The Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria(FRCN), Media Salary Scale(MSS) and selective salary increment under the searchlight.


The Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria(FRCN) populary tagged ‘Radio Nigeria’ is Nigeria owned and publicly funded radio broadcasting organization.

It was founded in 1933 by the British colonial government and branded Radio Diffusion Service (RDS) with the mandate to allow the public hear and enjoy British Broadcasting Corporation(BBC) foreign radio service broadcast.

In 1950, RDS was rebranded Nigerian Broadcasting services and it was restructured into Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) in April 1st, 1957 by an act of parliament as public service.
Initially,NBS was only in Lagos, Kaduna, Enugu,Ibadan, kano as recommended by the the Nigeria Broadcasting Survey commissioned by the then colonial government and undertaken by Messrs Byron and Turner.It was later extended to other parts of the country such as Zaria, sokoto, Ilorin, Onitsha, port Harcourt,Abeokuta, ijebu ode to mention a few. Mr. T.W. Chalmers, a Briton and Controller of the BBC Light Entertainment Programme was the first Director-General of the NBS.
The NBC and the Broadcasting Corporation of Northern Nigeria(BCNN) were merged into the Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria(FRCN) in 1978. The Reverend Victor Badejo was the first indigenous Director-General of Radio Nigeria.

Also, the corporation has a training school.

Yet, training of staffers is luxury in the corporation except for the very senior staffs.
There are staffs of 5, 7, 10 years in the corporation that has never being on any training since they joined the corporation (not even to the corporation training school).

It is difficult to compare the corporation in terms of equipment, spare part, training, staff welfare and so on with radio stations such as bbc. Many indigenous states and private stations as well are better off.
However today, the focus is going to be on staff welfare and remuneration.
I am interested in the corporation because I have somebody dear to me working with the corporation. He is a senior officer but the lifestyle is nothing to write home about. It pains me that such an upright and intelligent Nigerian graduate with over ten years working experience is still wallowing in so much poverty. He is always indebted and repaying loan.
The okada riders, bricklayers and others living around him are even better off. No wonder, Nigerian youth of today are no longer passionate about education.

It is a well known fact that the Nigeria Civil Service is about the most poorly paid globally with little or no welfare and training package for the staffers except for a few parastatals, agencies and ministries.
The condition is even worse in frcn.
Here, the salary of a graduate (level 8 officer) is about sixty thousand naira (60,000). A level 12 officer in the corporation earns about a hundred thousand.

This implies that a graduate that joined the corporation on level 8 and has risen to level 12 after spending about 10 years in the corporation if the promotion is regular and is now probably with wife and kids will only experience an increment of about 40,000.
These are great men and women who have sacrificed the larger part of their lives in spite of the poor condition of service to ensure the corporation stay afloat and remain a force to reckon with.
In frcn, there is no provision for staffs to cushion the effect of RF (Radio Frequency wave) in terms of allowance, kits or provisions.

Staffs even spend from their individual pocket to keep the largest radio network in Africa going. This is how passionate people are about their jobs.
In FRCN, leave allowance, thirteenth month allowance to mention a few are history. There are no incentives or motivation for the workers to look forward to except the monthly stipend.
How can you expect the best from your staffers when they are not going for training and are only paid to live from hand to mouth.
There was a time the corporation in alliance with other media outfit under the auspices of rattawu and nuj were clamouring for Media Salary Scale (MSS) which the late minister for information help push after seeing the ridiculously poor remuneration of media workers in the person of late Prof. Dora Nkem Akunyili (OFR) who was born in Markurdi, Benue State and died on June 7, 2014 after a long battle with cancer. May her blessed soul rest in peace.

Even in the beyond, her good works continue to speak.

Sadly, the agitation for media salary scale died naturally and the plight of media workers persisted.
The condition of service is even worse in frcn compared to its sister broadcast outfit such as Nigeria Television Authority(NTA) and Voice of Nigeria(VON).

Presently, the academic staff union (ASU) is on strike and the resident doctors are about commencing their own.

THE PUZZLE HERE IS WHY THE GOVERNMENT MUST SIT AND RELAX TILL UNION PROCEED ON STRIKE BEFORE DOING THE NEEDFUL.

