Kiki series is a weekly series. Click for Episode 03
I was a bit hungover in the morning. Last night had been epic. Following the movie premiere for the movie ‘Balance’, we headed for the after party. My date for the night was Toju, the star of the movie. It was all so thrilling, it always is. The voices were louder, smiles were brighter and laughs were happier. We all looked so good and we couldn’t possibly be stressed. And then there was Toju, he was so much fun.
But that was last night. Though so close, it had passed and I had to be in the moment. I had a cup of coffee and got on the internet. Of course I put up pictures from last night on Instagram. I love how the social media makes my life look ‘oh so perfect’. I researched topics to engage the audience. Our listeners are interested in topics like “what makes a woman successful; Brain or Looks” or “If your partner cheats with a friend, would you stay?” and things like that. So we would look for topics under Money, Success, Relationships, Family and there are thousands. Sometimes, we make up some bizarre stories and ask what they would do if they were in such positions. I used to enjoy it, when they called in and gave their opinions. The thought that there were actually people listening was nice. A lot of time I feared no one would call in. But they always did. There were some funny callers, with funny opinions or sometimes funny accents. There was always at least one caller who didn’t turn down the volume of his radio and there were the regular callers. Although we had never met them, it felt like we knew them. We always answered their calls with a familiar tone and called their names like we were friends. Sometimes I wonder if I’ve ever sat next to one of them in the cinema. Or maybe we walked past each other in the bank hall. Who knows?
I checked my email. I saw a mail with the subject “HER VOICE”. It was from “the Bright Foundation”
The message read:
“Dear Okikiola,
The Bright foundation is an organization which is committed towards giving hope to children wherever they may be lacking.
The ‘Her Voice’ initiative uses the voices of inspiring women to empower young girls. The women are to enlighten the children on their various fields, talk about how they have made it so far and give any necessary form of inspiration to them.
You are invited to be one of our speakers. We have attached a brochure to this mail to provide more information on the organization and the ‘Her voice’ Initiative. We await a favourable reply from you.
Thank you.”
On my way to work, my mind kept going back to that mail. The message got me feeling one kind of way, they even called me Okikiola. Maybe I was wrong but I sensed a little bit of mockery, referring to me as one of the “inspiring women”. I figured what they wanted from me was the publicity; to get make more people aware and interested in the project. I didn’t reply yet but I was interested anyway, people would see me do something important and that can buy me a little respect and increase my worth. Things like that matter in this industry. I also wanted to do it for me, I needed to do something meaningful, just to feel good about myself and finally, I needed the inspiration for myself, so a chance to meet these other ‘inspiring women’ would be nice.
Before my studio session, we were called for a meeting. The station manager announced budget cuts due to the ‘circumstances’ the station was ‘reducing expenses effective next month’.
It was bad news but it didn’t come as much of a surprise to anyone. As a matter of fact, it was expected since the layoffs. The company was going through financial crisis. The station owner was under investigation for some fraudulent activities and his account was frozen pending the investigation. He could no longer afford to invest as much in the company, at least temporarily.
I understood and I was prepared for the worst, at least I thought so. But I was wrong. I certainly was not prepared for Laura, the station manager to walk up to me and say “no sleeping your way out of this one this time?” I was particularly shocked because the only two words Laura ever said to me were ‘Good job’. I managed to reply her saying “I didn’t think you’d be interested…...ma”. I didn’t wait for her to react I just walked away. It was almost studio time anyway.
I had learnt to handle the stereotype. I didn’t even believe it was still a thing for women to ‘sleep their way to the top’ until I got into this industry. I know it happens and I know a lot of people think that it’s the only way women make it. I know some women are working hard to make sure that impression is corrected. So for it to have come from Laura, a lady like me, got me really upset. And for her to have said it at a time like this, with everything that had happened and just before I went into the studio, she definitely thought I was hopeless.
Inside the studio, my partner for today was Nnenna. The whole one hour, I was uninterested but my job is to get people to be interested so I had to sound interested and I did that to the best of my ability. On the plus side, Nnenna always sounded excited so she made up for whatever little substance I was lacking.
I picked up my bag and walked out of the studio like I would on any other day. The only difference was, I didn’t plan on coming back.
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