Mr Gab Okpalaeze is the acting managing director, Anambra Broadcasting Service (ABS). In this interview with OKECHUKWU ONUEGBU, he bares his mind on how he intends to turn around the fortunes of what used to be the foremost, oldest broadcasting house east of the Niger.
Describe how your journey into the media has been?
My journey into the broadcast media has been fruitful. I joined Anambra Broadcasting Service as a corps reporter in 1990 as guest artist. I was groomed by people like late Ikem Ikeobi, Chief Uche Udedibia, Mr Tony Ilozumba and other media professionals in the old Anambra state. I was following them around and they were coaching me. It was easy for me to cope because I had undergone the academic training. The practical aspect of it was very interesting. I was able to fit in within some months. And I was posted to the deputy governor’s office. I was there until the creation of Anambra state in 1991. The deputy governor then was late Chief Vincent Aniagor, while the governor was a military man (Lt. Colonel Herbert Eze). After about a year as a guest reporter, my appointment was confirmed and I continued as the Government House correspondent of ABS and served under Navy Captain Joseph Abulu (1991), Chukwuemeka Ezeife (1992), Mike Attah (1992) till 1994. In 1994, MINAJ system came on board and sought my services. I joined them as a pioneer staff from 1994 to 2000, and when the ABS sought my services again, I resigned and rejoined ABS. Then in 2001, after a successful promotion interview, I was promoted to assistant editor level 13. I kept rising until I became the director, News and Current Affairs which is the substantive office I was holding until 2014 when I became the most senior director in ABS. The then MD handed over to me as acting managing director. That was at the end of Governor Peter Obi’s administration. When Governor Willie Obiano came on board and advertised for appointment of MD, Dr Uche Nworah was appointed, and I handed over to him. I stayed back as director News and Current Affairs but that political appointment ended with the administration of Obiano. After eight years, he handed over back to me as acting MD because I am still the most senior director in ABS.
What have been your challenges and success stories in the media?
It is full of ups and down but with hard work, diligence and dedication to duty, I think, so far, it is success story.
What do we expect from the ABS under your watch as acting MD?
ABS is a government-owned station, but having seen myself here, I have a vision to reposition ABS so that it would play a pivotal role as the mouth-piece of the South-east and Nigeria at large. I have a very big plan of making sure we use our facilities (human and material resources optimally) so that it would see us at the helm of affairs of broadcasting. Anambra state is the heart of Igbo land. We cannot be found wanting. We will not like to go beyond the expectations of the people in the zone.
Since you took over as acting MD, what have been you achievements?
Within one month, we have been able to pool staff together and created a lot of committees to help achieve targets. The Revenue Think Tank group, for instance, has facilitated a reach-out programme to stakeholders and clients across the state, yielding immediate results of a Sienna bus and purchase of engine that brought one of our grounded buses back on the road. I have held meetings with various departments and units, gingering them up to add more value to the establishment. The Awka, Onitsha, Nnewi, Lagos and Abuja offices of the ABS now have monthly revenue targets set out for them and by God’s grace, we are achieving the targets. We have been tackling headlong the issues arising from dilapidated generating sets, studio consuls and other facilities and have been able to fix most of the generators at Awka, and now working on those at Enugwu Ukwu and Onitsha, with a touch already on the Onitsha radio transmitter, in order to boost our reach.
ABS seemed is the oldest broadcast media house in the old Eastern Nigeria. Are you not worried that no Igbo man owns any broadcast medium on DSTV? If yes, what is ABS’ plan towards that?
When I tell you that we have the vision of being the mouth-piece of the South-east, that was what I meant. We are planning to launch into digital broadcasting to feature on networks like DSTV and GoTV satellite bouquets. We have a medium term plan towards this project. I won’t call it a short time plan because it is not what you can do without resources. We know that it is not what you can join without first creating quality contents. We have already set up a team that is creating content. So, we have already started the process. You know that Anambra state has a rich culture. Our state has rich serenity; everything about our state is very rich. We have the Ogbunike Cave, Ogbu Cave, River Niger, Agulu Lake and others. There are also tourism attractions and cultural significance like Obu Gad at Aguleri, the ancient Nri dynasty, and other places. They are all beckoning for their story to be told. We thank God we have a new governor, Professor Chukwuma Charles Soludo, who understands all these things. We are keying into his programmes of making sure that our voice is heard so that the narratives of Igbo man, the African man, our story would be told by our own people. That is what we are doing. We are harnessing the resources we have so that our content can be rich. ABS film village is a totally new content that will give us materials. We have also created new programmes like Izu agbaka, the African pot where we cook original African foods so that Africans in the diaspora would feel at home watching ABS. The programme would also attract people from other continents to learn our culture. With these rich contents, we would enter the second stage, which is to ensure that our station remains strong. As we have been intimated, for a station to be sustained on the satellite, it must have rich contents and the transmitter must be strong enough and must sustain 24 hours service per week so that it doesn’t come on and go out. We have plans for 24 hours broadcast per week, and to secure an alternative source of power so that we will have stable power supply. With these in place, we will soon launch on one of the networks. We have already opened a channel of communication with them. We know that these are the basic requirements. So you can see that it is something you can achieve as a medium term plan.
As someone who have seen the greater part of the media industry, what do you consider should be done for the mainstream media to remain relevant despite the challenges posed by the New Media?
The conventional media should improve on quality. The New Media’s greatest strength is immediacy. The traditional media should improve on that. You don’t cover an event and keep it for eternity. You have to serve it to the public as it is hot otherwise the New Media will take over. In trying to serve it hot, you should also strive to investigate and balance the story, maintain the principle of objectivity, and mindful of your audience. Remember that the New Media is made-up of both the professionals and unprofessional. So, they have to marry these attributes and improve on them. They should also make sure they tell their story in simple way because the New Media has made it possible that most people don’t like reading long epistles. Just keep it simple but with the meat of the story. They should marry the good in the New Media and good in the conventional media and improve on them.
There are also need for training and retraining of staff and to empower them with modern technological gadgets to work and achieve greater results.
What do you think is responsible for rising and falling of conventional media houses in recent times?
The media is a capital-intensive industry. If you must go into it, you have to be ready to invest without expecting anything because what you are going to gain will never be commensurate with what you invested. It is service intensive that requires much funding to stand. So, funding is the major problem media owners are facing. People go into it and hire people without money to sustain their salaries. I will suggest that instead of establishing one television or radio station here and there without plans to sustain them, two or more people especially the professionals in the field should team up as partners; gather their resources and expertise to set up one. Media executives who have excelled in their careers should also think of establishing magazines, newspapers and so on so they can employ the younger ones. Why I suggest that they should invest on the media is because they have the skills, knowledge and know how to manage, how to navigate the challenges in the industry and sustain it, so as to achieve their objectives.
