Interview with Editor In Chief, FupreWrites Magazine- Ikotun Olumide

Interview with Editor In Chief, FupreWrites Magazine- Ikotun Olumide

BY JINGISS UDOKA EGWUNYENGA

Q. Can we get to know you?

A. My name is Olumide, Olumide Ikotun. Some call me Ol ando and to different people, am different things. To some people, I am just a writer, while to some, am strictly a business man. While to some am even a rapper, to some, am just an ordinary Engineering student. But the main definition I would give myself is a Writer Entrepreneur.

Q. Generally, how has life been in Fupre since you got admitted.?

A. Life? Life is crazy na,everything has been cool anyway. Well ever since I got to Fupre, it has been more or less a blessing and at the same time an hindrance. Take for example, am this kind of person that all the stuffs I have been doing, they have been outside the school environment, and every time I resume back to school,especially every session or semester, it has been a sort of hindrance to me. Take for example, I have been working on a novel project(writing project) and I have been working at it for three years,its not as if I have been living with it, Its just that anytime I get back to school,i just get into conflicts with academic and anytime I try to focus on academic work,other stuffs come up and anytime I try to focus on this project,academic stuffs come up. But am trying to balance up, and make things work.

Q.In the Fupre Community, you are known As the Editor in Chief of the FupreWrites Magazine. Fupre has well been in Existence before you came in and there was nothing like the Fuprewrites Magazine, not until you came in, and lunched the first Edition. What motivated you to come up with it.?

A. Basically, there is always room for innovations and changes. First of all ,when you get anywhere,try to ask yourself “what can I add here?”, “what value can I input?”. If you want to get into any work organization when you graduate, you should ask yourself what you can add to them?”,because that is the only reason anyone would want to add you to their organization. Now if you look around the Fupre community,you would find something pasted from the protocol office or bla bla bla, it is the school management running news about the students. In other words, the students do not have a mouth piece of their own to talk about things that concern them. Thats how FupreWrites came about .Then at a point, the school initiated fare buses(you have to pay before entering any of the school buses). There was even a material that came out at that time in protest of that particular initiative and we just saw FupreWrites as an opportunity for students to speak for themselves and to put Fupre students in a platform where they can be able to express themselves . I did not do it alone anyway. Somebody like Ajibola was a very big support, both of us founded it together.

Q. Working on a project like that, would pull some amount of difficulties. What where some of the challenges you encountered while working on the project?

A. FupreWrites is not just a magazine, Actually FupreWrites is a magazine published by Fuprites. Now, while working on the magazine, the first edition was basically very hard because we funded it with our money and by the time we were working on the second edition,the Students Union Government sponsored it. The main challenges we encountered were financial challenges and challenges trying to market the magazine. For example the second edition was supposed to be released before matriculation, where we would find a ready market on the matriculation ceremony. But we couldn't make the dead line and by the time it came out after the matriculation,we couldn't market properly and it resulted in very poor sales.

It's all about learning from your mistakes and doing something better, Though we are improving anyway to come up with something bigger and better.

Q.You run an Organization with the name, O' Manage which from my guess, most Fupre Students are not aware of. Can you just Briefly tell us what this organization is all

about?

A. Let me put it this way, first, There is an Organization or rather a team called the Olu Concept. The Olu Concept is a think tack kind of team. We provide business concepts,and we develop it. That is to say it has businesses under it. But most of this businesses are under incubation,that is to say they are not yet out to the public. But the first one we are working on,and that has already been up and active,is the O'Manage .

O'Manage is basically social media management Company. What we do is online branding for companies, Celebrities and so on. Been that these companies and celebrities are always busy we help them handle their brands on social networks like facebook,twitter,instagram and so on. You know the internet has changed the way people reason, If you really want to be popular,then you must be online and thats what we help them do. Basically, we put your brands online and let other brands see what you have. That's basically what O'Manage does.

Q. Now leaving Companies and Celebrities and bringing it down to our level,which is the Fupre community, how can we benefit from this Olu Concept of yours. Because right here in this school,we have real talented young upcoming artist. Basically, how can they benefit from The Olu Concept?

A. Basically, the Olu Concepts is open to everybody as far as you can add value to what we already have. Lets take for example O'Manage ,if you have nice ideas about the online marketing, online campaign and social media management, you come up and tell me Olumide see I have got some ideas on this and if you are good enough,you join the team. And if there is some kind of deal we can work out, we do it and you make your money. So that is what its all about bro,it's just all about making money.

I want Fupre students to look outside fupre, I want them to look outside just getting a degree. I use to brag to my friends that before I leave Fupre, I would earn my first few millions, I use to tell them that i will not earn my first millions with a Fupre Certificate.

Just that we live in a society that defines you by how much certificate you carry, but how much value do you have? Take for example the Olu Concept presently works with Beads by Olu.

Beads by Olu is actually a bead making company , and its run by my own sister. She owns an online store with Jumia and Konga where she sells her stuffs online.

What am saying is, we should learn to see and think beyond our present level and improve value to achieve success.

Q. Does your organization have a website should in case anybody wants to know more about your organization ?

A. Presently due to the fact that O'Manage has not been officially launched,it would be officially launched when we have an up and running website and we are registered with the CAC(Co-operate Affairs Commission). Personally, I don't do small shits when I want to do something,i make sure I do it big. We could as well have opened a blog. But I want to open a full running site,so it would give people a valued impression about us. So O'manage.com is under construction as we speak now and we are looking at either late this month or early January, we would be releasing it.We would be featuring in the Social Media Week,coming up in Lagos in January and people would want to see what we are all about. So basically by then, we should be up and running.

Q. So are we expecting another edition of the FupreWrites Magazine next year?

A. I cannot tell now because I am not FupreWrites, am just a part of the team. The team would have to sit down and decide if we would be releasing another edition of the FupreWrites magazine.

But basically, there ought to be another edition but it depends if we would be releasing it in print or in digital copy. So we are still looking into it.

Q. As a Fuprite, what is your advice to all Fuprites during this Yuletide period?

A. Ahh mehn what can I say? Have fun na, but do it wisely and dont forget you gat your exams to write as soon as you get back.
 

 
 
You can contact Olumide:
Facebook: http://facebook.com/ikotun.olumide 
Follow him on twitter: @olumideWrites
Personal Url: http://about.me/ikotun.olumide 
Calls/Whatsapp: 07088870971