Speach: Obiano Charges ABS Radio/TV to take over South East

www.odogwublog.com brings you the speech by Governor Willie Obiano today at the 30 years anniversary of Anambra Broadcasting Service, ABS at Women Development Center Awka


SPEECH BY THE GOVERNOR OF ANAMBRA STATE, HIS EXCELLENCY, CHIEF WILLIE OBIANO ON THE OCCASION OF THE 30^TH ANNIVERSARY LECTURE OF THE ANAMBRA BRAOADCASTING SERVICE (ABS) ON WEDNESDAY, 4^TH MARCH 2015.

PROTOCOLS

First, I want to thank our brother, in-law and friend, Professor Pat Okedinachi Utomi, for accepting to come to Awka to deliver the great Lecture we have just listened to.

Through the years, Prof. Utomi has established himself in our consciousness as an important voice in national discourse. And we have all seen the reason why that is so today. From the ovation given to him, it is evident that he has done justice to the Lecture. Prof. Utomi, I say thank you once again and welcome to Anambra State – Light of the Nation!

Ndi Anambra, today’s event is dear to me - it comes 13 days to the First Anniversary of my administration. So, it is gratifying to see that when we look back to the last 12 months, we are happy to note that Anambra Broadcasting Service has experienced the wind of change that is blowing across Anambra State today.

Ladies and gentlemen, experience has shown that no truly accountable and democratic society can thrive without a robust media. My administration is fully aware of the growing importance of the media in a world that is essentially driven by the hunger-to-know … stimulated by the media and satisfied by the same media. We are aware that without a powerful information dissemination organ, the giant strides we have made in building a New Anambra state will not be known to Ndi Anambra. But perhaps more importantly, we are also aware that we cannot effectively build a New Anambra without first building a New ABS.

Armed with this awareness and dissatisfied with the present status of this great heritage, we resolved to overhaul, rebrand and reposition ABS to fulfil its mandate to the government and people of Anambra State. In line with our resolution, we invested heavily in the procurement of ultra-modern digital equipment that have just arrived and will be fully installed and ready to use in less than six weeks. I have been assured by the experts that when fully operational, the new equipment will place ABS on the commanding height of the broadcasting industry in the entire South East of Nigeria.

Ndi Anambra, as part of our efforts to create a formidable broadcasting brand, I inaugurated a new Board of Directors for the new ABS yesterday. The Board is headed by our own Nn’emeka Maduegbuna, a veteran broadcaster and communications guru whose wife is also a famous broadcaster. When I inaugurated the Board yesterday, I challenged Nn’emeka and his colleagues to turn ABS into another CNN. And I have no doubt that they will give Ndi Anambra just that.

Ladies and gentlemen, my administration holds the media in high esteem. So, while we have invested so much in buying new equipment and retooling our processes, we are also aware that equipment alone cannot give us the world-class media and entertainment outfit that we desire. Consequently, we have resolved to train the staff of ABS, hire fresh talents that will bring a new excitement to the airwaves and adopt some global best practices in broadcasting that will make ABS compare quite favourably to CNN and other top Nigerian stations. So, Ndi Anambra, it is a new day for ABS! It is a new day for Anambra State! It is a new day for us all!

In conclusion, as we round off the first year of my administration, I wish to call on the good people of Anambra State, to embrace the new spirit of Anambra which has been the driving force of my administration in the past one year.

The spirit of Anambra is that restless voice inside every one of us that constantly urges us towards excellence. It is a path-finding spirit that leads us to the road less travelled. It is a can-do spirit that nudges us to become masters of our own universe. It is the spirit behind the flyovers that are springing up in Awka today and the spirit that will lead ABS to the commanding height of broadcasting in Nigeria! This is the spirit that everyone of must strive to have!
Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for your kind attention!

Willie Obiano

Governor of Anambra State