What is worth doing, they say, is worth doing well. This popular adage best explains the continuous transformation of our yearly event solely designed to
celebrate and honour neglected broadcasters, who have, at one time or the other, brought smiles to the faces of millions of Nigerians. It’s my belief that these great Nigerians, dead or alive, should be appreciated more for their unquantifiable contributions towards social development.
It was a successful outing last year when the Nigerian Broadcasters Nite Out And Awards, conceived in 2008 but delivered in 2010, abandoned the original concept of club gig for a formal gathering of those who matter in the Nigerian electronic media, hence, the emergence of a new name, Nigerian Broadcasters Awards (NBA) in 2011!
Considering the number of Radio and TV stations in the country added to the fact that each has its own followership, I stand to be corrected if I say that organizing awards for this category of professionals is a Herculean task.
As a pioneer of the awards for the neglected industry (electronic media), we stuck to our aim of setting the pace and NBA has not only metamorphosed to Nigerian Broadcasters Merit Awards (NBMA), it has grown to become a national affair.
Unlike the previous editions, some of the competitive categories now spread across the four regions (Lagos as central, North, Southwest and Southeast. An online voting system has been introduced in order to involve people as we select those who deserved to be honoured. And for the very first time we spelt out our terms and conditions which state that, -Nominees can only win once in three years, and for this reason names of some popular On-Air Personalities, TV and Radio programmes did not make this year’s nominees list. More so, votes take 40%, while research, survey and agencies’ report take 60% of final result.
Apart from our new website www.nigerianbroadcastersmeritawards.com, we’ve gone biweekly with Airwaves Watch, our quarterly magazine that was launched during the maiden edition held in 2010. Sadly, as we are preparing for this year’s edition of Nigerian Broadcasters Merit Awards, Ambassador Segun Olusola (mni, OFR), who happened to be our grand patron, passed on.
However, to immortalize the highly respected culture aficionado, broadcaster, patron of the arts and diplomats, who died on Thursday June 21, we’ve launched a yearly seminar and celebrity football match in his name.
The first edition successfully took place in conjunction with Association of Mass Communication Student of Yaba College of Technology (Yabatech) and it was held on August 16 and 18 respectively. We intend to take this project round the higher institutions in Nigeria.
Despite the dearth of sponsors, we moved on to inaugurate the first ever award that was strictly for the people in the electronic media. Some of the flaws and critiques about previous editions gingered us to plan a more elaborate event for the broadcasters, leading to the change of name to Nigerian Broadcasters Merit Awards.
Even as I speak to you today, we cannot boast of any major sponsor, yet we are undeterred in our quest of hosting a successful event this year. However, as we continue to look for prospective sponsors and partners from government, well-meaning stakeholders and corporate organizations, I and my crew are very determined to make NBMA a permanent event to celebrate broadcasters.
I specially appreciate everyone that believes in the dream and I pray we all live long in good health to see the dream becomes a reality.
I welcome you all to NBMA 2012.
Thank you!
Being text of the speech delivered by NBMA’s Initiator, Mr. Kazeem Popoola at the 3rd edition of Nigeria Broadcasters Merit Awards held on Sunday December 2, 2012, at Necca House in Ikeja, Lagos, Nigeria.