Delta State Commissioner for Information and Chairman media and publicity sub-committee of the just concluded 2022 National Sports festival (NSF) Mr Charles Aniagwu has revealed how Delta state hosted the best biennial sports fiesta in history. He spoke in an exclusive interview with Ikenna Okonkwo and Amaechi Okwara in Asaba.
Excerpts
Asaba 2022, steps ahead of Edo 2020
From the beginning, we were very clear that we are not going to lower the guard. If Edo did well, we are very much prepared to improve on what our brothers in Edo did. To a very large extent, Edo also provided some level of fun and we felt that it’s important for us to provide beyond fun and to also provide much improved environment to redefine the festival. And by the grace of God to a large extent, we are able lift the festival to serve as a reference point to those who are going to host in the future.
Reference points in terms of the security, and by the grace of God, we have been able to provide a reference point in terms of providing conducive nature of the infrastructure both in the game centres and the game villages, reference point in terms of the unity and the love that exist in the atmosphere because of the festival, and of course the reference point in terms of the number of games and states with excitement.
So, for us, we give God all the glory that we were able to get the support of the federal government, and that is why we must appreciate the Minister of Yotuh and Sports development, who have also been very encouraging in his actions. He has been able to give us that backing and of course my boss the governor of Delta State, Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa who was able to provide the reasonable environment needed for us to be able to organise most of the things we have done.
Individuals who don’t understand the amount of money you have put in and what you are getting, they don’t know the good memories you are getting, the question should be what are our people are getting from this. The return on investment is not what you can measure. Imagine every person who have come into this state – particularly the athletes and officials, came in with N150,000 and we have over 14,000 persons that trooped into the state, not to talk about the spectators and other persons who have come for talent hunt, imagine what that will amount to.
Beyond that, the fact that we also have them know that Deltans are who they are, there are individuals who want to return to Delta because they have seen that we are a very peaceful state, we are quite accomdating and loving – that’s enough for them to come back.
So, there are lot of gains that we believe we have made because of this event and we give God all the glory.
Managing information before, during and after the National Sports Festival
We were able to achieve the modest record, because we got the support of our colleagues. It is not because we are perfect the way we were doing things but our colleagues just felt good about what we’re doing, even if there are things that could look like unconducive environment they just bear with us. During the festival periods, I go to media centre to ask if there’s any problem or challenge.
They know we are sincere in terms of talking to them, we do believe that our colleagues deserve the best, and we try as much as possible to see how we meet them halfway, everyone has been accomdating. We thought that we will be dealing with about 200 journalists from across the country, including those within the state, but we have close to 300 and the Journalists are not just coming and going, they have remained and you know what that means. But If that number were not to be cooperative among themselves, it is a problem and many of them were very much inclined to embrace the developmental journalism.
Let me tell you, no matter how wonderful you are, like I said the other day, in research there is what is TAT (They are Always There). So no matter what you do, those little things that could put bad light will always be there, and it becomes a major challenge. Those are some of the things you really need to understand. No matter how wonderful you planned, somehow you will be triggered either by an external factor, you could call unforseen or you are not able to possibly calculate the magnitude of what certain things could do.
For instance, if we plan for 200 and no body would tell that you will be having 350 or more, I’m not in control of all the journalists and where they are coming from. You know in this part of the country, you don’t say that only those who are accredited are to participate but abroad they will tell you, if you are not accredited, you will not participate. But here, if you don’t accredit someone and you say he won’t come, he will be the one to put a stod and you know what? Those who read at home, they don’t read the accreditation, they only read the story. If you write the story and you are not accredited, you are not going to report like an accredited Journalists.
Also, as a Journalist, you are supposed to know that you don’t use your power wrongly. The power a journalist has, is more than the power of a governor, because you are empowered to write one small thing and you are talking to the whole country. A governor does not have anything to talk to the whole country except he goes through a Journalist but you as a Journalist don’t need to go through the governor, rather you go through your medium and you are talking to all Nigerians but the governor will need you to reach out. So the power of a Journalist has is enemous. That is why they say that the pen is mightier than the sword.
However, as a Journalist, you have to be fair, even if someone assaults you, you can approach him, because it’s his mouth he used, don’t go and use an unequal force by writing it and using it via your medium, which means you are abusing your privilege of having that power. If I talk to you as an individual, talk to me as an individual, let us not go and deploy our own forces. If I’m deploying government forces and you are deploying your own, is understandable, that’s equal and opposite reaction.
Remaining calm while working under pressure
I’m not under pressure. I’m only doing what I am assigned to do. I’m not doing law, to read books in order to quote certain pages like someone that’s to appear in a law court. if I were to be a lawyer, I won’t have to read all that because I have mastered them in the course of time. The things I’m doing are the things I studied in school and I have been doing them. So why would dealing with my colleagues and other necessary management become something that is stressful?
If I’m stressed, it could be that am taking other responsibilities to make certain things work beyond top official management. May be something is happening elsewhere and you don’t want that to fail, if it is allowed to happen, it will affect your own, in that case I’m taking stress from another angle but if it’s in terms of looking what is to work, it should be a normal thing you do on daily basis.
It is because of ‘ego’, that’s why people fail the number of times they do. If you make mistake, why not acknowledge that you made mistake? In the course of the briefing, I didn’t tell them that they were lying during the Festival, I only told them that we will fix it. If a Journalist reports an event that happened, why would you want to fight him? We don’t do that, reporting is not the solution but bring our notice to it for us to fix it. Why do you want to put in the public domain, to make it look like we didn’t prepare?
