By Ogbole John
T
he announcement of the appointment of Dr. Balarabe Shehu Ilelah as the 6th substantive Director-General of the National Broadcasting Commission by the Hon. Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed on Friday, 22 June, 2021 was greeted with mixed reactions. There were those who conveniently and gullibly swallowed and continue to swallow the cheap and unpopular narrative that the new NBC helmsman was brought to do the political biddings of the president and the presidency. This conclusion is drawn largely from the fact that Dr. Shehu Ilelah, not only a politician of the ruling All Progressive Congress extraction, but was once the Director, Media and Publicity, APC Presidential and Gubernatorial Elections in Bauchi State during the 2019 general elections. Similarly, his active participation in the contest for the seat of the Bauchi South Senatorial District contributed to this narrative. Conclusion of sort is a classical example of the “danger of a single story” in the words of a renowned novelist, Chimamanda Adiche.
How else would you describe a man who used his influence abroad to secure over 6,000 free air conditioners and several buses for the Bauchi state government. An opportunist who ventured into politics to enrich himself or a renowned technocrats who ventured into politics to use his international connections and influence to better the life of his people?
Not many are aware that Dr. Balarabe is a world class veteran journalist who has well over 30 years’ experience working with both local and international media outfits. Not many are equally aware that he is into property and hospitality management, managing one of the best hotels in Bauchi and Abuja. Are they also aware that the new NBC DG is into mining activities and also manages mega business stores in strategic states in Nigeria? What else does one truly need to be a qualified chief executive?
Unfortunately, the misperception or mischaracterization of the person of the new DG is largely occasioned by several factors: either due to paucity of information about the personality and experience of Dr. Balarabe before his appointment and, or a pure mischief deliberately calculated to categorize every appointee of President Muhammadu Buhari as misfit. However, such misconception will continue to gain ground when one chooses to mis-characterize the new DG as a typical Nigeria politician without first consider his technocratic engagements home and abroad before his recent foray into the political space.
Well, let us get to meet the brand new substantive Director General of the National Broadcasting Commission who, by the grace of God, will be piloting the affairs of the Commission for the next five years. This write up is meant to shade light on the personality of the new DG and what experience he is bringing to bear in the discharge of his duty as the chief regulator of the broadcasting ecosystem in Nigeria.
Born in 1962 in Ilelah Street, Bauchi State, the young Balarabe attended Kobi Primary school Bauchi, as well as Junior Secondary School Misau all in Bauchi State. He graduated from Bayero University, Kano in 1987/88 and did his NYSC in Yola, then old Gongola State. He worked briefly with the Nigerian Television Authority as a News Editor before his sojourn to the Soviet Union where he worked briefly with Radio Moscow until the collapse of the Union.
Thereafter, he joined the Russian government for about a year before migrating to the Peoples’ Republic of China where he worked for almost 30 years, first with China Radio International. He moved to work with BBC London briefly and later returned to China as a Senior Lecturer with Beijing Foreign Studies University and later with Beijing Communication University as a visiting lecturer before quitting to pay attention to his business.
The new DG returned to Nigeria in 2016 and joined politics. According to him, “…we’ve had enough of cynical, fear-based, divide-and-conquer politics”. His love for the development of his people made him to contest for the seat of the Bauchi South Senatorial District but withdrew his candidacy before the Election Day. Building up to the 2019 general election, Dr. Balarabe was appointed as Director, Media and Publicity, APC Presidential and Gubernatorial Elections in Bauchi State. The last public office he held before his appointment by President Muhammedu Buhari as the substantive Director General of the National Broadcasting Commission on June 11, 2021.
During his meeting with staff at the Commission’s headquarters in Abuja, the Director General expressly encouraged staff to learn to do things differently as national interests must be placed above personal interests. According to him, the media is critical to the development or destruction of any nation and therefore, regulation is crucial and must be diligently done to remove any contents inimical to national interests and the stability of the country. He lamented that the media space is saturated with people who are not professionals and who have no interest of the nation at hearts and pledged to reposition the Commission in line with global best and to upgrade monitoring infrastructure. He equally promised to place staff welfare at the front burner of his administration and to create training opportunities for all staff both home and abroad.
By this information, I strongly feel that the 6th Director-General of National Broadcasting Commission, Dr. Blarabe Shehu Ilelah should be given the benefits of the doubt until the completion of his first term of five years before reaching any conclusion about his mission. This will grant us the opportunity to judge him either as a typical Nigerian politician who has come to serve the interest of the presidency or a technocrat that has come to reposition the Nigeria broadcasting ecosystem in line with global best practices.
God Bless Nigeria.
Ogbole John, Ph.D writes in from Abuja.
