Apparently, not many people would have the privilege of being a pioneer broadcaster in a foreign country and Nigeria like Alhaji Abdulsalam Ayinla Ayilara who recently clocked 86. The octogenarian in this interview with Sunday Trust, opens up on his life in Ghana, Nigeria and how he became a trained broadcaster. Excerpts: 

You have served in various capacities in Nigeria and Ghana, especially in the media world. How has it been?
God has been very wonderful to me. God has been very kind to me. It is not my making. It is the will of Allah. He granted me good health and as you can see long life and to some extent with prosperity. So, I thank God.
 
Sir, you are very known in the media, Radio and Television especially, KWTV and Radio Kwara, how will you describe the media during your time and now?
I think there has been a remarkable improvement compared to when we were there. If you go to NTA Ilorin, I happened to be one of the pioneers of the Nigerian Television (NTV), Ilorin before it metamorphosed into NTA, Ilorin, there has been a remarkable improvement. For two consecutive times, I was the chairman of Board of Directors of Radio Kwara and at the end I became the Chief Executive of both Radio and Television. Our current broadcasters are doing fine. I was impressed when I went to Radio Kwara. I wish they would continue to improve and then go digital.
 
What prospect do you envisage for broadcast digitization?
It would only put us on the limelight. It will not draw us back. If we don’t go digital by 2015, what happened, we are no longer in broadcasting. So, I would advise the government to do everything within their power to get it digital. The implication is that we must not be backwards. We must join the digital approach and forget about it coming in short days. I told them on Radio that at any given time, there is money for any government to disburse depending on priority. If the media is on the priority of any state government and particularly our state governments, it would be fruitful. It is feasible and realizable if it is in the priority of the government.
 
What is your take on the proliferation of the media, especially broadcast media?
Various privately owned channels are now coming and they have given a push to the government media. You can imagine today in Kwara State, we have so many radio stations. We are praying that we have so many other private television stations. What AIT and Channels did to NTA is what pushed NTA to where it is today. Had it not been AIT, NTA where I worked would have remained where it was. But now that they have challenged us, competition set in and the government would not want to be defeated. But there is a lot of improvement in NTA. Though he who pays the piper dictates the tune. They can’t do like the private stations, but at least the proliferation of media is a thing of interest. Following the dos and don’ts of broadcasting, NTA cannot follow it strictly. Take this, don’t take that. But with independent television stations, you know how many times they have arrested Dokpesi (Raymond Dokpesi, AIT Chairman). He gave his staff free hand to do the right thing, to use what they learnt. When I was appointed Executive Chairman, Radio and Television, the then Governor of Kwara State who appointed me called me and said, ‘Alhaji Ayinla this is not what I want you to go and do’ and I said, ‘I am doing it by my training’. There was a problem there and he asked me to go and douse the problem. I would not play sides. I would do the right thing. I am a well trained broadcaster, well trained nationally and internationally and he said, ‘Ok, go and do what you think is right’ and I did what was right.      
 
How did you foray into broadcasting?
I entered into broadcasting in Ghana Broadcasting Corporation. I was then living in Ghana and I went into broadcasting as a pioneer member of the GBCTV, Ghana Broadcasting Corporation Television. That is how I went into broadcasting and we were trained locally in Ghana and we were taken to BBC in London, another television station in the same UK. I was at the UNESCO to train; some of us went to Canada because Kwame Nkruman wanted television to be established and purely Ghanaian.  So when I heard that television is about to be established in my home town Ilorin, I thought it expedient to come down and crown my joy having been a pioneer in a foreign country, let me come and be a pioneer also in my home town. That motivated me to come. I came for an interview and I succeeded and we were chosen.
 
For how long were you in Ghana before coming down to Nigeria?
I was in Ghana for so many years, over 40, 50 years before I came down in 1977 and straight to broadcasting, to television industry and I retired in 1985 as Controller, Production Services, NTA, Ilorin. And since then I have been with Radio Kwara as the chairman consecutively three times and then I became the Executive Chairman, Radio and Television, Kwara. So my life is more involved in broadcasting than any other thing else. I had been in forwarding and clearing before, I had worked in Paterson Zochonis (PZ) as a wholesale keeper, an abstract keeper, as storekeeper for over 30 years. I have worked in various places and then I established my own company. Since I retired I am not doing anything again, I am relying on my little resources.
 
How did you come about the councillorship in Ghana?
When I was in Ghana, then came a situation where they formed Muslim Association Party (MAP). I was then in the Eastern Region of Ghana, headquarters Koforidua, New Derby. So, I went to Ashanti region, Kumasi and I represented the Eastern region and a decision was taken to form a political party known as MAP. So when election came, they asked me to contest in Ward D of New Derby. Those were the days when independence had not been attained. Ghana attained independence in 1957 but I was elected councillor in 1955, two years before independence. Then I was there for five years as a councillor. A councillor then was more than a Senator here now, very influential, very powerful. So, I helped my people and that was the experience that brought me into politics in Kwara State during SDP (Social Democratic Party), and NRC (National Republican Convention) days. I joined the SDP and helped Governor Shaaba Lafiaji as the Director-General of his Campaign Directorate. Then we won the election and he appointed me Special Adviser, Legislative Matters. Later, he changed me to Special Adviser, Budget and Economic Planning until 1993 when we were kicked out by Abacha regime. Since then I washed my hands off politics.
I feel privileged because very rare people would have that opportunity to be in a foreign country and be known very well, enter into politics, enter into business, enter into administration, then come back to your fatherland because I am a real Kwara, Ilorin man. My father, my grandfather, my mother, my grandmother are all from Ilorin, Ile Ayilara, Oke Apomu. So, I am citizen of Nigeria and an indigene of Ilorin.
 
What is your view on the state of the Nigerian nation?
We must pray for God’s protection. Nigeria is running at a speed which its vehicle is not capable of running and the danger there now is like riding a car with a faulty break. If you don’t take time, you are going to fall into the pit. May God forbid. We have bright future in Nigeria but it will come from the youths. If you are not money-minded like our leaders, there is a limit to what money can do but they don’t know that. I don’t know where somebody who became a billionaire wants some money more, to do what?
When I was growing up, there was no billion in the dictionary. Now you hear billions. How much it costs to be a billionaire, you don’t know. Then you hear trillion, you are going to hear zillion, and so on and so forth. Which country is that? A country you are listing about 50 billionaires, for what? What is the pride? Money is our pride and it should not be. We must think of the future of the nation, no matter where you reach, you will leave; the world is a stage like Shakespeare said. You come and play your role and pass out.
 
What should then be the guiding principle?
It is honesty and integrity. We must guide ourselves and our children to be honest. But in Nigeria of today, people don’t want to tolerate a person of integrity. I said it that corruption, bribery is about giving and taking. The penalty must be on the person who gives and the person who receives. We are in a country where the giver confessed that, “I gave so, so, so and so bribe to so so and so person” and it is that person that is being arrested, leaving the person who confessed. The other person has not confirmed he received it. This is the country where we found ourselves.