Soni Irabor: Pitching My Tent With Broadcasting

Mr. Soni Irabor is simply a quintessential broadcaster. He is also one of the best that Nigeria has produced. Currently overseeing and administering Ruyi Communications Limited and Soni Irabor Institute of Media and Communications, situated in Lekki, Lagos, the sweet-voiced father of two (Omoruyi and Sonia) had many of us eating from his palms back then, at the Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria (FRCN). This, of course, was before the liberalization of the broadcast industry. The perfect gentleman and perfect host of the popular Soni Irabor Live, for those who may have forgotten, is still happily married to the hardworking Betty Irabor, publisher of Genevieve magazine. An ex student of St. Joseph’s Primary School and Immaculate Conception College, both in Edo State, Mr. Irabor, a former Managing Director of Inspiration FM also has a degree in Mass Communication from the University of Lagos, alongside other professional certifications. An indigene of Sakpoba, in Edo, he once served as special adviser on Information and Orientation to the Edo State Government. Born on March 23, 1952, Uncle Soni, like his younger admirers and mentees call him, shared his thoughts on broadcasting with YES INTERNATIONAL! Magazine publisher/editor-in-chief, AZUH ARINZE, on Friday, January 22, 2020. Enjoy…

To have a taste of success in broadcasting, what must one do?

A lot of research! Then, you have to do your job well and you have to be accepted by the people that you serve. Really, it’s not cast in stone, but you just have to work hard at it and you have to be up to date. We went through series of trainings and you know what that means. When you are doing training, they will be telling you all kinds of stories. Even when you think you have done so well, somebody will tell you that you didn’t do well at all. So, to be successful means a lot of hard work, let me just put it like that.

What mistakes must a broadcaster not make?

It’s like saying what can a man do not to go to toilet. Mistakes are bound to happen, but a broadcaster should not make a mistake that he knows is wrong and then still goes ahead and make that mistake. If you make a mistake, own up to it and just move on. Don’t dwell on it. I think the mistake that I must not make as a broadcaster would be that I did not do enough research or to lie or anything that can rubbish my effort at telling the truth. It’s one major problem. The other thing is don’t try to be holier than thou, don’t try to know more than you should know. If you don’t know, you don’t know! But if you do enough research, you might be able to reduce the element of not knowing what you should know. So, those are the basic issues. It’s like a normal human being. We’re all prone to mistakes, but we must endeavour not to make too many mistakes.

To speak well and as a broadcaster, what must one do?

To speak well, come to my training school. I have a training school. That’s one! But really, to become a broadcaster, you have to have passed through an audition. An audition that should make you pass the minimum standard and for you to be called a broadcaster, at least, the basic level. That minimum must mean that, well, you are educated. There’s also a minimum requirement. Usually, it’s the West Africa School Certificate Examination. WASC, we used to call it, but you people call it WAEC now, which is very wrong. So, minimum qualification – WASC or GCE O’Level and then maximum qualification is ad infinitum. It can be a PhD, it can be BSc. But you must have the basic requirement of knowledge acquisition that will keep you in tow and then you must be expressive, to be able to speak the language very well and the language I’m talking about now is the English Language, not pidgin o! Not Yoruba, Igbo, Edo, Hausa… But the Lingua Franca, which is the English language. That’s the basic, because that’s the medium of expression in Nigeria. Other things will come into play. People like Bisi Olatilo for example, who could speak Hausa, Igbo, Yoruba very fluently. Ah! I envy him. I make him my best friend because I envy him. I say to him “oh boy, you can’t teach me the language, but at least you can translate to me when I hear what I don’t understand.” So, there are people like that who are very gifted in languages. But you should just be able to express yourself very well in the accepted medium of expression, which is the English language. And then, you should have information at your beck and call, you should be up to date with information.

So, what got you interested in broadcasting?

