I never gave up on having a son— Omotayo Omotosho

Media entrepreneur and former Director-General, Nigerian Tourism Development Corporation, Mrs. Omotayo Omotosho, talks about her life, career and current projects.

How fulfilled are you as a broadcaster?

I feel fulfilled because I knew what I wanted from the scratch. From the age of seven, a lot of my friends told me, “Omotayo, if I were you, I would not study difficult courses like Medicine, Engineering or Law. Do something that is relevant to your creative talent because there is something about your voice when you talk.’’ I never took my friends serious until when I got to secondary school, Christ School, Ado-Ekiti. First, I had a stint at Queens School, Ibadan. I realised that when the literary and debating society was being established, my teacher impressed it upon me to become a member. I would be the lead of the team for debate with other schools and we always won. My friends said they hoped that I would study Mass Communication or English at the university. That helped me to know my area of creativity and talent.

Didn’t your parents object to your plans?

They didn’t because my father was an educationist and also worked with the Federal Ministry of Agriculture as a public servant, so he was learned enough to encourage whatever talent a child had. He taught me phonetics and would often ask me to read, “Hercules’ father said to Harry, Harry where is your hat? It is hanging on the hanger in the hall.’’ I didn’t realise that he wanted to test the ‘h’ word because when some people talk, they put an ‘h’ where there is none or make it disappear in words. My parents actually encouraged me. I must say the greatest thing that can happen to any individual is for you to know what God has destined you to do from the scratch and run with it. By the time I got admitted to study Psychology at the university, I wanted to study human behaviour. I didn’t find Mass Communication and English as curious as Psychology, which I studied at the University of Lagos.

Thereafter, the National Youth Service Corps programme came and I was posted to the Nigerian Television Authority, Ibadan. It was as if destiny and providence were unfolding. A few months down the line at NTA, some of us got to know that the Oyo State Government had started paying youth corps members higher; the Broadcasting Corporation of Oyo State had just been commissioned, so we moved there. I was retained after NYSC and that was where I cut my tooth in broadcasting. I said to myself that I didn’t want to stay too long working for a state or national broadcasting corporation, I wanted to be self-employed.

What made you feel that way?

I felt that since I was passionate enough about the job, I could start my own television production company and that was how Pacesetters Communications was birthed. I felt with that I could be so creative and divert all my attention to what was mine in the field of healthcare, social amenities, infrastructure, et al and people would sponsor these programmes. That’s what I did and by God’s grace, it has been awesome. I don’t just present programmes, I produce as well. I am also into public speaking and act as compere at policy-based ceremonies often organised by government. I would be marking 30 years of my TV broadcast career in 2017, having started out in 1987.

Have there been challenges?

There have been a lot of challenges. Over the years, I have realised that Nigerians measure success by your level of publicity and how much noise you can make, to the extent that we have lost substance and we are looking at the façade. I don’t really go to parties and I believe in the sanctity of marriage. I shuttle between Abuja and Lagos, because my television production firm is in Abuja. It is not easy. I realised that Nigerians have put a lot of priority on wanting to look good and wearing designer outfits. I want to be an advocate for reawakening. In a nation where 80 per cent are under the poverty line, where our children are on the streets begging for alms to feed, unemployment is everywhere and if you are one of the privileged few making money, why should such monies be for yourself alone? It is not by your profici