TBC, VON vow to push African agenda

DAR ES SALAAM: THE Tanzania Broadcasting Corporation (TBC) and the Voice of Nigeria (VON) have committed to push the African agenda by broadcasting contents with African perspectives.

African countries have been attempting to unite since gaining independence in the 1960s, but they have become divided as a result of how the western media has reported African-related events.

This was revealed yesterday by TBC Director General, Dr Ayub Rioba during signing ceremony of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between TBC and VON held in Dar es Salaam.

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Voice of Nigeria broadcasts in eight languages, namely English, French, Hausa, Arabic, Kiswahili, Fulfulde, Yoruba and Igbo.

“This agreement penned down today (yesterday) between TBC and the Voice of Nigeria (VON) will help to broadcast the contents with African perspectives internationally,” TBC boss asserted.

In executing the agenda, Dr Rioba said TBC will soon start with an online English Channel to broadcast contents with African perspectives.

“We had confined ourselves with Kiswahili, we have only one English bulletin that is being broadcasted once in a day, and we also need to project our perspectives to other audiences using their own languages,” Dr Rioba underlined.

In a related development, Dr Rioba revealed that the signed agreement will enable them to cooperate in five areas, including content exchange.

“This agreement is also going to promote Kiswahili, since TBC will help VON’s Kiswahili Channel find Kiswahili broadcasters,” he said.

He added that TBC and VON will cooperate in staff exchange programme in various areas, including broadcasters.

“As we are talking, TBC has already sent one of its broadcasters to Nigeria to assist VON’s Kiswahili broadcasters,” he said.

Adding; “the agreement will provide opportunity for the two broadcasting houses to have representative reporters in respective countries. TBC will have representatives in Nigeria and VON will have its representative in Tanzania.”

According to Dr Rioba, the agreement has a long history from the days of Radio Tanzania Dar es Salaam (RTD) through external service that had close cooperation with the Nigeria Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) that pushed for the liberation of the African continent.

For his part, VON Director General, Jibrin Baba Ndace   said that the agreement is not only important for Tanzania and Nigeria, but for the entire continent of Africa.

“We need to work together to diminish fake news and misinformation against those who want to bring down countries and continent.

“This MoU that we are signing, again is not about TBC and Voice of Nigeria, indeed is not about Dr Ayub and I; it’s about Nigeria and Tanzania; it’s about Africa,” he emphasised.

In line with this, he applauded Dr Rioba’s leadership style in running the corporation, saying he would emulate some of things when he returns to his homeland – Nigeria.