•Mrs. MARY OSO-OMOTOSO Tells City People
Mary Oso – Omotoso is a multi-award-winning broadcast journalist. She began her career at Radio Nigeria Progress 100.5 Fm Ado Ekiti before moving on to Radio Nigeria Ikoyi, Lagos before, after which she ventured into politics.
She holds a degree in English Education from the University of Ado Ekiti (UNAD), now (EKSU). She has a Postgraduate Diploma in Public Relations/Advertising from the International Institute of Journalism Abuja, as well as professional certificates in Basic Presentation from the National Broadcasting Academy in Lagos, the Nigeria Institute of Public Relations (NIPR), and Advertising Practitioner of Nigeria (APCON).
As an astute media professional of repute cum politician, she is renowned for her role as a Creative Writer, Brand Manager, Communications Strategist, PR and Adverts Expert, Public Speaker, Media trainer and community developer. While working with Radio Nigeria Ado Ekiti, Mary was elected Chapter Treasurer of the Radio Arts, Theatre, and Television Workers Union while working for Radio Nigeria Ado Ekiti, and she later became the Union’s Chairman.
She joined partisan politics in 2018 and contested for the Ekiti State House of Assembly Ado Constituency 2 in 2019. She was appointed Deputy Director of Media for Buhari/Osinbajo Presidential Campaign Council in 2019. From April 2018 to July 2022, she was the Special Assistant on Media to Ekiti State Governor, Dr. Kayode Fayemi. While she was Co-Chairperson of Media, for Biodun Oyebanji Women Campaign Council, Mary also worked as Special Assistant to Ekiti State First Lady from September 2022 – October 2022.
She is currently the Senior Special Assistant to Governor Biodun Abayomi Oyebanji on Community Communications, and she is tasked with bridging communication gaps between the government and the people.
Her interest in humanitarian work leads her to volunteer for a number of international non-governmental organisations, including FLD Africa. She is a Young African Leaders Initiative member (YALI). A founding member and later spokesperson for the Young African Women in Leadership
(YAWL). Mary is the owner of TALENTS CITY Communications, a public relations and communications firm.
A few days back, City People Journalist, BENPRINCE EZEH (08068599879) had a chat with her at her home in Ado-Ekiti, just a day after her 40th birthday and she spoke on her political career and how she became the SSA to the governor. Below are the excerpts from the interview.
May we know your name?
My name is Mrs. Mary Oso Omotosho, am the Senior Special Assistant to Ekiti State Governor on Community Communications.
You worked with the past government in Ekiti State, what was the office you held then?
I served as the Special Assistant to the governor on media in the government of Dr. Kayode Fayemi and towards the end of his government, I served as the Special Assistant to the First Lady of Ekiti State on media.
How did how your political ambition start and how you became the SSA to the governor?
It started in 2018. Before then, my family was into politics, All Progressive Congress, APC, including my late dad, not partisan, he just fell in love with the party being Progressive, because of their manifesto and their policy regarding community development. But my mum is full-time. We love Progressive; we have always supported anyone that presented by the Progressive party. In 2018, I officially joined the party, even though I’ve always been a card-carrying member, but I joined to contest for the House of Assembly because of my background as a PR in the media and because of the way I handled my political campaign, I was on the ground, I had a well organised campaign, the party saw my activities because I was promoting the party you know. I lost the primaries, but shortly after the election, the government was formed and I was appointed. It was actually in form of compensation for not giving me the assembly ticket. Secondly, I think I was able to impress my principals, so it continued like that, I served in the Buhari and Osibanjo presidential campaign committee in 2019, and I’m also serving in the current Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Shettima campaign committee. I have been serving in virtually all the political committees, set up by the party. So I think it boils down to the fact that they were impressed with my commitment and dedication to the party. So when this government came in October last, to the glory of God, I happened to be one of those they first appointed into their government as well.
Let’s come into the real business now ma, what is community communications all about, especially in Ekiti state?
Ok, just like I told you before on how I served in the last government, serving as the SSA to the governor on media, I annoyed the particularity of the Ekiti people regarding their perception of government and governance, so, I came up with different strategies through which we can engage the people, because Dr. Fayemi had once served as governor, so the last government was his second term. In the first term, we lost the re-election bid, because of certain things that the Ekiti people thought mattered to them and we found out we were not engaging them enough even though we were doing a lot. Dr. Fayemi’s first term was adjudged the best, it was four paths, programs here and there, in terms of infrastructure, terms of intervention, in terms of social investments, and a lot of programs, but people did not see them, because we were not communicating enough. So the last government, when we came, I wasn’t part of the first term of Dr. Fayemi, so in his second term when I served, we reviewed the communications and activities of the first term of Dr. Fayemi and we saw some gaps, we came up with community engagement plans, and we were able to engage the people, we were communicating with the people, though I wasn’t still enough because we actually started late, but from my findings, we saw that there were still gaps and that a lot of people, a lot of groups because when we say community, what comes to mind is a traditional community, so we leave out a lot of people, like professional body, putting them under one body and they form community, the vulnerable, people living with disabilities are also a community but we were just addressing them as one community in the last administration. So we saw that the need of the people was enormous, it seems so like something we cannot meet, but I saw that we can actually meet them if we take our time if we have a strategy that we can work with, so we saw some of the things that did not work for us in the past administration but we were communicating, we do grassroots engagements and all that. So the findings of the last administration inform the creation of community communications now. The community communications office actually, is the first of its kind in this government.
When actually was it created?
