The Voice of Nigeria (VON) is seeking partnership with the Ethiopian Broadcasting Corporation in shaping and projecting Africa’s narrative to the world.
The Director-General of VON, Malam Jibrin Ndace, made the organisation’s intentions known when he and his management team paid a courtesy visit to the Ambassador of Ethiopia to Nigeria, Mr Esayas Seifu, in Abuja.
Ndace noted that the relationship between both countries dated back to several centuries ago during the Trans-Sahara trade and when Nigerians travel to Hajj by road via Ethiopia.
He said that VON was established by its founding fathers not just to be in the forefront of developing and sharing positive narratives about Nigeria and Nigerians but more importantly about Africa and Africans.
According to him, VON currently broadcasts in eight languages; Hausa, Yoruba, Igbo, Fulfulde, English, Arabic, Swahili and French.
“Very soon we are going to start broadcasting in Madarin (China), Bahasa Indonesia and Portuguese.
“The reason we are doing this is because other nations are busy telling their own stories. Who will tell our own stories? We are to tell our own stories ourselves and VON was established to do that.
“So, we are here to deepen the relationship between Ethiopia and Nigeria through creating positive narrative about our two countries.
“We believe that no matter what we do as nations, if we don’t collectively work together, and being deliberate about how our stories are told, nobody will know about those positive stories,” Ndace said.
The VON director general noted that many good things were happening in the continent, but the world was not seeing them because Africa’s story was being shaped by third party media.
“We shouldn’t allow that to continue, and as director general of VON, I will be intentional, deliberate and unapologetic about shaping positive narrative about Nigeria, Nigerians, Africa and Africans.
“So, my visit today with my team is to say we are here; we remain committed, consistent and available as countries with longstanding diplomatic relations.
“We also want capacity building between VON and Ethiopian Broadcasting Corporation which was rebranded recently.
“Ethiopia houses one of the most important institutions in Africa which is the Afrcian Union; VON wants to be embedded there. We want to report from the AU Headquarters and we want your support on that,” he added.
Ndace also expressed the desire of VON to work with Ethiopian Broadcasting Corporation and the Ethiopian Embassy in Nigeria on fighting fake news, misinformation and disinformation.
Responding, Seifu also noted that Nigeria and Ethiopia were countries with long diplomatic relations.
“These are countries that hold the Pan African spirit working together to promote the interest of the African Continent.
“I very much appreciate the interest that VON has shown in working closely with our embassy.
“Today, in the era of social media, unless the African media promote the interest of Africans and shape their opinions, no country can be in the forefront to promote it.
“We have shared values so we need to closely work together and share experiences,” Seifu said.
The envoy pledged to link VON to Ethiopian Broadcasting Corporation so as to deepen the relationship and work together to deliver on their mandates.
He also narrated how Ethiopia assisted other African countries towards the attainment of independence and the challenges it passed through in building the biggest dam that had the capacity to generate over 5,500 megawatts of electricity. (NAN)