By Martins Oloja
A easy birthday celebration of one of many natural “Each day Occasions” icons who arrived on the seventh flooring this week, Mr. Ndubuisi James Ugbede and the Minister of Data Alhaji Idris Mohammed Malagi’s comment in Las Vegas, Nevada, United States, the place he’s attending the Nationwide Affiliation of Broadcasters (NAB) Present 2025, provoked a revisit of two outdated commentaries on this column in 2018 and 2023.
On Thursday this week, (April 10, 2025) on the Lagos Council of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Iyalla Road, Alausa Ikeja, a exceptional colleague Mr Lekan Otufodunrin and I had been visitor audio system at a symposium organised in honour of a former Director of Occasions Journalism Institute (TJI) below the aegis of their Occasions Journalism Institute’s Alumni Affiliation (TJAA) now headed by Mr Clifford Agugoesi. In a preface to my dialogue I had recalled some sensitive however vital points in regards to the iconic “Each day Occasions” as a strategic nationwide asset and certainly a paradise we misplaced to curious privatisation of public establishments and businesses that the IBB regime initiated and the Obasanjo civilian administration controversially concluded. Some excerpts from my opening remarks:‘…I made a decision to honour the invitation as a result of ‘Journalism’, the World Financial institution Institute describes as “the very best career on the earth” is concerned. I’m all the time anxious any time the natural “Each day Occasions” Group is talked about. I all the time keep in mind that monument as one in all Nigeria’s nationwide safety property that the ‘militricians’ and politicians destroyed, which has really diminished the stature of journalism in essentially the most populous black nation on earth. I didn’t imply to haul any missile within the path of those that curiously offered “Each day Occasions” anyhow through the Obasanjo administration (1999-2007).I imply that if the legacy of the enduring Adeyemo Alakija who purchased it over from Cecil Kings had not been destroyed by that ill-fated choice to promote the corporate to those that have diminished it to a web based newspaper, even the digital library as a useful resource alone would have been a cash spinner, a veritable stream of earnings at the moment when all of the establishments of upper studying and certainly the nation nonetheless don’t have any dependable library for institutional reminiscences.
I hope most of us listed here are conscious that even the Nationwide Library in Abuja hasn’t been accomplished about 50 years after Murtala Muhammed proclaimed Abuja as Nigeria’s capital. The capital of the federation might be fifty years outdated in February 2006 (1976-2006). The library mission remains to be conspicuously uncared for close to the gorgeous Nationwide Mosque, overlooking the equally beautiful Nationwide Christian Centre. Likely, the nation would have had recourse to the “Each day Occasions” Library as our personal Congressional Library nonetheless usually thought to be essentially the most dependable library in world context. It is likely one of the vital nationwide property which have enhanced the powers and the glory of the US Congress. There’s just about nothing on earth you may’t analysis on the exceptional Library of Congress. They make some huge cash each day from researchers. That’s the place you may nonetheless get all of the copies of the genuine “Each day Occasions” publications when there was a rustic…’
It isn’t my pleasure to invoke unhappy reminiscences of “Each day Occasions” one of the vital influential and certainly most worthwhile newspapers on the earth then. I’m fairly cautious of calling the DTN, a defunct newspaper. I do know the results in as we speak’s Nigeria the place the court docket (of regulation) is now not thought to be ‘the final hope of the widespread man’. ‘Don’t say I advised you’ as a nook gossip piece indicated in these days of the best-selling “Lagos Weekend”. A lot of the ‘outdated troopers’ within the print media, certainly members of the TJAA are conscious of the time even the “The New York Occasions” visited the “Each day Occasions of Nigeria” for analysis and orientation. The historic go to remains to be in NYT’s library. My expensive “Each day Occasions” veterans, this isn’t supposed to be a day to learn from a bit on the day “Widespread Sense” died in Africa’s most populous nation. I imply this isn’t a day to learn from the ebook of lamentation on “Each day Occasions” however a day to have a good time with one of many blessed ‘survivors’ of the natural “Each day Occasions”, Mr. Ndubuisi Ugbede who simply clocked 70. Comrade Ugbede, congratulations in your birthday. It isn’t straightforward to achieve that milestone on this “nation of something is feasible” as a former military chief as soon as described our blessed nation…It’s the Lord’s doing as it’s written and so it’s marvelous in our eyes. Might the nice Lord who has blessed you to achieve the seventh Flooring proceed to maintain you robust and wholesome in His pavilion…!
In a associated and related improvement, a report from Las Vegas early within the week indicated that the Federal Authorities ”Begins Technical Improve for Media Organisations, Says Data Minister”. In line with the report filed by the ministry from Nevada, “The Minister of Data and Nationwide Orientation, Mohammed Idris, has said that the Federal Authorities has begun investing in cutting-edge applied sciences and buying state-of-the-art gear for federal media organisations to make sure efficient service supply. Idris made this assertion in Las Vegas, Nevada, United States throughout discussions with main broadcast and knowledge firms on the ongoing Nationwide Affiliation of Broadcasters (NAB) Present 2025”.