I had a friend, and I still do have him. He’s my elder friend, my senior friend, Uncle Dele Olowu. He was doing HSC, that’s higher school certificate in my school, Immaculate Conception College in Benin (Edo State) in those days. There was a  popular radio station called Mid West Radio, which later became Radio Bendel. I heard his voice. This was in 1968, and guess what? His voice was not different, same voice, so sweet, nice, soft spoken, very eloquent and very jovial. And I said “Ah, that sounds like a familiar voice” and then when they were signing him off, they said “we must thank Dele Olowu, who has been our guest” and I said what! Dele Olowu! And I swore that if that man could be on radio, me I go be on radio too. Of course, I didn’t know what I was saying, because this was during the war.
Then, one day, he came and I said, “Senior, were you the one I heard on radio?” He said yes! I said my God! Okay o. Thank you very much, sir. He said what is it? I said no o; I really enjoyed you. I didn’t know it was you. But it sounded like you though. He said it’s me. So, since that time, I started nursing the ambition and I think I became involved in 1974, for the first time. I used to read the mail bag when I started, but that would be a story for another day.

What was the most memorable thing that happened the first time you went on air? Can you still remember?
I don’t know if Jones (Usen) is going to read this interview. If he is, then he should open his ears wide. In 1977, I was already employed by Radio Nigeria. Jones Usen was my senior and I was asked to observe him. In those days, if you were brought in, if you were employed and even if you were trained, you were not allowed to go on air for at least three months. Because they want you to observe whoever the announcer on duty is. And in a day, sometimes you observe three different announcers to become familiar with their styles and then you also understand their mistakes and then of course, they put you through the norm. So, for one of those observations, I was with Jones. This was the night duty, and the night duty was from 6 p.m. to midnight. When it was midnight, Jones Usen said I should read the midnight news. Now, we were not allowed to read or to face that microphone for any reason. Your own was just to observe. Anyway, Jones Usen said, “Soni read this” and I said no. “I can’t and I won’t dare.” When it was 12, he said oya, Soni and I started coughing. But he said continue, continue… There should be no gap. So, out of panic, I took it from where he stopped and then with a tiny voice, I didn’t even know whether that was my voice or not my voice, but I started reading the news and when I finished the news, he was lying on the floor. He was looking at me and laughing. The guy scattered my head that day. I was so scared. So, that was one experience and I can never, never forget it.

Tell me the most embarrassing day you’ve had on air…

Okay, let me see… Yeah, I remember that. This was when Shagari (Alhaji Shehu) was the president. I read the news. I was mainly a news reader most of the time. And in reading that news, I said President Shehu Shagari went to the Central Bank to worship. Now, if you listen to what I’m saying carefully, you’ll probably understand that you don’t worship in Central Bank. What are you worshipping in the Central Bank? What happened was that the first news was Central Bank. The second news was Central Mosque. Are you getting the common gender there – Central? So, when I finished the Central Bank story, I went to President Shehu Shagari was at the Central Bank today to worship with other faithful and all that. I didn’t know the mistake I made until it was either the break or towards the end of the news or something when somebody said to me; I think it was one of our directors. He came downstairs and said Mr. Irabor, what did you just say? I said what did I say sir? He said, you said President Shehu Shagari did what? He asked me so the man now worships money or what? Then we used to record all our news no matter what. And you are not the one recording it. The studio manager does. And that was a whole different department – studio management. So, anything that passes through that thing and goes on air is recorded! So, the man insisted that they should play back that tape. Can you imagine the shame that enveloped me when it turned out that I said President Shehu Shagari went to the Central Bank to pray, instead of the Central Mosque? It could have cost me my job, but how they did not remove me from that job, I still don’t know! Talking about embarrassment, that’s my most embarrassing moment.

What’s the greatest thing that broadcasting hhas done for you?

Oh, I’ve been everywhere! Broadcasting has sent me to the United States of America. I was sponsored by the United States Information Service (USIS), which is now United States Public Department on a two-month training and tour of the US. I toured media houses, I went to so many radio stations, so many TV stations and so many newspaper houses and then I visited three universities – University of Arizona, another in New York and another in San Francisco, I can’t remember their names now. But what that opened for me were several contacts and so many opportunities that I eventually took advantage of. It was very memorable for me because it also gave me an opportunity to visit Larry King Live in his studio on July 5 or so, 1986 and I was his guest with former National Security Adviser, who worked with Jimmy Carter. His name is very complex and I can’t remember it now. It was quite an experience because meeting that man, listening to Larry King, gave me the boldness, the reassurance that I could also do well. So, when I came back, immediately I set up Radio Link. I came back about two months later, Radio Link started like July 4, 1987 because the station took long in approving it. And Radio Link, I must say, is what gave birth to Soni Irabor Live and Radio Link is still running on Radio Nigeria till today and Soni Irabor Live is also still running till today on Inspiration FM and other media outlets.

