Radio Nigeria, Kaduna at 50

From the onset, it was clear that the RTK was set up by the Northern Regional Government just like what the other governments in the Western and Eastern Regions and the Centre had done to serve the interest of the Region now divided into nineteen states. It was set to promote, project and protect the […]

From the onset, it was clear that the RTK was set up by the Northern Regional Government just like what the other governments in the Western and Eastern Regions and the Centre had done to serve the interest of the Region now divided into nineteen states. It was set to promote, project and protect the individual and collective interests of the people as well as facilitate the development process of the Region while consciously safeguarding their freedoms and identity in the context of the Nigerian nation. That spirit remained with the station until 1975 when in its effort to strengthen the nation’s unity, the Federal Military Government took over all the state owned television and the regionally based broadcast houses in Kaduna, Enugu and Ibadan to form the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) and the Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria (FRCN). At the same time, the Government took over the Northern based New Nigerian Newspapers and acquired 60% shares of the Lagos based Daily Times. The government said that its determination to control the national media institutions should be “seen as a means of ensuring national cohesion in the process of nation building” particularly after the civil war that ended in 1970. The takeover saw to the separation of the television from the radio administratively even though they remained on the same premises and share facilities.

In its lifespan, the RTK has, to a large extent, being able to succeed amidst hardships and miraculous vicissitudes of survival and turbulent existence variously caused by a gross misunderstanding of its historical circumstances and the desire by some forces that are determined to cut its perceived influence on the minds of its audiences. However, it is heart warming that the station is still on air; in fact, the only one that has been able to maintain its aged shortwave transmitters when those of its contemporaries have long packed off. Thus, irrespective of the political, social and economic transformations in the land, RTK has remained among the few credible institutional memory banks of the North and in a way, Nigeria.

As an institution, Radio Nigeria Kaduna appropriately tells the story of the North; its successes and the challenges as well as its fears and aspirations. In the olden days, Millions of people in the North would feel that their day is incomplete without listening to the RTK. The station through the magic box became a companion and a key informant in most households in rural and urban Northern Nigeria. Its radio signals were picked in different parts of the West African sub-region extending to places like Sierra Leone, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Chad, Niger, Cameroons and Gabon in Central Africa.

It is important to emphasize that the people of the North are ardent radio listeners, partly because of the oral nature of most of the cultures in the environment and factors like low income level and a low reading culture. In that respect, the radio has for obvious reasons of cost, access and relevance remained the most popular source of public information for the people. In fact, there is hardly any household in the Region that does not possess at least a radio set.

However, despite much love for the broadcast media by the people, the sector appears to be experiencing debilitating challenges as personified in the fortunes of the RTK. Majority of the radio stations in the states of the North like many other institutions are challenged with programmes that many a times reflect poverty of content and penury in quality. Thus, unable to fully trust the local broadcast media stations in their states which, in any case, are severely limited in their coverage; the people naturally resorted to Hausa Services of external broadcast stations like the BBC, VOA, DW and RFI, among others, for their information needs, even on basic issues about Nigeria. In the past, Radio Nigeria Kaduna used to fill in the gap but nowadays with the epileptic performance of the SW transmitters of the station and its reduced editorial independence, the people have been left with no option than to seek for credible news from foreign sources.

For a very long time now, the station has been struggling with failing equipment, dwindling resources and changing operational policies. That could explain the general concern about the station in the North. Personally, I have always believed in the Kaduna Station. Perhaps, that is why I have been complaining and advocating at various platforms on the declining fortunes of the RTK and the need to rejuvenate its services so that it does not go the way of the New Nigerian and many of the state owned broadcast stations that are barely existing. In fact, it is quite disconcerting that while broadcasting all over the world is fast digitizing and becoming editorially freer, many of our public stations in Nigeria are still struggling with antiquated equipment, declining resource levels and increased editorial censorship with all the attendant consequences.

At the zenith of its existence, RTK boasted of some of the finest, fairly minded and fiercely independent broadcasters that were comparable to any in the world. One can easily recall names of such great Managers of the station like Sani Kontagora, Adamu Gumel, Abba Zoru, Dahiru Modibbo, Mohammad Ibrahim, Mohammed Ardo, Halilu Getso and many others including Yusuf Nuhu (current DG of FRCN) and Ladan Salihu who is the incumbent Executive Director. It was blessed with talented producers and presenters as well as highly rated reporters and editors that were nationally respected and globally acknowledged for their professional competences, fair mindedness and enriched broadcast content packaging. Can any listener forget the names of excellent producers like Adamu Baba Augie, Yusuf Ladan,  Khalifa Baba Ahmed, Halilu Ahmed Getso, Yahya Abubakar, Abdulkarim Albashir, Ladan Kontagora, Lamido Bajoga, Abdulrahman Pate, Nyaka Mindapa, Isa Edime, Saulawa, Bako, Allen Agbo, Harira Kachia, Aza Gwarzo, Usman Baba Pategi and many others? The efforts of the producers whether in Programmes or News and Current Affairs reached the public through multi talented and richly endowed presenters like Mallam Lawal Abubakar, Garba ABCD, Bashir Ismaila Ahmed, Mairo Adamu, Ahmed Aminu, Mairiga Aliyu, Ladan Kontagora, Musa Waziri, Ado Charanchi, Umaru Kontagora, Hajara Ibrahim, Buhari Auwalu, Abubakar Cigari, Ahmed Gabdo, Usman Mohammed, Timmy Nebuwa, etc. One cannot also forget the voices of fiery reporters like Mahmoon Baba Ahmed, Umaru Yahya, Mohammed Yelwa Gavi, Suleiman Mohammed, Rabiu Bako, Musa Aliyu Keffi, John Aduku, Denis Yukeng, etc. Certainly, there are many more names that made Radio Kaduna tick which we could not mention here but we consider equally important.

