From being scolded by her parents for talking too much, to becoming an award winning Journalist cum TV Host. Lamide Akintobi has worked on various broadcasting platforms from Channels Television to Television Continental, and currently a co-creator and producer of programmes on Mo Abudu’s Ebonylife TV.

She is a prime case study of an African who pursued her talking passion and built a career around it.

Honour-code recognition platform, WeldoneAfrica, after speaking to the Editor-In-Chief of Pulse Nigeria, Osagie Alonge, in the past week, got to chat with Lamide on the 2nd edition of its WAVI series about the business of talk in Africa. She spoke some truth.

Lamide who joined WeldoneAfrica on the chat from Washington, USA started off by registering her pleasures and delights on how she has successfully made herself a living from her talking hobby which initially brought her rebukes as an infant.

When WeldoneAfrica asked her about her beliefs about African parents forcing their wards to pursue careers against their interests and at the detriment of their passion, she was quick to disapprove it and found a passive way to encourage anybody in that situation to incorporate it nevertheless, and branch eventually.

The rapid growth of talk shows in the media sector was the next point of analysis and Lamide Akintobi, who co-hosts ‘The Spot’ on Ebonylife TV channel 165 on DSTV gave her candid view on this.

“They’ve existed since I was young. We like to discuss things in Nigeria. More platforms now equates more shows”, she responded.

She went further to state that global media trends at some point leaned towards us wanting to watch people talk about things that affect us. This we agree with.

When we asked if she chose Journalism for the passion or the pay, she grinned by responding with her opinion of no one choosing Journalism because of the pay. This led us to our perplexed question of the remuneration of an average Journalist in Africa. Lamide said she is not wallowing in poverty, but it’s definitely not a get-rich-quick profession. She also added information about their dependency on employers on a steady pay of salaries or other ways of income.

Lamide who is currently focusing on producing documentaries, like she did with tourism and genocide in Rwanda and also “With Mikel”, a docu-reality show on Chelsea footballer, John Mikel Obi, took a quick swipe at people who often call anyone that throws words on a page or says something seemingly clever on Television a journalist. “Talk show hosts and commentators are not Journalist”, Lamide affirmed.

She also went further to encourage talk show hosts to be good at what they do and also add value to their viewers. “Do stuffs for free sometimes, but make sure it adds value to you”, Lamide advised.

Subsequent series of the WeldoneAfrica Virtual Interview promises to be motivating and interesting in coming weeks.

Till then, stay relentless.