NTA and its phantom 30m viewers

I heaved a sigh of relief when he got faded out at the point he started ranting threats but to my utmost horror, he was brought back one story later to make his inflammatory point. Two previous Sundays, NTA had done what I thought was its worst. On March 15, Network News was delayed until […]

I heaved a sigh of relief when he got faded out at the point he started ranting threats but to my utmost horror, he was brought back one story later to make his inflammatory point. Two previous Sundays, NTA had done what I thought was its worst. On March 15, Network News was delayed until after 11 pm, with no notice and no apology, just because Mr President was having an interactive session with musicians and Nollywood artistes. The same thing happened on March 22, when the news was delayed again for ‘An Evening With Young Professionals’!
To the ardent but now miffed NTA viewers, the listed “offences” are a drop in NTA’s basin of infamy. From petroleum subsidy protests, chairman Governors’ Forum election, the Chibok Girls to the repeated airing of jingles and that hate documentary on opposition candidate, Africa’s largest television network has demonstrated its newly acquired capacity to overly please its transiting master and, in the process, deeply offend not only the millions of viewers its founding fathers so painstakingly cultivated over the years; but most especially, the highly dedicated professionals on the inside who view the whole matter as serial rape. So, who’s doing the raping, and why?
Unlike its counterparts all over the world, NTA is not quite considered as public broadcast organization but rather as “government-owned.” It is in this spirit that   top officials from the supervising Ministry and the Presidency dictate the tunes for the organization to dance to, often with reckless abandon. Cases of undue and unwarranted interference are legion and have over the years ebbed or flowed depending on who is on the saddle at NTA. In 1982, Chief Ayo Adebanjo, the NPN government-appointed Sole Administrator for NTA, made up his mind that the organization was not being pro-government enough, consequent upon which he succeeded in having the pioneer Director General Engineer Vincent Maduka posted out and was replaced by Dr Walter Ofonagoro, the star discussant on NTA election coverage programme, Verdict ’79. The television career of versatile broadcaster Patrick Ityohegh would not have peaked to the position of NTA’s Director General had the then Director General Mohammed Ibrahim sheepishly obeyed an order from the top for him to be summarily sacked. Of recent, NTA has had, among many other misfortunes, its supervising minister rushing into the premises to rain abuses on the Director General for failing to fully delete a news story it earlier reported correctly. On yet another occasion, it also had security agents sit in to wait as the Director General rushed to the newsroom to carry out orders from above.
Now that change has come and its rapists have withdrawn, NTA is sneaking back into our living rooms with its tail between the legs, shamelessly starting the lapdog game all over again. Must NTA be punished? From the 30 million viewers, or is it haters, the answer is not just a resounding yes, but even the type of punishment has been loudly suggested, that the entire management should be sacked.   
Ironically, it was Buhari’s military regime that saved NTA from NPN government’s interference in the 1980s. This time around Buhari’s government will have to do more as NTA is so badly wrecked it is beyond the type of repairs now being contemplated. For starters, NTA has a very weak and centralized content development and delivery structure despite its more than one hundred stations comprising community and state capital stations, and the cluster of half-a-dozen special stations at Headquarters. The organization’s inability to develop and implement an effective succession plan over the last decade or so has sadly resulted in a fast depleting workforce in core departments of engineering, news and programs through retirement. Another big challenge for NTA is her inability to rebrand, move with the times and chart a new course as Nigeria’s image carrier. The most serious problem though, is the one slapped on NTA in 1989 during the era of experimentation when it was suddenly declared partially commercialized. The selective implementation of that singular act of executive fiat gradually deprived Nigerians of the benefits of public interest programs like schools broadcast and agricultural extension on one hand, and on the other, opened up NTA local and network airtime to alcohol, gambling, religious franchises and sponsored live transmission of weddings and funeral services. 
NTA can best be taken to stay at a height higher than its heydays only when it is a truly public broadcast organization with a governing board comprising tested professionals. The governing board would serve triple purpose of screening and recommending candidates for top management positions, design and monitoring the implementation of operational policy and shielding it from interference. The idea of professionalized governing board was actually proposed in 2010 when the Ministry of Information set up a joint committee with members drawn from NTA, Radio Nigeria and the Ministry of Information to prepare joint position against merger of NTA, Radio Nigeria and Voice of Nigeria for submission to   Steve Orosanye committee on merger of government agencies and departments. The   two organizations have not been merged even though the committee chairman said at the time that the government has made up its mind to do so.
It is doubtful if 60% of Nigerians can receive NTA despite its uncoordinated availability on free-to-air terrestrial, digital terrestrial and cable satellite.
Finally, a piece of advice to NTA staff and management to consider now that the worst has happened. Just as there is no law prohibiting interference in your work, there is also no law against hollering when your honour is being violated. And for management staff, especially those known to be accomplices to the violation of NTA’s honour, it is not too late to follow in the footsteps of your former bosses Engineer Vincent Maduka and Malam Mohammed Ibrahim. The former retired voluntarily when he felt he could no longer take pressure from Babangida administration while the latter, under the iron rule of Abacha, first resigned the Presidency of the Commonwealth Broadcast Association when Nigeria was maligned and suspended from the Commonwealth, and not long thereafter, retired from public service altogether so the love affair between NTA and her viewers can continue.
The forgiving nature of Nigerian viewer may yet play a role in converting the 30 million haters to lovers of sorts, but the question is can those with the power to ask NTA bosses to step aside and dance dictate a pro-people tune?
  
Sule, a former Executive NTA Director, wrote from Goriba Road, GRA Katsina<[email protected]>