Ikenna Obioha

The morning radio show is where Emmanuel Essien aka Mannie towers as king. With experience spanning a decade and a half, the radio personality has grown from strength to strength, expanding his reach to little children through programmes that focus on them.

In the course of promoting kiddies’ shows, Mannie has bagged numerous ambassadorial deals that have helped him further his goals of empowering and inspiring young people. His efforts have also been recognised by international brand, Nickelodeon.

Catching up with the eloquent presenter at the MTN mPulse Planet where he served as host, Mannie takes us into his journey to becoming the face every youngster has come to love. In this chat, he discusses important topics like depression, social media, and life after marriage. He also reveals the reason behind ditching his signature dreadlock look. Enjoy it.

How do you feel about the mPulse event today? 

I feel great… I’ve been a part of it for a while, and it’s always exciting to have this kind of atmosphere where children are really, really engaged properly. The engagement is more important for the younger ones. So, they get the right combination of fun, learning and playing at the same time. That is what mPulse provides.

You aren’t new on this front that promotes children engagement, what can you say about mPulse being a brand that MTN Nigeria is pushing to that age demography?

First of all, let me say that it has been an honour to serve in this capacity to help children because when I was growing up, I didn’t have a very exciting childhood. I had a personal decision that if I had to be of help to children; I will do all that I can. I have been an ambassador for many years for different brands – from Nickelodeon to Access Bank, all to help children in different capacities. But for this particular event for MTN mPulse, I think it is a bit more intimate, it’s an ‘activation’. Being on the radio and talking to children is not exactly the same as activation. It is short (15 minutes), but we are here for five hours. And you can feel and see the children’s passion for things that they love. You can feel that everyone has one voice; no child is looking at you, where you come from or what school you attend, everyone is the same… I take that very personal because children have one voice, and if we don’t do something about that voice, in the generations to come, it would ‘scatter’. I key into that a lot, and I commend mPulse for putting it together. It is a forum where children can come together in one voice and express themselves.

I also think that mPulse is different from others because they are ‘techy’. They let children see the future. Sometimes you go to a children’s function, it stops at bouncy castles, and trampoline, maybe one or two arcade games, but here, they have a tech planet where people can actually come and learn the art of building, developing equipment, building drones and robots, and that is the future, really. Giving them that platform to be educated for the future, what else is better than that? Nothing…

Comparing the ‘80s and ‘90s generations to the current one, there seem to be a dearth of kiddies’ programmes on the local scene; what is your take on this trend? 

I’m telling you… this is the best generation. We came from a generation where there were no cell phones. We came from that generation where the only way we could interact was to play on the field, play football. Possibly have a campfire, go cycling, but this generation is a tech generation, they are Internet savvy, they are smart kids. This generation is a million times better than ours in every ramification. This generation is smarter than us.

In recent studies, we understand that teens take their own lives due to depression. And it has been evident that social media is one of the biggest factors that lead to depression. How do you balance that out? 

Unfortunately, and I say this because I have been broadcasting for 15 years, unfortunately, social media is an experiment; and be that as it may, it is an ongoing experiment. Meaning that the founders, beginning from the worldwide web down to the different platforms that people interact on social media, they are all experimental. So, when you are living an experiment, you cannot tell what the results would be. None of the platforms on social media predicted that this would be the outcome of the experiment. It is like watching the ‘Hunger Games’, no one knows how the experiment will end; you cannot predict that because it is a living experiment. Some say social media is alive; it is a living thing because people go there to solve their problems as against to reaching out to one another. People look to social media to solve their personal problems. I think the human factor is removed, what makes us human is taken away from us via social media. And the advice I will like to give to anybody or as regards to depression: I will like to say that one of the causes via social media is low self-esteem. People who go to social media have very low self-esteem. It is always advisable, before you get to that place, know who you are and what you stand for, what your values are, and learn to unplug. It is like driving a car; sometimes you park it.

But how does one achieve this balance when parents are on their devices too? 

They unplug, they don’t stay there like we do, they learn to pull the plug; we don’t pull the plug. Like I said, it is addictive. You must pull the plug. Like, in a day, I can stay online for one hour, and that’s my rule, outside that, my wife knows, I take it off because I need to feel what it is like to smell the air, walk on the grass, go to the ocean, I need to connect, so you unplug.  You need to know how to unplug, it is discipline, but we don’t, we stay there 24/7. And you can never be somebody else. What we see online, most of it is not real. Most of it is make-believe, it is superficial, and it is not factual. But we see it, and we believe it, and it drowns us. So, we want to be like what we see. How can you want to be like what you see when what you see is not real? We have to come out of that… it is not real; it is a facade. Depression comes to those people who think it is real. Somebody buys a car, you don’t know how. And you just think that you are doing nothing; let me tell you, that is the beginning of the problem because you believe in what is not real. If you put your mind and energy in something that is real, you will never be depressed.

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From the physical aspect of things where kids from other generation had contact and engaged in outdoor activities, does same apply to kids of today? Also, it is important to note that physical engagement helps one develop certain skills. 

