Today I am going to take you to the inner systems of the Sports and Outside Broadcast of the FRCN, otherwise referred to as Radio Nigeria (on air) and its struggles over the years to remain number one in both Sports and Ceremonial Commentaries.
Those of us who joined in the 1980s were lucky to have met the remnants of the ” disappearing chip of the old block”. This class was made up of those who joined FRCN after High Schools without attempting University education but received the best professional training from the best institutions of Mass Communication and Broadcasting around the world. Such institutions include the BBC, Radio Deutsche Welle, VOA, Radio Netherlands and so many others. FRCN and training of its personnel were first cousins at the time.
I joined in 1981, and was lucky to have met their old tradition. I was trained in some of these foreign and local institutions, including the FRCN Training School now known as FRCN Broadcast Academy as well as the day-to-day training on the job. I got trained in Announcers Course, News, Programs and of course all the courses in Sports and Outside Broadcasts as well as Sub-Management and Management courses as I progressed through the ladder.
On the assumption of duties, I was made to do my apprenticeships in the units before going to Sports and OB after about six months. No matter where you were to be posted as your permanent unit/department, you were meant to do an “Ajala”, you must go round the units before settling in the unit you fit in. I was first taken to News & Programs, then to Talks & Features, then Religion and Culture and to Variety and Light Entertainment before landing in Sports and OB unit as my abode under the headship of late Ernest Okonkwo.
Okonkwo welcomed me with a question; Are you a graduate? Of course, I answered yes, he now took me aside and whispered to my ear “your degree is not a degree centigrade” Confused as to what he meant, he tapped me on the back and said” Emeka, you will understand later ”What he meant as he explained later was that you cannot succeed because of mere possession of a University degree but by your resilience and zeal to perform.
He told me about those who succeeded exceedingly without university degrees. In sports alone, we had [Ernest, Ishola Folorunsho, Funsho Adeolu (who later became a traditional ruler), Bisi Lawrence, Kevin Ejiofor, Sebastien Offurum, Walter Batowei, Demola Ali and many others. Some of them later went to improve themselves educationally. Sports was seen as the last item on the agenda of news dissemination as far as many reporters, editors and their supervisors were concerned. In fact, many staff saw us as the most “unserious” batch in the system unbeknownst to them that we were being groomed with pride to see ourselves as “Special sect”.
We tried to be special by dropping the toga of “graduate” reporters and in the words of Okonkwo “stooped to conquer”. By the time we effectively took over the mantle of leadership, nearly all of us, so-called “newcomers” had Master’s degrees and PhDs to the greatest surprise of other staff who saw us as “play- play” people.
A pidgin presenter in one of our only FM station then, Radio Nigeria 2, at Martins Street, Lagos Island addressed the Federal Ministry of Youth and Sports, at the time as “ Ministry of play-play and small pikin dem.”
Commentators and Sports reporters like Tolu Fatoyinbo, Sam Okolo, Kalu Udochu, Allen Agbo, Henry Akinsoyinu, Pius Osemwegie, Buno Uwabor, Nneka Ikem- Anibeze , Andrew Nebedum, Sina Abimbola and myself belonged to the class of those who added to their already acquired university certificates and knowledge and remained as the shining examples to the upcoming ones.
Just as they were different individuals and different levels of training, each one of us had someone he tailored to. Sebastien Ofurum would shout at me anytime we met that I was too much of Ernest Okonkwo and that I should strive to fashion out my own identity. The problem was that I was not consciously trying to imitate Ernest Okonkwo, but deep inside me, I admired his stye of commentary.
Tolu Fatoyinbo was said to be largely Ishola Folorunsho in his commentary while Pius Osemwegie was seen as Sebastien Ofurum’s disciple. I think this aspect was more philosophical than anything else. There is a School of Thought that believes that sports commentary stands on a tripod as demonstrated below:
1st Leg: where is the ball?
2nd leg: who is with the ball?
3rd leg: Who does he do with the ball?
This is the tripod and every answer to the questions is to build the commentary. Those who believed in this were those we called” Eyes on the Ball School”. To them, your attention must be paid to the movement of the ball and nothing else. Our ultimate leader, Ishola Folorunsho and Sebastien Ofurum belonged to this school.
Ernest Okonkwo and of course, my little self believe that commentary should be more descriptive especially on Radio. He believed that Referee’s decisions or indecisions were important in the game of football, including the reaction of the fans, weather outlook, attendance, what of the crowd outside, why did they not come in? So, even the conduct of teams/officials, stadium management etc. must not be jettisoned. A piece of typical Ernest’s commentary:
Emeka Odikpo: the match has begun in earnest; I will hand over to Ernest.
