‘Research Should Be Continuous If Solutions Must Be Found For Cancer’
Bimbo Oloyede has the reputation of being the first woman to cast Network News on Nigerian Television Authority (NTA). She is an author, speaker and trainer, and has been a broadcast professional for nearly five decades. She was employed by the then National Broadcasting Company Television (NBC) TV as an assistant producer in 1975, and was later assigned to the Presentation Department. She became a pioneer member of the NTA’s Network News team and thus, the first woman to cast Network News on television. Thereafter, she teamed up with her husband and became an independent Radio/TV producer, presenter, moderator and compere. She established The Women’s Optimum Development Foundation (WODEF) and from 2000 to 2015, partnered with UNFPA, UN Women, UNIC, USAID, UNDP, the Canadian Government, the British Council and others, convening workshops, producing radio jingles, radio and TV drama, promoting gender equality and highlighting gender-based violence. She was also elected National Coordinator of The Global Fund for Women Network in Nigeria, which she headed for over five years. From 2002 to 2015, she was a consultant/news anchor and trainer at Channels Television and was honoured with a lifetime achievement award for journalistic excellence by the Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism, in 2015. Over the years, Bimbo has anchored hundreds of news bulletins and presented/moderated scores of live and recorded TV shows for the public and private sector at state, national and international events. Currently, Bimbo is the CEO/Lead Consultant at Strictly Speaking and for the last 25 years, she has trained and coached various clients in elocution, public speaking and communication skills. In 2016, she published STRICTLY SPEAKING: Pronunciation Made Easy and STRICTLY SPEAKING: An Oral Guide for Schools and Colleges, followed in 2018. The publications have been approved by the N.E.R.D.C and state Ministries of Education, for use in senior secondary schools. In this interview with MARIA DIAMOND, she spoke about her plans to celebrate her 70th birth on 15th March to raise N100million for cancer research and treatment in public hospitals, as well as the place of women in the leadership of Nigeria.

As the first woman to cast Network News on NTA, tell us about this milestone and how it shaped your career – What it meant then for you as a woman and what it still means.
There is no doubt that being a female newscaster as far back as 1976 has had a tremendous impact on my life and career. Since it was an instruction that came out of the blue, something that I did not plan for, I could never have imagined what the effect would be. First, I was redeployed from the Drama Department, where I was an assistant producer, to the Presentation Department, with Chief Julie Coker, as my HOD. Finally, when our roles became defined, I was transferred to the Newsroom. With that much exposure, I began to receive invitations to compere live events, which enabled me to meet a variety of notable and interesting personalities from the private and public sectors. This part of my career continued long after I had left the NTA and dovetailed into training those who were interested in improving their presentation and public speaking skills. Live presentations picked up again when I joined Channels TV many years later as a part-time News Anchor, leading to invitations to make virtual or live keynote presentations at conferences, summits etc. You can see that all the offshoots had their genesis in my role as a newscaster back in the day.
  
As a young woman in broadcast journalism, it was an exciting time being part of something new and partnering with renowned male broadcasters who had carved names for themselves as radio news presenters. Mike Enahoro, Bode Alalade, Ikenna Ndaguba; all of whom became titled chiefs were our partners in the early days but unfortunately, they are also all of blessed memory. They were all my seniors in age and experience and I relied on them for guidance. Of course, these days, all the stations are populated with female broadcast journalists and I am always pleased to interact with them and engage them, especially as a trainer. My past experiences come in handy when discussing with them and our unique positions as female goldfish that has no hiding place are often tabled. Since I have been there, we are able to rub minds about professionalism and balancing the work/life equation.
 
What was your most exciting experience while in NTA?
I think probably one of the most exciting times was during FESTAC 77. The Broadcasting Organisation of Nigeria (BON) assembled broadcasters from all over the country and a studio was set up within the National Theatre. We broadcast live bulletins thrice daily for one month and we were also deployed to various venues to host the events as they occurred. For a young broadcaster like me, it was a really exciting time as Nigeria hosted artistes from all over the world and I was chosen to open the TV coverage of the festival broadcasts. It was a big deal to me, an unforgettable opportunity.
 
In a society where women have to work twice as hard as men or more to be heard, how did you navigate the rigorous media industry to become a voice that is heard loud and clear by all even as you celebrate your birthday this month (March)?
I am not sure that it was a question of navigation. Over the years, and we are talking about almost 50 years, I have been involved in several aspects of the media and from different perspectives. Each aspect has made me visible, either through training, or compering events, or presenting programmes on TV or anchoring the news. Even when I established an NGO, many of our activities were media-based so they all complemented each other. I have written books on speech and pronunciation and in more recent times, I also joined the social media bandwagon. I try to keep my pages interesting on the various platforms where I engage. These are the activities that gave me a voice and I suppose over time, my thoughts and ideas have become amplified.
 
