What future for an on-and-off state owned broadcast station?

BY ETORO-OBONG INYANG

Established 29 years ago after the creation of Akwa Ibom State form the old Cross River State, the Akwa Ibom State Broadcasting Corporation, AKBC, has served as the mouth piece of the government of Akwa Ibom in educating and enlightening the people on programmes and policies of government. Unfortunately, the station has been operating under  very difficult conditions, like,  lack of functional and modern equipment, dearth of operational vehicles, insufficient manpower,  low staff morale, and lack of a befitting office accommodation, despite these unfavourable conditions, the station has over the years been winning awards and accolades from the Nigeria Broadcasting Commission, NBC, and other reputable organizations.

The sad situation is that successive administrations have not accorded the state owned media the attention it deserves, for instance, the station is still being accommodated in a rented apartment, staffers have been struggling without success to get the twenty-two and half percent wear in allowance for media workers implemented. It is not ascertained whether the state owned media outfits have been receiving budgetary allocations, in spite of the fact that AKBC has been generating revenue for the state government. 

Observers had thought that the era of “Uncommon Transformation” of the regime of Senator GodswillAkpabio would have brought about the transformation of the station; rather, the era witnessed a cosmetic treatment under the supervision of Aniekan Umanah as information commissioner.  

The Edge News gathered that several millions of naira which could have been used to upgrade facilities in the station went into the pockets of media managers of government, who were operating private studios, leaving the state owned station to a steady deterioration. Observers believe that if a fraction of the amount of money that was spent in sponsoring the “Uncommon Transformation series” on television stations across the country was used in equipping AKBC, it would have gone a long way to making the station a model broadcast medium. Concerned stakeholders had expected to see a remarkable improvement in the station during the tenure of Comrade Unyime Usoro, the immediate past state chairman of the NLC, who also doubled as the state chairman of RATTAWU, but, the reverse was the case. The current leadership of the state NUJ hasn’t shown the will to pursue the welfare and well being of employees in the state owned media establishments.

From the look of things, and especially in the present financial realities caused by the dwindling resources accruing to the state, the hope and expectations of Akwa Ibom people to see a well equipped, competitive station under a permanent office accommodation might remain dimmed a little bit longer, as the information commissioner doesn’t seem to tow the line of building massive structure to house the station. According to him, building a befitting structure for AKBC wasn’t a problem, rather, content. 

“That’s not the problem, the most important thing is not about the building, but about the content, but, that is in the works, nobody is really talking about large buildings these days, it’s about content, quality content, that’s television for the world now, but again the building issue is in the works, but nobody is looking at bogus buildings anymore”. 

So, what does the future holds for the station that’s being challenged on all fronts? According to the new helmsman of the corporation, Pastor Anietie Ukpe, steps were being taken to reposition and rebrand the station in line with global trend in broadcasting. Ukpe spoke with the Edge News with dim enthusiasm what intends to do within his tenure and how he intends to push his ideas through in the face of pressing financial stress and other challenges facing the corporation. 

“We’ve had meetings on a permanent office accommodation, we’re trying to get the best possible design that will accommodate all the staff and the range of activities that AKBC undertakes, so, action is being taken. The governor has said he was going to undertake that project, and so, based on his words, action has begun. We’re hopeful that sooner, than later, there’ll be something on ground on that”, Ukpe said. 

He mentioned other plans, “we intend to take AKBC to Dstv , we’ve already started talking with Dstv on that, what is keeping us for now is that the picture quality is not high definitive, and so, we need HD quality pictures, and equipment for radio, because when we go on Dstv, it’s going to be both satellite tv and satellite radio. So, we’re doing something to update the equipment, some of the equipment are very old, we need more digital cameras, digital suites, and when we’re able to get all that, we can now go for 24hour broadcast”, he  said, “we’re also hoping to do a complete rebranding of the station. We’re coming with a whole lot of ideas; we’ll rebrand it to promise tv in line with the fact that, this is the land of promise. These are things that are still at the thought and concept level”.    

On how he intends to fund his idea, the DG, AKBC, who served as the chief press secretary to the immediate past state governor, expressed the optimism that the state government would live up its expectations, “the governor is a visionary leader, and in line with the fact that we are industrializing Akwa Ibom State, we also have to put Akwa Ibom on global platform so that , entrepreneurs and industrialists across the globe can take note of what’s happening in Akwa Ibom State. So, what we’re doing and intend to do is in line with what His Excellency has in mind for Akwa Ibom State. So, I think, we’re basically on the same page.

How does he intend to get the right caliber of personnel to run his vision for the corporation? The DG disclosed that the corporation will recruit from a pool of already existing casual staff working in the establishment. “There’s already existing pool of casual staff, the casual staff form a manpower pool that we would certainly recruit from and the government has taken note of the fact  that we’ve manpower need, and I believe that this year, we’ll have the permission to hire some staff for the corporation”, he said. 

Well, pending when these incubated ideas would be hatched into concrete realities, the 29 year old television station which has been off the air for some weeks now, would continue to grapple with faulty generating sets, inadequate funding, ill-equipped and outdated facilities, lack of digital suites, low staff morale, and lack of a befitting office accommodation.  Until the state government takes decisive actions that would see to the quick transformation of the station from an analogue operation to a digital operation, the future of the Akwa Ibom state owned broadcasting station would continue be an on-and-off transmitting media establishment.