Four tears: Nigerian Television Authority at 40

One wet morning of August 1977 my trip to assume duty at NTV, Kaduna was temporarily halted on the bridge at Rigachikun village as a result of an accident that took the lives of a very senior official in the North-Central State civil service and a rising television drama artiste.

But for the NTV, Kaduna news of that evening, images of the sad event would not have stuck in my mind this long. Within a matter of weeks I got to learn and appreciate what it takes to show two to three minutes of news actuality on television. There was always a car waiting to rush out, just as there was a Cameraman with handheld Bolex camera and one or two rolls of 16mm film to shoot. Within forty-five minutes of the return of the news crew, the film would have been processed in the dark room, checked and approved by the Head of the Film Unit before it is literally cut to pieces and rejoined to tell the visual story. Between the Engineer at the Telecine machine, studio crew priming the cameras, adjusting the lights, placing the microphones, lining up the captions or waiting to make the caster’s face camera-friendly, the graphic unit on standby to write a new caption; and even the editor on desk juggling the stories for the final lineup, the evening news was always a tension-soaked half hour in the studio and control room. Anything can go wrong during the course of transmission and for the few minutes that it usually takes to sort out the problem, the audience would “Stay Tuned” in expectation of interesting programs to watch daily from four o’clock to midnight. And so it was, nationwide across all NTV stations, each holding and expanding an audience base inherited from its inception stage as regional or state television service.

The foundation of NTA’s fame rested on three-way symbiosis between the core departments of Engineering, News and Programs. Engineering was exploring new frontiers; News was balanced and impartial and Programs was providing content that reflected national character and ideals in an entertaining manner. Transition from microwave to satellite was the litmus test and Engineering and Programs Departments lived up to the billing as Nigerians got to watch the World Festival of Black and African Festival of Arts and Culture, FESTAC ’77 live from venues of the colloquium and performances in Lagos and the Grand Durbar in Kaduna. Two years later NTA did it again with the very successful coverage of the national poll – “Verdict ‘79.”

For the first time viewers watched results coming in from all over the country and experts, notably a certain Dr. Walter Ofanagoro, were analyzing patterns and commenting on developments until the results were formally announced and contested by the opposition. NTA News was there when the court agreed with the defense that two thirds of nineteen is twelve two-thirds, and declared candidate Shehu Shagari winner of the 1979 presidential election. By the beginning of the new decade of the 1980s, with its independence taking roots, NTA had already won the hearts and minds of 30 million viewers and had become an institution. Then the first of the four tears dropped.

Almost immediately it came to power the civilian administration moved to make sure that NTA’s independence was guided. Its Board was promptly dissolved and Olu Adebanjo, a “journalist” of WNBS mold, was appointed as sole administrator. His immediate task was to make NTA tow the line with the ultimate goal of making it the megaphone of the government and the ruling party. Resistance was stiff and Adebanjo never got on well with the Director General, Engineer Vincent Maduka. At the tail end of the year 1982, Sole Administrator Adebanjo had his way as the Director General was posted out to the Ministry of Communications and replaced by that Walter Ofanagoro. The implications of that singular act are still playing out. First and foremost was that anyone with strong connection at the top can influence appointment of NTA Director General whether the person is professionally qualified or not. Consequent upon that, a sitting Director General would either dance to the tune with extra-caution lest he steps on toes or, with the ears of that one at the top to boast of, initiate and execute a major policy with little or no consultation. A few examples would suffice. One: Good as it looked, the establishment of three Community Television stations in each state of the federation was a policy that was neither well thought out nor executed as it created more problems than it attempted to solve. Vast Sokoto and compact Lagos states have no community stations. Many states have only one and Kogi State alone has five even as vast swathes of land around Kebbi-Kaduna-Niger, Bauchi-Gombe-Borno, Edo-Ondo-Kogi and Benue-Ebonyi-Cross River axes do not receive any television signal. It is perhaps the human resource deployment that has done irreparable damage to NTA as many stations were made to send quality mid-level staff in News, Programs and Engineering to community stations to become redundant as most of them are non-functional.

Sule, a former NTA Executive Director Programs, wrote from Katsina and can be reached on 08037001957 and [email protected]