What hasn’t broadcasting done for you?

It hasn’t given me the money I want. No doubt, it has been very good to me, but it hasn’t made me a super rich man. Broadcasting has made me to meet the most unexpected of people, heads of state, top echelons of society, local and international. I’ve travelled the five continents of the world. I’m very happy. Seriously!

Who is the greatest person that journalism has brought you in contact with or has permitted you to meet?

Okay, the one that is alive now is President Bill Clinton. The one that is gone and who was also on my programme is President Jerry Rawlings. Jerry Rawlings gave me one of my best interviews on Soni Irabor Live in April 2000 and it was at the presidential suite of the Transcorp Hilton; called Nicon Hilton in those days. He gave me one of the best interviews I can ever think of. I feel so sad because that interview, I’ve been looking for it, but AIT (Africa Independent Television) tells me that they can’t find it. That interview was where this man in a most emotion-laden format; when I asked him offhandedly, why did you kill those 12 guys? And Jerry Rawlings kept quiet for like 30 seconds. By the way, five seconds on air is a lot. And my cameraman, may his soul rest in peace, Yakubu Ellams, from AIT, focused on Jerry Rawlings squarely. It was the tightest closeup I’ve ever seen, while Rawlings was thinking of how to answer that question. Even the way he answered it! He said if I hadn’t ordered the killing of those men, I would have died. I would have been killed. Because I was sitting close to him, I felt the energy of his discomfort and that’s the thing about interviewing people.

What is your take on the current state of broadcasting in Nigeria?

My take would be this – broadcasting is an evolving profession, it’s an evolving phenomenon. It evolves, it grows. So, the way broadcasting was when I started is not exactly the way it is today. In those days, it was government owned, and it also had limited number of practitioners. But today you have loads of people. From privately owned broadcasting networks to government owned broadcasting networks and now you have also social media, where even broadcasting networks are having their own versions of social media. So, it’s so broad spectrum now that it has evolved well. But did it maintain the standard it’s supposed to achieve? I wouldn’t say yes, neither should I say no. Do you know why? Because too many people are in the pie now and so quality control has been watered down.

We have a lot of people who are into broadcasting, who can’t speak well. As a veteran broadcaster, how do you feel about such people who usually make silly and inexplicable mistakes on air?

I flinch when I hear some of them. Because I’m also a speech trainer and many of the broadcasting stations send people to my school to train and then we test them. But what we find is that some of the people who are on air do not really want to be trained, they are not amenable to correction. But oftentimes when you eventually meet them one on one, some of them, and you tell them what your observations are, they are very polite to accept. Many of them are very polite to accept their mistakes. But beyond that, I don’t think that they take it more seriously and at least make an effort to correct themselves. The other thing also, as I said at the beginning, there is no end to learning. I research, I update myself. Many serious broadcasters do that a lot. So, if you do not update yourself, you are on your own. You will be left behind and people will laugh at you and boo you. But truly, you have to be up and doing, you have to be up to date with the things that make you different. You have to try to excel, be in charge as it were. That’s what we all try to do. Look at Bisi Olatilo for example. He had to start his own broadcasting network. If I tell you what it took him to get to that level and even now, how he’s still managing to keep it together, you will know what I’m talking about. It’s so difficult! He started a programme style and created a broadcasting station out of that style, and that’s creativity at work.

Of all the younger broadcasters, who are you most proud of?