Sometimes, I try to imagine how the development process in the North would have been without the RTK in the late 60s through the early 90s.  Anyway, though I have not yet come across a comprehensive study on the contributions of the station in the North and the country, I have however seen some episodic and isolated research works at different levels done to assess the role of the station especially in aspects like Agriculture, Education, Participatory Democracy, Health, National Integration, Women Empowerment and Public Enlightenment. From most of the findings, it has been clearly established that the RTK had impacted significantly on the general development of the Region and its people. It was able to win the confidence of its audiences through authoritative, diverse and educative broadcasting content that was reflective and representative of its environment. Interestingly, at a time the station run three major SW channels broadcasting exclusively in Hausa, English and the Languages (Fulfulde, Kanuri and Nupe). But today things have changed. The SW transmissions have reduced, automatically affecting the channels and restricting the capacity of the station to the MW and FM frequencies meaning that a large portion of the area of coverage is cut off.

The success of the RTK in the last fifty years can be linked to some inextricably linked factors. First, one must commend the vision of the Northern Regional Government which established the station with a huge capacity to be able to cover the entire region in all its diversities and beyond. It started on a very solid foundation as a partially commercialized station in a beautifully designed and built complex modelled along the BBC format. Secondly, the station was lucky to be headed by some professionally minded leaders who sacrificed personal interests to defend and uphold the credibility of the station at great costs. Thirdly, the station has been able to develop an admirable staff development and progression system. In the earlier days, many of the staff, upon engagement, might not have had high academic qualifications but were highly talented fellows who were then tutored on the job and sent on attachments abroad and further trainings on in-service. That system ensured smooth career progression for everyone and also sustained the unique RTK tradition of creative broadcasting in the industry. It developed the tradition of quality and ethical programming and self-governing editorial pattern similar to the BBC, thereby making it a radio of first choice in those days in the country. Little wonder that it became the major supplier of broadcasting personnel to international radio stations like the BBC, VOA and DW as well as state radio stations wherever they sprang up in the North.

Perhaps, most important of all is the ability of the station to maintain a very close and credible relationship with its audiences. Until recently, Radio Kaduna was the only station to have always maintained offices and one or more permanent correspondents in all the states of the country. No any other station was able to replicate so except now that the FRCN headquarters have mainstreamed the system. Perhaps, it was because of the relevance of the station to the people of the North that when the Federal Government in the mid 70s toyed with the idea of cutting down the strength of the station, it was stoutly opposed in the North and was eventually forced to retreat. At the time, the people rose to collectively and selflessly defend the station because they felt it was serving them unlike what is being witnessed in the country today.

By its nature, performance and spread, Radio Kaduna has played significant roles in the country. Quite often, particularly at critical moments in the history of the nation, its roles tended to be controversially assessed. But its contribution in the prosecution of the civil war, successes or failures in Military coups, enlightenment programmes, mobilisation towards civil rule and even keeping the people interested in politics are definitely critical. For instance, the behaviour of the station during the June 12, 1993 Presidential Election annulment irked some Nigerians. The station was accused of playing dangerous divisive broadcasting which Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, in 1994, described as “diabolical and destabilising”. He observed that some broadcasts that emanated from the station were inimical to national unity at that critical moment of Nigeria’s history. Similar broadcasts, he noted came from the southern based media which heated up the polity and was capable of subverting the corporate existence of Nigeria. However, one needs to advise that such statements on the position of the station needs to be historically and contextually understood.

On this special occasion in the history of the great house, one may wish to pay tribute to its founding fathers, commend the doggedness of its leaders and appreciate the efforts of its staff and numerous artists and associates that gave it a unique identity and spirit of courage. The audiences too, must be acknowledged for keeping faith with the station. The Federal Government, its owner since 1975 deserves our praises for being able to maintain the station regardless of the satanic advices from some of its officials to whittle it down. One would only plead with the Government to continue in its effort and invest more in the station and indeed the broadcast sector to restore the full glory of the shortwave stations in Lagos, Ibadan and Enugu.

A large number of people in the North and possibly the country still rely on the shortwave radio either because their state radio stations cannot reach them or because the big stations give them diverse, credible and better produced contents. The alternative is to allow the stations to die and risk the minds of our people being colonized by external radio houses. I believe that there are many pressing problems beating down the nation, namely, corruption, abysmal poverty, illiteracy, unemployment, population explosion, ethnic and religious conflicts, poor healthcare facilities and absence of basic civic services, among others, that the SW stations can, as they have done in the past, help to creatively and effectively address. I passionately plead with the Federal Government to please respond to the challenges and give Radio Kaduna and indeed all the zonal FRCN stations a new lease of life. Let them experience a renewal as part of the transformation agenda.