The immediate past Commissioner for Information in Edo State, Mr. Louis Odion, shares his experience as a journalist and commissioner in this interview with Fisayo Falodi
How has life been after your resignation as the Commissioner for Information in Edo State?
Well, life has not changed for me in the sense that, while in public office, I did not acquire taste I cannot sustain as a private citizen. Perhaps the only things I miss are some great friends I made in Benin as well as the jokes with the Comrade Governor.
To tell you something, as a commissioner, it was not until I narrowly escaped gunmen’s attack on April 29, 2012 that I formally applied for personal police security. If you get used to such things while in office, you probably will suffer adjustment problem when you leave office. As a journalist, your first instinct is to see the police as an opposition in the line of duty.
When the police commissioner heard I had been going around without escorts in such a volatile environment, he was really mad at me. But honestly, I never gave it a thought until then. Even after I was assigned security detail, I only allowed police protection around Benin during official hours. Once I was in Lagos or anywhere else, I moved alone.
Your friends and family members must have been shocked to learn about your resignation. How did you handle this?
I think the only people who were most pained by my exit were people of my native community in Odiguetue in Ovia North-East. They were excited when Oshiomhole broke the rule by making me the second commissioner from the council beside Dr. Osagie Obayuwana (the immediate past Attorney General and Commissioner of Justice). We are not just from the same local government area but also from the same ward. It was a bit of a record. Of course, there was ululation at my Lagos home that evening in October last year when I announced via phone that the governor had accepted my offer of resignation. To my inner cycle of friends with whom I share the same values, it was a bit of pride that I resigned and was not fired.
How will you compare life in the newsroom as a journalist and life as a commissioner?
They are a continent apart. As an editor, when I gave instruction, it was executed before the deadline in the newsroom, otherwise someone’s job may be on the line. But life in the Government House is different. First, you have to understand the civil service is driven by different impulse. If you are a sprinter, the bureaucracy has a way of turning you to a crawler. At times, it could take a whole day to get something as simple as a seven-paragraph memo out. But in the newsroom, you know we don’t work that way. Civil service closes by 4pm. But to a journalist, the day is just starting by 4pm. The editor never goes to bed until the printing press starts rolling, usually by midnight. By then, the civil servant would probably be snoring already in deep sleep. That is the first culture shock you get.
Again, there is also the issue of provocation. Oshiomhole often puts it philosophically that public office is a leveller. It is a very treacherous environment. For me, perhaps the biggest benefit I took away is the virtue of patience and tolerance. You have to deal with a whole lot of rats, serpents and swine daily. You have to accept the fact that a few upstarts who ordinarily would not have had the privilege to come near your office, much less lace your shoes, would now see themselves as your mates, if not your competitors. So, to last in that environment, you have to learn to pocket your ego and be ready to endure insults in order to get a task done.
What will you say the appointment denied you of?
Of course, public office denied me of my right to express personal opinion in the public. As government’s chief spokesman, my personal views had to be subordinated to the position of the state government on any public issue. As a writer, there was no way I could continue to write, lest my views be misconstrued to be the position of Comrade Oshiomhole.
As a journalist, you were nicknamed Capacity by your colleagues. What brought about the sobriquet?
It started as a joke really. A group of editors was on a facility tour somewhere in one of the states in the South-South. I think it was around 2003 or 2004. It lasted two or three days. Along the line, a colleague observed out of mischief that my appetite was larger than his. On the last day the group had lunch together, he teased that all along, if he ate a dish of pounded yam, I consumed twice his portion. So, he mischievously said the food was to replenish energy being expended on some naughty activities at night. Everyone laughed. Then, another colleague chipped in that “You know Louis’ work rate in the news-room is very high, so also is his capacity for extra-curricular activities”. He went on to say that it required extra-ordinary capacity to have worked full-time as journalist and simultaneously run a full-time programme at the university. In his mischievous analysis, it was a case of input measuring up to output. That was how the legend of Capacity started.
You rose from being a reporter to becoming editor and later a managing director within a record short period. Can you share some of the challenges you encountered and how you overcame them?
I once read someone describing my own story as a fairy tale. I only came to journalism with nothing more than writing talent. I came to Concord in 1991 as an industrial trainee with Ordinary Diploma from the Federal Polytechnic, Ado Ekiti. I was 18 then. Along the line, I was fortunate to meet great men like Nsikak Essien, Dele Alake, Lanre Arogundade, Liadi Tella, Segun Babatope, Taiwo Ogundipe and Mrs. Ewaen Osarenren and of course, Tunji Bello, who discovered my talent and gave me a platform in Concord even though I was not yet a graduate then. Along the line, it was Tunji Bello who became my chief mentor. He encouraged me to enrol at the university to acquire more knowledge to ground my talent. As my editor, he shielded me from year one at the University of Lagos till I passed out even when some of my immediate supervisors saw me initially as a small boy who should still be trying to shed his milk teeth on campus. Years after I graduated from UNILAG, Tunji Bello did not stop harassing me like a big brother till I added a Master’s degree.