Honestly, I won’t be able to tell. They are the ones who can tell you who they are most proud of. However, you will agree with me that if you see how some of the older ones; when I say older, they are not older than me, but they are older than the young ones that we are talking about. If you see how they have excelled, then you will also say okay, these guys are giving a good account of themselves. One person I have in mind is Ebuka Obi-Uchendu. He’s a lawyer. He wasn’t a broadcaster, but you can see that he is researching and carrying his style to the point where you can notice that there’s an element of super creativity in him. I’m proud of him. If you ask me whether he had any formal broadcasting training, I’m not sure he had. But he’s doing well. Another person is Ali Baba. I also like what he’s doing.

What fond memories of your days at NBC would you like to share with us?

We used to have NBC Social Night or something. Whatever it was, it was a very special show. It brought out the best in a lot of people, because they will go all over the country and bring in some things. For example, go to Enugu and bring out Egedege dance or something like that. They will bring from Benin, they will bring from Yoruba, they will bring from Hausa. Those cultural dimensions opened Nigeria up for the world to see. They will also give you the best of choral voices. Somebody like Emeka Nwokedi, who is very strong in the Muson Centre now. He was with Voice of Nigeria. Emeka Nwokedi is a musicologist and honestly, I think he’s the man who symbolizes the kind of situation I’m talking about right now. Every Christmas you see him carrying their choral ensemble to sing Christmas carols and he does other kinds of music too. I like such people. Then we used to have musical shows as well. People like Yinka Craig, may his soul rest in peace. He even started a nightclub called Paradiso. Look, life was full of fun in those days.

What was the greatest lesson you learnt at NBC?

How to be yourself, how to maintain the confidence that you never knew you had and Ikenna Ndaguba, may his soul rest in peace, used to tell us, if you meet a pothole, decide whether you want to rush through it or you want to pass it gently. Now, if you see a pothole, and you run through it, what do you get? It’s a bump! But if you pass it gently, and it’s not too obvious, you go ahead, you move on. For example, if I meet a name like onomatopoeia and it comes in a long winding sentence of an English script, how do you handle it? There’s a friend of mine. His name is Marius Ugada. I think he was trying to say “in an inordinate ambition” or something like that and he said in-ani-no…. Was it him or Willy Egbe now? I’m not sure. In-ani-no, in-ani-no, in-ani-no… You are trained not to use words that will cause go slow for you. But today you see some people, they use high sounding words that they begin to sound like this guy who used to be in the House of Representatives (Patrick Obahiagbon). So, a true broadcaster must use the simplest of language. It’s easy to flow, easy to manage and then the calibration should not be one that will put you in a mess. You should avoid getting into that for any reason.

After sometime you left to set up Ruyi Communications. What prompted that?

Ruyi Communications was one of those experiences, because as broadcasters, we were everywhere. I was an MC (master of ceremonies), I was a music show promoter, I was into too many things. By the way, do you know of a place called Museum Kitchen? Museum Kitchen had the best of jazz ensemble in the person of Tunde Kuboye and his wife, Fran and then people like Sonny Okosuns, Bongos Ikwue, even Fela Anikulapo-Kutinwho Tunde Kuboye married his cousin; Victor Uwaifo. They used to come there and all of us who are broadcasters. All we wanted to do was to come and see them and enjoy ourselves, rub shoulders with all of them and then we go our ways. But the thing that was so good about it was that you always left there with something that was remarkable. I think Freedom Park reminds me of the Museum Kitchen today, which was at the National Museum (in Onikan, Lagos) then. There were always something to learn, always something new. You always got something fresh, and apart from being a newscaster, or a news reader, I was also a music presenter. I produce my own programme, I created my own programmes and so on. There were so many things we were doing and there was competition and it was healthy. That gave us the impetus to try our best and that was was how it started. 
Back then, our bosses never wasted time with us. I remember my boss, Stella Anwali who just celebrated her 80th or 81st birthday. Fantastic lady! She used to look at us and say you think you are super stars. Right? Wait till I hear or see your mistakes, then you will know what mistakes superstars don’t make. So, you do not just get away with making a mistake. They will laugh at you. And by the way, what is lacking in radio and TV today used to be very common place in those days – what is it? It is the fact that every week, there was something called presentation meeting, where all announcers, or OAPs like you people call them these days, on-air personalities. And by the way, on-air personalities is both you and me. As your guest, I’m an on-air personality, as my host, you are an on-air personality. So, it’s not restricted to announcers or voices alone. No! But anyway, to finish what I’m saying, they used to play back tapes and you never knew whose tape was going to be played back. But everybody will be seated and then your programme of the week before will be played it back and you just suddenly hear your voice and you will know that you are in trouble. Because that’s where all your public enemies will deal with you. It was always very lively, but woe betide that person whose tape was played back that day because, he would be in serious trouble.

