BusinessDay 08 Apr 2018
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Sunday <strong>08</strong> <strong>Apr</strong>il <strong>2018</strong><br />
C002D5556<br />
25<br />
good work will set him apart’<br />
K, he speaks on the governor’s strides in the area of<br />
management in the era of social media. Excerpts:<br />
Akpabio?<br />
I’m surprised you asked that. The distinguished<br />
Senate Minority Leader, Godswill<br />
Obot Akpabio granted an interview recently<br />
where it was massively circulated over the<br />
social media, he said that he has the best of relationships<br />
with his successor. Those rumour<br />
are manufactured by certain entities to throw<br />
banana peels, but nobody would step on it<br />
because the two leaders are brothers who<br />
have emotionally invested in the advancement<br />
of Akwa Ibom State. The two leaders<br />
are bests of friends.<br />
states, Akwa Ibom state is not there, so, let people<br />
stop manufacturing lies, let people go by facts, this<br />
is from Punch.<br />
Sometimes some media aides of the governor<br />
actually go mudslinging in an attempt to respond<br />
to critics of the administration, this goes against<br />
your reported approach of letting facts judge.<br />
Don’t you think their approaches may constitute<br />
image burden?<br />
Once you run a media relations unit, there may be a<br />
majority opinion, and once in a while there may be<br />
a tiny itchy bitchy little opinion that is slightly not in<br />
consonance with the agreed narrative. So these are<br />
universal things, it happens all over the world. But it’s<br />
work in progress all over their world, but I am sure our<br />
guys are doing their best.<br />
What is the relationship between Governor Udom<br />
Emmanuel and his predecessor, Sen. Godswill<br />
In specific terms, what has this administration<br />
done to make you think that the<br />
governor would retain his seat come 2019?<br />
Because people are saying that the industrialization<br />
stories are only on papers.<br />
So the syringe manufacturing industry is on<br />
paper? Have you gone there to confirm this?<br />
The metering solutions are on papers? Those<br />
things are there! The same APC media apparatus<br />
that put out all those things should<br />
also ask some of their governors leading APC<br />
states what tangible things they have been<br />
able to establish. If you have a man that pays<br />
workers’ salaries as and when due, a man that<br />
pays regular pensions and gratuities, except<br />
for those still on bio-metric processes. This is<br />
a man that has published in National newspapers<br />
all the lists of those he had paid pensions<br />
and gratuities, you can go to the Accountant<br />
General’s office and get the list. This is the<br />
governor that the first task he performed as<br />
governor was to clear the backlog of pensions<br />
and gratuities dating back from 2001-2011,<br />
he didn’t have to do that, he wasn’t the governor<br />
as at the time, but as a product of parents<br />
who were both teachers, he had to do that.<br />
This is a man that won’t go to bed feeling happy<br />
if workers’ salaries are not paid promptly.<br />
He believes that a little thing as payment of<br />
WAEC fee can determine the future of a child.<br />
And the last event when he was endorsed by<br />
fathers of faith, he sadly recalled his smart<br />
but poor classmate whose parents could not<br />
afford WAEC fee and whose education halted<br />
because of that. So for a governor to budget<br />
over N600m yearly for payment of WAEC<br />
fees for children across the state, it means<br />
that he wants a level playing level field for<br />
all Akwa Ibom sons and daughters to aspire.<br />
Let’s talk about the relationship between<br />
the governor and the media in Akwa Ibom<br />
State; we understand he hardly reads<br />
newspapers<br />
Where did you get that from? The governor<br />
respects and adores and appreciates the media<br />
community in Akwa Ibom State. Don’t forget<br />
that corporate communication was part<br />
of his responsibilities as Director at Zenith<br />
Bank. He understands the role of the media,<br />
the world of corporate communications and<br />
media relations, so whoever told you that is<br />
another manufacturer of pieces of junks.<br />
How is it like, operating as an image maker<br />
of the governor in a social media era?<br />
The experience has been interesting and<br />
exciting. Operating as an image maker or the<br />
spokesperson to the governor in the age of<br />
