The Executive Producer of the weekly travel programme, Thru The Eyes of an African, on DSTV/Africa Magic, Yvonne Bassey recently won the TV Presenter of the Year award category of the Nigerian Media Merit Awards, NMMA for the third year consecutively. In this interview with LEONARD OKACHIE, she speaks on developments in the broadcast industry. Excerpts:
How do you feel winning the NMMA for the third time consecutively?
I’m overwhelmed to have won the TV Presenter of the Year award for the third year consecutively at this year’s Nigerian Media Merit Awards, NMMA. It’s overwhelming to think that little me could create productions that people rate so highly even when being contested with works from far more established organisations. For me, it is a lot of encouragement and acknowledgement.
Which of your documentaries won the award for you?
I compiled a documentary centred around Ethiopian hidden treasure, situated in a very obscure part of Ethiopia known as Lalibela, where some of the oldest churches in the world have been excavated and some of these are still lying underground, undiscovered up till today. It is amazing to see the way people lived thousands and thousands of years ago and the way in which they held their religions tight, because in that documentary I revealed churches that have been buried hundreds of feet underground and you have to go all the way to the belly of the earth before you can reach them and they still exist today.
They are almost like Mecca for some African- Americans who traced their root to Ethiopia. It was a very compelling documentary. Their mode of worship itself is something to write about because you get them in their simple clothes. They hardly own anything yet the hold their religion with so much tenacity.
How have you been able to sustain the programme?
First of all, I will say that what I do is a calling. I believe I was chosen to do what I do because if you are not chosen or called in this profession of travel journalism you may push yourself forward a little while but after a while you will run out of steam. And by steam I don’t mean just financial steam, you need almost spiritual steam.
There are some places go you have to beg them to promote them because they don’t understand what you are trying to do. There are some places you visit in Nigeria the local themselves that you are trying to help by bringing attention to what it is that they have offer the world, are now giving you one funny price they say you must pay before you can have the privilege of promoting them. It is crazy. If you don’t have passion there is no way you can continue with such project.
But guess what? The good news is that after you have put in a whole lot of selfless effort into this travel industry thing there is light at the end of the tunnel. You find out that after a while people begin to look at you from very strange corners and begin to acknowledge what it is you are trying to do. You get feed backs at a certain point. Then you begin to see works of past years coming into fruition. There is no single documentary work that you do that does not come back into relevance at one time or the other.
What are the challenges that you contend with as an independent producer in Nigeria?
The first and the most and the seemingly insurmountable obstacle that I have had to overcome is that of airtime. People don’t give airtime for free and that is a shame because it is happening in an environment where the TV industry is exploding with new TV stations, with new avenue for promoting one’s works on the internet, social media and so on. I think the time has come for people to be able to draw a line between what they paid for and quality content for a station.
If a documentary is keeping people on the edge of their feet for 30 minutes without spending a dime, then I think it has earned a place for the station without having to pay for it.
Unfortunately, that is not what obtains. Apart from DSTV that has modelled and nurtured my programme up until the present time even though I did pay for my slot at the beginning .They later realised that this is purely content, other stations should also prempt to recognising this. Yes we need to make our money but we also need to keep our viewers entertained on a continuous bases.
So they should be able to recognise such works that is not necessarily profit based .It is not only enriching your content but also enriching the status of the company in which you are operating. If you are operating in Nigeria it pays you for people to regard Nigeria in a good light through the kind of documentary that I will be bringing to your station. Why should I have to pay for that? At the same time I am providing quality content, content that win awards.
I am being humble about this but I am being straight forward about this because I think it is time to bring about a change so that independent producers of which there are so many in Nigeria, who are bustling and bumbling with new ideas, great expectations and great creativity can have the chance to show what they have got. They can never do this if they are forever tied to the apron string of CEOs of TV stations that dictate how and in what direction your creativity goes.
We should be able to give our youths a chance to truly become independent and rub shoulders with other independent producers anywhere in the world. It all begins from being able to attract quality airtime on a good platform.
How would you describe your experience at Channels Television Station?
I started off with Channels on the production desk, not on beat. After a while I was assigned to aviation beat. Later I was assigned to the travel news beat as well. So I was combining two beats. But after a while they found out that the combination was not working out very well because I was missing certain stories while on a destination. So I was assigned solely to the travel news beat as well as head of documentary. I was able to combine that effectively.
My first travel news destination was my turning point. That was the key that unlocked the burning passion in me, which I didn’t even know existed in me. The destination was Ikogosi Warm Spring in Ekiti State and it was done on a motorbike with my little camcorder because then I didn’t even merit a cameraman. I learnt how to shoot by myself without assistance. So I did the shooting on a bike on this bunky ride because the roads were not well laid by then. From then, I got to destinations within Nigeria before getting more adventurous and veering out to neighbouring countries like Ghana, the Gambia and many others. Sometime I woke in the morning it would take me time to remember where I was because I have been about three countries that week. Time zone changes, there are changes in climate, food, water and so on.
It was a busy time for me in Channels. It was exciting; there was never a dull moment. I will never forget my beginning at Channels. That was where I was nurtured, that was where I sat at the feet of the master himself, Mr. John Momoh. As far as I am concerned he is the master of the game when it comes to broadcasting. He taught me well and I want to believe that he will be proud of me today.
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