Mercy Abang: It’s my life in itself, because, hey, I view life differently from how others would want to accept or take what comes their way. It’s my sense of what I make of life, the little time I spend with family, friends, loved ones and even critics. Because every hour and even the hour I’m spending with you now for this interview cannot be reversed. So for me every hour is a testimony. I like to take advantage of every situation to be happy for what I have and am; what I don’t have and above all, what I hope to have and even more. But contentment is my guide to living, if you call that interest, that’s what it’s been.
WT: What is the most emotional part of doing what you do?
Abang: It’s the number of people who don’t know me that I can join in to do a thing or two for those who need them even more than I do. The kids and mothers somewhere who aren’t as privileged as I have been, where it takes you so much to succeed in an environment as unfriendly and unfavourable to the girl-child as ours.
WT: You are tweeting round the clock, do you get time to rest and have your alone moments?
Abang: Tweeting for me is a hobby and not what I do my whole life. I’ve had people ask me if I have a day job and if I go. Of course I do. But you know, when something is fun and not just what you have to do, you get to do it round the clock like you rightly pointed out.
WT: Working in politics, advocacy, media and all that you have, which has proved the most challenging for you?
Abang: Challenge is not forgetting who you are and what you stand for and also ensure that when you are a plumber you wear the hat of one and when you then become a mechanic the next day, you do same. For instance, as an election observer, you are expected to observe the process and not interfere. Sometimes you go to polling booths and see things that make you want to ask, then something inside you reminds you, today you are an observer and not a journo. So the point where I keep wearing the cap of what I am at a certain period depending on what I’m doing gets really challenging but it’s been a good experience.
WT: You have audiences for each of the things you do, how do you keep them all satisfied?
Abang: Audience, well when I was a television reporter, I get to meet as many people as I can at a time and also interact with my social media handle. The platform has been a closer way to reach millions of people all over the world even when you’re not in the various locations; unlike television where I was restricted to reaching a few. Though it was a major platform and a start to what I am today and where I am headed. Social media has been able to bridge that gap to reaching millions worldwide.
WT: Would you feel empty or that you have let down your audience if you don’t tweet in a day?
Abang: Naaaaaahhh!! I go days without tweeting but just so I can catch-up with happenings around the world, I try to look at my timeline to understand what is happening. My tweeter is like reading the national dailies and then news around the world. It serves as a source of information and reading.
WT: How are you able to balance these and the home front without any suffering?
Abang: I’d say I am lucky being married to a man who understands what I do and sure does appreciate me as a wife who sometimes moves from city to city. But it sometimes gets challenging when you have to satisfy the home front and still do what you do. In all, it has been neck breaking sometimes and rewarding as well.
WT: You have lived and interacted with people from different parts of Nigeria. What have you taken from these relationships?
Abang: It’s been the most interesting and enlightening. I’ve realised that as a people we disagree more often than not because we don’t even know ourselves. We lack the knowledge of where we are coming from and even an understanding of our different cultures and traditions. I think global and act local. I’ve been to the six-geo-political zones of this country and interacted with Nigerians from almost all ethnic groups. It’s affected how I see things. I try not to look at issues from Mercy from say the South or Mercy of a Christian background. Why am I Christian? Question I ask myself always; it’s because of my parents. Fortunately or unfortunately, I was born into that environment. I also tell myself if I were from say Sokoto or any other family in northern Nigeria that isn’t Christian, I’d be a Muslim. When I look at life from that perspective I accept everyone and see everyone first as a Nigerian even before he/she gets to tell me their said state of origin. To start with, my best friends and confidants are Muslims from northern Nigeria. So that tells why and how I’ve been greatly influenced by virtue of interacting with fellow countrymen and living with them.
WT: Is there any particular experience of your job that has made the most impact on you?
Abang: Monitoring elections. I mean the entire process of democracy and where we are today as a people and a nation. Having observed and studied elections and the practice from other countries within the sub-region. I think we have so much to do in terms of allowing and ensuring our people understand the process in a bid to influence the entire process of those who preside over the affairs of the Nigerian state. Often times, the political class would rather engage the electorate two months or even less to the elections. The people need to understand the power they wield and exercise such powers. They need to understand that the bags of rice and salt given as hand-outs weeks to the elections are a continuous attempt by the various political classes to impoverish the people. Even the understanding of your civic responsibility of casting your ballots and understanding what to do, are part of the experiences that has made most impact on me as a Nigerian.
WT: Who is Mercy Abang away from the social media and journalism?
Abang: She’s fun loving and very playful when there is nothing to do. I like to work hard and play harder. As one who is an extrovert, I take advantage of any opportunity to meet people and interact, and then above all, I love my family.
WT: When you decided to be a part of a project like you are with Enough is Enough (EiE), what spurred you?
Abang: EiE away from the initial point where I volunteered and moved on to work and then back to volunteering has been an organisation that I love the vision and believe is the only platform that can get our more than 70 young people who happen to be eligible voters to decide the future of our nation. The generation of my father failed us and they still do. I think with EiE it’s that platform you tell yourself, do something so you don’t fail your own children, in a nutshell I think that’s it.
WT: What are your feelings when you meet gridlocks?
Abang: I take a deep breath and think outside the box. If it’s that gridlock that looks like failure to one without a vision or one who can’t see what I see, I turn it into lessons learnt ahead of the next challenge. You see, life is full of gridlocks; it’s what you make of it that makes you who you are and what you eventually turn out to become.
WT: Chronicling your life, is there any aspect you would love to do differently?
Abang: I have no regrets really but I think all I want to do, as long as I’m alive I will get them done, nothing is late in life as long as you know where you are headed.
WT: Have you had any embarrassing moments in the course of your work?
Abang: I think it was while I practised as a field reporter on television; I went for an assignment and I needed the speech. I went to ask the media officer and he went: ‘Journalist I know what you want, it is the brown envelope, wait here.’ I’ve never felt so humiliated in my life. It’s one of the experiences that informed my career decision about working as a field traditional media journalist with a local media house. No value for news reporters because of the ‘brown envelope’ culture. Have you seen how Nigerian government officials address international journalists? They know for a fact that they are not in for hand-outs. It’s a challenging environment for a journalist vis-à-vis media owners who will rather run media organisations and not pay staff salaries but expect daily reportage.
