DR. Williams Azuma Ijoma, the publisher of Ebony News in this exclusive interview engages Egboh Chioma Grace, the CEO of LEADERS & LIFE NEWS HOUSE, LLTV, CHI Golden Global Ltd, CHI Golden Aide Foundation and Politics & Life Magazine where she speaks about her future plans for the media establishment. Excerpts…
Can we meet you?
Good evening. My name is Egboh Chioma Grace. I am the CEO of LEADERS & LIFE NEWS HOUSE, LLTV, CHI Golden Global Ltd, CHI Golden Aide Foundation and Politics & Life Magazine. LLTV, which is the abbreviation of Leaders & Life News House is a media House which consist of every media aspect entirely. We have a magazine which operates from its own company and we also have a foundation. The magazine’s name is Politics & Life Magazine and the foundation is CHI Golden Aid Foundation. LLTV is a TV station on YouTube but we are currently building contents to go to DSTV. That’s what LLTV is all about.
You are quite young for these great ambitious projects and achievements, what are your secrets please?
Thanks for the compliments, I feel flattered though. Our magazine deals with politics, entrepreneur and individual lifestyle. The secret behind Politics & Life Magazine could be traced to my love and passion for government and politics since my university days. That has been my motivation. I had always loved reading newspapers, knowing things happening around my environment. I work so much on research, I like getting information of everything happening in the government nationally and internationally. That was what gave birth to Politics & Life Magazine. During the process of my story writing, I had a website and from there, I said to myself, why not register a magazine and I did, that’s how I became the publisher of Politics & Life Magazine,
What should we expect from your media iconic conglomerate in the next five years?
This period of social media era where there are lots of fake news around, Politics & Life Magazine and Leaders & Life News House work so much in researching and we have investigative journalists. Before we post our news on social media and on our YouTube channel, we make sure we research a lot and we also ensure that we are professional about the things we do and things happening around us. During our reportages, we ensure that our news are original, precise and genuine. This we do because we have chosen to work towards perfection and more importantly, we don’t want our readers to be misled. In the next five years, I see our Media House in the Likes of CNN, BBC or Channels TV. We are building contents to have our platform on DSTV. In the nearest future, I see LLTV and Leaders & Life News House as a household name in the media Industry, nationally and internationally. The aforementioned established media houses all started from somewhere and I’m optimistic and convinced that with consistency and God on our side, we shall get there.
Could you please tell us about your immediate project if there’s any?
For now we are having exclusive interviews with top personalities. Last February, precisely on the 16th and the 17th, we organized a big event titled ‘The Peace Unity and Security Lecture Series’. It was held at ECOWAS main auditorium. We invited top personalities, politicians, entrepreneurs and individuals from different fields of life to talk about peace and Unity in Nigeria. That was our last major event, but in future we have many more events to work on. Presently, aside reportage for our magazines, we are gathering contents for our media house as well as our intended DSTV platform. We just concluded the June/July edition of our Politics & Life Magazine with special focus on life experiences of the Executive Governor of Bayelsa State, Doye Diri. We have also written a book which will be published soon. Lest I forget, we have a major intercontinental film project which will commence in two months’ time. It will cut across all walks of life from Nigeria through Togo, India, Turkey and South Africa.
What are the challenges you are facing in carrying out your duties?
Media is very competitive and ours is more or less a baby media. Out there, there are bigger media houses and sometimes when we go for events it could be intimidating because I’m a youth as well as all my team members. Most of the challenges we experience are financially based, however. To effectively run an independent media house, you need finance, sponsors and support. Independent media is really not easy to run but because we are determined and this is our dream, it’s what we like doing and what we know how to do best, so we keep on pushing even though we are not making so much money as expected, we are doing our best to get to where we want to be.
What’s your advice to young people who want to embrace the media industry.
My advice to those who want to come into Media Industry is that they should have it at the back of their minds that, it’s really not as easy as it is portrayed. You need to have passion for it because at the beginning it’s not rosy, unlike some other businesses like buying and selling, you don’t start making money immediately in the Media. You have to be known for people to accept to place adverts and do business with you. During this process you have to take your time to build, build yourself, build your standard, build your team and make sure you are doing your possible best. The key to success in media is passion. If you lack passion you’ll be discouraged at a certain stage. As I said earlier, the likes of Channels, CNN and BBC all started from somewhere but today they are big and known in the Industry. Media is passion, it is acceptance. You have to accept what you do, you have to push what you are doing, and you don’t need to be discouraged. Some people may come discouraging you to quit because there’s no income at the beginning, they may be asking why you are wasting money on cameras and media equipment, but if you have passion for media, the money you invest will be like the money you spend for your daily upkeep. In a nutshell, my advices to greenhorns in the industry is to be passionate, disciplined, focused and stay encouraged because everyone you see up there today actually started from somewhere. Thank you.
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