Popular presenter on AIT has on Thursday morning, announced and explained why he is leaving broadcasting and DAAR communications. He also announced his plans for the future.
Austin Agbonsuremi
Austin Agbonsuremi, a top official of DAAR Communications Plc, owners of AIT and Raypower FM, is an influential and widely known voice and face across the country, has announced his departure from a platform for which he has worked for more than two decades.
Here's his statement in full below:
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"My Testimony, My Retirement, By Austin Okhiria Agbonsuremi
It was not a normal day for me yesterday as I did my last programs on Raypower Fm and AIT. It was my last day at work after 24 years of very active engagement in broadcast journalism.
My terminal leave begins today and by March 31 it will finally be over formally with Daar.
I fought tears back and put up a bold face to announce my exit from Daar Communications Plc while signing off my last anchoring of Political Platform. My day became soaked in intense emotions when staff, many of my listeners, fans and followers bombarded me with inquiries, messages of good will and in some cases outright disagreement with my retirement at this time.
One fan of mine came to the office to spend time with me on my last day at work and he came with a gift. OMG.
I couldn’t have imagined the impact that my daily engagements on radio and on TV could have been.
The Daar platforms of radio and TV gave me the opportunity to tell it boldly and from a detached point of view.
I was largely tolerated by the politicians and particularly those in authority at different levels whose image and egos were inadvertently bruised frequently in the course of our reports and analysis.
But more importantly was the Daar establishment and its owners who gave me the freedom to do hard analysis and trade in facts at the risk of the business. The joy I have is that after leading this team for over two decades I can sit back, tune in to radio and TV and listen to the programs anchored by those I have taught how to do it.
And I believe they will soon show the world that there are even better ways to do it.
I am still interested in advocacy and mass mobilization for popular participation. We have set up a group to do Political enlightenment, capacity building and voter education. It is a mass movement that will accommodate volunteers and membership.
This NGO will seize the space and fill the void to assist institutions like INEC, NOA, Political Parties, NASS and the general public to focus on more participation and capacity building in order to refine and improve the political systems. The PROGRESSIVE IMPACT ORGANIZATION FOR COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT (PRIMORG) has been registered in Nigeria and we are in the process of settling down to business. There is a lot to be done.
Please join me and let’s take the advocacy to the next level. Check out our details at primorg.com. Drop a message.
Tell someone about it and let’s join hands to build our nation.
I appreciate everyone and I can’t thank you enough for your support."