When Louis Odion turned 40 two months ago, the media buzz was quite estatic. Fondly known as Mr. Capacity, among many ways that he was celebrated was an exclusive party at Oriental Hotel, Lekki, Victoria Island Lagos, that was put together by celebrities in the entertainment and fashion world. The event was attended by his choice friends. A young man with a quiet outlook, it was easy to understand why Odion readily appeals to the fashion world; he maybe a successful writer, he is also a peculiar man of style. The Edo State Commissioner for Information, says he is proud to have worked to get to his present position. “I started from the rung of the ladder and paid my dues.” He spoke to PAUL UKPABIO at his residence in Lekki, Lagos.
Quite an achievement you’ve made of your life at 40! What does being 40 mean to you?
Like someone once said, age is a matter of the mind, if you don’t mind, then it does not matter. I believe that it is a number, I’m thankful that God has preserved my life to be 40. Looking back, I’ll say I have every cause to thank God. I started very early, I didn’t have a background in journalism, the career line I pursued. It was by the grace of God I was able to rise through the rank to the top. I am grateful to God that I was able to manage a national newspaper, before going to Edo State to accept a political appointment as the Commissioner for Information.
You will expect that somebody who was a reporter, became a line editor, and then an editor before becoming an editor-in-chief, must have been somebody who read journalism in school. I didn’t study journalism formally. I started as a reporter. I did Secretariat Administration (OND) at the Federal Polytechnic, Ado Ekiti. Afterwards, I came to Lagos where I got employed at the National Concord Newspapers as a confidential secretary. Along the line, my passion, my talent for writing took over. To the extent that I later got invited to the editorial. So while working as a reporter at the age of 19, I took JAMB afresh, and enrolled at the University of Lagos to study English Education and Guidance/Counselling Combined Honours. I was studying full time as well as working. For my Masters, I did International Law/Diplomacy at same institution.
When I look back, I sort of thank God, for the opportunity. It’s good to be talented but talent alone does not necessarily translate to everything.
What has experience thought you?
I am a little wiser; there are certain decisions I took 10 years ago which, given the same opportunity, I won’t make same again. I believe that I used to be very impatient, that was one of my vices, my shortcomings. That must have been caused by the fact that I was always in a hurry. When I was at UNILAG, I was always in a hurry to catch up with my lectures, in a hurry to resume work and I did that for four years non stop. So it became my character. Now I’m learning to be more patient.
If there is anything my outing in Edo State has done, it is that the system has taught me to be patient. In public office, you are dealing with civil service, it has it own logic. As MD of National Life newspaper, when I gave a reporter an assignment and he did not deliver, he might get sacked. But in civil service, it doesn’t work that way.
You conceive an idea, you want it implemented and you call the civil servants, usually they will tell you it is good. If you call them after a week and ask them about it, they will tell you that they are working on it. Often time, that’s a lie!
We as political appointees or ‘contract staff’ as Governor Adam Oshiomole calls us, are usually in a hurry. But the civil servants are not. They have always been there. They have seen commissioners come and go, they have seen governors come and go. So my outing in Edo State has taught me to be patient. In journalism, you have a deadline, a story is breaking, you go, report it against deadline. You can do a good story but if it does not meet deadline, your effort will be wasted. But civil servants work 8 to 4pm. As a matter of fact, once it is 4 pm, they give you the signal to close. That is the time journalists start the day. This has been an illuminating experience.
What were your childhood dreams?
Funny enough, I had a lot of dreams depending on the age grade I was. I remember as a boy of 10, watching a musician on television performing, and I told my mom: ‘When I grow up, I want to be a musician’. I was fascinated by the glamour of being a music star. In my later years, my passion shifted to boxing and that was largely influenced by Mohammed Ali. My dad is a boxing fan. I used to sit with him and watch. That fascinated me. In secondary school, I was into amateur boxing. I was involved in it till class 5. I was the leader of my weight category in school. We participated in many inter-school competitions and I performed well because whatever I put my mind to, I give it my best.
Then, along the line, the writing passion came. That was inspired by Dele Giwa. I was about 13 when Dele Giwa died, the uproar it generated drifted my mind from boxing. What prepared me for writing was that my dad used to buy two newspapers daily. They were The Concord and Daily Times or Concord and Sketch. And on a weekly basis, he would buy American Time Magazine and later Newswatch. In our own time, we prided ourselves in reading voraciously, it was a status symbol to say that you have finished all Charles Dickens collection or you’ve finished all books on African Writers Series or all Pacesetters series. That was how we used to boast then. Reading widely prepared me for writing. When it came to current affairs, I was always on top, that sharpened my political awareness and knowledge of foreign affairs.
Why didn’t you just study Mass Communication from the beginning?