What motivated the initiative to mark your 70th birthday to raise N100million for cancer research and treatment in public hospitals? What do you aim to achieve?
Personal experiences with members of my family who have struggled with cancer are my main motivation. It is a stressful and difficult time for all concerned and most of the time, one needs help to pull through. We received such help and my family and I decided that we could also make help available to patients on treatment days in public hospitals. That is why we launched this fund. We also know that research needs to be continuous if solutions and cures must be found, and they must. So hopefully, we can add to the pool of knowledge that will unearth those solutions.
 
How do you intend to meet this N100million target?
We held a press conference and asked the press to help us publicise the project. We have a Fund Raising Committee comprising of media professionals and we have made it public and thrown it open to everyone. We are hoping that Nigerians will appreciate the need for research and equipment and donate whatever they can. Many people have been directly or indirectly affected by cancer so I believe the idea of this fund will resonate with Nigerians both at home and abroad. We are writing to companies and individuals and as much as I can, I will make appearances on TV and radio stations to ask the public to support us.
 
Cancer in all its types and stages tops the list of the causes of death in the world today, and so it attracts high investment by the government of many countries. Do you think the Nigerian government is investing enough in cancer research, screening, treatment and prevention?
I am aware that there are existing partnerships between some hospitals here and health facilities abroad. I can’t say how much the government is investing in this research or if it is supported or funded by the international organisations, but I do know that whatever the government invests can never be enough to address all the aspects of cancer that need attention. One thing that they need to do more is to raise more awareness about early detection methods for both men and women so that the disease is diagnosed early enough for treatment to be effective.
 
The theme for the just concluded 2024 World Cancer Day (WCD), which held on February 4, 2024, is ‘Close the Care Gap.’ Your 70th birthday advocacy to raise N100million for cancer research and treatment would definitely reduce the care gap but may not completely close it. What do you think should be the role of the Nigerian government towards aiding this movement to achieve absolute result?

You are right. We cannot close the care gap. We can only try to reduce the gap and we know that N100 million is probably just a drop in the ocean. However, it is a starting point and I believe that with the cooperation of health care practitioners employed in public hospitals, the quality of service will be improved. So as we grow, the government should see us as partners working towards the same goal.
 
Aside from cancer, maternal death is another challenge in Nigeria. How do you think we can minimise mortality rate?
Maternal mortality is another daunting challenge. Ignorance is often responsible for avoidable deaths. This is a health issue that should be top priority for every local government chairman. The primary health centres should be partnering with the National Orientation Agency officers in each of the 774 local government offices, to ensure that information is shared regularly about basic health practices for women in local languages.  Traditional birth attendants, who many local women consult, should be officially listed (if they are not) so that they establish links with medical personnel who can intervene when it is necessary. Emergencies are often not catered for but plans should be in place to forestall tragedy when these emergencies occur.

 
What is your view on affirmative action that there should be at least 40% or even 50% of women in the public sector as it has been achieved in a country like Rwanda?
It is ridiculous that more women are not in decision-making positions, especially on the political landscape. It beats my imagination that so many men assume that women have nothing to bring to the table. We deceive ourselves if we say we are running a democratic system when the parties have no semblance of internal democracy because if they did, many more women would hold seats in both the upper and lower chambers. Sometimes I feel that the labels we inherit from global movements mask the real issues we are facing because what works in other countries may not work for us. It took only one man in Rwanda to decide that by law, women should be properly represented. Fortunately for the women, that man was the president, so even if there was opposition, there was nothing anyone could do about it, and today the idea of affirmative action is irrelevant there because the percentage of female representation is much higher than what affirmative action prescribes.
 
⁠Do you believe in the notion that the best man for the job of leading a country is a woman?
To be honest, I don’t think competence is linked to gender, religion, race, creed or age. The point is do you have the character and the capacity to lead? However, I am tempted to say that looking back and upon x-raying the level of non-performance of many of our male leaders, I can think of several women who would have delivered on the job with ease, on time and on budget. Several women who have led nations have given a good account of themselves and some of our women who are holding global positions are doing very well. So, while the best man to lead a country might not necessarily be a woman, what do we have to lose in Nigeria if a woman becomes president?
 
⁠Do you think the Women Affairs ministries all over the country have made remarkable achievements in their mandate?
What is their mandate? Is it the same from state to state? What issues have they decided to champion as individual entities or as a collective? Are they working in tandem with each other, or do they have different agendas? I know that they partner with NGOs and CSOs but I would like to see them identify one issue per state and work on it to its logical conclusion, to full public realisation and recognition that the issue has been addressed and conquered. That is not to say that they should exclude all else, but let us hear and see that one problem has been solved in a sustainable manner.