What My Visit to Voice of Nigeria Taught Me
By Chilakpu Zoe Chinemeremebere
A visit to the Voice of Nigeria (VON) headquarters in Abuja on Wednesday, August 19, offered me more than a glimpse into the operations of a national broadcaster. It provided an opportunity to reflect on what it means for a country as diverse as Nigeria to have an institution specifically mandated to project its voice beyond its borders.
VON is not simply another media organisation. Its identity is inseparable from Nigeria itself and from the responsibility of representing the country through broadcasting.
From our discussions during the visit, one thing became clear to me: national broadcasting is not only about reporting what happens. It is also about whose voices are heard, how national experiences are presented and whether people from different backgrounds can understand one another.
The Director-General of VON, Mallam Jibrin Baba Ndace, provided an important perspective during our engagement. His explanation of the organisation’s work drew attention to the power of language and the challenge of remaining relevant in a media environment where audiences are increasingly scattered across traditional and digital platforms.
Language, perhaps more than anything else, stood out to me as one of VON’s greatest strengths.
The organisation broadcasts in eight languages: English, Hausa, Yoruba, Igbo, Fulfulde, French, Arabic and Kiswahili. The Director-General also discussed efforts to introduce Mandarin as part of VON’s ambition to expand Nigeria’s voice further internationally.
That multilingual approach is more significant than it may initially appear.
Every language carries more than words. It carries culture, identity, history and a particular way of understanding the world. When people hear important national issues discussed in languages familiar to them, communication becomes more accessible and, potentially, more meaningful.
English provides broad national and international reach, while Nigerian languages help connect audiences to national conversations through familiar linguistic and cultural contexts. French offers an important bridge to Francophone Africa, while Arabic and Kiswahili extend VON’s reach across other significant audiences on the continent and beyond.
The planned expansion into Mandarin represents another potential bridge to Chinese-speaking audiences at a time when Nigeria’s economic and diplomatic engagement with China continues to make cross-cultural communication increasingly relevant.
This made me realise that multilingual broadcasting is not simply a technical decision about translating the same message into different languages. It can be a deliberate strategy for inclusion.
Nigeria is one country, but it contains hundreds of languages, communities, cultures and traditions. National unity cannot mean pretending those differences do not exist. Rather, unity should provide enough room for our differences to be acknowledged while strengthening our shared sense of belonging.
This is where VON’s role in national cohesion becomes particularly important.
A broadcaster that deliberately creates space for different linguistic audiences can contribute to mutual understanding by helping Nigerians encounter stories and perspectives beyond their immediate communities.
In that sense, communication can unite without demanding uniformity.
But VON’s responsibility extends beyond Nigeria.
As the country’s international broadcaster, it provides an avenue through which Nigeria can participate in telling its own story to the world.
That matters.
Countries, like individuals and organisations, are partly understood through the stories told about them. Nigeria frequently attracts international attention because of insecurity, political controversies, economic difficulties and other challenges. Those stories should not be ignored or disguised. Credible broadcasting demands honesty about a country’s problems.
But no nation should be defined exclusively by its difficulties.
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There are also stories about Nigeria’s culture, creativity, entrepreneurship, technology, diplomacy, scholarship, entertainment, sports and the everyday resilience of its people.
If Nigeria does not participate effectively in telling those stories, others will inevitably tell them from their own perspectives.
A strong international broadcaster therefore does something more important than promoting a country’s image. It gives the country an opportunity to contribute its own perspective to the global conversation.
That distinction matters because national broadcasting should not become propaganda. Credibility is ultimately more valuable than flattering narratives.
If international audiences are expected to trust what VON says about Nigeria, they must believe that the broadcaster is committed to accuracy, professionalism and responsible journalism even when the story is uncomfortable.
The visit also made me think about how dramatically broadcasting itself has changed.
There was a time when the radio transmitter and microphone largely defined the broadcaster’s relationship with its audience. Today, that microphone exists alongside websites, social media platforms, mobile phones, video streaming and countless other digital channels.
Audiences no longer wait for broadcasters to determine when and how they will receive information. They consume news whenever they want, wherever they are and on whichever platform is most convenient.
For VON, therefore, the challenge is not simply to continue broadcasting. It is to remain visible, credible and useful wherever its audiences have moved.
This digital transformation also increases the responsibility of professional broadcasters.
Information now moves at extraordinary speed, but misinformation often moves just as quickly. A rumour can reach millions before a journalist has completed the first stage of verification.
In such an environment, the value of a public broadcaster should not be measured by whether it can compete with social media in speed alone. Its greater advantage should be credibility.
People should know that when information comes from a national broadcaster, it has been subjected to professional scrutiny.
That requires journalists who understand that accuracy matters more than virality and that the responsibility to inform is greater than the pressure to be first.
For me, the most important lesson from the visit was that the strength of a national broadcaster is measured by much more than the equipment inside its studios.
It is measured by the trust it earns, the diversity it represents, the audiences it reaches and the quality of the stories it sends beyond the newsroom.
VON’s role can therefore be understood through three interconnected ideas: voice, language and connection.
Its voice gives Nigeria a platform. Its languages broaden access to that platform. Its connection to domestic and international audiences gives the platform purpose.
The challenge is maintaining the delicate balance between being national and international.
VON must remain sufficiently connected to the everyday realities of Nigerians to tell their stories authentically, while also understanding how those stories will be received by audiences outside the country.
That requires careful journalism, cultural sensitivity and an awareness that every broadcast can contribute, however modestly, to how Nigeria is perceived.
Our visit was therefore not simply an opportunity to see where programmes are produced. It was an encounter with the responsibility behind national broadcasting.
I left with a clearer understanding that communication can unite without erasing differences, that language can become a bridge rather than a barrier, and that a country’s ability to tell its own story remains important even in an age when everyone possesses the tools to publish.
From inside VON, its name begins to mean more than the title of a broadcasting organisation.
It becomes a responsibility: to give Nigeria a voice that reflects its diversity, earns the trust of its people and can be understood beyond its borders.
After all, having a voice is important.
But what ultimately matters is whether that voice is credible enough for people to listen.
Chilakpu Zoe Chinemeremebere is a PRNigeria Fellow and can be reached at [email protected].
