As the clamour for gender equality continues and with the media industry not left out, many have contributed towards achieving this through protests, social media, as well as conferences.

Others have resorted to endless complaints both offline and online while others utilise every opportunity to lament to whoever cares to listen.

But for Ms Ejiro Umukoro, a Broadcast and Communications Specialist resident in Delta State, Nigeria, the fight for gender equality in media begins with women who are ready to put in the work.

The story of Lady E as she is called is that of a warrior who thinks of herself not just as a journalist/broadcaster but as an advocate for women’s rights.

Lady E started her journalism career over two decades ago with Voice of Nigeria, a broadcast station in the Northeastern part of Nigeria where she was the only female staff.

At that time, Voice of Nigeria had no programs specifically focusing on women, youths and children so she took it upon herself to create one and that was where her advocacy for women’s rights and gender equality began.

“Going forward, I made sure that in every radio station I work with, human rights stories are never untold. We have programmes like women’s discuss, women’s focus, women’s thoughts and these programmes focus on widowhood and domestic violence which is an area I am known for producing very outstanding content because it’s an area I have investigated deeply.” Lady Ejiro told AWiM News.

Now the General Manager and Head of Station, Mega 89.1 FM, Warri, Nigeria, Lady E has worked with several other radio stations where she was involved in pioneering its broadcast installation and setting up of these stations from scratch.

As one who is very passionate about women’s development, one of the key things she has used radio to teach women is to have their voice because according to her, in most of the radio programmes in the stations she’s worked with, women don’t call in as often as men do, for this, she consciously developed programmes that will get women talking.

 “One of the ways to achieve this is by creating a special programme that feels like a safe space for them to open up without being judged. In doing that I make sure that I train the presenters whether male or female to be able to ask questions in a manner to make the woman feel free to contribute, to inspire the next woman to know that she too can pick up the phone, dial the number and speak as well. We’ve been doing that a lot,” she said.

Aside from inspiring more women to use their voices through radio programmes, she has also mentored and equipped female journalists to be able to pitch women-related ideas during editorial meetings.

To her, the strategy is for them not to try to make men feel they don’t matter because the media industry is male-dominated.

“Our approach should not be the extreme form of feminism but a balanced approach where we make them see the editorial benefit of approving that idea instead of playing the gender card expecting the ideas to be accepted simply because it is related to women. We also teach them to be assertive in telling more women stories than it is being told today.”

Lady E is not just a broadcaster, she’s the Chief Vision Officer and Founder of LightRay media, an outfit that caters to the needs of young, aspiring, mid-level and professional media practitioners in core fields of communication: Public Speaking, Creative Writing, Journalism, Radio Business, Broadcasting, Career Development, Mentoring and content development. Through this means she has trained and mentored over 3,000 youths including female journalists.

“I observed that when most media students come for their internships they don’t understand what the job is about because everything they were taught is so theoretical that they cannot see the difference between theory and the life practice of what they were taught. I felt that they need to get the experience so that when they go out they can pitch ideas and prove that they know the job. That was one of the motivating factors behind the establishment of LightRay,” she stated.

One of the beneficiaries of the training and mentorship program, Deborah Omoare is a student of Mass Communication who said the school curriculum contains more theory and fewer practicals coupled with the fact that the departmental radio and television studios are nothing to write home about.

But after the LightRay Media training which started in early 2021 and lasted for over 3 months, she was able to discover her field in the media industry and now works as a student journalist with the Premium Times Center for Journalism Innovation and Development (CJID).

“We still have an active WhatsApp platform where she constantly shares tips and guides on writing impactful stories using both visual and audio content to relay my messages that will bring the desired changes to my society and the world at large,” Deborah told AWiM News.

Ms Elo-Oghene Edremoda is another practising female journalist who participated in one of LightRay’s training called Mastermind Media Pro. According to her, It was organised to train journalists on ways to do their jobs better, as well as to boost the image of the profession in Nigeria.

“The training reawakened in me the desire to solve problems and improve lives, with my stories,” Elo said.

Despite getting lots of sneaky responses from people especially men who find it hard to believe that the face behind her achievements is that of a lady, Ejiro said her biggest drive is the fact that she wants to hand over to a generation of young powerful media personalities who can tell stories and hold the government accountable.

To Lady Ejiro, the mentality that men are better to do the job is false because when you train in a particular thing for centuries, it is natural that you become good at it. The same applies to date. “Men have been in the industry for years and since we just put women in that space in this latest period of existence, we should give them time to grow on the job and never be quick to condemn them that they’re the way they are.

This article is part of the African Women in Media (AWIM) Graduate Trainee Programme in collaboration with Fojo Media Institute.