So, I worked full time and schooled full time. So, Tunji Bello taught me to be responsible early in life. I paid my own fees throughout the university. When MKO’s problems started and salaries were no longer regular, Tunji Bello was there to give me bailout. Not to forget Victor Ifijeh as well. I recall Sam Omatseye gave me books for my Drama Class at UNILAG.
In terms of the challenge I faced early, it was basically the energy to soak up the pressure of full-time studies and full-time work. I think my saving grace then was the fact that I still had youthful energy.
How will you convince “doubting Thomases” that you did not resign due to the April 29, 2012 assassination attempt on your life?
To be honest, I came close to being seriously shaken after that incident. But I believe quitting then would have put smile on the faces of the evil people who wanted to take me out. Recall that sometime in February 2012, I had this rather nasty encounter with a chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party at the palace of Oba of Benin. The occasion I think was at the wedding of the Oba’s daughter. It happened that my exit from the ceremony coincided with that of the then Governor of Delta State, Dr. Emmanuel Nduaghan, who happens to be someone I had known as a journalist way back in 2000 as a top functionary of the James Ibori administration. So, when we met close to the door of the marquee, Nduaghan started by complimenting me, saying “Well done, Louis. I’ve been seeing your professional touch since you took over as information commissioner. Everything is now working smoothly media wise for my brother (Comrade Oshiomhole)”. It happened that the PDP chieftain was just a step behind Nduaghan at that moment. He did not quite like the compliments. He just stepped forward and with fire in his eyes and finger snapping at me, he said, “You, Odion!, you will soon see what will happen to you” He said that four times.
I had wanted to challenge him there by asking what my offence was. But Nduaghan pulled me by the side not to respond. To be honest, I came under pressure from some of my close friends to quit in 2012 and return to my life in Lagos. But God gave me the strength to weather that very trying moment. So, my quitting last year was because I just felt my task as information manager was already done.
Can you recall the first impression that came to your mind when you were appointed as a commissioner for information, given the fact that journalists are poorly paid in Nigeria?
I knew ab initio that my going to serve as commissioner in Edo State meant a massive pay cut. I was Managing Director/Editor-in-Chief of a national daily then with the entire country as my oyster. A colleague who had gone through the system in Edo before forewarned me the moment my name was announced as commissioner nominee that in Adams Oshiomhole’s administration, public fund is used to work for people and not for political appointees to live Champaign lifestyle. Of course, before then, I had turned down two or three offers of political appointment at the national level. In fact, in one of the South-East states, one of the governors once offered to make me a Special Adviser with the flexibility to reside in Lagos. I had politely turned down the offer. But when Oshiomhole asked me to come in 2011, I spent one week reflecting before accepting largely because I was fascinated by the kind of person he is.
As a young and handsome looking man in the cabinet, how did you handle advances from ladies, especially those interested in dating public officials?
You make my head swell with that compliment. Well, talking seriously, I would say that my own conception of beauty goes beyond the beauty of the face. It goes with solid character as well, being someone of principle, having self-confidence that comes with self-control. To me, these qualities tend to outlast physical beauty. The law of biology dictates that a beautiful face will, at some point, begin to wrinkle. But when you are beautiful or handsome inside and you now add the beauty of the outside, to me, that is when a guy or lady can be described as handsome or pretty. These are the qualities a lady would combine to really turn my head. As per fighting temptation, well I would say I try my best all the time. Being called Capacity also means having capacity to play hard as well. But my fight against temptation didn’t start when I was appointed commissioner in 2011. Being a journalist, I have always been fighting temptation.
In what ways will you say the appointment affect your family as you left them in Lagos for four years to serve in Edo State?
Of course, the family factor was one of the chief reasons I resigned. The life I lived then was spending Monday to Friday in Benin and spending the weekend with my family in Lagos. There were occasions I was away for two straight weeks. It was very, very stressful. I remember whenever I had to leave on Sunday for the airport or by road as the case might be, the look on my kids’ faces was often like “Ah, daddy!, again?” They are still very young and unable to understand that daddy had to be away most of the time. So, they were very happy when I announced to them daddy will no longer have to be travelling every Sunday to Benin.
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