You served at some point as the MD of Inspiration FM. What would you describe as your greatest achievement at the station?

A lot of good things actually happened, but the achievements I would not restrict to myself alone. But to the good team I had at the time. They spread from the best to the most trying. It was quite an interesting encounter and experience. We always wanted to be ahead of everybody and competition was very, very key. I got something from CNN in those days. It said competition breeds quality. So, that was always at the back of my mind and so the team I was working with, I tried to imbibe some of these elements I talked about; like this tape we were playing back and all that. I tried to imbibe it in the course of being the CEO of Inspiration FM. And then we also made sure that the programmes, like Sharing Life Issues, which is still on today, appeal to everybody concerned. We also wanted to make sure that people had a chance to learn something from everybody. So,one of the things that I was happy about was that we were able to create a good relationship between the advertising agencies and us, because if they didn’t pay you, you were trouble. And when you couldn’t pay your salaries, you couldn’t meet your emoluments, there’ll be a problem. So, there was always a constant interaction between us. We also had and we still have a chairman (Erastus Akingbola) who was very, very instrumental to ensuring that we knew how to achieve our debt recovery efforts. It was a very powerful thing. So, there was this stability in my time that I enjoyed. And that is still there till today and I’m very happy about it.

You’ve talked so much about your new venture in the course of this interview. I’m talking about the training institute that you run. Can you tell us more about it?

Okay! Soni Irabor Institute of Media and Communications is a broadcast training centre that dwells largely on training producers, announcers, on-air personalities… I have to say on-air personalities because the people that matter are the on-air personalities. News readers, newscasters, radio, TV presenters and even social media are also there. People like you who are doing jobs like this should equally come to my training school to get more exposure and rudiments of broadcasting. Why are my saying this? Because you are actually doing broadcasting, but at a social media level.

With the benefit of hindsight, what are the other legitimate avenues through which a broadcaster can make money?

They are many, they are very, very many. But you see, you have to actually streamline your efforts because you can’t burn your candle at both ends. One, you have to specialize in something. Two, you have to make sure that you don’t stretch yourself too much by being involved in too many practices, which may now limit your scope of expertise and which can make you a laughing stock. I mean, why are we saying that people like Ali Baba have excelled? It’s because, one, they knew how to charge. Two, they knew how to help one another. Number three, they were always researching and doing jokes that they make sure that even if the joke was repeated, it was with a different flavour. So, as a broadcaster, I’m a newscaster, I’m a music presenter, I’m a programme presenter, I can do documentaries, I can produce any programme, I can even produce my own documentaries, I can make films, I can do TV shows, radio shows and I’m now even doing internet shows from Facebook, Instagram or YouTube. If you know how to do it very well and you can streamline it properly and it can be shown simultaneously in at least two or three other avenues, that can expand your viewership, your audience. Apart from that, MCing. Even at this my old age, I still do MCing and I’m paid for it. The fact is that I have to do it well and if I do it well, I will get more customers. And what must you do again? You must research. You are going to do an MC job, if you don’t know anything about the job you are about to do and you go and do half baked MCing, you are messing yourself up. So, you must research about the event, you must research about the practitioners in the event, you must research the key characters of the event, you must really know what to say, how to say it, when to say it and come on men, you have to also check the mood of your audience so you don’t go bamboozling yourself thinking you are the be all and the end all of your life. You are not! You are just there to make sure that things work seamlessly, lightheartedly, effortlessly, happily. Make the people happy, because you are there to make them happy.

How does one retain his voice over so many years, especially as you have done?

I take a lot of fruits. I’ve been taking that for years non stop and I drink a lot of water, especially in the morning. I also think that I’m just lucky. I’m gifted to be blessed with that kind of voice.

