SUPER STARS ARE RAISED BY SUPER MOMS-SOLA FAJOBI

The name Sola Fajobi is synonymous with the likes of Tajudeen Adepetu, Wale Adenuga. He is the youngest of the trio but he is sure living up to his mettle. He is the big masquerade behind house hold TV contents like Next Movie Star, Excite on TV, Groove on TV, D8, SuperMom to mention a few. He is the Captain of the fast sailing D. I. M ship, Digital Interactive Media, producers of the above mentioned TV programs. In this interview with Bravo Weekly’s Paschal Oge Chikero, he opens up on the fantastic idea of the celebrity edition of SuperMom and life generally. Enjoy the excerpts.

What is the idea behind SuperMon’s Celebrity edition?

SuperMom is basically about the celebration of mothers, so far we have worked with ordinary Nigerians whose mothers contributed immensely to their success in life.  We have followed the same pattern so far so we thought we need to refresh the show, we need to make it bigger, we need to engage the audience more. We had a few ideas to play with; we narrowed down to the celebrity edition. There are a lot of our celebrities out there; people need to feel them as normal human beings. They sleep, they eat, and they drink just like we do. They go to toilet, some even snore. Somebody also gave birth to them. For us we it was an opportunity to share their story, their growing up and becoming who they have become, that’s what we are doing with the celebrity edition.

The show will be coming up very soon, who are the celebrities Nigerians are going to be watching out for

A whole lot of them. We selected them based on different things and from different sectors of the entertainment industry. Some are musicians, some comedians, some are actors, and some are media personnel. We have Chiko Ejiro, Julius Agwu, Abas Akande Obesere, the Fuji maestro himself, who talked about how his mother shaped him even when he was drifting, his mother was able to use prayers and advice to bring him back. Yaw of Wazobia FM, Aunty Binta Ayo Mogaji, Skales, Flavour, Kenny Saint Brown of the Ogungbes, Seyi Law the comedian. We have about 20 celebrities that we will be celebrating their moms.

From the concept of SuperMom, one wonders if the society doesn’t appreciate the contribution of the father in the up bringing a child. What do you make of this?

The fathers have a lot of responsibilities. In fact most times the fathers contribute more but you must know that a child has a bond with the mother right from the womb to breast feeding etc. while the father is busy running around raising money for the family, the mother is busy shaping the life of the child. The mother is the Chief Executive Officer of the home while the man is the Chairman. You also hear stories of fathers not being responsible enough and in such cases, the mother takes up responsibilities because she doesn’t have excuse, she can’t tell the children stories so she suffers to see them through life. That is why it seems that people world over celebrate mothers more than fathers. That doesn’t mean fathers are not celebrated, exceptional fathers deserve to be celebrated. A lot of people have been asking me when are you going to do super dad but I am hoping that something strategic will come up.

How can the concept of SuperMom impact in the lives of an average Nigerian watching it?

If you look at the previous SuperMom editions, the key lessons within the emotions, people crying. Last year one of the things we specialized on was that, extraordinary mothers are those who contributed to the success of their children not to the existence of their children. The lesson is that, if I make sure my children have the best, they will turn out the best and will in turn celebrate me, take good care of me. If you take care of your children and all of them are comfortable, trust me there is no how they will leave you to suffer. So SuperMom is a way of telling young ladies and even mothers to not shy away from their responsibilities, to do more for their children so that they will get more.

That means the Celebrity edition is a progression of the theme of SuperMom, if you take care of you children, they will become celebrities and you will be celebrated

If you look at the creative direction, it says I am a super star because of my super mom, it simply means that I wouldn’t have become a super star without my super mom.

You have other TV contents on TV like Next Movie Star, Excite on TV, Groove on TV, D8 etc. As an entrepreneur in Nigeria how do you get by?

Tough, very tough, perseverance is the language. Determination, Creativity is also the language. Next Movie Star is the longest independently produced reality show still running. If you look at our programmes, you will agree me with that we have been consistent, we have been persevering a lot of stuffs. Sometimes you say God, how I wish I am in another industry.

Some months back top independent producers had a conference to plan on how to make TV stations reduce air time charges, is that struggle still on

The struggle is still on. The biggest challenge we have as independent producers is broadcast. Broadcast takes between 60% to 70% of all the revenues we generate, which leaves us with 30 to 40% for tax, salaries, production, marketing, operations etc. in this industry, we are barely surviving, people see us doing big projects and they think we are making a whole lot of money but they don’t know we are just surviving. The struggle will continue to be on until something is done to stem this tide. If you make a million naira and you pay 600,000 to for air time, how do you pay salary, how do you produce and do other things you want to do. So we are trying to get coordinated. We must allow the government do its part by providing the necessary infrastructures. The way it is now the focus is not on content any more but on when your programme is running. This is because producers are using their money to buy air time than in producing creative contents. But they forget that if you run a good content by midnight, people will watch.

Abroad Broadcast stations buy TV contents here the reverse is the case. Do you think we can get to that point where TV stations will start buying contents?

It is true TV stations pay for contents abroad but Nigeria is a different environment. The industry is clustered. Just like Nollywood, 20 years ago the industry was young and few people who had passion for the industry were the ones in it but now everybody is there and this is the reason the industry is not fantastic any more except for a few young Film makers who have taken their works to the cinemas. That same thing is happening to TV.  Everybody wants to produce. If the TV stations are exposed to just 100 top notch TV contents that are for sale, they will be able to pay but if they are exposed to 5000 and producers are begging them for air time, they will just relax and say let he who can pay for the air time come and get it. So I don’t know if it will ever change. It’s a period of unemployment challenges so people are going to do a lot of things not because of passion but for survival. I just hope that things get better, I hope that content becomes king because right now content is not king yet.

In the industry, who do you look up to, who inspires you

Ah! A few of them, Tajudeen Adepeju is someone who I have been very close to, he is my mentor, he is my friend, and he is my brother. I also look up to Wale Adenuga who consistently for the past 30 years has been in the content business either for print or electronics. And also a few other younger ones but I look up to these two and share a fantastic relationship with Taju Adepetu.

Let’s talk about your growing up. What was the thing your parents enshrined in you that has made you who you are today?

Well in my case, our parents got divorced when I was very young. We all stayed with our dad so he was the major influence in our lives. He did a good job in us because he keeps reminding us that the name is more important than any other thing. I have never been for the money in anything I do. I have been fulfillment driven.

Was there anything in your background that inspired the TV content maestro that you are today

I was a creative person while growing up. Those days we used say, there are three kinds of people in the world, those who make things happen, those who see things happen and the ones that can never believe anything is happening.  So at that point I told myself that I am going to be among the people who make things happen.  Secondly, I grew up in a poor environment so I told myself it’s me against the world. I believe I will succeed no matter what it takes and I have excelled in everything I have done. If you take me out of the content business and put me in another environment, as long as I can get a level of training, I will succeed but I love the content business.

It’s been nice talking to you

Same here