It was just created by this present government when I was appointed last year. The governor gave me specific instructions as to how, because when he came, they called him “Tiwa Tiwa”, in Yoruba it means (Home Boy), so he told me: “I want to remain the Tiwa Tiwa that people know, I want to be closer to the people, I want to run a government that the ordinary people can identify with, I want to be accessible to the people, I want the people to be able to reach me, I don’t want a program that would be made for few,” the governor told me. These were the promises he made to the people during his campaign, one of them is that he will be available to them, that he will run an all-inclusive government, and that the people will be involved in his government. So this office was created to carry out that mandate. So the office so far, upon my assumption of office, I drew all kinds of programs tailored towards fulfilling the promises the governor made to the people. I have done stakeholders mapping, stakeholders identification and we’ve come up with different programs, that is why since I came into office, we have been very busy, we have been doing stakeholders engagements, we have been visiting communities based on needs, have launched a feedback channel through which people can reach us so that we can get the people’s comments. If the people need anything in their community or the project is ongoing or a government contract is ongoing and the contractor is not doing well, you know where to call. So this is for the people to communicate with the government. So this is not just telling them what we are doing, but them seeing what we doing and can also tell us that we need this, this is what we want from you. So we have been doing that, very soon we will be moving from one community to another, to engage them.
I saw something on your office’s social media, narrating three pictures with, how it was, how it is going, and how it is now, does this mean you keep records of the things your office does for the community?
We know the problems in Ekiti State because the man in the arms of affairs serve in different capacities in government and he was part of the immediate past administration, he served as the SSG to the government. So coming in, whatever it is that is ongoing in any ministry is not new, to me and to the governor. So the strategy we have adopted in communicating our activities to the people, is that, especially when it has to do with infrastructure or physical projects, we tend to bring to the minds of people back to what it was, what we are doing, and how it looks now. Because people tend to…like I told you, I understand the peculiarity of Ekiti people, people tend to appreciate the work of the government more when they have an idea of how the situation was and what you’re doing, and how it is now. It is just like if you want to construct a road, the poor condition of that road before, if it’s not captured, you may likely not be appreciated well, when it is done, because they just seeing the finished product and they are just plying the road, they cannot even remember how it used to be, only the people that use the road often, like the motorist, the motorcyclist will tell you that they had to cut off this road for another road when this road was bad. So in our own case, we bring to the minds of Ekiti people how the situation was, what we have done, which is the jury, and after it is done. This is the strategy we have adopted and it is actually working because it helps the people to actually appreciate and we also use that to teach them about the maintenance of the roads and their environments. The one you saw probably was when the government started the operation “Make Ekiti Clean” because the market women, during the yuletide period, everywhere were littered with dirt, so the governor launched the “Make Ekiti Clean” exercise, in the morning they will go clean around, especially the Ado-Ekiti, the state capital, they will clean everywhere and same at night. As we were doing this, we were also updating the people, in the areas we were in. We were also mixing it up with enlightenment and sensitization about environments on how to use the thrash can be keeping them clean.
Finally, where do we see this office in the next ten years, will it still be in existence, or get scrapped like others?
This is an office that is new like I said, every government appointment is at the pleasure of Mr Governor. Mr governor who came up with this office, if the office is serving him well, I’m sure the incoming government would want to look into it and say ok, let me continue to make use of this office. It’s just like creating a ministry, if the ministry is serving the purpose for which it was created, the government may want to retain and maintain the ministry, but if it is not, then they merge and say you cannot stand alone. So the office, I believe so far so good, we have not even started half of our programs, because we have our work plan for the year, approved by Mr Governor, it’s not something that because we are collaborating with organisations that are willing to collaborate with us. So, for now, I don’t see it being scrapped, but then again, it’s at the pleasure of Mr Governor and anything can happen.
Where do we see your political ambition in the next ten years?
Ok. The last election we held, last June, brought in this government, a lot of people, am from Ado Local Government, and this is my LG, they were asking “O, are you contesting”? That actually confused some people, some who wanted to come out to contest, saying “I cannot contest with her” and all that, even though they did not hear from me if I was contesting, and a lot of people killed their own ambitions because they thought that I was going to contest. They saw me like, my friends will say “you’re the most influential appointee that we have around here”. So they saw me as someone who has gathered support over the years, and if I should announce my ambition, people will rally around me. This actually is a message to me, and what inspired me to venture into politics is just for me to have a platform to better the community, to contribute to community development, to make a change and make an impact, and that I’ve been able to do, because a lot of times, I used to criticise the government, a lot, and being a broadcaster, I see the things that are wrong in government and then want to correct. I’m glad, being in government has actually helped me to directly influence some things to say this is how it should be done. Thankfully I’ve been fortunate to work with principals who are actually very passionate about community development as well, Dr. Kayode Fayemi will not take no for an answer, if he wants to get things done for the growth of the people, he will go ahead and do it, and he will not politicise it at all. So I’ve worked with people with a genuine interest in the people, so that has actually helped me, this present governor also is another fantastic governor, who has the love of the people at heart. So far so good, these are the people that have been able to help me achieve my dream, which has brought me into politics to make an impact. So contesting or having political ambition is not something I’m nursing. But again, it all depends, I have principals, I have godfathers, godmothers, the first lady, and former first lady, in fact, she wasn’t at my birthday party because of weather issues, which lead to the cancellation of her flight, and she has called to explain to me. So these are the people I look up to in politics and they have been very fantastic, they are the true definition of the people that society needs, because they would do something, out of their way to better the society, they are not politicians, they are not these regular politicians that will say something and mean another thing, you know, when they say things, they want to do it, and then they will go out of their way, they put Ekiti first, that’s just the bottom line. So that is my joy, and that has been helping me, so I just want to serve and I’m serving, am glad that I’m serving, like I told someone, I said that the ambition of Mr Governor is my ambition.
So, in a nutshell, you’re where you’ve always wanted to be?
Yes, serving the people is want I’ve been wanting to do, and I’m glad that I’m doing it.
