Why NTA, FRCN, VON and other public broadcasters must be liberated, by Aderemi Ogunpitan
Martins Oloja’s recent piece in The Guardian, “Time to Restructure NTA, FRCN/VON, Recover Daily Times – is a lament and battle cry. It lays bare the slow suffocation of Nigeria’s public broadcasters by a bureaucratic system that rewards mediocrity and punishes innovation. His message is simple: we must liberate our storytellers if we truly want to transform this nation.
The tragedy isn’t a lack of talent—NTA, FRCN, and VON are still home to seasoned broadcasters— trapped in a system that ties content to protocol, not audience. They exist in the same environment as private broadcasters like TVC and Channels , yet produce drastically different results.
Why? Private broadcasters are agile, and forward-looking. NTA remains tethered to outdated civil service structures.
TVC for instance, operates from a multi-million dollar facility in Eko Atlantic City, arguably one of the most expensive real estate in Nigeria, with the most advanced broadcast center in West Africa. It attracts the best hands, pays competitive salaries, and reinvests in its people, platforms, and storytelling. Its content resonates. Its voice is confident. It leads conversations and earns trust—even with its known and obvious political leanings and ownership.
NTA, despite its reach, remains ceremonial. A behemoth in name but a whisper in the digital age. It covers what it’s told to cover. Its studios are dated Despite the recently signed USD200M MOU with Thompson of France, will we ever see the value? Its editors, often unable to make independent decisions. While private stations evolve, NTA is stuck buffering.
Oloja draws comparisons to Ghana’s Daily Graphic—a thriving state-owned newspaper—while Nigeria’s once-proud Daily Times decays. Both had similar origins, but only one was allowed to live.
The solution is not far-fetched. Take public broadcasters out of the civil service web. Let them run with independent boards, investment from staff and stakeholders, and real editorial freedom. BBC does it. Al Jazeera does it. Even SABC, with all its flaws, is more independent than our “national” stations.
The evidence is right before us. TVC and Channels TV proves that success in Nigerian broadcasting is possible. What public media needs is not more subvention, but freedom. If we can’t restructure our storytellers, we shouldn’t speak of national greatness. The time to act is now. Can Tinubu do it? Time will tell.
