Didi Akinyelure

‘It’s So Important For Us To Tell Our Own Stories. No One Can Tell Your Story Better Than You’

Didi Akinyelure is an award winning Nigerian journalist. She is a graduate of Chemical Engineering from the University of Nottingham. Didi was Didi Akinyelure is an awardwinning Nigerian journalist. She is a graduate of Chemical Engineering from the University of Nottingham. Didi was the face of CNBC Africa’s live morning show Open Exchange, West Africa. Before her voyage into journalism, she worked at Barclays Wealth in London. Didi Akinyelure works as a journalist in Lagos for the BBC. She has presented, produced and edited television, radio and digital content for the BBC on several platforms and programmes: BBC News at 10, BBC World News, BBC Focus on Africa, BBC’S Business Daily, BBC’S Newsday, BBC Radio 4 to mention just a few. As moderator, she has presented the BBC Africa Debate on Fake News in Malawi and the BBC Women in Digital Journalism panel at Social Media Week in Lagos. Also, she chaired the Africa Construction Week in Munich, Germany, and moderated the Ministerial panel at the Africa Oil Week in Cape Town. She also hosted the University of Nottingham’s Africa Summit. Recently, in September 2017, Didi was invited by the United Nations to interview delegates at the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification in Ordos, China.

Do tell readers a bit about your background?

I am Didi Akinyelure and I am a journalist. I am the 2016 winner of the BBC World News Komla Dumor Award. I have worked as a journalist for over five years. At the moment, I am working for the BBC, based in Lagos. Before that, I worked for CNBC Africa for four years, specifically business and finance. That is financial journalism. Before then, I used to be a banker and that was a different life.

What made you switch careers?

It was in 2008-2009 during the credit crunch( we all know what happened here

innigeria.) I used to work for an investment bank (an investment bank arm of a retail bank) here in Lagos and the company packed up. We were very much involved in margin loans, giving out margin loans to customers, who used their loans to buy stocks. And we all know what happened to the market. And so, things changed. Once we closed up, I decided it was an opportunity for me to do something different with my life. And I never took a step towards journalism, it did not cross my mind at all. But then, what I was passionate about was real estate investments( just as a persons incei twas some

th in gi loved doing sinceiw as young .) So, I decided to do a programme on the real estate sector. I decided to pitch that to Channels TV. It was then that I received an offer from CNBC Africa.

As the BBC World News Komla Dumor Award winner 2016, how was the experience and how has the experience impacted your career?

It was a fantastic three months that I spent. I spent it going from team to team. Working with different teams across the BBC. From BBC News at 10 team, the Africa team, business team, online team, digital team. And also, there was a very good training at the start as well. Now, for someone who has never really trained as a journalist( sinceicamef rom the banking

sector), it was really key for me. So, I really enjoyed the experience. I had worked in the United Kingdom for a couple of years, so that was not new being in the United Kingdom. But then, being a journalist in the United Kingdom was completely new and interesting. And also, the way I tell stories has changed.

In what ways?

I think I am a little more balanced in my journalism. Maybe because I was coming from a business background and business news is very different from traditional news. And it is a lot more commercial and positive. Now, I see the stories better. Understand the stories better and it has just made me a better journalist. I have done a lot of interesting things. It has been a year since I won the award and I have done many things ( travellinground the world, moderated events, in different parts of the world.i have worked for different parts of thebbc .)

A few months ago, I was in China doing a report for the BBC. So, things I would never have had the experience of doing, I have been able to do. And it has opened a lot of doors as well.

What role do you see the media playing on the African continent and how necessary is it for Africa to tell her own stories? I would begin with the second half of the question. It is so important for us to tell our own stories. We always talk about changing the narrative. First and foremost, when you think of Africa as a whole, we are kind of generalised as one. And yet, we are so different: West Africa is completely different from the East, North and South. A lot of us have not even been to West Africa or other parts of Africa. A lot don’t understand their cultures and traditions. And yet, we are all generalised and put in one little bracket. First of all, we are very different and so we have to tell the world we are very different. We have different things and we bring different things to the table.

Also, no one can tell your story better than you. No one can understand your country better than you on the issues in your country. It is one thing to have international media( for example, th ebb ct ends to cover africa very well. we are good at the coverage of africa .) But then, it is about perception. If you as an African is telling African stories; you can find stories that people have not told the world yet a lot easier than say a foreigner would do. To the first half of your question; I think we have done a good job. We do have local channels with good coverage and we have come a long way. And now, obviously, we are transitioning into a more digital space and you can see what everyone is doing on social media and it is impressive and we are telling our stories and the world is listening to us. At the same time, we need better training for our journalists, so that they understand what it means to tell a free and fair and balanced story. Also, they know how to survive and do journalism that is not biased in anyway. Literally, I usually say this, as media organisations, we are powerful. Not only that, we are the voice. We can change the perception of the entire population just by telling one story. Look at what is happening in Libya; that just came from one international media’s report and everyone is talking about it. We are powerful beings and we need to understand that we are powerful in the media on the African Continent and play our part in telling the story.

What is the title of the book you are currently reading?

Them oral case of fossil fuels. I was working on a panel discussion that I hosted and it was looking at the issues of the energy sector. The Moral case of fossil Fuels is a book by the American energy theorist Alex Epstein. And he is saying that everything we know about fossil fuel is wrong. That the media portrays it to look as if we are all going to extinct and things would go wrong from climate change. But he is saying that things are not as bad as they appear.