Leadership and the benefits and beauties of discovering talents

[Augustine Togonu-Bickersteth]

Leadership and the benefits and beauties of discovering talents:: Artists,Artiste aand start-ups by Augustine Togonu-Bickersteth,London,England

Leaders are those willing to look out for those to the

 left of them and those to the right of them, leaders are 

the ones who are willing to give up something of them 

own for us. Their time, their energy, their money, maybe even the food

 of their plate. When it matters leaders choose to eat last-Simon Sinek

I am inspired to write this article following a report i read that referred 

To a television producer/ media entrepreneur, Mr Gregory Odutayo

Of Royal   Roots Production as the King of Television! We have lost contact

 I was commended  when I had published the first review of Royal roots

 production in a newspaper. It was a big thing to be in the newspaper 

before the era of social media or internet.

You could say I discovered them because by my write up I put them on a pedestal.

This brings me to the topic of my write up,

I met a young man a journalist of about 10 years' experience who complained about editors

Killing stories so he has his own vision for Nigerian journalism.he wanted to concentrate on investigative reports. The really big stories.

I was frank with him, BBC reporting standard NO STORY IS WORTH A JOURNALIST'S LIFE

So I advised him to write about progressive Nigerians starting out doing good things. What i had in mind was artists, artistes and start-ups   This is very relevant now with the start-up bill now signed into law by President Buhari.

 The young journalist refused on the grounds his was a small outfit and as such would not be taken seriously by an equally unknown artist, artistes or startup. But i  kind of understood where his mind lay. He said he first had to take care of himself before taking care of other people.

Its then i told him that in soldiering its said “The Leaders eat last” for good reason a   Journalist is a soldier/

Look at flutterWave they came in from nowhere to hit the front page of Time Magazine International. I had never heard of them and they were in Ikeja lagos,.that's not good.

What goes around comes around.

        long after reaching Unicorn status one of the co-founders of  FlutterWave spoke on the need for people to tell the stories of those starting ou./

Who are these storytellers? The first is the unpaid storyteller, the journalist then the other three might get paid. advertiser.PR man and blogger. It's not that the journalist does not get paid.the gets paid not by the news maker r but by the newspaper proprietor.it is the proprietors' duty to  put a price on the news he has collected and then take it to the market. The proprietor. Since his also sells his audience to the market. A segment of the market since he might not be trying to be all things to everybody. /he might decide that his paper is to be read largely by the upper middle class, or middle-class professionals or the lower working class. There is revenue to be made in all the segments it all depends on your content and skill of writing   consistency and persistence. You have to cultivate the audience

On no account should the proprietor or journalist ask the news maker for money or for money to influence the news. This is how I was taught- Journalism is the first draft of history.it is recording History in a hurry. Advertising is what you say about yourself and public relations is what other people say about you. Now PR tends to be more credible than Advertising but its also been said that the most truthful part of the newspaper is the advertisement... This perhaps stems from the classical definition of news-News is what someone else wants to suppress. Everything else is advertisement. So you need to have a critical and analytical mind tp make the most of your newspaper.

If you had followed a talent from inception, starting out and struggling and he or she eventually hits it big, you may also hit in big in respect of your reputation as a journalist rather than trying to eat crumbs off the table some where

[Mr. E. B. Jaiyeoba]

Thanks Sir for this contribution on journalism, advertisement and PR and the need to tell our story especially of the start-ups.

Another issue in this contribution I really appreciate is the aspect of investigative journalism. Since the days of Dele Giwa and his friends that started the Newswatch and after them a few investigative magazines during the military era, investigative journalism has not been in vogue in the "democratic" era of Nigeria. These days we have more online bloggers and perhaps Sahara Reporters and others. What accounts for little or no investigative journalism now? Is it the transition from the military to the 'democratic" era or the fact that we have all become journalists by being online??

Babatunde JAIYEOBA

E. Babatunde JAIYEOBA PhD

Professor of Architecture

Department of Architecture

Faculty of Environmental Design and Management

Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria

ebj...@oauife.edu.ng; tundej...@yahoo.co.uk; +234 8037880023

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