The Minister was quoted as saying that such investments would result in the improve and substitute of out of date infrastructure throughout radio and tv stations owned by the Federal Authorities. To actualise this, he mentioned, his ministry “is forging partnerships with broadcast gear producers to avail native broadcasters the chance to learn from rising applied sciences and industry-specific coaching”. The Nigeria’s delegation led by Idris malagi consisted senior officers, together with Salihu Abdulhamid Dembos (Director-Normal/CEO Nigeria Tv Authority), Ali Muhammed Ali (Managing Director/CEO of Information Company of Nigeria), Charles Ebuebu (Director-Normal/CEO of Nationwide Broadcasting Fee), Dr. Lekan Fadolapo (Director-Normal, Promoting Regulatory Council of Nigeria), and Jibrin Baba Ndace (Director-Normal/CEO, Voice of Nigeria). The NAB Present, working from April 5 to 9, 2025, with the theme “The Expertise, The Pattern, The Future,” gives useful insights into {industry} traits, overlaying matters equivalent to Synthetic Intelligence, cloud visualisation, the creator economic system, and sports activities manufacturing and streaming.
That is subsequently a time to remind the highly effective delegation in Las Vegas that the mission the minister has pledged in Nevada is a strategic one however he mustn’t fall into the hazard of assumption that funding in digital gear alone can remodel the Nigeria’s public info administration system.
It’s a indisputable fact that the general public info administration infrastructure has been fairly weak and so the superstructure hasn’t been dependable sufficient to serve the general public good anticipated from them in twenty first century the place the knowledge ecosystem doesn’t assist a ministry of data to drive effectivity of public info within the age of the giants of digital journalism and communications. Though I as soon as steered right here in 2023 that even the federal info ministry ought to be scrapped to offer room for restoration of Nigerian Broadcasting Service (NBS), this piece isn’t in regards to the high quality of the Data Minister and his workforce. Likely, Mallam Idris, a media entrepreneur earlier than becoming a member of the federal cupboard, has been usually thought to be one of the vital resourceful info ministers since 1999. He doesn’t scream to reply to publications and telecasts that the federal government doesn’t like. He likes to have interaction media organisations quietly in resolving even conflicts and controversies.That can also be why we will additionally counsel a couple of issues to him at the moment to look past gear of the general public broadcasters he calls “federal government-owned organisations”. They don’t seem to be federal government-owned, in spite of everything. They’re public broadcasters that ought to serve public curiosity simply because the BBC and SABC, Africa, which solely the parliaments can ‘regulate’.
As I had famous in 2018 and 2023, once more, I want to counsel restructuring of one in all Nigeria’s most important establishments that successive governments have been competing to damage: the general public broadcasters often called the Nigerian Tv Authority (NTA), the Federal Radio Company of Nigeria (FRCN) and Voice of Nigeria (VON).
My curiosity in these public broadcasters as they need to be known as, was renewed then (2018) via two associated points involving two Nigerian vital feminine journalists, Ms Kadaria Ahmed previously of the British Broadcasting Company (BBC) and Ms Toyosi Ogunseye former Sunday Punch Editor who then joined the identical BBC, a really profitable public broadcaster. The primary was Kadaria’s when she marked her fiftieth birthday in December 2017 with a colloquium on the state of the media and a ebook presentation in Lagos. Learn the small print of the Kadaria story via the hyperlinks under:
The 2 putting tales of Kadaria, Toyosi and the BBC had then set me serious about the expediency of discussing the rise and fall of establishments in Nigeria. Which was why I’m was persuaded then that as a substitute of studying frequently from the ebook of lamentation on how the navy juntas in Nigeria tactlessly seized the then Western Nigeria Broadcasting Service (WNBS) and adjusted it to NTA now in focus, we should always consider rebrand the general public broadcasters (NTA, FRCN and VON) now from the ruinous clutch of the federal authorities. There was no credit score to offer to any authorities because the takeover: no authorities has added worth to the NTA, FRCN and VON. We solely faux that each one is properly.And right here is the factor, why is it that Toyosi may be a part of the BBC, a public broadcaster as a substitute of a Nigerian Broadcasting Service (NBS)? How is it that the one reference level is that the FRCN and NTA too made John and Sola Momoh, as an illustration? And sadly, why can’t Channels tv get some values from the FRCN and the NTA that skilled its homeowners some years in the past?
The identical unhappy commentary will be prolonged to the Each day Occasions and the New Nigerian, amongst different as soon as affluent state-owned newspapers equivalent to Each day Sketch, Herald, The Observer, Chronicles, The Tide, The Triumph, The Customary, The Voice, and many others, the Nigerian system has destroyed too.
The purpose actually is that each one these as soon as fruitful newspapers which have been killed by the Nigerian leaders as soon as made the Dele Giwas, the Doyin Abiolas, the Segun Osobas, the Nduka Obaigbenas, the Doyin Mahmuds, the Ray Ekpus, the Yakubu Mohammeds, the Dan Agbeses, the Garba Shehus of this world. Most Nigerian elders would keep in mind this latest side of our historical past.
In different phrases, I used to suppose that the concept of affluent state-owned newspapers was an concept whose time was lengthy gone till I travelled to Liberia the opposite day and stopped over in Ghana the place I received a replica of the state-owned newspaper the Each day Graphic. As a newspaperman, I didn’t have to ask any query in regards to the high quality of the content material and manufacturing. The newspaper is mostly thought to be essentially the most influential and essentially the most commercially profitable newspaper in Ghana as we speak.
However notice this paradox of historical past: the properly produced each day newspaper in Ghana has some putting similarity in historical past with our personal Each day Occasions that the navy regime seized, ruined earlier than a civilian authorities offered it in January 2004 to what now seems to be like an ‘undertaker’ of a nationwide monument.
To be continued…