social media, where ethical considerations are<br />
all but desirable proposition but not attainable.<br />
Where somebody with a smart phone and an<br />
Ekerete Udoh, chief press secretary<br />
insidious thought process, somebody who<br />
wants to intentionally and maliciously create<br />
a public relation nightmare, can just manufacture<br />
a piece of lie and throw it out there on the<br />
social media and give it wings to fly and even<br />
very intellectually astute people would believe<br />
those kind of very obtuse and insidious as a<br />
fact. So, that is the major challenge, but God<br />
has also given us the presence of mind to be<br />
able to handle those kinds of issues. But the<br />
normal conventional media that you and I<br />
belong to, the world of mainstream journalism<br />
has been wonderful, I have had a wonderful<br />
and very robust relationship with my brothers<br />
in the media, and you guys have supported the<br />
governor on your media. However, there are<br />
certain areas that we disagree, but overall, I<br />
would say it’s been pretty exciting. It means<br />
I didn’t spend 32 years in journalism for nothing;<br />
those years prepared me for moments like<br />
these. The media terrain in Akwa Ibom state<br />
has been very interesting; I think we are the<br />
only state where it is fashionable in the part of<br />
the country for some ’practicing journalists’<br />
to ignore certain ethical foundations that you<br />
and I were taught. In a state where there are<br />
over 100 tabloids and publications whose<br />
motivation may not be to edify the state or<br />
to promote and project the ideals which this<br />
state represents, but whose intention may be<br />
to satisfy the ‘he who pays the piper’; somebody<br />
gave you money to produce a paper and<br />
tells you this is what I want you to put there,<br />
front-page to back page, and the fellow is not<br />
trained in the profession as you and I have<br />
been, he is very likely to do certain things that<br />
you and I cannot do. I think we are the only<br />
state where journalists or people who pass<br />
themselves off as journalists just take delight<br />
in intentionally de-marketing the state to<br />
satisfy a certain political interest, but so far, the<br />
discerning majority of Akwa Ibom people have<br />
the capacity to separate facts from fiction.<br />
It is alleged that the government fraternizes<br />
with the opposition media; that the<br />
government is actually cuddling them in<br />
order to curry their favor, while neglecting<br />
the mainstream media. Don’t you think this<br />
may motivate them to consider their trade<br />
lucrative?<br />
That is news to me, I am not aware of government<br />
cuddling a particular layer of the media<br />
community, but what government does is<br />
to disseminate information using as many<br />
media platforms as possible to project what<br />
the governor is doing. If once in a while you<br />
see certain things in some papers that may<br />
be considered opposition, it goes with the<br />
saying that if you want to catch a thief, you<br />
use things that he likes to catch him. so if<br />
somebody has been manifestly lying against<br />
you, using a particular medium, and certain<br />
people read those things, maybe once in a<br />
while you need to tell the people the truth. But<br />
I know I deal with media across lines, but I am<br />
a stickler for professionalism, I try to operate<br />
along those lines.<br />
How have been able to leverage on the<br />
emerging role of the social media in shaping<br />
public opinion? Or do you see social media<br />
as an aberration?<br />
No! The social media is not an aberration, as<br />
a matter of fact; that is the new frontier, and<br />
any journalist worth his name and training<br />
who has not actively come to terms with the<br />
fact that the social media has come to stay<br />
and it is shaping public opinion, shaping the<br />
contours of governance, is possibly not ready<br />
for prime time. But users have to create their<br />
narratives and ensure that their voices are<br />
heard in the cacophony of the entire crack<br />
that makes up the social media platforms.<br />
The president of the country that I lived for 17<br />
years, Donald Trump makes use of the social<br />
media, he tweets. And that’s a new frontier,<br />
but the challenging part of it for image makers<br />
is that the boundaries are expansive, you<br />
can’t control, no restraint. But on the whole,<br />
it’s a major platform that no responsible image<br />
maker can discountenance.