….Says Work Underway to Revamp State Media Outfit for Effective, Efficient Service Delivery
Gombe State Governor, Muhammadu Inuwa Yahaya says his administration will provide all necessary support to the state’s media outfit, Gombe Media Corporation, GMC in order to enable it compete favourably with other broadcast stations in the state.
Governor Inuwa Yahaya stated this when he received members of the governing board of the GMC led by its chairman, Muhammad Kabir Abdullahi at the Council Chamber of the Government House.
The Governor described the board of the GMC as indispensable owing to the fact that the state media outfit is the official mouth piece of Government which churns out news and programmes on the policies and activities of the State to the people to keep them abreast with happenings within the corridors of power.
He said members of the board were carefully selected and appointed because of the belief that they can turn the fortunes of the media house for the better and position it well to compete favourably with others and blow the State Government’s trumpet louder.
“We shall not allow somebody to blow our trumpet for us, we have to blow it ourselves and dance it the way we want it”.
Governor Inuwa Yahaya who noted the challenges of the GMC as presented by the chairman for short, medium and long terms consideration, said it was his wish to address the problems holistically so that the station can be on good stead to deliver on its mandate without giving an excuse.
“I think we need a holistic review of Gombe Media Corporation. We are ready to provide all required equipment and facilities that will make the place up and running. And any staff that is not needed can be posted out because you have no course to become redundant or an obstacle rather than a facilitator for the success of Government”.
He said the redundancy issue is not only peculiar to Gombe Media Corporation alone but most of the Government Agencies, citing as example, the Gombe Liaison office in Abuja which has 72 staff with most of them doing little or nothing to justify their continuous stay there.
“As at today half of our statutory allocation goes into paying salaries, that is even before the commencement of the N30, 000 naira minimum wage, and with the implementation, over 237 million naira has gone into salaries again and the cost of running Government has increased because of inflation. So whatever you touch is virtually taking us to ground zero”.
He said matters are even made worse for the State giving its standing in statutory allocation and the low capacity of the State to generate revenue, saying even though the State is gradually picking up in terms of IGR, Gombe still ranks low in revenues both internally and externally.
He said the State had previously over borrowed, decrying the debt to revenue ratio which is used by the debt management office to determine how a state can borrow which is 22.8 percent instead of the threshold of 20 percent which he said hampers the State’s capacity to borrow and run its affairs.
Delivering the roadmap towards repositioning the broadcast station, the Chairman, Governing Board of the Gombe Media Corporation, Muhammad Kabir Abdullahi said some of the challenges confronting the station include; none functional generator, obsolete equipment and machinery as well as dilapidated buildings.
He said despite the enormity of the challenges confronting the station, the board members have agreed to intervene in the following areas; technical expertise to revamp both human and material resources, installation of earthing system to prevent thunder strike, provision of digital camera, micro wave link to star times transmitter and provision of solar energy among others.
In his remarks, the Director General of the Gombe Media Corporation, Kabiru Ibn Mohammed told the Governor that on assumption into office, he met a station that is bedeviled with numerous human and material challenges, noting that the composition of the board of the GMC points to the readiness and commitment of the administration of Governor Muhammadu Inuwa Yahaya to transform the station and make it a model.
He assured that the Gombe Media Corporation will continue to serve as the mouth piece of the State Government under the leadership of Governor Muhammadu Inuwa Yahaya.
