MRS. FUNKE-TREASURE DURODOLA, an articulate and witty presenter is a household name in Lagos. She has been a breakfast show anchor for her 11 years with Radio Nigeria, Lagos, she is a network news anchor on the Network Service of Radio Nigeria, news feature producer and a reporter. A writer and a Fellow of the Thomson Foundation UK, she has won recognition for her various works. She shares with TOBORE OVUORIE her thoughts on various issues. Excerpts:Broadcasting and financial gainsFOR independent producers and presenters, it pays because they buy airtime and come with loads of sponsors and they have so many adverts within their programme. For people like that, it pays. But for those of us that decided to go on a career journey, by joining the civil service, it's a longer route because if you look at it from the renumeration point of view, you probably will never do anything.Those of us who are in it as a career are doing it for passion, because that is what we've always wanted to do. I do joke that if I weren't a broadcaster, I would have been a writer. It's both ways; for writers are just beginning to make good money through winning international prizes.Years in broadcastingMetro FM is one of the subs of Radio Nigeria. I have been with Radio Nigeria for 10 years now. Before Radio Nigeria, I was with Broadcasting Corporation of Abia. That is actually where I started from. I served in that place and was retained. I spent four years there before joining Radio Nigeria. That is exactly where I started my broadcasting career. I am enjoying it.Living the dream of broadcastingThere is this scripture in the bible where Paul said having not attained where you want to but being on your way to it. I am living my dream life, I have always wanted to be a consummate broadcaster and sometime ago on this job, I stumbled on someone in this profession ' she is not based in Nigeria, her name is Bola Mosunre. Bola works with the BBC and is one of the anchors of Network Africa. I used to listen to Bola Mosunre twice even thrice before going on air while I was a regular continuity announcer. And I found out that sometimes she wasn't anchoring, sometimes she was reporting and I found out that she also produced programmes. So I told myself, I don't want to be just a continuity announcer but I wanted to be as complete as Bola Mosunre.So I started to be aware of what it takes to be more than just a regular announcer. Funny enough, while I was in Abia State, I wasn't just a presenter, I started out in the newsroom. I was producing programmes, I was also reporting. When I discovered Bola Mosunre, I said to myself that I could take being an on air personality much further than just being a presenter or a continuity announcer and God said AMEN to that for me.Shortly after, I got a fellowship and went on to The Thomson Foundation in Wales and that was the turning point for me because I learnt much more than I could have ever imagined. I learnt to be a producer, I learnt to be a reporter, I learnt to present even better. It was a totality of international broadcasting and I came back to Nigeria in 2006 as a changed person professionally and I started living my dreams.I started producing, that is when I got some international jobs and I became a country-producer trainer; for that particular project and I did very well because I was training people on what I knew how to do and I was also producing and it was a chance for me to live my dreams.Opinion on Nigerian musical and movie industryI think we've come of age. Interestingly, I was gisting with someone very special the other day. I was telling the person that this life is a cycle, everything is in a cycle. Initially when Nigerian music industry started blossoming, Metro FM was about the only station, alongside Ray-Power then that were playing Nigerian music.I remember I used to have a programme called Naija-Flavour and I used to have a lot of those people come and were sending their albums and singles to that show when a lot of these other hip stations were rejecting them. And at a time, those stations woke up to the beauty of what was unfolding in the Nigerian music industry. And today, it looks like we didn't start it, we started it, I started mainstream Nigerian music. If I can't say in Lagos, I can say in Metro. And I dare say Lagos because to me it was ours for we were doing 70 per cent Nigerian music here on Metro and 30 per cent foreign. So, I have always believed in the Nigerian music industry.I have always believed in our movie industry as well even with our imperfections and flaws. But look at us today, we are big; every where we go people are just singing Nigeria and watching Nigeria and by saying that, I mean our music and our movies. I have friends abroad when you get into their cars, they are not playing these foreign people, they are playing Nigerian musicians and they are proudly doing that as well.Attraction to husbandHe is a total man. He is a kind man; he is an understanding person. We were in the same business; he was a broadcaster with the Ondo State Radio Vision until he got another job but he still does media management. He was a household name and was quite an icon there as well. Everybody knows Ayo Durodola in Ondo State and then he got to Voice Of Nigeria next door, but that is not where we met; we had known ourselves years back. We were classmates in school at the FRCN training school. And shortly after we got married, he left Voice Of Nigeria and started working with an Embassy here in Lagos. He doesn't give me horrors, it's been delightful.Writing on HIV, women and childrenBefore I started writing about HIV, I tried to do something on sickle-cell, but I hadn't the passion for it. But I had always wanted to do something on HIV and the chance came and I embraced it. For women, continually, I had always seen an imbalance. Why should the woman mourn for days and be made to go through all kinds of things because she lost her husband and a husband can start having sexual relations the next day the wife passes on'Why do we always have some demonic men beating their wives serially and the society most times turns the other way. 'She deserves it' that's what you hear most people say. The woman carries the pregnancy, delivers it and nurtures the baby through thick and thin, it's not that the men are never there but the woman feels it more and it is this same woman that is the butt of everything culturally. No, it shouldn't be. Even at the work place, it is the samething. Why are women the one always trafficked most times' Women, children. Why won't I speak for them' Let's say it's God's providence that I wasn't born in Somalia, Eritrea or the Congo for I would have been in the shoes of the women over there.Fashion senseI'm probably one of the most boring celebrities around because I'm not a fashion slave for I don't follow fashion blindly. I evolve my own fashion. I love beads. I 'm laid back thus I love wearing pants; I'm not a skirt person. I'm very comfortable in my own skin. I'm not the make-up type; I'm comfortable in my own skin and look better without make-up.But I love handbags, sometimes I've bought handbags just to look at them in the wardrobe. There is this handbag I bought, I think in 2005; it's still in my wardrobe and I've used it just about twice. I just love to look at it. The other one, I bought it in South Africa, pretty thing, it's in my wardrobe, I just love to look at it. Sometimes I ask myself why gather these bags when you are not using them' But I don't do designers though I'm carrying a designer bag now because I've not been paid for endorsement (laughing). I'm not label crazy. I couldn't afford labels at some point but I still looked good. The labels don't validate me.Advice to new entrants in broadcastingI will advice that they should find their niche. What is it that they do naturally' Is it sport' Is it politics' Some people have got talents which they aren't aware of so, they want to be like some other persons. There is Kwameh. Kwameh was a music presenter he knew his talent was in music and he built on it, now he has a music channel.There are people who are icons in sport. Emeka Odikpo is an icon in sport, we have a lot of them in Radio Nigeria. Look at NTA, there is somebody called Cyril Stober, there is someone else called Cele Eradiri, she is a reporter, she's always been a reporter; she found her niche, she's one of the best in Nigeria. So you don't put yourself in a box and put yourself on a shelf as well.So don't just want to be another presenter. Come on, be creative. You can make it as a reporter. Look at Vivian who used to present on Galaxy TV, she now reports on STV and see her shining as a reporter. My appeal to new entrants into broadcasting is they should find their niche.
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