Tokunbo Modupe sits atop one of the sought-after Public Relations agencies in Nigeria, TPT International. He spoke with BAYO ADEOYE on his challenges in the industry and much more

Was becoming a top shot in the PR sector part of your childhood dream?

Well, it is difficult to say. How many people in our environment have realised their childhood dreams? There are very few. Do we really have childhood dreams? We only fantasise. That’s why kids love cartoons. This wasn’t one of my numerous fantasies. If we have to look at it from that perspective, I wanted to be a musician. I love music. As a kid, I loved the late Orlando Owoh. You know I am from Ondo State and precisely from Owo town and he was the biggest musician from that town.

So, what stopped your dream of becoming a musician?

Nothing, I just realised I couldn’t be a musician and maturity came in and I then realised I could do better things. Again, like many struggling young Nigerians, you just look for a job, no particular job and along the line, you discover yourself, fall in love with what you are doing and rediscover yourself. My own story was not different.

When you started this PR company, it wasn’t as big as it is now. Didn’t you nurse any fear of failure?

I didn’t nurse any fear, I came into it by accident. I needed a job and someone just asked me to come and manage this business. Along the line, I developed a strong interest for it. So it wasn’t like there was a big man in the industry that I was trying to emulate.

I started my own practice and made up my mind that I would take the practice to another level. When I started my own firm, I looked up to foreign companies that were doing well globally. I realised that you could practise PR and still be very successful.

There is future in the business. I started to copy their style. Their own style is not as conservative as we used to practise here in Nigeria. PR abroad is very prestigious and very aspirational. So, I got addicted and it boosted my interest in it. Since then, we have been able to make our impact in the business.

At what point in your career did you hit your mega fortune? Mega Fortune?

I don’t know your definition of mega or fortune but I have been self-sustaining as a PR practitioner since 1994. However, my visibility professionally became more pronounced industrywise from 1998 when our clientele roaster began to grow with corresponding financial rewards.

Taking PR from the conservative level that it was to this point, what were the challenges you went through?

I had no role model locally to look up to. There were few successful people practising the business then. They were okay, but they were few and very conservative about it. Compared to other businesses like law, banking, if you talk about banking, you see bank MDs living large.

It was easy for you to be attracted to that kind of job, but in PR, it wasn’t like that; you wouldn’t see them.

There was no attraction. It was a challenge for you to raise the bar because there were few companies competing then; to get a client to appreciate and to convince to pay more. It was a challenge to convince even a colleague that we could raise the bar and ask for more and that PR didn’t need to be that conservative. It was a challenge to get people to buy into your vision.

Recently, it was alleged that the Federal Government was trying to recruit an international PR firm to help manage its image. What’s your view on this?

There is nothing wrong in government engaging the services of professional public relations firms to help it project its image. However, I believe it is Nigerian-based PR firms that will be in a better position to understand Nigerian issues and the national image. For you to project the Nigerian image abroad, you need to mitigate the bad news at home and creatively present the positive achievements of Nigeria as a national brand.

There must be positive actions from government for information leveraging and negative news substitution. A local firm to be engaged must have a record of accomplishment of managing complex briefs and international partners with requisite clout to handle the foreign perspective of the campaign. This is the only way we can encourage the practice of Public Relations in Nigeria and achieve the overall objective of a sustainable national image management.

You are now a successful man. What does success mean to you?

Success means financial independence. Success means your ability to see an idea through and see it work. Success means seeing the industry change and more people come into the business. Then there was no much attraction in the business as they practised for some time and left for other businesses, but now it is not like that.

The industry was very small; it is still small. It is growing in terms of the attraction of young practitioners to the profession. More people want to come into the profession. Indeed, we have more agencies now and for those of us that have been there for a longer period, we have seen a sector of a few players growing to become an industry.

Indeed, there are a good number of people who have come in through TPT, for instance, and have also gone out to set up their own organisations. So we have more people that are attracted to the industry now perhaps due to our success stories. In terms of the size of the industry, the number of people involved in it is growing.

You have a PR company and events management company. Are you thinking of going into advertising in the nearest future?

Not at all, not at all. And let me tell you, event management is part of PR. It is part of the tools in PR. Event was a department in TPT. At some point, we discovered that we were getting demands from clients in terms of event support. We also needed to invest more in that aspect of operations and stand alone. So, we set up and invested heavily in equipment and human resources.

What edge does your company have over others in the industry?

I am sure you have known us in the past; we have raised the bar in the industry. TPT is known for its creativity approach. We have brought innovations into the industry. Many clients we work for know us for our innovations and we are many steps ahead of our competitors.

Tokunbo Modupe is known as a man of style. What does style mean to you?

Style is part of life, your style is a reflection of who you are, where you live, your environment and the person you are. As a perfection management specialist, you expect that your personality should be inspiring; be a role model in many ways. Besides what I deliver intellectually, my self- presentation is important. For me, style has become a way of life. I am not enslaved to fashion; I am a dictator when it comes to what I wear. I don’t think about the approval of peers, people out there. I don’t think of what you say when you see me wearing what I love to wear. I wake up in the morning, I wear whatever I feel like wearing and off I go.

What is your best possession it terms of fashion?

Uh! It is difficult to say. I am a collector of style items. I have quite a lot of them. It’s very difficult for me to say this is most important or most expensive. When you are style conscious, you continue to acquire and acquire.

Do you shop in Nigeria or abroad?

I shop anywhere I see what I like, anywhere I see something unique, and anywhere I see what is style-important. I have shopped in one of the best malls in the world. But I don’t have a favourite location to collect my items.

As a very busy man, how do you have time for your children?

I create time for them. Whenever they are in school, I don’t dist u r b t h e m b u t whenever they are on holiday, we see and we travel together. Summer holiday is also a special time for my family because we have enough time to spend together. Not only that, we also spend quality time together especially at Christmas time.

Talk- ing about your children, would you influence their choice of career?

You can only inspire. You don’t need to influence them. If anyone of them chooses to practise PR, I will give him or her all the support and encouragement but there is not an expectation that once you finish school you are coming into PR. I tell them that you can be what you want to be. I encourage them that the alternative to success is failure and poverty and that is a no-go area. So, for that reason, they have to work very hard. Academic success is great, but you have to balance it with an entrepreneurial spirit.

Where do you want to see TPT in the next five years?

I would love it to be the most sought after PR company, not only in Nigeria but all over the continent with our earnings going up like 1000 per cent.

You have friends and clients in government circles. Are you also thinking about going into politics in the nearest future?

Are you also not a politician? Everybody is into politics, everybody is discussing politics. We are all politicians whether you like it or not. The worst thing you can do to yourself is not participating in the political process, not necessarily by presenting yourself for elective position. But you need to be involved in the process: canvasing and encouraging other people, to that extent, I am involved in politics. But as I am sitting here, I don’t have a plan to contest for any elective position.

But in the nearest future…

(Cuts) Don’t put words in my mouth. It is only God that sees the future. But as I speak, I have no plan to seek for a political position.