“I’m happy that I have been able to make a difference” -Yemisi Akinbobola

The African Women in the Media held a two-day conference in Ibadan, Nigeria on June 21-22,2018. A number of delegates had an interaction with the Convener, Dr. Yemisi Akinbobola after her closing remarks.

Afolasade Osigwe was one of them, and she did the text of this interview:

Interviewer: How do you feel about the just concluded AWIM Conference?

Yemisi Akinbobola: Elated doesn’t even capture how I feel, I feel like impact has been had, I feel like people are going to go away, feeling impacted. People are going to go away and put their skills into action with the empowerment and the motivation that they’ve gained from here. So I’m just so happy that I have just been able to make a difference but this is just the beginning, right from there is no need having this event and then saying ok that is it, we are done. That’s not what AWIM is about, AWIM is about action, that is what differentiates us from other similar organizations who were set up to support women in the media field. We are all about Africa, not just Sub-Sahara Africa, Africans all over the world; even if you an African American or Black British. It’s all about African women all over the world in whichever media space; whether its journalism, academic research, film, entertainment or branding, so it’s really to capture a wide audience because we all have similar issues. This event is about having the conversations; let’s just meet, discuss the issues and identify where we are going next. Now the job for AWIM starts now, which is to take those things and do more with it.

Interviewer: What motivated or inspired you to start AWIM, was it because you are journalist…media personnel yourself?

Yemisi Akinbobola: It’s more than that. There are two things: One is a little bit more serious than the other. In 2010, I finished my Ph.D. in Media and Cultural Studies and set up my company-IQ4News. I ran that for four years, and you know when you get to a stage in your career, it’s a kind of up or down and you need that mentor-that guidance kind of- to navigate with you to that level and I was looking for a network like this and it didn’t exist. So I set up a Facebook group, it was just me and my sister on the group…(laughs) and later that year I won the CNN African journalist award for Sports reporting for an investigative story I did and the discussions in media forum at the CNN’s finalists programme was around the fact that ‘Ok, where are we ?’ ‘what are African women doing?’ ‘Is there a network that connects us?’ ‘Is there a way we can find out what each of us is doing?’ ‘If I want to move to Kenya, is there a way to find out who I need to speak to?-Who are the people there?’-the women there who are leaders who can guide me through that process, you know…actually I had set up a Facebook group with that intention then I realised that there was definitely an appetite for it. After the CNN Award, I went back home and started promoting the Facebook group.

And we started growing and this is just eighteen months ago

Interviewer: Waoh…

Yemisi Akinbobola: It wasn’t that long ago; it’s just 18 months ago, I organised my first event in Birmingham, I was expecting 30 people, just a little event; I was six weeks to having a baby so,I didn’t really want too much wahala …laughs.. and about 55 people came, I didn’t do much promotion, but the fact that, that much came without much promotion, then it made me think; ok there’s something here, you know, and this year, our target is 150 people and we had well over 300 ,you know, so it’s satisfying to know that we are on the right path and people need it and in fact it’s surprising that something like this didn’t exist in the first place and you know, and it’s a privilege that I’m here; organising this and that you ladies are here participating and encouraging me and that you are interested in this. And the other reason,…have you all watched the film “girl trip”….?

Interviewer: No.

Yemisi Akinbobola: …starring Judith Picker-Smith?…well in that film; four women who are friends from different walks of life,emm…they were friends in university, as you know life takes over, one became really successful, one was in debt, one was in XYZ,and they all met at this event and the closing thing at the event, there was a whole lot of women in the audience and this woman was giving a speech, I said waoh! I want to do that, so I started researching  what  the event is and it’s a  real event it’s called the Essence festival and spent ages researching, I mean from watching a film to researching the Essence festival as those  researches started  I know every single thing about the essence festival ,how they started where they are now;and  I thought, that’s what I want. So a combination of those factors…

Interviewer:..and you went for it…

Yemisi Akinbobola:…Yes…led me to what we have today.

Interviewer: From gathering women and empowering them, through this event, what has it taught you?

Yemisi Akinbobola: It taught me that we all have similar situations and issues, that we all want something like a lady said that there is this myth that… it is the women that are drawing back women, how true is that? if we are here saying we want women empowerment; how true is it that more women are drawing women down than trying to lift them up, you know I’m not saying people don’t put down people, but that saying that women pull down women…

Interviewer: We shouldn’t promote it…

Yemisi Akinbobola: Exactly, do you do it? If none of us in this circle do it, then why are we saying that women do it?

