"When you are old and gray and full of sleep, and nodding by the fire, take down this book and slowly read, and dream of the soft look your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep,"said the Irish poet and playwright William Butler Yeats.
Cameroon's national TV (CRTV) literally took down the book from the shelf by re-broadcasting shows like "Thinking Time" with Emmanuel Jackai, and "Accord Majuscule" produced by Vincent Doumbe as part of activities to celebrate the 25 years of television in the country, this March 2010.
There was something close to depicting Yeats' "dream of the soft look your eyes had once" as CRTV turned to its lofty past and flew-in two of its famed news anchors - Eric Chinje and Denise Epote - from Washington and Paris respectively, to present a commemorative newscast.
Observing the depth of the reports by Charly Ndi Chia, Robert Abunaw, Carol Ijang Akutu, et al on the programme "Provincial Spotlight" produced in 1986; with pictures that matched the scripts written in good English; there was a feeling of bliss all around.
But, should Cameroonians live on nostalgia alone? Is this all they should expect of a public service broadcaster? Aren't they entitled to more?
The buzz created on Facebook pages where clips of this special newscast have been posted and the scores of newspaper articles and testimonies by past and current viewers of national TV either mean that these were such dazzling presenters that their aura remains for eternity or what is currently on offer is so distasteful to the point that national TV could be described at barely 25 years of existence as "nodding by the fire" like grey-haired old man!
The shots may not have been steady, and the zoom-in and out was to quick in some reports in the programme "Provincial Spotlight" packaged in 1986; but the pictures matched the audio and the texts where crisp, clear and concise.
The manner in which Charly Ndi Chia interviewed a woman involved in cross-border trading with Nigeria on that edition was sublime! He was able to get her to tell that the custom officers on both sides of the border were corrupt revealing the problems the country was facing. He didn't push it, but there was passion and professionalism.
Where have such virtues disappeared to?
On that same programme, Robert Abunaw presented a village in Ndian division and their perpetual road challenge. The reporters had a package on the Kumba-Mamfe road that was under construction and "soon to be completed" but went deeper to depict why such a project was a basic neccessity and not a political tool.
Twenty-five years later, I believe that village in Ndian still hasn't got a decent road and the "fly-overs" of the Kumba-Mamfe road are now derelict pillars of an uncompleted project.
It seems to Cameroon's national television channel has gone the way of the aforementioned projects. A wonderful dream, a necessary tool for national development which has remained unfinished and left to ruin by poor governance, mis-management, nepotism and the absence of a proper vision.
But no condition is "permanent in this world," a famed Cameroono-Nigerian singer once said. CRTV can become what it hoped to be and what its audiences expect it to be.
The management that runs this ship and the various professional corps within must sit up and face the (new) music. Competition is here, monopoly is gone, and communication technologies have made it so easy for many to see what's happening elsewhere -- so the expectations are high. It's time to stop being civil-servants and the moment to become media professionals.
Of course it goes beyond these frontline actors. It has to begin with the State/Government of Cameroon understanding that public service broadcasting is not State run/official media. They have to relinquish their strangle-hold on CRTV.
The current management of CRTV must have had this mind when they decide to focus a debate on the occasion of these 25 years of national television in Cameroon, on who CRTV should be accountable to.
Professor Jacques Fame Ndongo, a communication scholar who is also Cameroon's Minister for Higher Education, told the participants that CRTV has to be accountable to the government that foots its bill.
Ha! We ain't seen the end of the tunnel yet, I thought.
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