To buttress your point on the activity: back then; it was safer. The communities were safer; your child can go out and wander for a few hours… you will find them. Your children do not have to be in a space with someone who is a molester, a child abuser or kidnapper. Now, you have all these elements playing against you in the environment. You also have other elements like food poisoning, accidents and carelessness. Those days, people were a bit together. Those days, if you get missing, a parent can find you and take you back to your house. Those days, you could knock on someone’s house and get drinking water. You can’t do that now. So, children are imprisoned now, and that is a hindering factor. That is where we are ahead. We had the privilege of going out and experiencing the wildlife without any dangers, the football field, and the playing courts. I went out, I did boys scout, we went out into the wilderness. I went to boarding school when I was eleven years old. I went to Federal Government College, and anybody who went to Federal Government College knows the capacity, what happens in that place. Today, what we have in federal schools, sadly, is a bunch of mixed… how do I put it, what you have in the school system today is a lot of low self-esteem, a lot of sycophancy, a lot of parental misguidance. People come in with ego; people come in with all sorts of things. The bullying has increased, mixed versions of sexism. Sometimes you go to school and you don’t even know if children are going to come out all right. Boarding schools that used to be a safe haven is now a dangerous place. Those days, we had it better in the outdoors; we had it better independently, but these days, with the rise of insecurity, the rise of uncertainty has caused parents to be protective of their wards.

As a parent, how do you strive for balance? 

I make self-conscious efforts to engage our children. This is a difficult thing of life, we do 9 to 5, we come home and we don’t have time for our children, it’s a problem. I make out time to play with my kids. People see me and say ‘oga, you get time, oh’. Yes, I have to play with the children so they know what it is like to be human. I take them out, play with them, ride bicycle with them. I do those things once in a while because they need it. You cannot be a parent with your money; you have to be there physically. And in today’s world, parents are just spending money… I do that (play) on my own to help my children because they are my investments.

On a lighter note, it’s apparent that your hair (dreadlocks) is no longer here. What happened? 

I carried the dreads for 10 years, I love it, and I still do. But I realise two things: one, the age of dreadlocks is no longer a thing. What you have is beyond dreads, what you have is the culture. You are part of the dreadlock culture; you have a better identity. I was doing it for fashion; I am not a Rasta man, that’s one. Two, being an ambassador for kids, I needed to be a proper role model, and sometimes, being a dreadlock carrier is not a very good message to children. They would want to be like you for the wrong reasons. So, I said if I was going to be the ambassador that I should be, then I should not have dreads. It was a conscious decision. I lost money on it; a lot of brands were affected because of it, but I had to do it. Some brands even came to me after I cut it and said the reason they never came to me was because I had dreads. Those are minors, but at the end of the day, I want to leave a positive impact for my children and to generations, to an extent. Dreadlock is not supposed to be because I have it, let it be your choice.

Do you miss having dreadlocks? 

A hundred percent, and if Christ hasn’t come, maybe I will still carry it.

Growing up in a time of zero social media, radio was the option. But that seems to be changing with the encroaching social media, how do you see the current radio cultures and ways in which radio stations are trying to standout? 

First of all, when we started out, there were only three radio stations in Lagos. So, it was a must to listen to us. Now, there are about 40, and the dials are so close to each other. You flip it to the left a bit; it’s something. To the right a bit, it’s something. It is hard now, the numbers are spread, and even listenership has spread. What we have is a powerful name, and we are working on that name – it is our integrity, it is our value. But, it is going to get worse because more are coming; they say there is space for everyone, but I don’t know how true that is. It is just life, you must evolve. Radio has moved on from just the orthodox, it is now… there is Internet radio for example. There are many ways to stream and enjoy music and content. Multifaceted platforms on social media where you can enjoy the same content, the same music, radio is shifting to that. We are in a place where we are giving you all-in-one, giving you the live radio via Internet, live radio via the dial, the live feeds, the visuals online, at the same time, so that you can listen, watch, and hear. That is where we are with radio; we are still surviving.

Being on radio, what was the worst reaction you got from people meeting you for the first time? 

I get a lot of that: ‘oh, you are Calabar, I didn’t know that’. I feel bad. ‘Oh, you are short, your voice is bigger than you’, I get that ‘my voice is bigger’ than me a lot. ‘Oh, you are not a Yoruba person’, I get that a lot. ‘Oh, your name is Mannie. It’s not Mannie, it’s Emmanuel, why don’t you answer Emmanuel?’ I got married on radio, and I lost a lot of female fans. It’s painful, things happen in this business. I got messages from people saying ‘I hate you, right now’.

What are your plans for the future? 

I intend to open my own radio school. It is called ‘Radio Lab 101’. I intend to start it up at the first phase of next year, where I would allow people to come and learn at intervals, because I have realised that people want to step into this field but they don’t have any platform. I will thoroughly educate them on everything, and not just presenting but also scripting and writing since I went through all of that. I’m a sound producer/sound engineer, so I want to put that together and let people come and learn for a token, and get a certificate certified by the NBC (Nigerian Broadcasting Commission).