FRCN is the voice of the government to the Nigerian public and the voice of the public to the government as well. The station bring to the public domain achievements, successes, abuses, activities,oppression, and other vices of the government, individuals, security outfit, corporate organisation to the public domain for commendation, checks and balances by appropriate authority.

WHO IS GOING TO RISE UP AND SPEAK FOR FRCN?

It is a case of the hairdresser that cannot plait or weave her own hair!

Now that labour and the federal government are talking about reviewing minimum wage be it through wholistic or selective increment, this is another window of opportunity for the government to better the lot of media workers in the country either by revisiting the media salary scale or upgrading the media salary to a living wage.
Even the unskilled and uneducated workers in the country working as labourers earn about two to three thousand daily making about sixty thousand naira.
Even unskilled workers earn more.

I appeal to President Muhammadu Buhari, President and commander in chief of the federal republic of Nigeria, Dr. Chris Nwabueze Ngige,the honourable minister of labour and Productivity,Head Of the Civil Service of the Federation. Mrs. Winifred Ekanem Oyo-Ita, Abdulwahed Omar, President Nigeria Labour Congress, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the honourable minister of information and all concerned to help my friend so that in the upcoming salary increment, media workers like frcn,nta and other are given priority.

Most frcn staff are wallowing in debt and poverty except for the few that are from privileged background or doing something else. Hardly can you see a staff of frcn that can stand shoulder high before their counterparts in other parastatals like corporate affairs commission, industrial training fund(itf),federal inland revenue, Nigeria civil defence, central bank(cbn), efcc to mention a few.
A radio station belonging to the federal government should be a model and a source of pride both locally and abroad.
The staffers are doing their best to uplift the nation and unite the Nigerian public but the government is doing is not doing enough in uplifting the morale and welfare packages of the staffers.
This has to change now.
Thank God we are in the era of change.

oluade11:
The Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria(FRCN), Media Salary Scale(MSS) and selective salary increment under the searchlight.


The Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria(FRCN) populary tagged ‘Radio Nigeria’ is Nigeria owned and publicly funded radio broadcasting organization.

It was founded in 1933 by the British colonial government and branded Radio Diffusion Service (RDS) with the mandate to allow the public hear and enjoy British Broadcasting Corporation(BBC) foreign radio service broadcast.

In 1950, RDS was rebranded Nigerian Broadcasting services and it was restructured into Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) in April 1st, 1957 by an act of parliament as public service.
Initially,NBS was only in Lagos, Kaduna, Enugu,Ibadan, kano as recommended by the the Nigeria Broadcasting Survey commissioned by the then colonial government and undertaken by Messrs Byron and Turner.It was later extended to other parts of the country such as Zaria, sokoto, Ilorin, Onitsha, port Harcourt,Abeokuta, ijebu ode to mention a few. Mr. T.W. Chalmers, a Briton and Controller of the BBC Light Entertainment Programme was the first Director-General of the NBS.
The NBC and the Broadcasting Corporation of Northern Nigeria(BCNN) were merged into the Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria(FRCN) in 1978. The Reverend Victor Badejo was the first indigenous Director-General of Radio Nigeria.

Also, the corporation has a training school.

Yet, training of staffers is luxury in the corporation except for the very senior staffs.
There are staffs of 5, 7, 10 years in the corporation that has never being on any training since they joined the corporation (not even to the corporation training school).

It is difficult to compare the corporation in terms of equipment, spare part, training, staff welfare and so on with radio stations such as bbc. Many indigenous states and private stations as well are better off.
However today, the focus is going to be on staff welfare and remuneration.
I am interested in the corporation because I have somebody dear to me working with the corporation. He is a senior officer but the lifestyle is nothing to write home about. It pains me that such an upright and intelligent Nigerian graduate with over ten years working experience is still wallowing in so much poverty. He is always indebted and repaying loan.
The okada riders, bricklayers and others living around him are even better off. No wonder, Nigerian youth of today are no longer passionate about education.