What’s your own personal definition of broadcasting?

Broadcasting is already broad in itself. So, it is the ability to disseminate information from one source to a broad spectrum of sources, of recipients, of people who will receive the information and if you are lucky, they will give you a feedback and the feedback you get usually is a kind of reaction to the message that you disseminated. So, to me, broadcasting is a way of passing message from one source to as many sources or end recipients as possible.

What do you like most about being a broadcaster?

Just being yourself. I just like being myself and not trying to be holier than thou, not trying to be American, not trying to be English. I’m Nigerian and I want to be so boldly Nigerian that every Nigerian will understand me well and without bating an eyelid. I just want to sound credibly understandable for anybody who listens to my voice or what I have to say.

What don’t you like about being a broadcaster?

You have no private life! I lost my privacy since 1979 when I won my first award and many years down the line, there’s no end to it. It’s not easy. But I just thank God I have a family that understands and that I have an audience that has not been too hard on me. Although some people have been hard on me. Like when I became the CEO of Inspiration FM, I got some strange characters attacking me on Facebook…

What was the worst or most painful thing they said about you then?

That I was there to act a script, I was there to bring down the quality of Inspiration FM, that I didn’t have the wherewithal to run the place, that I was from the old school, bla bla bla… The school never old o! More than half of my audience, today, is made up of the youths.
You are one of the few journalists married to their colleagues. Is that a plus or a minus?
It’s a plus! I’m happy with my marriage. I can never see it as a minus. She (Betty) is a journalist and she’s even more of a journalist than myself, and then she has her own magazine (Genevieve). So, that’s an added plus for me and for all of us. Mine is broadcasting and as I’m gradually getting older, I’m settling for training younger people. Even people who are in print journalism are also coming for the training, because my school is Institute of Media and Communications. Not Institute of Broadcasting, although the larger percentage are broadcasters, maybe because of my background. But I bring people from PR (public relations), I bring people from journalism, advertising, I bring people from different genres, from every area and don’t forget, we have experts like Bimbo Oloyede, Ken Ikpe of All Seasons, Lanre Adisa of Noah’s Ark. We also have Boma Kaliwo, Funke Treasure Durodola and I also involve people from Pan Atlantic University. I’m happy to say that people like Dr. Richard Ikhiebe is one of us too. We beg them to come and talk to the students and they come.

God has been extremely nice to you. What more do you want from Him?

Ha! He should not leave me alone o. In fact, He must not leave me alone. I’m such a bad boy that I always want to say Lord, I want to do your will, please, don’t leave me alone. I also beg God not to leave Nigeria alone because Nigeria is at the precipice.

Soni Irabor Live. What necessitated it and what distinguishes it from all the other programmes that play in the same league?

I got the idea from Larry King Live, like I mentioned earlier. Yeah, the programme has given me an opportunity to explore different areas of life and living. It has also given me an opportunity to talk to the high and mighty; the lowly as well and the grassroots. Everyone who has something to offer. It’s given me an opportunity to look deeper into what life really means, because there’s so much falsehood out there. People are given a responsibility, they don’t carry it through. We blame leadership because we put them there and they have to answer to us. Most times, we the followers, many of us are doing like the leaders we are criticizing. So, really, who is doing what to who? All the agencies, all the institutions have been established by the Constitution, by the rule of law for you to do what is necessary. A wise man should say this doesn’t make sense, let’s correct it. Let’s not make the same mistake again. But what we are seeing is that there is too many comedy of errors in Nigeria, and that worries me to the point where I’m asking: where are we going really? We’ve got to do things right! And we cannot blame leadership when we are not correcting our shortcomings. Ordinary red, green and yellow lights of traffic, we don’t obey them. I’m just giving an analogy that might shock you. But that’s the truth. And we have too many youths who are doing nothing. We must look for a way to keep them busy so that they do not become idle and therefore do wrong things. The fault is ours if we allow our youths to be lawless, to be bored, to be idle. It’s not right, it’s not good. It will not help us. If you are doing very well and your neighbour is not doing very well, do you think he’s going to look at you with good eyes? So, wahala dey town…