By Yemi Olakitan
WITH the commissioning, last Friday, of its ultra-modern Music and Drama Studio, the Voice of Nigeria (VON) is providing a platform for stakeholders in marketing communication and entertainment industry to produce their TVC and jingles in the country. Producing television commercials off shore, especially in the United Kingdom and South Africa, has become a common practice among the advertising agencies in the country. The reason has always been that the facilities available in the country do not offer the high quality demand of most advertisers.
But the new facilities including a new drama production and editing studio will also serve musicians and moviemakers better. Also commissioned was the Pent House to address the accommodation challenge of members of staff who are always on shift duty to open the external radio station of the federal government as early as 5a.m. However, the new facilities, according to the Director-General, Mallam Abubakar Jijiwa, are geared towards realizing the 24-hour transmission target of the radio organization in the nearest future.
The event featured Information and Communication Minister, Prof. Dora Akunyili and some former bosses of the external broadcasting outlet as well as the veteran broadcaster, Ambassador Segun Olusola among others.
In fact, the facilities were named after two former Directors of Voice of Nigeria. The Pent House was named after Alhaji Yaya Abubakar while the Music and Drama Recording studio was named after Aremo Taiwo Alimi; both were former Directors- General of the Voice of Nigeria. The Music and Drama Production studio was named after Professor J.O. Uruku who was represented by her daughter, Eno Uruku. The studio is an extension of the Taiwo Alimi recording studio, which is tagged Studio 9.
Prof. Akunyili thanked the VON Director General for what she termed "kind demonstration of true leadership" in recognizing the contributions of the past Directors General of the radio organisation and naming the facilities after them.
According to her, the facilities will enhance broadcasting at the Voice of Nigeria. Akunyili was happy that VON had identified with the re-branding project of the information ministry. She stressed that in rebranding the nation, efforts must be made towards re-branding key institutions in the country. She said when key institutions are re-branded, the nation's rebranding efforts would become tremendously fruitful. The new facilities, she said, underscored the fact that "Voice of Nigeria has fully re-branded itself."
The Minster insisted that the new facilities were the best in Sub-Saharan Africa. According to her, when all the facilities (including the new transmission studio in Abuja) are commissioned, VON will become a force to be reckoned with not only in Africa but also in international broadcasting.
Akunyili expressed satisfaction about the feedback she has been receiving concerning VON. "I receive commendation letters from different countries of the world on your services and it shows you are doing a great job because documents don't lie,'' she said.
She thanked the management and members of staff of the radio station for their hardwork and dedication to duties, which have inspired such international outpouring of commendations from across the world. Her words: "Only a selfless leader will honour his predecessors the way the present Director General has done."
Commenting further on Mallam Jijawa, she described him as a good leader. "We have a Director General that says my predecessor conceives an idea and I am going to actualise it and name it after him, such an attitude is rare. It is a true sign of good leadership.''
While commissioning the facilities, especially the Pent House, Akunyili urged the staff to use the tools to send out positive messages about their country. "We must tell the world the true stories about Nigeria because most of what you hear from foreign media are negative reports about the nation. "Nigeria is not the most corrupt country in the world; neither do we have the highest incidents of rape. We must tell the world the positive stories about our great country.''
She congratulated the duo of Alhaji Yaya Abubakar and Aremo Taiwo Alimi for the great honour bestowed on them.
Earlier, in his address of welcome, Jijawa had described the commissioning of the Musical and Drama Recording Studio, the 10 Compartment Editing Studio and the Penthouse as well as the state-of-the-art editing and news gathering gadgets, the mini museum which displayed some of the awards received by VON over the years as the results of massive renewal, renovation, regeneration and rehabilitation process embarked upon by the organisation in the last four years.
The rehabilitation of the Pent House, he said, became necessary "because of the shift-staff would need a place to stay when they work odd hours in order to meet up with the 24 hours broadcasting regime of the station, as they will have to resume at 5.a.m everyday.
According to him, the Music and Drama studios will be used for musical recordings. VON will be able to escape all the copyright issues that accompanied musical usage by composing its own music and recording them through the use of its digital studio. The studio will also be available for musicians and moviemakers.
Speaking further on facilities, Alhaji Jijiwa said all desks and offices in VON could now boast of modern computers with Internet facilities. He used the occasion to announce that VON has contracted and is now test running the largest most modern and digitally compliant radio transmitting project in Africa at Lugbe, Abuja, which is 98 per cent complete.
He also disclosed that the media organization had acquired the rotating antenna technology. Alhaji Jijawa said this technology allows VON to rotate its antenna and beam signals to any region of the world with the touch of a button.
He also said the VON would add more languages to its list. Right now the station broadcast in eight languages: Arabic, English, French, Fulufude, Swahili, Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba. But efforts, he stated, were being made to add Portuguese, German, Mandarin, Chinese and Hindi.
In an emotional speech in response to the honour done to him, former VON Director General, Alhaji Yaya Abubakar thanked Mallam Jijiwa for remembering his contributions to VON. He however said the honour was not meant for him alone but for all the past Directors-General of VON who were not present at the occasion. His words: "We must remember that all of them have contributed in one-way or the other to the success story of VON."
Chief Taiwo Alimi on his own part said he was socked to hear the news that the studio would be named after him. He expressed gratitude to Mallam Jijiwa, management and the staff of VON who have considered it worthy to honour their past leaders. He concluded that those who honour others would themselves be honoured. He thanked the Minister of Information, Prof. Akunyili for her support for VON. Also, he had kind words for the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Information for what he termed "his dedication to the development of the media sector in Nigeria."
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