Date Published: 12/23/09

SO NTA HAS CHANGED? By Emmanuel Onwubiko 

Bruno who is known locally in Kaduna as Danjuma is now in his early fifties.  

He left the shores of Nigeria about two decades in pursuit of strings of university degrees and of course to search for the greener pastures. 

Bruno traversed the length and breadth of the United States doing one scholarly research or the other and successfully secured a juicy job in a journalism faculty of one of the few Ivy League universities where he lectured for over a dozen years before attaining the prestigious academic title of a professor of Journalism. 

Bruno and I were in the same troop of the then secondary school scout movement in Kafanchan even though he was my far senior in age and year of enrolment which explained why he was elevated to the position of a troop leader while yours faithfully was still a cub scout which means that I was only learning the ropes then in the boys scout movement.   

For a long time we parted ways and I encountered Bruno on the face book where we renewed our friendship and for five months or so, we have become best of friends. 

Bruno arrived Nigeria last week to visit his family and to spend the festive period with friends and well wishers. 

He gave me a call and promised to see me in Abuja as soon as possible. Little did I know that Bruno has put on weight and also grown so tall that one could mistake him for a top flight National Basketball Association player in the United States.   

At the waiting lounge of the local wing of the Abuja International Airport, Bruno shouted my name on top of his voice because of course he recognized me immediately because of my photo that I posted in my face book profile page. 

To cut the long story short, Bruno had hardly settled down when he engaged me in a Professional discussion bordering on new developments in the Nigerian Media Industry. 

He was particularly impressed by what he observed as the positive transformation that he has seen in the Nigerian Television Authority. He reminded me that the rich news contents and the quality of television home made movies and dramas that the Nigerian Television Authority shows to their millions of audience are unprecedented. 

 “So NTA has Changed?” he exclaimed and I responded in the affirmative and added a reply I borrowed from Tu face Idibia, the musician- “No be small thing ooo! 

I immediately told him that the brain behind the transformational changes in the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) is Alhaji Usman M. Magawatta who was made the Director General barely one dozen months ago. We both analyzed the editorial contents of the new Nigerian Television Authority especially the News 24 and came up with a verdict that if the current momentum in the Nigerian Television Authority is maintained, then one day our own NTA will be competing with world’s broadcast leaders like the British Broadcasting Corporation and the cable News Network.        

We had not finished our discussion when we read the December 15 th 2009 edition of The Guardian with the title; “Reps query NTA boss over U-17 World Cup contract”. The gist of the story was thus; “the house of representatives queried the Director-General of Nigerian Television Authority (NTA), Usman Magawatta, for allegedly hurriedly awarding contracts for the upgrading of equipment in preparation for the just concluded FIFA Under -17 World Cup hosted by the country.”      

“”Magawatta, had in his presentation, disclosed that the authority obtained the permission of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) in the wake of preparations for the tournament to pay N8.2 billion, representing 15 per cent of the entire contract sum from its Internally Generated Revenue (IGR).” 

“But Acting Chairman of the Committee, Mustapha Habeeb, described as baffling how NTA was able to convince the Minister of Information and Communications, Professor Dora Akunyili and FEC to approve the payment without recourse to the parliament, ….” 

“Magawatta further explained that after paying the initial 15 per cent, the balance was however negotiated to be paid by quarterly installments of N930 million, spread across the next two years through the Debt Management Office (DMO), adding that NTA plans to pay DMO from its IGRs in the 10 years.” 

“On why NTA keeps spending its IGRs, the DG explained that the authority has been expending huge sums in its drive to commission new stations across the country, saying that the agency ought to have been commended based on its social responsibility services, as according to him the National Assembly alone takes a lot of its air time without paying.”  

But why should the National Assembly enjoy free air time when huge resources are set aside for media and publicity in the National Assembly’s massive annual budgets? 

“Magawata said what was usually allocated to NTA by the Federal Government in its budget were for overheads and personnel costs, adding that NTA pays $1.9 million yearly for satellite services, and also have to provide equipment, including cameras, vehicles and Outside Broadcast (OB) vans for its day-to-day transmission.” 

“On the alleged scam in the contract, especially as noticed in its hasty award, as well as not realizing the purpose for which it was awarded, the DG said that was not true.” 

Bruno has not changed his positive impression of what he has so far seen in the NTA and stressed that he was convinced beyond all reasonable doubts that the allegation of hasty award of contract by the NTA as made by the legislators was false.  

My fear is that the so – called legislators are mostly contractors who are raising eyes brow because their companies were not awarded the contracts by the NTA Management to upgrade facilities at the television Conglomerate with branches all across Nigeria. Moreover, the Contracts were scrutinized by the Federal Executive Council headed by the president on the advice of the Minister of Information.  

Nigerians asked: when will these contractors in the night and legislators in the day time stop chasing shadows and allow patriotic Nigerians to do their legitimate duties without harassment and blackmail? Only recently, the Director General of the Bureau for Public Enterprises [BPE] was widely reported to have raised alarm that the Federal House of Representatives Committee on privatization was blackmailing his management. 

House of Representatives Committee on Information should stop this pettiness and do their real oversight functions. 
 

* Onwubiko heads the Human Rights Writers’ Association of Nigeria.