Okonkwo: Thank you Emeka. My name is Ernest, and I am honest, and the match began in earnest with an earned first throw in.
Okonkwo will go on and on, talking about discussions he had with his family, especially his son, Okey, before he left his house. He would even talk about how difficult or easy it was for him to enter the stadium, the teeming or lean crowd and so on. He made the commentary very lively, and people oriented. I must confess, I took after him.
In fact, many people attributed certain things I said to him because of what they saw as similarity in voice and elocution, the major example being the “Dammam Miracle” which people erroneously attributed to Ernest who didn’t travel to Saudi for the commentary. FRCN gave me, and all of us, that rare privilege to be its staff in the 80s and early 90s before “things started falling apart”.
I attended almost all the training courses at home and abroad, and even the exchange programs in BBC, VOA African Service and Radio Netherlands but just like Ernest said, university degree is not a degree centigrade. I will have the opportunity to write in details about Ernest Okonkwo towards his “death anniversary”. But it must be said here that his passion for sports and ceremonial commentaries was unparalleled.
Be it as it is, every other commentator had his own unique style except that approaches differed even though there may be an overlap between two commentators. Someone once asked me who I thought was the best commentator. I asked back: “based on what parameter? If you talk of liveliness, conversational, story telling commentary, perhaps Ernest took the lead. If you want to look at commentary from the perspective of strict adherence to ball to ball description, then Ishola Folorunsho and Sebastien Ofurum were the clear leaders.
There are so many ways of killing a rat and I add that there are so many approaches to teaching a child how to ride a bicycle. We had our yearly travel plans and budget which were usually sent to the government for approval. In most instances this budget was never exhausted depending on management and if you had money in the reserve, your travel proposals were always sure to be approved.
The impression we had was that as a national Radio, FRCN must cover important sporting and social events including the Annual Budget Presentation, National Sports Festivals, Independence Presentation and March Past, and other local and international sports and ceremonial events. Attached to these events were the names and charts for coverage. We believed it would be impossible for FRCN not to cover any major sports or non-sports events. If it happened, it would be a difficult scenario to defend before the federal government. What reason do you have?
But like Chinua Achebe wrote, things started falling apart when in mid-90s the government approved partial commercialization and privatization for NTA and FRCN meaning that we were partly on our own in sponsorships of local and international sports coverages. NTA had a slight edge over FRCN because of pictures and would cover events that FRCN couldn’t because of funds. Many preferred to be seen.
As time went by, the mantra was now “cover event X or Y if you could” and with that it was” to your tents O Israel”. We could only manage to cover one international event in the year. We still, however, managed to cover the Olympics in an Olympic year, the Cup of Nations, AFCON and the FIFA World Cup while struggling to ensure we covered the matches of the National Football Team.
One period in 2010, I was summoned before a panel to explain why I thought that we must cover the FIFA World Cup in South Africa. As I walked in, the DG, Barr Yusuf Nuhu thundered “He is here. Mr Odikpo tell us why you insist on this coverage!”. I took a deep breath and looked straight into the DG’s eyes and in a few words, I gave an answer, but the DG’s greatest shocker was that I told him, Sir, don’t let this fire quench in your hands and he retorted: “Will anyone die? I said no, but something would have died in FRCN. That something is our pride, our tradition. I left but I was told that it was the clincher.
In two days, I was asked to send in the estimates. About six of us, Richard Asiegbu, Sina Abimbola, Andrew Nebedum and I [Emeka Odikpo] were the commentators while Ernest Osogbue, Chinedu Ohanusim, Christy Dashe and Sani Garba were the reporters. In my carefree moment as the representative of FRCN in BON [Broadcasting Organisations of Nigeria], I queried the Secretary why BON should not even take one person from member organization to South Africa like the FRCN, he told me they concluded to do so as they were just arising from their meeting.
After a few discussions, BON agreed to adopt the FRCN, NTA and Brilla teams to South Africa. So instead of FRCN agonizing, they got a big relief and a modest return from BON. This same strategy was adopted by FRCN/BON for the coverage of 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil except that we were only two from FRCN. Just a few weeks after my retirement, Radio Nigeria was absent in the Rio Olympic Games in 2016, and it repeated itself in 2024 in Paris Olympics as well as the FIFA World cup in 2018 and 2022 in Qatar and Moscow. It may just be that a new tradition of no longer covering events live has taken over from the old tradition. Those of us “old school” brigade shudder at this development.
Can you imagine an institution that was reputed to be the light in live coverages of sports now aloof, unrecognized, with the old memory fading away? Some of the younger ones may be at odds remembering the past coverage by the same institution that covered relentlessly the global and local sports including the national league and rescheduled games. Things have fallen apart, but can the centre hold? Only time will tell.
