There is no mountain too high to climb for journalist and media entrepreneur Kadaria Ahmed. The alumnus of Bayero University Kano (BUK) has lots of grit and achieves whatever she sets her sights on, no matter the obstacle(s).
From paid employment to becoming an employer of labour (through Reinvent Media and later Daria Media), her career trajectory is interesting. It affirms her indomitable spirit and adaptability. From producing programs at the BBC to handling corporate communications at Bi-Courtney, heading the newsroom at the rested NEXT Newspaper and producing the popular news and current affairs program, ‘Straight Talk with Kadaria’, she has certainly seen it all. She has also interviewed presidential candidates of the leading political parties since the 2011 election cycle and has to her admirers, attained fame but notoriety to her detractors.
But her motivation in all this, as she disclosed in a 2015 interview with Sunday Tribune, is positively impacting society. “I don’t want to sound sanctimonious, but the need to impact society because journalism is about holding people to account who don’t want to be held accountable. It’s about giving the public information to make decisions based on fact. It’s about helping to have better citizens and a better nation,” she had disclosed.
That quest to positively impact society led her to establish a radio station, Radio Now 95.3FM, Lagos, to provide factual, unbiased, Nigerian-focused news in 2020. Last year, the station celebrated its first anniversary.
But it was also that same year that her adaptability again surfaced. She became a filmmaker. Herself and award-winning producer, Femi Odugbemi, made a well-received documentary film on Nigeria’s fight against the COVID-19 pandemic titled ‘Unmasked: Leadership, Trust and The COVID-19 Pandemic in Nigeria’. Not only did she co-produce the documentary, but she also presented the documentary made by their respective companies, Daria Media Ltd and Zuri24Media.
The reason she later gave for the venture aligned with her ‘impacting society positively’ belief. “The COVID pandemic was always going to test Nigeria, given its soft underbelly of corruption, poor healthcare infrastructure, weak systems and an ever-increasing number of its population living below the poverty line. The strain on the social fabric of our society given our existing, some might even say existential problems, was easy to predict. But is there a silver lining? Does the COVID pandemic present an opportunity for Nigeria to reset?
“We travelled Nigeria to document this historical moment and tackle questions of leadership, governance and trust, which were brought to the fore by the pandemic; the answers to which Nigeria needs to find rather urgently,” she said.
This was a complete turnaround for a journalist who had in the earlier cited 2015 interview, confessed to her discomfort in front of a camera before presenting ‘Straight Talk with Kadaria’
She had said, “I had never really done TV before, and I’m still not very comfortable with it. Radio is what I’m comfortable with and, to some extent, newspapers because I spent time editing NEXT. I did the 2011 Presidential Debate, and people thought it was great; it was my first time in front of a camera, and I kept being told, let’s do it. Do a program, so eventually, I thought I’d give it a try.”
Ahmed has come full circle from producing and presenting the documentary to appearing in the popular web series, ‘The Men’s Club’ (TMC).
“Working with the amazing Kadaria Ahmed was one of my favourite things about making TMC series #tmcnewchapter. She is so witty (jeez, like we had laughs for days) and extremely professional. I thoroughly enjoyed our one-on-one sessions on how to execute the scenes, and she always contributed brilliantly. Lastly, the camera loves her,” series director Tola Odunsi posted on Instagram by way of announcement.
On Thursday, February 3, Ahmed posted a tweet disclosing she got paid for the unplanned acting gig. “It is official. I am an actor! I got paid; so surreal, but what a blessing. To earn money from something unexpected and unplanned and which you thoroughly enjoyed doing! Thank you, @tmcseries,@obiasika, you have earned Macallan. I hope you can all tell I am chuffed,” she wrote on top of a credit alert with the amount blotted.
From her home state of Zamafara to BUK, the United Kingdom, newsrooms, producing/presenting a documentary and finally acting, it has been quite the metamorphosis for the ‘mediaprenuer’.
Though the series is yet to start running and we can’t fully assess her performance at the moment, don’t be surprised to see her undergoing further acting training if she’s minded to. Such is the adaptability and indomitable spirit of the Zamfara Amazon.
