Efio-Ita Nyok|18 January 2016|7:10am
With the eleventh edition of the Carnival Calabar, Africa's biggest Street party, haven wound off, it's time to make an assessment of the strength and weaknesses of the event.
Generally, critics have made the point that the environmentally-themed 11th edition of the Carnival Calabar was poor in its total execution. Ifere Paul and Emmanuel Ogar have made the point that it was shabby in its outlook unlike previous editions.
My criticism highlights the operations of the states-owned media outfit, Cross River Broadcasting Corporation(CRBC) as it borders on the coverage of the grand event.
It's reported that CRBC was on the 29 of December 2015, the D-day of the celebration, found to be broadcasting the Carnival Calabar of previous years, especially 2014. The media house under review actually deemed it fit to air Carnival Calabar 2015 experience three days after the event had been savoured!
In fact, I am privy to the information that has it that one of the residents of the state after discovering that CRBC was airing Carnival Calabar 2014 on the D-day of the event, picked up his phone and put a call across to the General Manager(GM) demanding why they were not airing the 2015 experience, it is said that the GM responded by informing him that they were just discussing the very question in her office: why Cross River Broadcasting Corporation wasn't covering and airing life an event of that magnitude?
While Super Sports and South Africa-owned DSTV were busy feeding the world with live footages from the scene, the management was discussing on the D-day 'why they were not covering the grand party'. Hmmmmmmm, Nigerians don't cease to amuse me.
I want to state in very categorical terms that this was an abysmal failure on the part of the management and staff of the broadcasting house. However, I will not put the total responsibility for this failure on the management of CRBC but likewise on the state government especially the Offices of the Commissioner for Information, Commissioner for Tourism and Governor who are the foremost broadcasting officers in the state. This is totally unacceptable! We demand explanation from these four foremost offices, namely, the General Manager CRBC, the Commissioners of Information and Tourism and the Executive Governor why this trend was permissible?
If we understand that Cross River State was a tourism location and if we intend to perpetuate this trend then the information we send to the world must be deliberate and apt. Let me speculate on the possible reasons why CRBC, Ministry of Information, Ministry of Tourism and the Office of the Governor failed.
If we accept with John C. Maxwell, the leadership expert that everything rises and fall on leadership then the ultimate blame must go to the three offices mentioned above for being responsible for the failure. Put differently, there was a 'leadership glut' that preceded this profound failure. They all failed probably because the other two offices were carried away by the shoki-dancing spree of the occupant of the office of Governor/Commissioner of Tourism. Consequently, they failed to take decision. Leadership is basically about making decisions and ensuring that adopted decisions are executed as planned.
Secondly, there was a 'know-how gap'. By this I mean to refer to the fact that CRBC, may not as an institution, have had the technology to cover the event and beam it live for the numerous audiences. Does CRBC have the requisite electronic and electrical devices to cover the occasion? For instance, do they have drones that could have flown over head to cover the event? I doubt. When was the last time the technical staff, at the corporation, specially trained for optimal performance for events of this nature?
Thirdly, CRBC is in dire need of rebranding. The corporation has not explored the trending ICT innovations in the field of reporting and broadcasting. Does CRBC have any social media account via which it communicate it's publications? Does she have a standard website, Facebook like page, Twitter handle, Google plus account, and even Instagram through which it interfaces with the world? I am not aware of any. What is trending now in CRBC is the Commercial department that is responsible for managing personal paid announcement and the like. In summary, the reasons as:leadership failure, technological weaknesses and branding challenge.
The above triune reasons, in my opinion, constitute rationalisations as to the how/why the Carnival Calabar 2015 wasn't given an excellent coverage by our own local media outfit. I will therefore suggest the followings as remedial measures that, if adopted, will effect a turnaround in our local coverage of events of this nature. Let it be stated at the on set that my suggestions wouldn't be alien to my perceived reasons for failure. That is to say, my solutions are already anticipated. First, the leadership gap occasioned by the offices of Governor, Commissioners of Information and Tourism, and the General Manager of CRBC has to be looked into. I am therefore calling on these quadruplets to begin to fashion out an responsive policy that will be geared towards the optimisation-cum-efficiency of CRBC, for without their policy, there wouldn't be action. For instance, if the governor who doubles also as the Commissioner of Tourism had issued an executive fiat directing the funding and training of the corporation, the Commissioner of Information would have through the General Manager of CRBC effected the fiat. The staff would have been trained accordingly and the corporation equipped.
Secondly, the equipage at CRBC is obsolete. I don't know the degree of technological equipage the corporation had experienced since the exit of the former governor Donald Duke. However, I do know that what we have there now, from Liyel Imoke's administration is nothing to write home about as we saw it reflected in their overall performance during the Carnival Calabar 2015. I therefore suggest that there should be an overhaul in the general equipage at the corporation. Cutting edge audio, video and electronic devices should be purchased and the training on the use of those equipments ensured to secure optimisation and efficiency.
Thirdly, CRBC should be branded to meet trending social media advances. By now CRBC should have a Facebook like page, twitter handle, Google plus account and probably an Instagram account. She should have a dynamic website where all her news items and publications should be floated.
Should these little advice of mine be adopted, the corporation will be better for it. I therefore call on the offices of the General Manager, Commissioners of Information and Tourism and the Governor to respond accordingly.
Efio-Ita Nyok
Is a Writer, Blogger & the Editor of Negroid Haven
