One on One with Mr. Femi Sowoolu
the Ceo/M.D. Jamz100.1FM, Ibadan City
Education in Nigeria, my take? It is a sad, disappointing story. I’m
sorry I’m so harsh, but that’s the reality of the case compared to when I was
in primary, secondary or graduate school.- Mr.
Femi Sowoolu
Sir, can we meet you?
Sure, I’m Femi Sowoolu, a
broadcaster, journalist, an author, a social media commentator, that’s good
enough I guess. And I’m currently CEO/M.D. of Jamz 100.1FM which is a radio
station that is in Ibadan city.
Kindly take us through your journey as a broadcaster?
Up to this point?! Ah! It’s too
much oo, It’s a very very long journey. I’ll try and keep it short. I started
as a young announcer back in the days at the old Ogun State Broadcasting
Corporation (OGBC) which was in Abeokuta. It was a state radio station. I spent
thirteen (13) years there. I rose through the ranks and resigned my appointment
as the principal presenter. I came over to Lagos and I did some three and half
years in advertising with an advertising agency called Grant Advertising
Agency. At that time it was number 2 or 3 advertising agency in Nigeria. Then I
started off my own business, a production company. Producing Radio Commercials,
Radio Programmes, Radio and Television documentaries and all that kind of stuff
until I was invited to join the book list, the foundation team at Rhythm 93.7FM
which is another radio station that started off at Lekki now moved to Victoria
Island I hear. Emmmh! I spent about six years, I decided to leave again. All along,
my company kept on, you know in and out, in and out, but I always ran my
production company which was called FM Production. But then again I was invited
to turn around the fortunes of another radio station which was then called
UNITY FM I think, amongst other names they had back then. We turned it around
re-named it Radio Continental and made it number one station in Nigeria. I left
there again joined Smooth FM briefly as the General Manager, left Smooth FM. I
have done a lot of Consulting for radio stations all over Nigeria, couple of
stations in Ibadan, couple of stations in the East, helping them write
proposals, improve their market shares, improve their programmes. I produced
jingles and ideas and all kinds of materials that we use on radio. Long and
short of it here I am, found myself here in Ibadan as part of the team that set
up Jamz100.1FM in Ibadan.
Bottom line, are you living your dream?
Exactly!
Coming to our education sector here in Nigeria, many believe the
standard has dropped, what is your take on this?
Education in Nigeria, my take? It
is sad disappointing story. I’m sorry I’m so harsh but that’s the reality of
the case compared to when I was in primary, secondary or graduate school.
Things were not this bad but I cannot just pinpoint and accuse the education
sector alone. It’s a whole Nigeria problem. It is a problem that has spread all
around. Every institution you go, every. Whatever it is, whatever sector you are
talking about. Everything has turned to ruin and sadly so. Why did it happen? I
think it’s just a failure of leadership. It’s a failure of our leadership. Those
that were put in charge, I’m not just talking about leadership of those at the helm
of affairs of the country. All kinds of leadership, whoever has been put in
charge of any institution have not done his/her job. That is the way I look at
it. All the corporations, all the ministers are not performing, there are
problems in the states, there is a problem in education, health sector is in
tatters, our factories are not manufacturing anything. Our public parastatals
are failures, NEPA, water whatever it is.
I’m sad that it has now affected
education. To the quality that even those put in charge of those institutions
are not managing them well. I don’t know where the solution lies really because
the long and short of it is that you look at the whole chain that is
responsible for matters like education. From the ministry of education down to
the administrative office, down to the schools themselves, principals, staff.
The qualities of teachers are poor so the quality of students will be poor.
Look at the teaching institutions, there are problems there. So, the standard
is poor and we are getting poorer, less intelligent graduates.
I did a lot of
research on education two-three years ago and I used the range of students who
are in Nigeria. For instance, compare the Nigerian class four secondary school
student with his class four counterparts in Ghana or in South Africa or in
Egypt. The Nigerian won’t fare any better than those ones. Give them something
to write and you probably would not understand what the Nigerian class three or
four is writing because his/her English is totally limited. Give them an oral
test and you will be embarrassed by what you will hear from the Nigerian.
Ghanaian student, look! Each region has its own tone, I agree or accent in English
language but you would never hear a child from Ghana, you watch television all
the time, you would never hear them make grammatical blunder, whether Ghanaian,
South African or Egyptian, but that is not the case with our Nigerian students.
We thank you for your time!
