Category: Entertainment

A send-forth was held for the Chairman, Publicity Committee of the Archbishop Vining Memorial Church Cathedral, Prince Henry Olukayode Odukomaiya at the  church last Sunday. AMIDU ARIJE was there.   

IN the newspaper world, his name rings bell. He had been Editor, General Manager and Managing Director of many papers and served diligently, leaving his marks. Henry Olukayode Odukomaiya, a prince, has since retired, but he is not tired. Once in a while, he contacts his ‘boys’ still in the profession, to advise them on how to improve their work.

Odukomaiya was born in Odogbolu Local Government Area of Ogun State in 1934. He got a job in 1957 in Lagos as a teacher, and developed interest in writing. His first port of call was the now defunct Daily Times, where he retired as the Editor.

Daily Times sent him to the School of Journalism in Glasgow Royal Polytechnic in Scotland. He also trained at the Scottish Daily Record (a tabloid) for six months.

From Daily Times, he moved to Concord at its inception in 1979. He left in 1982. Five years later, he set up Champion for Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu. He retired as the Managing Director in 1994.

His passion for journalism made the Archbishop Vining Memorial Church Cathedral to invite him to head its publicity committee in 1997.

He was also the Editor-in-Chief of the church’s magazine “The Outlook”. He held the position for 16 years until he retired this year.

Odukomaiya was honoured last Sunday at the Adetiloye Hall of the church for his meritorious service.

The sendoff marked the end of his active pen profession, his retirement as the chairman publicity committee of Archbishop Vining Church.

The event began after the day’s service, Rev Babatunde Ogunbanwo said the opening prayer.

The event was chaired by the former Vice-Chancellor, Obafemi Awolowo University, Prof Wale Omole.

Thanking the committee for honouring the Odukomaiya, Omole said: “He is a great achiever, more than anything else highly, committed to excellence. A number of people said he is rigid; in this country, people run away from rigidity; to be rigid what they called rigidity is simply doggedness, what is doggedness, standing for excellence all the time, not bending the rules, being proper all the time and that is the only way we can achieve excellence; a lot of people want to bend the rules, they want it half ways and they want you to pass over. He wouldn’t do that; he is diligent and that has helped him over time,” he said.

Omole advised the church’s publicity committee to live up to the standards Odukomaiya has set for them.

He added: “All those that will take over must be diligent, hard working and they must go for excellence and more so for perfection.Our country needs that all the time at all levels, this is what we are missing and this is the man who stands for that. This committee should stand for that, and as a committee we should make sure the church stands for that, the church is the hope of the mind, it is the builder of the mind,” he said.

To a member of the church, Mrs Frances Adebajo, Baba Odukomaiya is a disciplinarian who is self controlled and straightforward.

“I have known him as a disciplined person, self controlled, when he says yes, he means yes and when he says no, he means no. I like people who are forthright, you may like him or may not but in the end you are going to admire him,” she said.

Minister of Information Mr Labaran Maku was represented by the Registrar and Chief Executive Officer of the Advertising Practitioners Council of Nigeria (APCON), Alhaji Garuba Bello Kankarofi and the Zonal Director of NTA, Mrs Elizabeth Aina Scott.

Alhaji Kankarofi described the celebrator as a father and mentor. He congratulated him on his retirement and prayed for good health and long life for him.

For his excellent performance in office, Odukomaiya was presented with awards, plaques and gifts by the chairman and members of the church.

Rev Abraham Ogunmuyiwa, who presented the retiree with gifts on behalf of the church said: “We cannot reward you for your services. We only appreciate you, it is only God that can reward you for your meritorious service to God and mankind,” he said

The Reverend described Odukomaiya as a committed servant of God who is well known in his home town and Lagos where he is based.

Rev Ogunbanwo urged the members of the publicity committee to keep up the standards Odukomaiya has set.

More eulogies came from Prof Idowu Shobowale, who described Odukomaiya as the Editor of Editors who will never take any story lightly except thoroughly done.

“He was my Editor at the Daily Times, he always said I should still do the job as thorough as I should do, he is Editor of Editors,” he said.

