NTA will shine again someday, by Tonnie Iredia

Last Monday, I walked into the headquarters of the Nigerian Television Authority NTA in Garki Abuja almost 2 decades after I left office as the organization’s Chief Executive. My mission was to share views with the Management on recent developments in the station. I chose to visit on Monday because right from my days as DG, that was the day devoted to an activity known as ‘post-mortem’- a review of happenings in the system. Bearing in mind that post-mortem reviews were usually on issues concerning content production and transmission, I knew that the subject of removal and reinstatement of executives would reside in the grapevine, never to be tabled at any post-mortem forum.

For two reasons, I decided to introduce the topic. First, my presence, as a visitor already established that we were in an unofficial post-mortem meeting. Second, the topic is central to the subject of performance which would explain why certain functions are usually successfully done while others are not. As soon as it became clear that one of the objectives of my visit was to discuss a matter which had to do more with how best to manage government, the meeting opened up as if some of those in attendance had been in search of someone that could relax their frayed nerves. I began on a positive note with the point that the NTA family should consider itself lucky that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu reversed previous changes to our team which had made many of us uncomfortable.

So, rather than continuing to wear long faces of uncertainty, it was time to take a look at why security of tenure at the NTA was being experimented upon. If people can no longer be sure of attaining unbroken careers at the NTA, there are hardly other benefits to sustain people within a system of odd times and long hours of duty along with poor pay which television broadcasting offers in developing societies. It is worse that unlike private stations, the NTA remains a public broadcaster whose operatives are by convention not quite free to exercise discretion and initiatives in the performance of their duties. So much is regimented.

The meeting was quite revealing especially to the new hands in the system. I did not hesitate in making the point that the least of all NTA worries was the public perception that the organization was essentially the mouthpiece of the government that should not be taken seriously. In my considered opinion, it is in order for the NTA as a government agency to conscientiously serve the government. As an organ of mass communication, the NTA is under an obligation to prioritize the publicity of government programmes and activities. It is indeed not enough to inform the public about such activities; they should in addition be thoroughly educated to fully understand all government policies. 

For example, there have been so many controversies over a new tax system coming on board shortly. It amounts to a failure on the part of the NTA and other public media organs if the controversies which are clearly due to misinformation are allowed to persist. This is because under a democracy, the urge to adopt adversarial journalism as was done when the nation was under colonial or military dictatorship has become unnecessary.  Instead, the public media now has a duty to lead in embracing development communication which must be premised on the patriotic duty of using communication as a tool for societal development.

This approach is obviously superior to the wish of some critics that would want NTA officials to focus on questioning public policies. My admonition to my colleagues is to ask the critics to help us carry out the fight by simply mobilizing to remove from the NTA’s enabling law, a provision which says the NTA is bound to obey ministerial directives. In other progressive societies such provisions do not exist, but they do in our clime and since the establishment of the NTA during the military era, the provision has remained there. Interestingly, volatile media professionals in the private sector that people would want the NTA to imitate have never been known to be intransigent to their employers.

In order that government is also informed of public opinion on its policies, the public media ought to give an opportunity to persons outside government to air their views. However, the opportunity must be delicately handled to take the form of exchange of ideas. In such circumstances, the media must endeavour to have a balanced panel. It must also ensure that all panellists especially those that appear hypercritical are made to suggest the way forward on the subject being discussed. In other words, the NTA should never block its channel to the opposition or persons who disagree with the government of the day. To do so is patently undemocratic.

There is also the need to watch a growing trend in which the political class has for some time now adopted an approach of politicising governance. It is as if we all have to become partisan politicians. This has adversely affected the NTA. The trend has been for some persons to be appointed into the system perhaps as compensation for certain roles they played during electioneering. Such appointees are not only ill-equipped to fit into the system; they are often placed at levels where they lack the capacity to professionally supervise those they met on ground. With such persons in the system, the tendency for the NTA to serve as a mouth piece that lacks credibility is quite high. 

A crucial point made at the meeting was the role of some NTA staff who take advantage of their deployment to cover sensitive locations like the Villa to lobby to be appointed in due course into positions in the NTA that place them above their former superior officers. Such lobbyists have not helped the system at all as they operate beyond the role of beat reporters. Rather than cover events and bring back reports, they contrive with some groups to produce documentaries with a message that government wants such packages transmitted. Painfully, the packages which their bosses may not be able to reject are public relations materials that derogate from the NTA’s image. 

The immediate implication of the trend is that it exceedingly weakens staff morale. It also suggests that elevation in the system no longer rests on the standard rules for promotion. But if outside influence has been creating a negative mark in the system, the staff cannot claim innocence. Therefore, if NTA will shine again someday, one of the things that must be done going forward is for the organization to tighten up its family and ethical values which should dissuade their staff from continuing to lobby politicians to get undue rise in the system.

On its part, government has a duty to ensure that NTA is credible. Otherwise, the government short-changes itself if the people are either not watching or believing the channel through which it reaches out to the public. First, government should revert to the old order whereby it restricted political appointments to just the Board. The new development in which some politicians are appointed into the management of the public media is ill advisable. To start with, it is frustrating to see that staff can no longer look up to rising to the apex of their organization. Yet, there is evidence that an entity run by a thorough-bred insider professional is more likely to seamlessly build an effective organization as we see in our Customs Service today. 

I left the meeting on a happy note from those in attendance that NTA’s legendary flag will be kept flying through excellence in professional performance.  For that to happen, the management must be proactive. None of its numerous local stations must be off-air. As the largest network in Africa, the NTA must seek to be the channel of reference for all of Africa. In my days for example, the whole world hooked up to the NTA in 2006 to transmit the inauguration of the continent’s first elected female president, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia. Such feats are certainly not too hard to be replicated if not surpassed.

The NTA must thus rely on its area of strength which is its size; being virtually omnipresent, it must cover everywhere. It has no business operating like small sized outfits that concentrate on urban centres as if Nigeria has two cities, Abuja and Lagos. The NTA is best positioned to offer Nigerians the opportunity of knowing what happens even in the remotest location of the country. In addition, NTA is a full-fletched television station and not just a news outfit. It must therefore rejuvenate its glorious days of epic drama series that kept our people fully entertained. Someday, the NTA will certainly shine again.

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