tracking pieces of evidence. While government media would be owed, the debt profile of private media was low because they had automated loggers to support their certificates of broadcast. They understood what appreciating customers was all about as they would easily have customers’ dinners, awards, gala, and rewards outings.

Government media are too uncritical and blind praise singers of any party in power. While they had the best professionals who knew the processes and ethics of the profession, they often run with little concern for efficiency and effectiveness because the head of units and sadly the over-stretched chief executives had funds approval power limits with resulting evidence of business failure.

It is a sympathetic case. You need a professional radical to run these institutions. To replace a small i/c may take months because of bids, due process, etc. This stifles creativity. Cross-learning is both possible and desirable but to achieve this, important changes in the owner’s psyche and predilection to interfere would be needed.

A majority of Nigerians do not listen to FRCN or watch NTA news. They don’t believe in federal government-owned media, what could be done to restore the lost confidence, if you are to advise DG, FRCN, NTA, and others.

It is wrong to assume this. My problem is that most people do not know the on-air names of the stations especially Radio Nigeria stations. Most people who listen identify them as they are called not understanding that they are under the FRCN umbrella.

For instance, do you know that Fombina, Metro, Kapital, Heartland, Prime, Supreme, Canaan, Creek, Coal City, Radio One, Bronze, Treasure, Pacesetter, Purity, Amuludun, Paramount, Harvest, etc… are just a few of the 37 FM Stations under the FRCN or Radio Nigeria umbrella? Most of our stations had won awards as best radio stations of the year.

Our patronage may be lower than expected and it’s truly frustrating. It did frustrate me. You will wonder why. The answer is obvious. Funding, tools to compete, objectivity, accuracy, relevance, neutrality, impartiality, and less of “his master’s voice” and grovelling subservience to the boss at the top are needed. A good head or good brain needs the tools and paraphernalia of the job to perform, otherwise, you will be limited. The government needs to give more attention to the needs of the chief executives of these media institutions under them.

Most media organisations while pursuing revenue/profit making- via advert/marketing department and sales personnel, lost integrity, content, and sustainability, how do we strike a balance between ‘quality’ of what we offer (products and services) and ‘quantity’ of what comes in as revenue/profit?

The simple answer here is the importance of content which everyone knows is king but content without an audience and clear signals add up to nothing. The advert or commercial rate card must be competitive, offering extras for volume buyers. There must be discount regimes and loyal clients must be rewarded. Balance is what is needed. How to work that balance is the challenge. A profit ethos can be very debilitating. A pursuit of quantity leads to garbage journalism.

Good quality assures revenue in the long term. Volume and turnover work. The way to achieve this is to block leakages and encourage inter-departmental interfaces. Reward schemes for staff who meet and supersede their targets, wardrobe allowances, mobility, tools of the trade, ICT, conducive work environment, commissions, and marketing interests are also important in this matter, as these are some of the ways to encourage efficiency and productivity. A sales or marketing officer who does not have an endorsement to use his or her initiative while with a client suffers defeat and during pitch presentations for accounts may not compete favourably.

Now, what makes your NGO different from others offering the same or similar services to the less privileged? Some people come together and establish NGOs just to get a pipe to make money from local and international bodies.

Vechi Givers has run as a charity concern for over seven years now, though it was not fully registered while I was still in service. I decided recently to fully register it alongside a media agency, Vbots Media. I have a group of friends who are my social net worth and who love to give to the needy and the less privileged. My concern can be captured in the following:

We have for over six years blessed the needy, the oppressed, and the hungry. We have through our partners supported and fed widows, paid school fees for children of the less privileged, provided shelter for homeless people through payment of rent, released victims of kidnappers by raising ransom demanded and supported their medical care after, funded orphanages, clothed the naked, made the poor celebrate, bridged the gap between the poor and the needy, empowered the rural woman to start up businesses, given pocket money to the aged in rural communities, given monthly pocket money to the aged in a village in Ogun State, picked up medical bills, shared food, support sanitary pads for teenage girls, encouraged boys/young men reformation projects and prayed where our funds cannot be able to reach.

Now we are going further to bring smiles to the needy. Vechi has subtly commenced a food share, clothing share, personal hygiene products share, and furniture and utensils share. We depend on friends and men and women looking for men and women who can donate items and food to charity. We can only do these through people who don’t look back. You can find more of what we do through the website http://vffp.net.

As you can see, we are sacrificial givers and we render accounts to those who support us. We also ensure we ask members of the public to nominate those who need our help and support. We are growing and we are happy to help especially rural women push their farm produce to the cities. We disburse funds to the identified needy at the end of each month and during festivities.