NTA: Facing the challenge of the future
Writing in his 272 page book titled: “COMMUNITY RADIO FOR DEVELOPMENT: THE WORLD AND AFRICA”, he clearly espoused the fundamental role of mass communication in bringing about rapid development and transformation of nations. This Reverend gentleman wrote thus; “How can communication help the development process? First, it can help to design projects that take properly […]
Writing in his 272 page book titled: “COMMUNITY RADIO FOR DEVELOPMENT: THE WORLD AND AFRICA”, he clearly espoused the fundamental role of mass communication in bringing about rapid development and transformation of nations.
This Reverend gentleman wrote thus; “How can communication help the development process? First, it can help to design projects that take properly into account the perceptions and capacities of the intended beneficiaries, thereby gaining their participation. In particular, communication can also shift the emphasis away from “top-down approaches – in which development specialists prescribe medicines to cure the maladies of rural poverty, as might a veterinarian dealing with a herd of cows. In the process, it can facilitate knowledge – sharing as an avenue to helping people make informed decisions concerning adaptation, or even rejection, of proposed innovation”.
The wise men/women who framed the nation’s constitution accepted the fact that the media of mass communication was vital for the promotion, protection and enforcement of the fundamental human rights provisions which was why section 22 of the constitution clearly stipulates the obligation of the mass media meant to serve public good.
It is therefore necessary to periodically assess the performance of the mass media in carrying out the role for which the constitution assigned the forth Estate of the realm.
The Nigeria Television Authority (NTA) is the largest publicly financed broadcasting outfit in Africa and so a lot of attention is paid to how well or otherwise that things are done by the management and staff of that television station. In doing this piece, I undertook two weeks of intensive research by first of all circulating dozens of copies of questionnaire containing only three questions that centered on whether the current management of the Nigerian Television Authority has done well.
Majority of the persons interviewed were of the opinion that Alhaji Usman Magawata and his team has done very well in upgrading the quality of facilities in the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) and particularly praised the management team for the NTA-STAR TV NETWORK initiative which has become a reality and was commissioned by President Goodluck Jonathan on Thursday July 29th 2010.
The NTA-Star TV Network initiative is a joint venture between the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA), and Beijing Startimes group, a strategic partnership between the largest television network in Africa, and China’s most influential radio and television enterprise. The core objective of this partnership is to provide excellent, innovative and technology-driven digital pay TV services in the Nigerian territory.
The project which was conceived about two years ago operates on the basis of 30 to 70 percent equity share ratio to NTA and Startimes, China respectively. It is intended, from conception, to provide a credible alternative in the digital/satellite pay television sub-sector in Nigeria. Its core objectives are intended to dovetail into the immediate value thrusts of the NTA, namely to provide excellent and socially responsible television broadcast services in Nigeria.
Several learned Nigerians and even the ordinary man on the streets have acknowledged the improvements noticed in the services currently provided by the Nigerian Television Authority and some observers have suggested that as a way of further improving on the contents of programs and also create more employment opportunities for our talented actors and actresses in Nigeria, both the NTA and STAR TV should engage the services of these good and talented Nigerians to create more home movies to be shown to more Nigerians.
On Thursday, June 2nd, 2011, ThisDay newspaper ran a beautiful piece titled ‘Presidential Inauguration: NTA show cases power of New High Definition Equipment”. The publication indeed represents the views of most scholars spoken to on the performance of the Nigerian Television Authority.
ThisDay newspaper stated thus; “The capacity of the new High Definition (HD) broadcast infrastructure recently procured by the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) to save cost for the country and deliver broadcast signals that meets present global standards was demonstrated during the inauguration of President Goodluck Jonathan”
“The equipment, which included six outside broadcast (OB) vans, HD cameras and an International Broadcast Centre (IBC) located at the Abuja National Stadium, were supplied in December 2010 by WTS Broadcast Nigeria Limited ahead of the 2012 cut-over deadline given broadcast and production outfits in Nigeria to migrate from analogue and standard definition (SD) to High Definition facilities”.
Before the arrival of the new equipment, the practice was to hire such critical equipment and personnel from countries like France and the United Kingdom at huge costs, but with the arrival of the equipment, coverage of live events of the same magnitude as the Presidential inauguration has been made easier and cheaper for the country.
Onwubiko heads the Human Rights Writers’ Association of Nigeria