Ever had a reason to take a tough decision? Well, I had, during the course of my work – a couple of times, as a matter of fact.
As a broadcast regular, I’ve had reasons to sanction a Television Station where I was once a General Manager, GM, in my home state, Katsina. I’ve also had reason to sanction a Radio Station where my former boss was the Chief Executive Officer.
Here’s how the story went:
During the 2011 general elections, I was the Zonal Director, National Broadcasting Commission, NBC, Kaduna Zone. I was in charge of regulating and controlling broadcast stations within the zone. The zone covers four states of Kaduna, Katsina, Kano and Jigawa.
On the eve of the presidential election, I received a report from NBC Katsina State Office that Katsina State Television, KTTV, where I was once the GM, had breached a section of the Nigeria Broadcasting Code, by airing political adverts just a few hours to the election day (they’re supposed to have stopped airing all political adverts 24 hours to the election day). The state officer then, Adamu Salisu, who reported to me, said he had carefully followed the sanction procedures and had even called the transmission controller of the station to try to warn him to stop the breach, but he refused to take his call. Without any qualms, I slapped a fine against the station. The transmission controller, several days later, was heard telling his colleagues that there was no way he could obey NBC’s directive and get into trouble with the government as the order to continue airing the jingle came from the government house.
The other tough decision I took was when I sanctioned the Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria, FRCN, Kaduna. The station was also reported to have breached a section of the NB code after several admonitions. I called the then zonal director and told him the situation. He said, “Ahmed, don’t mind my boys, just do your work”. The zonal director was no other than my former boss at NBC, Ladan Salihu, who later became the DG, FRCN. So, I fined the station.
I thought he would be angry with me, but events later proved that he wasn’t. When my father died, he was one of the first persons I told. He immediately directed that the announcement of the death be carried several times on the radio. Not only that, he personally drove to Bakori from Kaduna and consoled me.
And this wasn’t the first time he surprised me over a similar issue. He once called me from Kano while he was going back to Kaduna. In the course of our conversation, I told him my father was sick. A few hours later, he called and told me he was in Bakori and asked for the direction to my father’s house. He had diverted from his main route simply to come and greet my dad! And being the generous person he is, he wrote a cheque with some amount of money and told me to cash it and give it to my dad!
Sometimes one has to take tough decisions such as those in the discharge of one’s work. But it takes a great person to understand why you went against them, especially if you have a special relationship with them.