Gov. Abiola Ajimobi of Oyo State says he is determined to make the state-owned Broadcasting Corporation of Oyo State (BCOS) a reference point in broadcasting in the country.
He spoke on Thursday in Ibadan, at a strategy session organised for the BCOS by KPMG International.
Ajimobi said that the station would soon witness a radical transformation that would make it a profitable multi-media entertainment and communication business.
He said that the forum was organised in conjunction with KPMG to examine and fashion out the way forward for the BCOS.
“It is my expectation that the new BCOS will be a modern organisation whose manpower is made up of some of the most creative and technically-savvy managers in the Nigerian entertainment industry,” he said.
Ajimobi said they should be men and women whose managerial competencies rival those of their contemporaries across Africa, Asia, Europe and the Americas.
“It is our vision that our media enterprise will one day become the Mecca for all broadcast practitioners and stakeholders in Africa, to become renewed and reinvigorated in readiness for the fiercely competitive environment of an impending digitalized broadcast regime,” he said.
Ajimobi said that part of his expectations was also to see the station’s operational business paradigm align with global best practices, where stakeholders’ investments are routinely rewarded.
He said that the state deserved no less from its long investment and heritage in mass communication, entertainment, art and culture.
The governor said this started with the broadcasting media’s nascent beginning in Africa under the guiding spirit of the late sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo.
He recalled that on assumption of office in 2011, his administration’s immediate focus and action plan was to ensure the security of lives and property of the citizenry as well as the restoration of decrepit infrastructure.
Ajimobi said that the state’s scarce resources were committed to achieving security and infrastructure development across the state.
“I am not unmindful that the change needed was to build infrastructure of the mind of the citizenry.
“To do this, we always knew we needed to change our people’s attitude by changing their paradigms and thinking patterns.
“To achieve this paradigm shift, we knew we needed the right communication platform that is credible, respectable and trusted enough to be believable. We knew we needed a new BCOS.”
He said that all he wanted was a more holistic restructuring and repositioning that would ensure a sustainable and profitable future for the corporation.
“We want a new BCOS that will fulfil the dreams of one of its founding fathers, Chief Bola Ige,” he said.
Ajimobi said that a team of creative and respectable professionals were drafted to the station to do a quick surgical fix, promising that his administration wanted the best for BCOS.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) recalls that the state government had sought the restructuring of BCOS through KPMG International, which led to the sack of some senior staff of the station.
The Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Oyo State Council had, however, kicked against the action, saying that no panel had found the affected staff wanting in the discharge of their duties as professionals.
The union wondered why the governor, who had assured the workforce on job security, would bring onboard a consultant, to sack management staff unjustifiably. (NAN)