Currently the management of Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria (FRCN) under the its Director General, Mr. Ben Egbuna, has been restructuring the corporation, based on the recommendations of the FRCN Reform Implementation Committee that was set up in September last year.

The report of the committee had criticised the existing structure as suffering "from some inherent weaknesses which tend to negate its mandate." These weaknesses, it said, included (1) "weakening the corporate effectiveness of the FRCN by stressing UNDUE AUTONOMY" of the zonal stations" (emphasis mine), (2) the in congruency between the three linguistic zones and the country's new-fangled six territorial geo-political zones, (3) the ineffectiveness of the professional departments in responding to problems when they arise and (4) the overburdening of the director general with responsibilities of the professional departments because the heads were removed from the headquarters.

The solution the reform committee recommended essentially was to end the autonomy of the zonal stations with headquarters in Enugu, Ibadan and Kaduna and effectively curtail their reach.

On the surface this looked consistent with the mandate of the corporation which is to "Uplift the People and Unite the Nation". In reality, however, the restructuring was the same long running war that has been waged by the federal authorities against the FRCN Kaduna for no worse crime than the fact that it has been the most effective radio station in the country.

This war started in 1978 when the then military head of state, General Olusegun Obasanjo, tried to end its autonomy and shortwave broadcast. The move provoked a huge uproar. Group Captain Usman Jibrin, the military governor of the host North-Central State, who led the resistance lost his commission and his job. To balance the equation, Chief Olu Adebanjo, Obasanjo's minister of information who ostensibly initiated the idea also got the boot.

Three years later the war took another guise under President Shehu Shagari. This time an executive bill was sent to the National Assembly for the establishment of a Medium Wave station for each of the existing 19 states. The bill was apparently meant to kill two, actually three, birds with one stone; provide jobs for the boys of the ruling party, overwhelm the voices of the opposition parties in the states they controlled and, of course, strangulate the FRCN Kaduna. It was instructive that Shagari's adviser on information was the self same Adebanjo who seemed to have started it all under Obasanjo.

Once again the station's huge listeners rose as one against the bill and it was subsequently shot down.

Any one who thought that was the last to be heard of the moves against the station had another think coming. In June last year Leadership reported that the then director general, Chief Kevin Ejiofor, instructed the station to stop broadcasting on short wave. The director general later denied the charge. However, a memo he had sent to his board of directors for restructuring the FRCN gave the game away. "The span of control" he said in the memo, "is clearly unmanageable for the Kaduna national station which superintends both the North-West and the North-East geo-political zones." The current attempt at restructuring the FRCN is clearly the latest in a long line of attempts, first from Lagos and now from Abuja, to curb the reach and the autonomy of FRCN Kaduna. This attempt is not only being carried out by a director general who had come to his job through subterfuge, the attempt itself is as illegal as it is unwise and costly.

When Mr. Eddie Iroh left the FRCN as Director General soon after Obasanjo started his second term, Iroh brought in Ejiofor, a pensioner he had recruited as the executive director of FRCN Enugu, to act as the D.G. As a pensioner it was difficult, if not impossible, to confirm him. As a result the then minister of Information, FRCN's parent ministry, Mr. Frank Nwekeh Jnr., appointed KMPG, a major consultancy, to help recruit a new D.G. through advertisement. Subsequently KMPG short listed seven candidates as suitable for the job out of the 93 that had applied.

Nwekeh Jnr. then recommended two out of the seven to the president to choose from. These were Mr. Jimmy Atte, presently NTA's executive director of News, and Mr. Ben Egbuna. then Voice of Nigeria's executive director of News. The president chose Egbuna.

In the memo seeking Obasanjo's approval Nwekeh Jnr. lied to his boss; he said none of the corporation's executive directors applied. Three, Ademola Elegbede, S.A. Shuaibu and Yusuf Nuhu did. Worse still Mr.

Egbuna whom he recommended along with Mr. Atta never applied and was therefore not among the seven short listed by KMPG.

Chances were that the president never knew he was lied to by his minister when he approved Egbuna whom Nwekeh Jnr. clearly preferred from the tone of his memo which emphasized the fact that Egbuna was an alumnus of the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies that the president had midwifed in his first incarnation as military head of state.

Clearly Egbuna had come to his job with unclean hands. And the job itself, as I've said, is as illegal as it is unwise and costly.

It is illegal simply because it is being done without amending the existing law that established the corporation. This law recognises only three zones along linguistic lines with headquarters at Enugu, Ibadan and Kaduna. The law also gives them autonomy within the overall control of the corporation's headquarters.

Under the subsisting arrangement, the three zones between them broadcast in English and the three national languages of Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba, in addition to about 20 minority languages. The idea was that listeners in these languages that cover the vast majority of Nigerians can be informed and entertained regardless of where they lived in the country.

Another major objective was to counter the propaganda of the main global radio stations like the BBC, VOA, Deutch Welle, Radio France International and Radio Moscow all of which broadcast in Hausa, the single largest audience in the West African sub region.

And so contrary to the claim by the FRCN management, the new territorial structure was more likely than not to defeat the corporation's objectives. This is why it is unwise.

As for the extravagance of the exercise, this is obvious from the fact that of the 32 FM stations to be established under it most of the 18 or so that are already operational have been far from cost effective. A small fraction of the billions of Naira spent on them would have given the tax payer more bang for his Naira if they had been spent on strengthening FRCN Kaduna and on reviving those of Enugu and Ibadan that have since collapsed.

The FRCN Kaduna started as a regional station, Radio Television Kaduna (RTK), under Sir Ahmadu Bello, the Northern premier. It served Nigeria well as an effective counter to Biafra's successful propaganda during our civil war of 1967 to 1970. It apparently became a victim of its success when it was taken over by the federal military authorities in 1971 following the abolishing of the old National Broadcasting Corporation which could not match Biafra's propaganda.

To balance the regional equation the RTK's counterparts in Enugu and Ibadan were also taken over.

For some inexplicable reasons the authorities in these regions failed to support their zonal station to the extent that Kaduna did, invariably leading to their collapse.

Since then in a series of moves which clearly smack of a policy of beggar thy neighbour or dog in a manger or both, those who seem envious of FRCN Kaduna's staying power and success have tried to kill it instead of reviving the other zonal stations.