When I wrote the entrance examination to Federal Polytecnic, Ado Ekiti, it was my dad who said Accountancy would be nice for me. That was what I was admitted to study. But my maths was not good at the school. I was forced to either withdraw or change course. The school was not offering Mass Comm, so the only option I was opened to was Secretariat Administration, which was where mathematics was not required. My dad was afraid that returning home would dampen my spirit because I finished school and the following month I got the admission. There I got involved in campus journalism and my fame was all over the campus.
I returned to Lagos for industrial programme at Concord. There I was mentored by Mr. Tunji Bello, current Commissioner for the Environment, Lagos State; Mr. Victor Ifijey, now the Managing Director of The Nation newspapers; Mr. Sam Omatseye, Chairman Editorial Board of The Nation; Lanre Arogundade; Taiwo Ogundipe and Mrs. Osanhenren, she was the Features Editor then. They were already in Concord. They saw that the little boy was writing well and started offering me advice. The average editor needs a script that gives him less stress. They noticed that when I wrote, they more or less may not need to do corrections. So I was getting published almost immediately I wrote. That motivated me.
It was Nsikak Essien who suggested that I should go and get admission in UNILAG, that he would ask management to offer me scholarship. But when I got the admission, he had left. Mr. Tunji Bello was my editor. He offered me all the support I needed. He became my brother as he protected me in the newsroom. When Concord was not able to pay salary, he was supporting me financially. I can’t thank him enough.
By 1999 when Mr. Dele Alake, who was also one of my mentors too, left to take up appointment as the Lagos State Commissioner for Information, Mr. Tunji Bello became Editor of the Daily paper, his deputy then, Kayode Komolafe, had moved to become the Editor, Sunday paper. I was told that at the management meeting, my name popped up for who to become the deputy. The argument that arose was that I was too young to be a deputy editor and not a graduate. There were others who were there and far above me in terms of experience.
That was when it was revealed that I had since gone to UNILAG and came out with a 2.1 result. I had just finished the course. The MD, Dr. Doyin Abiola at that time, announced that I should take up the position. That was how I got the job. It was like a fairy tale, a boy who got into Concord as Confidential Secretary seven years earlier, who was typing scripts for the editors, had become an editor. It was a turning point in my career. So in a nutshell, writing has always been my passion.
Now in Edo State, I miss writing but I also realise that I also needed to face life, so that when I get back to news room, I’ll be a better commentator. Now I can see why things don’t work. The political leader comes, he has good intentions, he makes a pronouncement, but when it comes to execution, people he relies on fail him.
Why did you take the commissioner job?
Before this, I had received others, from Edo State and at the national level.
My standard then was that I wasn’t interested, writing gives me joy. But having witnessed what the governor did in 2008 and 2011, I knew this man is different. That was what made me accept and sincerely, I don’t regret it. Edo State used to be teased as a basket state, a place that had been condemned to a state of penury. That was the impression past governors created.
For 10 years, PDP was there, nothing moved. They were telling people that the state is very poor and has nothing, that what they got from the federation account could only pay salaries. People had resigned themselves to fate, but Oshiomhole has shown a difference. Within the first tenure, he constructed more than 400 kilometres of brand new roads, quality roads like those found in Abuja. In PDP days, only asphalt will be poured. Now we do proper soil tests, proper road design and so on.
Education sector has been transformed. Before now, the poorest of the poor paid through their noses to put their children in private schools, now the governor has transformed public schools and people are removing their children and wards from private schools to public schools. The schools are more beautiful and the teachers more competent, dedicated and motivated.
What challenges do you come across as an Information Commissioner?
Challenge is not what I will describe my peculiar experience in Edo State because I have a governor who is working ahead and people see him as performing. That has already lightened my job. If he were not working, I would have run into problems. People would have been asking questions. But today when I say Governor Oshiomhole is working, people say yes, we can see. That has helped me. I have also been lucky because I can’t imagine myself coming out to lie because of my professional background. I used to hold people in public officials by standards when I used to be a commentator. That’s the standard I still keep. I can’t imagine myself being in a position where I would be forced to lie that somebody is performing when he is not.
That Governor Oshiomhole is working, has helped me. That has been my secret.
Going to serve in Edo State personally amounted to a massive pay cut. I was the MD and Editor in Chief of a national newspaper. This is the same house I was living in Lagos, but had to leave to where I was not based, and operate in a totally different situation. However, when I leave this appointment, I will be sure to hold my head anywhere and say that I was part of the Oshiomhole revolution. Money is not everything.
What determines your personal style?
Style to me is an expression of the totality of a person and it reflects in my colours. I am not a loud person, so I have affinity with conservative colours. That is probably why you will not see me ordinarily wearing red attire in public. Some dress to impress but I dress according to my mood. My style reflects in how I talk, the company I keep, how I carry myself. Writing is a loneliness job so I find myself to be an intensive private person.