AFRICAST AT CELEBRATION

The authorities in broadcasting could do more, writes Okello Oculi

I was not a witch!’’, was a triumphant exclamation by Mrs Stela Awani as she savoured the fact that it was one of her trainees in Radio Broadcasting, Mallam Modibbo Ishaq Kawo - the current boss of the National Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) – who was putting her on the pedestal to be celebrated as a most distinguished voice-trainer in the history of news broadcasting on Radio Nigeria. She was recalling the rigorous regime she served to her students in searching for excellence.

The occasion was a closing dinner for marking the end of “Africast 2018’’, which was first held in Abuja in 1996 as an invention of the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA). It recalled excellence of radio and television broadcasters in Nigeria to exhibitors of new equipment; participants from other African countries; new generation broadcasters, and “Elder-Celebrants’’ themselves as captained by a briskly- walking 85 years -old Mr. Ron Mgbatogu. .

The elders were clearly thrilled that their talents – some going back 30 years ago – were being noted and given public acclaim. While they cheered each other, it was evident that the younger generation could not share in their rupture presumably because there have been either deliberate or unintended silence over the records of ‘broadcast heroes past’. To younger Nigerian broadcasters and foreign participants, names of Reverend Bayo Awaala, Hajiya Hauwa Jinadu, Hajiya Maryam Bewel were as unfamiliar as singer Bob Marley’s favourite Jamaican goat Peppersoup. Current broadcast practice must include heavy doses of products of these ancestors.

Dr Abdulkareem Mohammed - founder of “Kano Indigenous Languages of African Film Market and Festival)’’ and CEO of “Moving Image Ltd’’ had earlier on NTA’s “Good Morning Nigeria’’ programme, accused NTA of committing the “Criminal act’’ of taking “eye balls of Nigerians’’ away from local television screens, notably: “Cockcrow At Dawn’’ by patronising foreign imports like ‘’The Rich Also Cry’’ from Mexico. Because the Mexican import was highly subsidised, it was cheaper to broadcast.

These cheaper foreign programmes make television executives lazy and unenthusiastic about fighting for bigger budgets for funding productions of “local contents’’ to serve their viewers. A harsher critic claimed that his managers and their bosses preferred purchasing ornate furniture for their offices than paying artists well and producing good programmes: including travel to make creative documentaries. Moreover, a loss of respect and care grew for tapes containing programmes already telecast or broadcast. At the most scandalous range, tapes and cassettes were either wiped out and replaced with new material or left to rot in the rain and stores.

At the same “Good Morning Nigeria’’ programme, Mr Rees from London likened “digital’’ channels to a single pipeline carrying water and the same pipe being widened 20 times. If the volume of water remains the same, pressure will be severely depleted. With Nigeria acquiring 200 digital channels, it is absolutely vital that “local content’’ must be produced to fill the vastly increased capacity for access to audiences. Failure to do so opens wide gates for outsiders to erode national values and wreck cultural sovereignty. That danger was why digital broadcasting was “imposed on countries that lack resources for producing their own local contents’’, he asserted.

With regard to Mexico’s programmes - pioneered by “The Rich Also Cry’’- their casts consisting only of Caucasian male and female actors, promote the big lie that there are NO peoples of African ancestry in her population. In fact there are Afro-Mexicans in every province. With its record of rebels who fled from slavery and successfully defended their territory on the coast of the Pacific Ocean, Vera Cruz Province has over four million African-Mexicans who have never mixed their genes with Spanish-Mexicans.

With a foreign policy that gives priority to the welfare of the African Diaspora, NBC has challenges in domesticating hostile foreign programmes; as well as producing and exporting programmes for promoting the dignity, social justice, and human resource development of the African Diaspora in the Americas and Asia-Pacific geographies.

With the coming of digital broadcasting also comes the imperative to compete with exporters of foreign-produced programmes. The elders honoured at Africast 2018 reported turning to consultancy work; producing commercial jingles, and, in a rare case, owning a radio station. NBC should vigorously mobilise banks, industries, and exporters to put up capital for using these talents for waging the digital war by producing quality local contents.

Alhaji Danladi Bako, a former Director General of NBC, joined a chorus of angry rebukes by these elders about rampant decay in standards in broadcasting: ranging from incoherent diction, shoddy productions to lack of capacity to present news with the power to captivate the attention of audiences like “telling a story’’. There was clearly here a loud case for NBC to facilitate radio and television stories to “return to roots’’ by engaging the “Mohicans’’ - with their pride and dedication to excellence.

Excellence was often sharpened through training at the BBC; and intensive local “Mentoring by Senior Staff’’. These roads are apparently no longer open for young broadcasters to take. It is remarkable that despite these sojourns abroad, these elders evolved a native “Nigerian English for Broadcasting’’. The current struggles on air to assume a “civilised accent’’ tells all that it is “Not Yet Uhuru’’. The elders of broadcasting must Arise and infuse NBC and youths with their 7 a.m. to Midnight dedication to excellence.

NBC SHOULD VIGOROUSLY MOBILISE BANKS, INDUSTRIES, AND EXPORTERS TO PUT UP CAPITAL FOR USING THESE TALENTS FOR WAGING THE DIGITAL WAR BY PRODUCING QUALITY LOCAL CONTENTS