Beyond the Handshake: Career Lessons from Media Leader
By Sidikat Yusuf
Some meetings end with a handshake and photographs. Others continue to speak to you long after the doors have closed.
My visit to the Voice of Nigeria (VON) headquarters in Abuja as part of the PRNigeria Young Communication Fellowship belonged firmly to the latter.
Meeting the Director-General of VON, Malam Jibrin Baba Ndace, was more than an opportunity to tour one of Nigeria’s foremost broadcasting institutions. For me, it became a career conversation and a lesson in leadership—a reminder that professional success is built not only on talent and qualifications, but also on character, relationships, resilience and the humility to learn from those who have travelled the road before us.
What stayed with me most was not the grandeur of an office or the status attached to his position. It was the simplicity and practicality of his message.
He spoke with the confidence of someone who has travelled through different stages of a demanding career and understands that meaningful success rarely happens overnight. His advice was straightforward: remain resilient, respect people, take responsibility for your work, embrace collaboration and never stop learning.
For a young communicator trying to find her place in a competitive profession, those words landed differently.
Journalism, public relations and strategic communication demand continuous learning and adaptability. The industry is changing rapidly. Technology is disrupting traditional practices, audiences are becoming more fragmented, and artificial intelligence is transforming how information is produced and consumed.
In such an environment, technical competence is important, but resilience may be just as essential.
There will be rejected applications, difficult assignments, professional disappointments and moments when progress appears painfully slow. The temptation to doubt oneself can become strong.
Hearing a national media leader emphasise resilience therefore reinforced something I am beginning to understand: a career is not defined only by how quickly one rises, but also by the ability to continue learning and improving when the journey becomes difficult.
Ndace’s emphasis on mentorship and credible relationships was equally significant.
No young professional should imagine that career growth happens entirely in isolation. Genuine relationships built on trust, competence and mutual respect can become bridges to knowledge, opportunities and professional development.
Mentorship, however, is not merely about knowing important people. A mentor can open a door, offer advice or make a recommendation, but the individual must still possess the competence and character to justify that confidence.
This became clearer when the VON Director-General reflected on his own professional journey.
He spoke enthusiastically about moving between journalism and public relations and explained that several opportunities in his career came through recommendations. Rather than constantly chasing positions, he focused on doing his work diligently, remaining dependable and building a reputation that made others comfortable recommending him.
That lesson stayed with me.
Reputation can become professional currency.
When people know the quality of your work, trust your character and can confidently mention your name when an opportunity arises, your reputation begins to speak even when you are absent from the room.
This is particularly important in communication, where credibility is central to almost everything we do. A communicator whose words cannot be trusted will eventually struggle, regardless of technical brilliance.
Another memorable part of our interaction was Ndace’s challenge to self-imposed limitations.
He discussed the expression “TINA”—”There Is No Alternative”—as a mindset that can sometimes narrow possibilities. His point, as I understood it, was that young people should resist convincing themselves that there is only one possible route to success.
Careers rarely move in perfectly straight lines.
Sometimes an opportunity appears in a field we never considered. Sometimes a temporary assignment develops skills that later become central to our professional identity. Sometimes the person we meet casually becomes a mentor, collaborator or bridge to an opportunity years later.
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Remaining open to possibilities does not mean moving without direction. It means refusing to become imprisoned by a single idea of what success must look like.
But beyond everything he said, there was another lesson he demonstrated without needing to explain it: simplicity.
For someone occupying such a prominent position in Nigeria’s media landscape, Ndace’s warm reception and accommodating disposition were striking. He did not create an atmosphere that made young people feel insignificant.
That simplicity complemented his message.
Leadership does not have to intimidate people to command respect. Sometimes, the most confident leaders are those secure enough in their positions to make others feel comfortable in their presence.
The environment at VON also offered another lesson: inclusion.
As Nigeria’s international broadcaster, VON communicates across languages, cultures and audiences. That diversity reflects something fundamental about Nigeria itself.
Ndace emphasised the importance of peaceful coexistence and the need to resist discrimination and divisive tendencies. For communication professionals, this carries particular significance because communication does not merely describe society; it can influence how society understands itself.
A headline can inflame division. A broadcast can reinforce stereotypes. A careless social media post can deepen existing tensions.
But communication can also build bridges.
Young communicators therefore have a responsibility to tell credible stories, promote understanding and resist narratives that exploit differences simply for attention or engagement.
In that sense, we are all participants in the reputation management of our country.
This does not mean ignoring Nigeria’s problems or replacing journalism with propaganda. Responsible patriotism should leave room for criticism, accountability and uncomfortable truths. But criticism can be constructive, and national problems can be reported without deliberately portraying an entire country as hopeless.
One statement from Ndace captured perhaps the biggest lesson of the visit: “There is no one-man trophy; life is a journey and collaboration is the company.”
That line stayed with me because it challenges the popular mythology of the self-made professional.
Behind most achievements are people.
There are teachers who introduced ideas, mentors who provided guidance, colleagues who shared opportunities, supervisors who offered recommendations, friends who gave encouragement and institutions that provided platforms.
Success may ultimately carry one person’s name, but the journey rarely belongs to that person alone.
The visit became even more meaningful when Ndace recalled attending a one-week masterclass in 2012, an experience he described as important to his career clarity. He mentioned Professor Sule Yau Sule as part of that experience—a name immediately familiar to me because Professor Sule later became one of my lecturers at Bayero University, Kano.
That connection was both a proud moment and an awakening.
It made me think differently about the PRNigeria Young Communication Fellowship I am currently undertaking.
A fellowship may last only days or weeks, but its influence can last decades.
Perhaps a facilitator’s sentence will shape a career decision years from now. Perhaps a fellow participant will become a future collaborator. Perhaps an institutional visit will introduce an area of communication someone eventually chooses to specialise in.
The true value of professional development is not always visible when the certificate is presented. Sometimes, its value becomes clear much later.
I arrived at VON expecting to encounter a broadcasting institution.
I left with something more personal: renewed confidence in my career choice, a deeper appreciation of mentorship and collaboration, and a reminder to remain resilient in pursuit of meaningful goals.
When a young communicator meets an accomplished media leader, the greatest gift may not be access to an impressive office, a photograph or even a handshake.
Sometimes, the greatest gift is clarity.
My encounter with Malam Jibrin Baba Ndace offered me that clarity. His journey reminded me that potential must be nurtured, relationships must be valued, competence must be supported by character, and opportunities must be approached with an open mind.
The visit was brief, but the lesson is likely to remain with me for a long time.
I went to VON to see an institution.
I left seeing possibilities.
Sidikat Yusuf is a PRNigeria Fellow and can be reached at [email protected].