Interviewer: Okay. What informed the choice of Nigeria, Ibadan for this conference?

Yemisi Akinbobola: I’m glad that you asked that question.

Interviewer: laughs…

Yemisi Akinbobola: Nigeria, because it’s my country, so this is first AWIM event in Africa…obviously let’s do it in Nigeria, it’s my country, let me represent my country right, for the choice of Ibadan it was a conscious decision. When I was thinking about the venue, everybody was saying hah… Lagos,Lagos,Lagos, no… if you don’t do it in Lagos, nobody will come,.so..so..so and I was like okay, that means anyone that does come, if it’s not in Lagos, are those serious about their career development, so that’s why I did it in Ibadan. Ibadan is the largest city in Africa, right.. the University of Ibadan is a highly prestigious university, there are other places in Nigeria beyond Lagos. If you are serious about your career development, and when events like this is being organised, even if it is in Akure; where I’m from, even if it is in your village no matter where it is, what matters is what you are going there to do, not how cool or how stylish the environment is, yeah…so it was a conscious decision to bring it here.

Interviewer: What challenges did you face organising the conference?

Yemisi Akinbobola: (Laughs..)…hmmn…a lot.

Interviewer: What was the challenge…the one that stood out?

Yemisi Akinbobola: The biggest challenge was…it cost me a lot of money to organise this event, so we had to charge a ticket price, that means the cost. It wasn’t about me making money, however, journalists are poorly paid, and I felt really guilty about having to charge the price we were charging initially, so in the end I thought let’s reduce the price and try to get sponsorship to support people to attend. So that was the biggest challenge, because I ‘m sure other people want to do things like this but they think ah… journalists are not well paid, if I do this, and people don’t buy tickets, I will be in debts, you know; so that was the biggest challenge and it’s not about, they didn’t buy tickets, it wasn’t that, people are poorly paid in our field. You know by the time you’re going to pay fifty thousand naira to attend a two-day event, you’ve not covered your meals, your travels and everything, so I totally got it, so in order for you to do this event you’ll need to have sponsors who can put their money where their mouth is where they are talking about gender empowerment.

Interviewer: So how did you get the sponsors?

Yemisi Akinbobola: Do you know what I have been planning? It helps that I’ve done one before, but what also helps is planning and doing a lot well in advance. I have been planning this for a year; I didn’t plan it over the last two months, three months-I had my pitch deck, the proposal for sponsors ready about eight months ago; that’s when I started approaching people, do you understand? Some picked it up immediately like DHL and Ford Foundation; they all picked it up immediately. Some took a little bit of convincing, not because they didn’t believe in it but because they were like ‘who are you?’, ‘do you know what is happening in Nigeria?’ ‘who is this girl?’ (laughs)…‘who is she?’ ‘where is she coming from?’…You know, it’s like I need to be famous first before they take me seriously so it wasn’t easy, nothing is easy I mean; for the last 6,8,10,12 months, I have been sleeping at 2 am. Last night, I had to sleep early because of today and I couldn’t sleep till 12.30…you know because my body is so used to working; 12 hours, even 14 hours daily and bear in mind my full-time work is at the University so I did this outside of that.

Interviewer: On a final note, what will you like to say to women?

Yemisi Akinbobola: Don’t buy into those stereotypical statements that women pull down women; don’t buy into the idea that women can’t do it, you understand? You are in control of your destiny; you can do it if I can do it. I’m not special like there is nothing special about me, I’m not like some major intelligent person so if I can do it, you can do it and anybody can do it. So that is my advice, just do it, that’s the thing. A lot of people have lots of ideas, even those who have access to lots of ideas but very few people execute it. Just do it!

Interviewer: We are all looking forward to AWIM 2019, so what should we be expecting?

Yemisi Akinbobola: It’s a festival. This year, we focused on inspiration and empowerment through discussions and workshops. Next year, we are going to move, do that and do showcasing. Now I don’t want to give too much away but to just say showcasing is the additional thing we are adding to AWIM 2019, let’s leave it at that.

Interviewer: Thank you