The Voice of Nigeria (VON) is seeking a partnership with the Ethiopian Broadcasting Corporation in shaping and projecting Africa’s narrative to the world.

The director-general of VON, Jibrin Ndace, made the organisation’s intentions known when he and his management team paid a courtesy visit to the Ambassador of Ethiopia to Nigeria, Esayas Seifu, in Abuja.

Mr Ndace noted that the relationship between the two countries dated back several years, during the Trans-Saharan trade and when Nigerian travellers travelled to Hajj by road via Ethiopia.

He said that the VON was established by its founding fathers not just to be in the forefront of developing and sharing positive narratives about Nigeria and Nigerians but more importantly, about Africa and Africans.

According to him, VON currently broadcasts in eight languages: Hausa, Yoruba, Igbo, Fulfulde, English, Arabic, Swahili and French.

“Very soon we are going to start broadcasting in Mandarin (China), Bahasa Indonesia and Portuguese.

“The reason we are doing this is because other nations are busy telling their own stories. Who will tell our own stories? We are to tell our own stories ourselves and VON was established to do that.

“So, we are here to deepen the relationship between Ethiopia and Nigeria by creating a positive narrative about our two countries.

“We believe that no matter what we do as nations, if we don’t collectively work together and be deliberate about how our stories are told, nobody will know about those positive stories,” Mr Ndace said.

The VON D-G noted that several good things were happening in the African continent, but added that the world was not seeing it, because Africa’s story was being shaped by third-party media.

“We shouldn’t allow that to continue and as D-G of VON,  I will be intentional, deliberate and unapologetic about shaping positive narrative about Nigeria, Nigerians, Africa and Africans.

“So my visit today with my team is to say we are here; we remain committed,  consistent and available as a platform to work with you.

“We also want capacity building between VON and the Ethiopian Broadcasting Corporation, which was rebranded recently.

“Ethiopia houses one of the most important institutions in Africa, which is the African Union; VON want to be embedded there. We want to report from the AU Headquarters and we want your support on that,” he added.

Mr Ndace also expressed the desire of VON to work with the Ethiopian Broadcasting Corporation and the Ethiopian Embassy in Nigeria on fighting fake news, misinformation and disinformation.

Responding, Mr Seifu also noted that Nigeria and Ethiopia were countries with long diplomatic relations.

“These are countries that hold the Pan African Spirit, working together to promote the interests of the African Continent. I very much appreciate the interest that VON has shown in working closely with our embassy.

“Today in the era of social media, unless the African Media promote the interests of Africans, shape the opinions of the African countries, no country can be in the forefront to promote it.

“We have shared values, so we need to work closely together and share experiences,” Mr Seifu said.

The envoy pledged to link VON to the Ethiopian Broadcasting Corporation so as to deepen the relationship and work together to deliver on their mandates.

He also narrated how Ethiopia assisted other African countries in attaining independence and the challenges it faced in building the largest dam, which had the capacity to generate over 5,500 megawatts of electricity. 

(NAN)