EMERGENCE OF TELEVISION IN AFRICA

Historically, the idea of matching radio signals with pictures to be transmitted on the air and received at home, began shortly after success was recorded in radio communication.

The efforts of a number of scientists and investors from Germany , USSR , United States of America , Britain and France finally led to the emergence of telecasting in the early nineteen hundred but the experiments had started in the eighteen hundred, when still and moving pictures were sent by wire and this led to development of the wire photo service.

In nineteen thirty , more than forty Engineers and Television inventors were brought together in Canden , New Jersey to merge their television research programmes together. The team tackled and solved all the outstanding problems relating to television system.

In Britain , the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) began a regular television service from New Alexander Palace station in nineteen thirty-six . Japan , too, was busy with its research, but this was halted by Second World War between nineteen thirty-nine and nineteen forty-five .

Nigeria joined the World of television in nineteen fifty-nine , when the Western region television broadcasting was born. The television started with the initiative of the first Western Region Premier, Chief Obafemi Awolowo who on the thirty-first, October, nineteen fifty-nine launched television broadcasting in Ibadan , the headquarters of the region. During this period, Chief Anthony Enahoro was the Minister in charge of Information.

In nineteen fifty-three following a walkout of the House of Assembly by the Awolowo-led Action Group over calls for a repeal of the Macpherson constitution of nineteen fifty-one-Governor Macpherson’s Colonial Government derided the walkout as immature on television and Chief Awolowo then asked for a right of reply. It is on record up till today that Politics and education were two developments accelerated the reality.

Speaking during the launching of the WNTV at Agodi, Ibadan , which incidentally was the first in Africa, the Late Sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo said the medium was meant to serve as teacher entertainer, and a stimulus to all to transform Nigeria into a modern and prosperous nation.

Though, the project was a regional one, it was designed to serve a pan-Nigeria goal. Indeed, Chief Awolowo went further to emphasize the informational and educational motive behind the founding of the WNTV by saying that his government intended to bring into people’s homes information about Nigeria and the outside world to enable Nigerians gain more knowledge about their society and the world at large.

On October first, nineteen sixty, the former Eastern Region started its own television broadcasting system. The motive for its establishment was also the need for formal and informal education while the Northern Region Government contracted with the overseas firms of Pye Limited and Granada TV Limited to build its own television service known as Radio Television Kaduna which was on air in nineteen sixty-two.

In nineteen seventy-eight, Western Nigeria Television transformed into what we now know as the Nigeria Television Authority (NTA). The then Military authorities took over the regional televisions and made them an authentic voice of the Nigerian government.

Also, in nineteen nineties, NTA’s monopoly on the Nigerian airspace was broken with the establishment of privately owned television stations and networks under General Ibrahim Babangida.

In due course, the television box became a popularly household item across Nigeria , with regional and state governments setting up their own television stations. Having set the pace, other African countries followed suit.

The advent of television transformed the Nigerian way of life, it expanded the scope of human expression and freedom and has served as tool not just for education and entertainment, but also the documentation of significant social and political history.

It is pertinent to note however that despite the increasing televisions across the length and breadth of Nigeria , the desired quality production and programming cannot be said to have been achieved when compared to other television stations across the globe.

The National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) should also ensure that its directive of seventy percent local content broadcasting is complied with to promote a broad range of positive objectives in the society.

Government should also create an enabling environment in terms of infrastructure and legislation for all parties involved to meet this particular goal as well as social objective envisioned by Late Chief Obafemi Awolowo fifty years ago.