When lack of broadcast equipment, fund worries staff of Taraba media outfits

It was learnt that they had been silent over the situation, hoping that government would address the matter but now have to complain as the development had adversely affected their well-being. The state has three media outfits, namely Taraba Television (TTV), Taraba State Broadcasting Service (TSBS) and The Nigerian Sunrise Newspaper. The worst hit amongst […]

It was learnt that they had been silent over the situation, hoping that government would address the matter but now have to complain as the development had adversely affected their well-being.
The state has three media outfits, namely Taraba Television (TTV), Taraba State Broadcasting Service (TSBS) and The Nigerian Sunrise Newspaper. The worst hit amongst the three media organizations is the state-owned newspaper, The Nigeria Sunrise, which, due to non-release of funds, has stopped production and its staff owed six months salaries. The three media organizations have, over the years, been struggling to render their cardinal duties of informing, educating and entertaining the public amidst poor working conditions and deteriorating infrastructures.
The challenges facing personnel working in these organizations include poor welfare package for staff, lack of basic working tools and obsolete equipment, amongst others.
It was gathered that before the former acting governor, Alhaji Garba Umar, was ousted, he had raised a cheque amounting to about N34 million to offset staff salaries and take care of the newspaper’s production, but that when the present Acting Governor, Alhaji Sani Abubakar Danladi took over, he did not clear the cheque to pay the staff’s salaries.
Some of the staff who spoke to our reporter lamented that their children could no longer go to school and that landlords were threatening them with eviction notices due to their inability to pay their rents as a result of none-payment of salaries.
“We are going through untold hardships. We have been patient enough and we want the government to look into our plights and pay us our salaries without further delay. Even if government doesn’t want to continue with the production of the newspaper, it should, at least, pay us the salaries due to us”, a concerned staff said.
They wondered why the state government was paying the salaries of other civil  servants in the state but had refused to pay salaries of the over 80 staff working in the state-owned newspaper outfit.
Governor Danbaba Danfulani Suntai had, in 2009, established the Taraba State Publishing Company Ltd, publishers of The Nigeria Sunrise newspaper with the mandate of bridging the information gap for people of the state. The newspaper was to provide the platform for the people of the state, especially those at the grassroots, to express their views and also keep abreast of happenings within the government corridors and their environment generally.
Governor Suntai contracted the newspaper publishing to a consultant who was to float the weekly newspaper for two years after which government promised to take it over and incorporate it into the mainstream Ministry of Information.
Before the expiration of the two years consultancy period, Governor Suntai was involved in a plane crash and that, to a great extent, affected the incorporation of the newspaper to the mainstream ministry.
The Managing Consultant, who ensured the smooth take off of the newspaper, was able to sustain its production until August 2014 when the newspaper started having challenges and went off the newsstand due to the non-release of funds by government.
The staff of the company are now in a serious dilemma as the current acting governor, Alhaji Sani Abubakar Danladi, seems not ready to release funds to offset their salaries and ensure the paper continued to publish for the benefit of the reading public.
All the staff who hitherto worked in the editorial, marketing, advert and administrative departments of the company are now languishing in penury and idleness following the development.
A visit to the premises of the newspaper showed nothing but a ghost of its former self as all production activities have since been grounded.
The reading public are also not happy over the development, maintaining that government had  deliberately deprived them the opportunity of having access to information and of having their views expressed, especially this political season.
Observers believe that the lack of vibrant local press would make the public to remain ignorant on important issues, such as Permanent Voter Cards collections and the conduct of the forthcoming elections, amongst other sundry issues.
Buttressing the essence of the media to government, Thomas Jefferson, a one-time President of United States of America said he would rather have a free press with no government than have a government without a free press.
But in Taraba, the reverse is the case as government appears to be unperturbed about the necessity of having  vibrant media outfits and personnel capable of disseminating up to date information to the populace
The conditions of staff at the Taraba state owned television and radio stations is not anything better than those of their counterparts at The Nigeria Sunrise newspaper.
The only difference is that the two stations are still managing to go on air to satisfy the audience and viewers despite the non-release of running and maintenance costs by government. Many of the staff have, for many years, been working on casual basis, otherwise known as ‘manpower’.
The lack of modern broadcast equipment, poor welfare package for staff, lack of staff training and poor facilities have over the years hampered these media organizations from measuring up with their counterparts in other parts of the country.
However, the recent inauguration of a 16-man committee by the government to handle  the digitization of the state-owned radio and television outfits has been applauded by stakeholders.
Inaugurating the committee members, Acting Governor Danladi said the move was in response to the June 17, 2015 deadline set by the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) for all broadcast media outfits in the country to transit from analogue to digital.
The Acting Governor, who was represented by the Secretary to the State Government (SSG) Gebon Timothy Kataps, charged the committee members to come up with relevant recommendations that would ensure a smooth transition to digitization in the state.
While expressing concern over the lack of effective information dissemination in the state, Danladi expressed optimism that digitization of the state  broadcast media outfits would improve the quality of information gathering and dissemination.
The chairman of the committee and Commissioner for Information, Emmanuel Bello, in his remarks, said its members were seasoned professionals in the media industry and assured the state the best on the given assignment.
He appealed to the government to restore the running cost to the state-owned radio and television stations to enable them run their services smoothly, observing that paucity of funds was affecting the effectiveness of the media outfits.
On the plight of staff of The Nigeria Sunrise newspaper, the commissioner said government was aware of their predicament and was working hard to resolve the situation, adding that government had some financial challenges, due to debts it incurred from the previous administration.