It is a well known fact that the Nigeria Civil Service is about the most poorly paid globally with little or no welfare and training package for the staffers except for a few parastatals, agencies and ministries.
The condition is even worse in frcn.
Here, the salary of a graduate (level 8 officer) is about sixty thousand naira (60,000). A level 12 officer in the corporation earns about a hundred thousand.

This implies that a graduate that joined the corporation on level 8 and has risen to level 12 after spending about 10 years in the corporation if the promotion is regular and is now probably with wife and kids will only experience an increment of about 40,000.
These are great men and women who have sacrificed the larger part of their lives in spite of the poor condition of service to ensure the corporation stay afloat and remain a force to reckon with.
In frcn, there is no provision for staffs to cushion the effect of RF (Radio Frequency wave) in terms of allowance, kits or provisions.

Staffs even spend from their individual pocket to keep the largest radio network in Africa going. This is how passionate people are about their jobs.
In FRCN, leave allowance, thirteenth month allowance to mention a few are history. There are no incentives or motivation for the workers to look forward to except the monthly stipend.
How can you expect the best from your staffers when they are not going for training and are only paid to live from hand to mouth.
There was a time the corporation in alliance with other media outfit under the auspices of rattawu and nuj were clamouring for Media Salary Scale (MSS) which the late minister for information help push after seeing the ridiculously poor remuneration of media workers in the person of late Prof. Dora Nkem Akunyili (OFR) who was born in Markurdi, Benue State and died on June 7, 2014 after a long battle with cancer. May her blessed soul rest in peace.

Even in the beyond, her good works continue to speak.

Sadly, the agitation for media salary scale died naturally and the plight of media workers persisted.
The condition of service is even worse in frcn compared to its sister broadcast outfit such as Nigeria Television Authority(NTA) and Voice of Nigeria(VON).

Presently, the academic staff union (ASU) is on strike and the resident doctors are about commencing their own.

THE PUZZLE HERE IS WHY THE GOVERNMENT MUST SIT AND RELAX TILL UNION PROCEED ON STRIKE BEFORE DOING THE NEEDFUL.

FRCN is the voice of the government to the Nigerian public and the voice of the public to the government as well. The station bring to the public domain achievements, successes, abuses, activities,oppression, and other vices of the government, individuals, security outfit, corporate organisation to the public domain for commendation, checks and balances by appropriate authority.

WHO IS GOING TO RISE UP AND SPEAK FOR FRCN?

It is a case of the hairdresser that cannot plait or weave her own hair!

Now that labour and the federal government are talking about reviewing minimum wage be it through wholistic or selective increment, this is another window of opportunity for the government to better the lot of media workers in the country either by revisiting the media salary scale or upgrading the media salary to a living wage.
Even the unskilled and uneducated workers in the country working as labourers earn about two to three thousand daily making about sixty thousand naira.
Even unskilled workers earn more.

I appeal to President Muhammadu Buhari, President and commander in chief of the federal republic of Nigeria, Dr. Chris Nwabueze Ngige,the honourable minister of labour and Productivity,Head Of the Civil Service of the Federation. Mrs. Winifred Ekanem Oyo-Ita, Abdulwahed Omar, President Nigeria Labour Congress, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the honourable minister of information and all concerned to help my friend so that in the upcoming salary increment, media workers like frcn,nta and other are given priority.

Most frcn staff are wallowing in debt and poverty except for the few that are from privileged background or doing something else. Hardly can you see a staff of frcn that can stand shoulder high before their counterparts in other parastatals like corporate affairs commission, industrial training fund(itf),federal inland revenue, Nigeria civil defence, central bank(cbn), efcc to mention a few.
A radio station belonging to the federal government should be a model and a source of pride both locally and abroad.
The staffers are doing their best to uplift the nation and unite the Nigerian public but the government is doing is not doing enough in uplifting the morale and welfare packages of the staffers.
This has to change now.
Thank God we are in the era of change.

My brother, may the good Lord continually bless you all the days of your life. I never knew people know the plight of media workers in the govt especially FRCN. We haven't gotten a voice to speak for us hence the unimaginable condition we live in. It is well like I always tell myself and others