WNTV @ 60: Retelling Awolowo’s Timeless Legacy -By Abdullahi O. Haruna

Great leaders are those who reinvent themselves either through their deeds or through the protégés they have groomed to take over the baton of leadership when they are long gone. Chief Obafemi Awolowo is a great leader, who will continue to be with us through the legacies he has bequeathed to us; he is very much alive, because his bequests will continue to reverberate from generation to generation, making him an example of an all-time classical leader in the annals of Nigerian history.

One important area that Awolowo’s name will continue to be mentioned is in the area of television. History of television in Nigeria and Africa cannot be complete without the mention of Chief Awolowo. While leaders across Africa were maniacally befuddled by series of challenges that confront the continent, Chief Awolowo was ahead of his contemporaries, imagining what many would have dismissed as ego trip and doing what was considered the impossibility of the time.

As a philosopher, Chief Awolowo believed that the best form of knowledge is that which provides practical solutions to human challenges. So, instead of conjuring the impossibility of having television service in a region, country and continent where owing a television set was a rarity, he did the unthinkable by establishing the Western Nigeria Television (WNTV), the first television service in Africa on October 31, 1959, making him one of the most practical-oriented leaders on the continent. Although, at this time, many regions were grappling with financial challenges, through judicious and prudent management of the scarce resources, the dream of having the first television station in Africa became a reality.

Most great leaders attain enviable height through effective collaboration with like minds. Awolowo’s feats of establishing the first television station in Africa was made possible through the support of other great and visionary leaders who were former minister of Information for Western Region, Anthony Enahoro, and first chairman of the Western Nigeria Broadcasting Corporation, Tanimonwo Solaru.

Awolowo’s display of rare wisdom and innovativeness in birthing the first television service in Africa did not come to many as a surprise. Being a leader of exceptional foresight, he occupied front seat in many spheres and that placed the government of Western Nigerian Region above many governments in Africa. For instance, he is reputed for building the first stadium in West Africa, running the best civil service in Africa at the time, introducing free health care till the age of 18, introduction of free and mandatory primary education, and coining the name Naira for Nigeria’s currency (formerly known as the Nigerian Pound) as the Federal Commissioner of Finance under the Military Government of General Yakubu Gowon, among other feats.

Recently, precisely, on 31st October 2019, captains of industry, policy makers, entertainers, governmental and non-governmental organisations, civil society organisations, media scholars and well-meaning Nigerians were gathered at the International Conference Centre, University of Ibadan, to celebrate sixty years of television in Africa. The auspicious event which was organised by the former staff of WNTV under the aegis of Foundation for Ibadan Television Anniversary Celebrations, was an avenue to celebrate and pour encomium on the personalities behind the first ever television station in Africa.

Vice President Yemi Osinbajo who led other dignitaries in marking the 60th anniversary, noted that every generation has a historic responsibility to reach for the highest peak that human capacity could achieve, saying: “Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Premier of the Western Region, then flanked by Governor General, Sir John Rankine, Chief Anthony Enahoro, the region’s Minister of Information, and Chief T.T Solaru, first Board Chair of Western Nigeria Broadcasting Corporation, formally entered the history books by commissioning the Western Nigeria Television, the first in Africa; and ahead of China in 1962, Canada in 1967, New Zealand in 1960, and several European countries, including the Netherlands in 1960, Ireland in 1961, Greece in 1966 and Malta in 1962.”

For Osinbajo, “The event was historic for three reasons. Firstly, it demonstrated the capacity of the Nigerian mind to conceive and achieve anything no matter how complex or difficult. Secondly, it demonstrates how visionary leadership can inspire and lead people from the lowest levels to the high points of human imagination.”

Also, the event “exemplifies the use of public resources for the public good. WNTV was built to inform, to educate and entertain. As Papa Awolowo himself said on that day sixty years ago, television is a powerful influence for good” Osinbajo said.

Finally, Osinbajo reiterated that “It would ordinarily have been unimaginable that somehow in a part of the yet to be independent Nigeria, a man and his team would build a television station in three months, the first as we have seen, in many parts of the world. But for the man, it was not so surprising because Papa (Awolowo) had laid out a plan for the rapid development of the Western Region. It included physical infrastructure and human capacity development.”