Protocols
The DG, sir, we are
excited…We are, indeed, excited to have you visit us. I’d be economical with
the truth if I told you otherwise. So, to say that we are elated is to put it
mildly.
If it were anything else
but a training program, my staff and I would be intimidated by the presence of
such a formidable team. It’s not every day we come face to face with the DG and
members of the BOM.
So I welcome all of you to
this zone. And I salute you for mustering the courage to come to Maiduguri at a
time when many would shy away from coming. People still see this place as a
Boko Haram battle ground. I keep explaining to people that such things are
grossly exaggerated, but they tend to rather believe the rumors they read in
the social media. They find it hard to
believe that Maiduguri is safe. But you and I know better.
That’s why this
training cannot have come at a better time. It’s time to show that with
digitization, access to information is further made easy. With information at
your fingertips, somebody from Umuaku-Isuochi in Abia State may be able to
watch BRTV Maiduguri and know that Maiduguri is safe for him to visit.
Incidentally, that’s where I did my NYSC, way back in 1982.
So, I do hope that what
you are about to do will benefit not only NBC but the country at large. The
training will, without doubt, go a long way in updating our staff on the DSO
process and the journey so far. Many of our staff, majority of whom are new in
NBC, are in the dark about what is going on. And if they are not clear about
what it is all about, how can they explain such things to our licensees?
You may not believe it, but some of our licensees are ignorant of the provisions of the code.
Only recently, a CEO of a broadcast station called and asked me whether the digitization
process will include Radio. You can imagine my surprise at the question,
because he has attended several workshops on digitization, yet he didn’t know
whether Radio would also go digital at the same time with Television…
And a few weeks ago, another CEO here in Maiduguri,
came together with his Director of Commercials and begged us to listen to a
program on Trado-Medic advert and tell them what the breaches are so that they
could edit the CD before airing. They confessed that they couldn’t understand
the code.
So I call on the participants to listen to the lectures
with open minds so that they could tap from the repertoire of knowledge the
resource persons are about to impart.
It’s worth noting that this zone is the last to benefit
from this DSO Training and we do hope that ours will be the best.
Thank you.
