INTERVIEW

Before her retirement from active journalism, Moji Makanjuola was a household name in the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA). During her career that spanned over 30 years, the Kwara-born TV journalist was a point of reference and viewers delight as a presenter, reporter, producer and head of NTA's health desk. In this interview, she speaks on her life after retirement, journalism, what she missed, her TV shows among others.

How would you describe your life after retirement from the NTA?

It has been very interesting for me. I thought that retirement would bring some measures of break from my very active life in journalism. But since I made the pronouncement that I would be stepping aside from NTA (even though I'm not tired), the demand for me to be part of national development, using the media, has been very high.

I couldn't do my PhD while in active service, but I hope to complete it before I reach 60 years of age. I am very grateful to God who has continually strengthened me, and to people who still believe in me as a light in the media.

It has been very interesting. My diary is full of events, all in the context of advancing the course of media as a strategy for national development. You can see that I am still very active, I am still working.

How many years did you put into journalism?

When you look at it from the perspective of active journalism, I have put more than 30 years. As a young presenter on TV then, I had always known that ultimately, I would end up in the newsroom because that had always been my dream. I like reading, I like writing and I believe that writing can impart on people positively. It can ignite change and revolutionise. My dream had always been to be a pen pusher; and I am very proud to be just that.

For a while now, you have not been actively involved in the job of your dream; how are you coping with the new challenges outside journalism?

I wouldn't say I have been off the screen because I still have three shows on TV every week. All the same, what I miss most is reporting. I love reporting, I preferred it to news casting. When you do the reporting, you can feel it, you see it happening, and you are able to translate to people what they should know. That is the only aspect of it that I have missed. However, I have the health report by the Federal Ministry of Health. I also have two other TV shows that could be likened to some form of reporting. After that, life continues for me. I am still a journalist; this job is addicting. I wouldn't say I'm not in business, but it has to be within the confines of the media. For me, that is what I do and I enjoy doing it.

How would you describe your career in the NTA?

That was 35 years back. A lot of things happened. I experienced the ups and downs of journalism. I suffered the abuse of being a journalist. I have had my uptimes and downtimes. It will really be difficult for me to talk of a particular incident during those years; but what still lingers on my mind are things that happened when I visited some rural communities of this country. I wondered at the contentment of people at that level. Those are the true Nigerians, the true Africans and heroes. They are not hustling; they are very contended with whatever they have or whatever you give them. But I believe we could improve on what they have. I see them as communion of people being truthful to themselves, being truthful to their environment and they are living their lives to the fullest. I had given some money to some of them to start the business of kulikuli or akara. And when I look back at the little impact I made in their lives and how they are fairing afterwards, I consider myself very privileged.

Journalism has gone beyond what you write or say. When I went to a particular community with Professor Awosika when we were running around to campaign and talk people into accepting the polio vaccine, it was looking clean, but they didn't have potable water. Expectedly, about N600, 000 would be needed to get a borehole for the people. Right there, Professor Awosika insisted we had to get water for them. You would be amazed at the joy the promise to get them water brought to them that day. They are not people with huge demands, they are happy with any little assistance you can offer them. What they don't have, they don't need. I call them the true Nigerians. I give God the glory for making me an instrument of change.

I had also been to communities where I spoke to people about sanitation and things that would improve their healthy living. And when I go back and see changes, it gives me joy.

For me, journalism became an instrument of change. You know the joy it could bring when you go to people to tell them about healthy living maybe on water borne diseases, and when next you go back there you find that they have changed from their ways. When you go back to report it as a journalist you can imagine the joy it could bring when you realise that through the medium, you are changing lives.

As journalists, I don't know how we see ourselves, particularly at this time. We push issues that are not relevant, and because the media is pushing it, people believe in it. Why won't I use the medium to improve the environment around me? I believe that once you have a medium and you know how to convey your message, you will always be relevant; and that is what I am doing.

Would you say you are fulfilled?

I am extremely grateful and a fulfilled woman. I have seen the world because I'm a journalist. I have been to the continents of the world. I have had the opportunity to sit with the highest, the biggest and the lowest in the society. God has blessed me and I have a very loving husband, family and friends all over the world. What else can I ask for? It has been a fulfilled journey for me.

Your name was mentioned for the NTA director-general job, but you didn't get it. What happened?

I am not aware of that. Nobody contacted me on it, nobody asked for my curriculum vitae. I don't know where they got that information from.