HOT 99.5FM Radio
Reality Show: Outcome
spoke for Women
in Nigeria
NKEM EKEOPARA
Monday, July 11, 2011
The
clamour for gender equality by Nigerian women got a tremendous lift recently
when a radio station devised an ingenious way to recruit from an army of
unemployed graduates in Nigeria three
presenters
to enhance its operations. The radio station, HOT 99.5FM Owerri, an offshoot of
HOT 98.3FM Abuja, operated by Spectrum Broadcasting (Nig) Ltd. founded by
Senator Chris Anyanwu
has within a short time it was planted in Owerri
become the rave of the moment in the Southeast states
and many of the states in the South-South Nigeria.
This, I believe, is because of its agenda-driven
programmes, and more importantly, because of the strategic role it played in
deciding the electoral fortune and misfortune of many an aspirant in Imo State
in the last elections in Nigeria.
Therefore, it was
not surprising that when they went on air a couple of months back to ask that
those who think they have got what it takes to work in their station should
apply, they were deluged by applicants. Although they asked applicants to submit
demos, which in itself ought to have limited the number of applicants as not
every potential applicant will have the money to do one; they were still
overwhelmed, receiving over one thousand demos according to them.
Ordinarily, any firm or organization in Nigeria today,
which advertises an opening and fixes a date for test or interview, is asking
for invasion. This, unfortunately, is the reality of the job market in Nigeria
where most of those who in their time were recruited straight from their
campuses have been unable to provide such opportunities for the present
generation in spite of the country’s enormous resources. One can only imagine
the task that confronted an organization like HOT 99.5FM whose popularity is
soaring daily when it went on air to make that announcement that it has some
openings for Presenters. I guess faced with the prospect of being saddled with
the responsibility of crowd control and elaborate logistics, the management of
the station wisely decided to painstakingly listen to the demos and select the
best ten applicants for whom they organized a contest they termed the ‘first
ever, HOT 99.5FM Radio Reality Show.’ It was from this show that three
Presenters were picked.
The outcome of this unique show, which ran from
Monday, June 27th – Monday, July 4th, 2011, provoked this
piece.
As already stated, the show had ten contestants, which was
equally distributed between the genders; five young men and five young ladies.
Every day a task was assigned to the contestants.
Based on their performance of the task, the
listening public voted. The votes in which individuals were allowed to vote once
accounted for 60% of the score while an in-house assessment by the organizers
accounted for the remaining 40% of the score. Every day the contestant with the
least score was evicted. Starting from Tuesday, June 28th, one person
was evicted each day. The interesting thing about this show was that by
Saturday, July 2nd when five finalists emerged, only one of the young
ladies had been evicted. Earlier, a lady withdrew on her own volition on
securing employment elsewhere. So, three of the five young men who originally
were in the contest had been evicted, while the remaining two were to face the
same fate when the winner was declared on Monday, July 4th even
though the last man standing, Michael Onumonu, was later absorbed by the
authorities of the radio station after the three remaining ladies, Cindy Oshieze,
Felicity Ezewuike and Vivian Chima earned their place.
What is quite
edifying about it is that this was through a transparent and highly competitive
process in which those evicted actually admitted in post-eviction interviews
that they were not at their best in the preceding task. Perhaps, nothing
validates this transparency and competitiveness than the response of the winner,
Miss Cindy Oshieze, a brain gain from Texas, and a daughter of an Owerri town
indigene. On being asked if she felt she was going to lose to anyone in the
contest, she appropriately recognised the immense talents of her co-contestants,
especially the talents and voice of the 1st runner-up, Miss Felicity Ezewuike.
This may well be a small show, but it deserves the
accolades of discerning Nigerians in a country where young ladies are usually
accused of selling their bodies to grab few available spaces in the job market.
This is a classical case of competence rather than contact being the overriding
factor in deciding who got hired. It is a case of merit taking its proper place
over mediocrity that is usually associated with some state owned electronic
media houses where a complimentary card of a Board member can fetch one a place.
And we do see the consequences of this in low
quality programming and poor presentation. I am pretty sure that if the
Management of HOT 99.5FM had invited ten applicants comprising five young men
and five young ladies and ended up hiring three ladies after interview sessions,
the charges of the young ladies compromising themselves to get hired would have
been made, and some of the male managers of the station would surely have been
unjustly vilified by male chauvinists in the society.
Obviously, this kind
of development is a potent armour in the arsenals of Nigerian women whose
strident calls for gender equity is quaking our land since the First Lady, Mrs.
Patience Jonathan launched her ‘Women for Change Development Initiative’ to help
address the visible gender imbalance in the decision making process and
education of the girl child in Nigeria. Should they latch on the brilliant
performance of these young ladies no matter how infinitesimal it may seem, to up
the tempo of their demand for more respect and equal opportunity in conduct of
public affairs, we must not begrudge them. We must not, because they have the
likes of Professor Dora Akunyili, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and Ms. Funke Opeke to
show that they are eminently qualified and ready to compete on equal footing.
Nkem Ekeopara
is a Nigerian-based engineer and poet