Mrs Comfort Ubosi said of Odukomaiya: “He is a man of integrity, he is a sincere man and he is very humble”.

The celebrator, Odukomaiya was happy for the honour done him.

He said: “I am a principled and simple person and I am a go getter. Once I set my target I pray to God to help me. “It is like witnessing ones burial because if all these could happen while I am still alive then I don’t know how much differene there will be between now and then,” he said.

Healing with the fear of speaking requires the willingness of the person concerned. By now, we have learnt that we are not alone in our fear of speaking and that there is a need to renew our minds. Now, we must take deliberate steps to deal with the fear. Some of those steps are:

•Know what you want to talk about: when you talk about something you don’t know so much about, you will lack confidence. You should be so familiar with your subject matter that you won’t have to think (or try to recall) while speaking. If you are good at what you do, then you need not fear speaking about it.

•Know your audience: if you don’t know the people you are talking to, you will find communication difficult. Do a detailed analysis of the people you intend to speak to; who are they? What do they want to know? What do they need to know? How do they prefer to learn? If you can answer some of these questions, you will feel familiar with them enough to be comfortable. Remember that familiarity eliminates animosity; if you are comfortable with your audience, not only will you enjoy speaking with them, they will also enjoy responding.

•Prepare adequately: don’t leave anything to chance. Prepare for your presentation diligently. Remember, you must be worth listening to before people do. One of the major rules of public speaking is that you can never prepare enough. Till the moment you deliver the speech, you must be preparing. We shall dwell on the subject of preparation later in the column.

•Be passionate: if you talk about something you are passionate about, you will quickly forget your fear. The excitement of your topic will take you through the speech before you remember your nervousness. Have you ever seen a group of young men discussing premiership football? The energy with which they defend their clubs may force a passerby to wait and listen. That is the power of passion.

•Be yourself: the worst mistake you can make is to try to be someone else while speaking. The only way you can be at ease is to be yourself. If you try to speak like someone else, your audience will judge you by the standards of that person and you will fall short. Who can be better than you in playing you? I attended a speech competition and a young man did a fantastic rendition of Martin Luther King Jr.’s I Have a Dream speech. It was so good that the ovation was resounding. But the question on my mind was this, “If he has to present his own speech, will he be as successful?” Dr. King’s persona may not be appropriate all the time. So, it is important for you to develop yourself, not to mimic others (though it may be needed in some contexts), but to be yourself to your audience.

•Stay in your comfort zone: find out what works for you and do it. If, due to your nervousness, you prefer to stand at the podium, do so without looking stiff. If, on the other hand, you prefer to walk around, try not to be clumsy and do not distract your audience. The posture you adopt will say a lot about you to your audience (we will deal more on that later).

•Know that your audience will listen anyway: once you stand to speak, know that people are listening to you. If you are confident, they will listen, and if you are fearful, they will still listen (of course with a different reaction). So, forget about the fear and focus on your presentation.

•Focus on being a showman instead of being a mind reader: whenever you are speaking, know that your main concern is to satisfy your listeners instead of reading their minds. You cannot worry and speak at the same time. Leave the minds of your listeners to them and you keep your mind on your speech. What they think may be useful to you later in preparation for future speeches, but while your current speech lasts, you don’t need that distraction.

•See multitudes as one person: I have heard some people recommend that when you stand before a crowd, look over their heads so as to avoid anxiety. Some others say that you must look into their eyes. We will leave arguments on that for another day. But this is what I recommend; treat the crowd like you will treat an individual. I don’t mean that you pick out one person from the crowd and focus on him/her; I mean that you should adjust your mind to be comfortable with all as though they are but one. Will you look over the head of one person when having a conversation? Will you be scared of communicating with one person? If your answer is no, then transfer the same mentality to your audience; after all, every crowd is a collection of individuals.

Fear of public speaking is not new. As you are sacred of it, so am I. But I will not let that keep me from speaking when next I have the opportunity to. When you are afraid, you are underestimating yourself. Fear is not strong enough to prevent you from speaking; only you can do that! If you don’t stop yourself, no one else can! This concludes our three part exploration of dealing with the fear of public speaking