₦airaland Forum

Gowon asks ECOWAS to lift sanctions on Niger, Mali, Burkina Faso

Mr Gowon, who was one of the founders of ECOWAS as Nigeria's military head of state in May 1975, expressed his concerns about recent developments in the regional body in an open letter.

By Chiamaka Okafor
February 22, 2024

A former Nigerian Head of State, Yakubu Gowon, has asked ECOWAS to lift sanctions imposed on Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso.

He said “all West African leaders” should “immediately consider the lifting of all sanctions that have been imposed on Burkina Faso, Guinea, Mali and Niger.”

Mr Gowon, who was one of the founders of ECOWAS as Nigeria’s military head of state in May 1975, expressed his concerns about recent developments in the regional body in an open letter addressed to Heads of State and Government of ECOWAS Member States.

The letter dated 13 February was seen by PREMIUM TIMES on Wednesday.

Following recent coups in West Africa, ECOWAS imposed economic sanctions on countries that had been taken over by the military as a deterrent.

He said it saddens him to learn that ECOWAS is threatened with disunity following the announcement by Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger to withdraw from the subregional bloc.

The three countries announced their withdrawal from ECOWAS on grounds of inhumane and illegal sanctions and went ahead to form a confederation.

The impact, Mr Gowon noted. will have far-reaching implications for the ordinary citizens who have been the major beneficiaries of regional integration.

He also urged the three nations to rescind their decision to withdraw from the bloc. He urged all 15 member states to hold a summit to discuss the future of the community, regional security and stability, as well as the roles of the international community given the current geopolitical context.

“Therefore, on behalf of all the founding fathers of the Community and myself, I urge the ECOWAS Authority of Heads of State and Government, including the leaders of Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger, to put aside their differences and reunite for the peace, stability and prosperity of our sub-region,” the letter read.

Mr Gowon noted that despite the shortcomings of the subregional bloc, ECOWAS has made several major accomplishments including trade liberalisation, the right of West Africans to live legitimately in any country within the community, as well as successful peacekeeping operations.

“ECOWAS is more than a coalition of States, it is a community established for the good of our peoples, based on shared history, culture and tradition. Neither my generation nor present or future generations will understand or forgive the breakup of our Community,” he said.

NairaOcean:
On Wednesday, February 21st, 2024, something surprising happened on TV. The Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) was showing a live program with Yakubu Gowon, a former leader. At 5:30 pm, during the show, things got tense.

NTA asked Gowon to speak Hausa, a language he didn't want to use. Gowon is good at speaking English, which he preferred. But NTA kept insisting, even though Gowon said no. Then, without warning, NTA suddenly stopped the program. People watching were confused and upset. They went on social media to talk about it.

People are now talking about why this happened and if it was right. They want NTA to explain.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xu_3OBMC6Ek

Love800:
Do bbc igbo, yoruba and pidgin have studios in nigeria?
Are they owned by nigerians?

KosiGee:
Kindly explain what happened in the video sir. By not clarifying, you are also adding to the conspiracy theory.

dealslip:
You people and conspiracy theory sha!!! You no dey tire ni? Just cooked up one story from the dustbin. Who and what gave you this version of the events that played out in NTA

Conner44:
Is BBC the same as NTA?

Neddstark:
Exactly.

NTA language channels advert

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N3pz7zI7vhg



https://m.facebook.com/ntayoruba/

https://mobile.twitter.com/NTA_Yoruba

https://m.facebook.com/NTAHausaL/

https://mobile.twitter.com/NTALHausa/with_replies

https://mobile.twitter.com/NtaIgbo

Therefore, there is an NTA Hausa (Nagari Nakowa), NTA Igbo Ezu and NTA Ikanni Oodua.

NTA-StarTimes is the platform that hosts the NTA Multi-Channel service. The channels on the NTA Multi-Channel service are:

-- NTA News 24 Channel 101
– NTA Entertainment Channel 105
– NTA Knowledge Channel 525
– NTA Sports 24 Channel 628
– NTA Parliament Channel 325
– NTA Hausa Channel 106
– NTA Igbo Channel 108
– NTA Yoruba Channel 107

5) NTA Hausa, NTA Igbo and NTA Yoruba

Right, so the NTA has been showing Nigerian language programmes for decades, but does it have dedicated Nigerian language channels? Is there an NTA Hausa, an NTA Igbo or an NTA Yoruba? Of course there are.

The NTA partnered with a Chinese satellite TV provider called StarTimes. They created a joint venture company called NTA-StarTimes. The NTA has 30% shares in the company, while StarTimes has 70% shares. The purpose of the company is to provide digital pay TV services to Nigerians.

4) The NTA and Nigerian languages

The truth is that the NTA has been broadcasting in Nigerian languages for more than 40 years.

The NTA had 3 TV stations in Lagos in the 1980s and '90s: NTA2 Channel 5, NTA Channel 10 and NTA Channel 7. Channel 5 was the youth oriented/entertainment station, Channel 10 was the adult oriented/talk station and Channel 7 was the community station.

Channel 7 had news in Yoruba (Irohin) and Egun (Linlin) and they competed with Lagos Television (LTV) for Yoruba shows like Tan'mo, Fadeyi Oloro and F'eyi K'ogbon.

Similarly, NTA stations across the country also showed the news and other programmes in the Nigerian language that was dominant in their locality.

3) And now the criticism has shifted to the NTA.

Many Nigerians complain that the BBC "came to Nigeria in 2018 and started broadcasting in Nigerian languages, meanwhile the NTA has not been able to broadcast in Nigerian languages". Is this true?

2) BBC Igbo, BBC Pidgin and BBC Yoruba.

Eventually, technnolgy evolved and this made it easy for the BBC to launch Igbo, Pidgin English and Yoruba services. These services are mainly propagated via social media (Facebook, Twitter and YouTube). The services were launched in 2018.

BBC World Service To Start Broadcasting In Igbo And Yoruba
https://www.nairaland.com/3467428/bbc-world-service-start-broadcasting#51069866

naptu2:
Nigerians Complain That There Are No NTA Hausa, Igbo & Yoruba, But Are There?


1) The BBC and Nigerian languages

The BBC World Service Radio started broadcasting in Hausa in March 1957. The fact that the Hausa Service was the only Nigerian language service that the BBC had confused a lot of Nigerians and they asked why there were no BBC Igbo or BBC Yoruba services. For example, see the thread below:

Why Don't We Have BBC Igbo Or Yoruba Service
https://www.nairaland.com/1254057/why-dont-bbc-igbo-yoruba


I tried to explain to them (on that thread) that Hausa was probably the most widely spoken language in West Africa (it is spoken in Nigeria, Niger, Benin, Ghana, Cameroon, etc.) and that this was the primary reason that there was a Hausa Service.

I also explained that the BBC had experienced massive budget cuts since 1995 (I was a short wave/BBC addict from 1989 till 2010) and that it was quite expensive to set up a short wave radio network.

The complaints increased when the BBC launched a Hausa Service TV channel.

BBC Launches Hausa TV News Programme 
https://www.nairaland.com/1895021/bbc-launches-hausa-tv-news#26155333

naptu2:
Mountain out of a mole hill. This is a non-issue.