Miebi Senge
15 October 2008
IT was nearly 11:00pm and one week before Tuesday, 7 October 2008 launch date of DaarSAT launch, its Chairman Dr. Raymond Dokpesi was in bad shape.
He needed to take a break, but dared not because that would be at the detriment of the coming events that would shape the African broadcast airspace, and he was not ready to mortgage that for personal health.
The Kpaduma Hills, in Asokoro, Abuja headquarters of Daar Communications plc, that night was a beehive of activities. Streams of people ran non-stop, and like the proverbial tropical termites, everyone at Daar Comms that night were working to ensure history was made with the first digital terrestrial and satellite TV stations that can broadcast to nearly all the ends of the earth, and of course, an immediate readiness to expand to about twenty new locations across the country, nearly 50 years after television was first launched in Africa by the late sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo in Ibadan, Oyo State.
At the Kpaduma Hills, Abuja there a cock tail of projects went (still ongoing) on simultaneously all running into several billions of naira. He has refused to put a price to that massive capacity build out for the simple reason that he doesn't want to scare those who would dare follow his imprints on the sands of history.
But in that plethora of developments comes a capacity for a 120 capacity high definition pay TV channels of which the President of Nigeria, Alhaji Umaru Musa Yar'Adua will commission. However, a test run of about forty channels had began steaming to underscore the stations' readiness for business. That night, he also received in audience a delegation from the Nigerian Stock Exchange, (NSE) who came to verify the facts before final listing of Daar Plc shares on the floor of the exchange.
Early Tuesday, October 7th, the Kpaduma Hills neighbourhood had been secured by both uniform and plain cloth security operatives for the expected arrival of President Yar'Adua, and other eminent guests.
Dokpesi was evidently a very fulfilled man that morning and in high spirit, circulating happily among his guests. He wore a broad smile all through the event and there was no sign this man needed a rest, or that he just came off a month-long Ramadan fast (in the Islamic calender). His efforts had paid off. DaarSat was nolonger a dream, it's all a reality now.
Dokpesi threw 'modesty' to the winds and reeled out his historic journey from shipping to broadcasting. His several fights with the authorities through the late dictator General Sanni Abacha and former president, General Olusegun Obasanjo. He didn't spare the former president whom he said "unleashed terror" on AIT and Raypower FM for their daring role in the anti-third-term bid of the president. He also didn't forget to mention names of eminent persons who stood by him and were ready to lay their lives on the blocks for DaarComms existence and named edifices in their memory.
Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, a prominent businessman from Adamawa state, Northern Nigeria and Dokpesi's mentor; Dr. Peter Odili, (former governor of Rivers State) and Mr. James Ibori, former governor of Delta State were all called up for personal recognition for staying by him while Obasanjo tried to short-circuit Daar Comms dream. Lt. Gen. Jeremiah Useni, (rtd.) a former minister of Abuja also risked his military career for Daar.
As a pioneer in the evolution of Nigeria's private broadcast industry, Dokpesi understood the terrain and in DaarSat, he is taking it to a higher level. He told Vanguard in an exclusive interview that the Daar Comms platform was built to close gaps created by existing DTH providers. He was offering all subscribers across the country, a flat subscription rate of N5, 500 for 50 channels
"It is going to be transmission on High Definition. It is quite challenging. We are launching broadcasting at different pedestals". However, talking about the content that will feed the channels, Dokpesi informed that the platform will be strong on entertainment, sports and news. A number of channels have been sourced in Hollywood, Bollywood, and the rising profile of Nigeria's Nollywood has also been added. Moreover, there will be very strong news (AIT News) most of them emanating from the Daar stable, that is plus the primary news channels that are being imported to the platform.
"About the eight channels, from DAAR Communications, we have AIT News, which is a 24-hour news channel with correspondents in South Africa, Kenya, Egypt, Ghana, Senegal, together with US Bureau and UK Bureau," Dokpesi said. But the interesting thing is that in each place of operation in the continent, there is a full broadcast station, able to uplink and downlink at any time.
His approach to sports programming is also very fascinating. Instead of emphasis on foreign works, Dokpesi told Vanguard that he is motivated and encouraged to aggressively push sporting development in the continent so that in no time Africa will have something more positive to contribute to the rest of the world. This perhaps is the reason that Daar put a hefty N250m into the coffers of the Nigerian Football Federation, (NFF) - for the rights of all Nigerian national team football matches - which is the biggest ever in the history of the association.
Among the staff, Daar is also building capacity sending most of the officials abroad to master the operations of digital and high definition facilities. But he also believes that broadcast operators should support the efforts of local training schools like the TV school, Jos.
"The long term measure as regards training is to collaborate with the training institutions we have here in Nigeria. They are two - TV College in Jos and Radio Training school in Lagos. "It is easier and better for us to strengthen what we have than every individual wanting to start something new every time. At the two centres, there are buildings and lecturers. They may not have been exposed to all this level of sophistication; we can bring in people from time to time to assist in the training.
The structures are already there, even if you have to donate some equipment, it is better and easier to take off from that ground than to start a new school on your own. The days of one man, one organisation have come and gone. It is highly capital intensive," Dokpesi said.
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