Saturday, February 26, 2011

Nigeria To Pass FoI Bill....At Last!

Nigeria's House of Reps has passed the Freedom of Information (FoI) Bill. Good news! It now goes to the Senate for concurrence. Happily, President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan is reported to be awaiting it for immediate assent.

There are of course a few areas of concern to civil society: exemption of military budgets and lack of express provisions for citizen-action and protection. These can and should be resolved at "conference" once the Senate is fully sensitized and engaged. Otherwise, the next parliament should take up appropriate amendments fro July 2011.

Let us thank the reps for their part, and encourage the senators to do full justice to this bill once and for all.

The war against corruption may now look really serious!

Monday, February 14, 2011

KUDOS TO RADIO - Especially FRCN!

Recovering from a small accident that got arthritis attracted, I've been on a hybrid retreat. From my semi-rural and self-imposed outposts-domains, I chose radio as my main link to the world. The internet gave me the other part: news panorama.

Radio. I have always loved radio. But in recent years, like many Nigerians, the private media channels have caught my imagination, empathy and patronage. No less because the public media had become personalized by public officers! As the NBC admonished, and quite rightly constantly reiterated by the NUJ president and civil rights crusaders, government-owned media must be just and fair to ALL - especially the opposition. We still can’t say so of many public stations nationwide!

For months now I have been listening to FRCN National. I’m pleased. Very. The quality and variety of content and delivery make me proud. The 12 noon diet - Network Nigeria - brings me creativity and comic relief. Oh, and those news and programme anchors! Your kids would safely learn English from them. We certainly can’t say the same for many private (or even FRCN FM) stations nationwide!

Labaran Maku, expand the FRCN Training School, Ikeja. Ask Babatunde Fashola for a befitting land on Lekki Peninsula or Badagry Mega Highway, and upgrade it to a full University - like the NTA TV College, Jos. Bring back veterans to man the faculty with tenure and incentives. Before 29 May, 2011. It’s our local BBC!

BON should encourage, failing which compel, all broadcasters to go to FRCN for voice and phonetics training. Now, and periodically!