Though standards have fallen in Nigeria’s broadcasting industry, hope is not yet lost if young professionals will retrace their steps by starting to speak well and pronounce words correctly while on air.
This was the submission of veteran broadcasters who spoke at the recent presentation of two books, ‘Pronunciation Guide: The Clergy’ and ‘Pronunciation Guide: The Spoken Word Industry’ written by Assistant Director Programmes, Radio Nigeria, Lagos Operations, Funke Treasure Durodola.
Speaking at the presentation held at Freedom Park, Lagos Island, the proprietor of Jamz 100.1 FM, Ibadan, Oyo State, Femi Sowoolu, expressed sadness that the standard has fallen in radio presentations in the country. He explained that when the term OAP (On-Air-Personalities) was introduced into the lexicon of Nigerian radio when Rhythm 93.7 came on stream some years ago, it was to bring some level of respect to the profession.
“I fear to attempt to vouch for many of today’s ‘OAPs’ on those same standards. They fail in many areas – in speech, delivery, pronunciation, style, elocution, or even preparation. They do excel; however, in the one area that the true broadcaster knows is wrong to have – the enormous egos bandied about all over the social media space. Once upon a time, not so long ago, the real radio voice preferred to remain hidden, behind the mic. Not anymore! Times have changed,” said Sowoolu, who has been in practice since 1977.
He also decried the foreign-accented English spoken by broadcasters on air. “To worsen issues, the trend, I am told these days, is to have a foreign accent, or to speak through one’s nose, and many of today’s new entrants into the profession use that as a guideline. I once consulted for a Port Harcourt based radio station over a couple of years, and at some stage early in my contract, we needed to have auditions for both existing and prospective staff. There’s this girl who walks in for the interview with this nauseating twang in her voice; even her Ekwerre native name was heavily accented. Unfortunately for her, I couldn’t decipher where the tone came from – some parts British, some Aussie, some American, some native; she regaled us with a mish-mash of different textures. Indeed, things have changed.”
In his review of ‘Pronunciation Guide: The Clergy’, former General Manager, Max FM, Lagos, Tokunbo Ojekunle, commended the author for highlighting the errors coming from the pulpit without being offensive.
“The striking thing about ‘The Clergy’ is that the mind behind it thought it wise not to express critical thoughts on those that fall into the pit of common English errors. She ‘gracefully’ offers help based on the explicitness of her intention. Funke brings her coaching skills to bear; I ended up asking myself as I read through the pages, ‘Am I at a presentation training session?” he noted.
Ojekunle further noted that one of the most significant challenges that could pop up during speaking engagements or church ministration sessions is the preacher’s inability to conceal his ethnolinguistic influences or regional accents. “To make this clearer, the author, in the seventh chapter, researched into contrasting English alphabets with those of the three Nigerian Major Languages; Hausa; Igbo; Yoruba” he explained.
Earlier while disclosing why she wrote the books, Durodola said it was because the media and the pulpit have a significant influence on listeners, who like the speakers, are second language speakers of the English Language.
“There are many wrongly pronounced words in the communicative cycle in Nigeria; these books address the retrogression in the proper pronunciation of words by on-air-personalities, comperes, trainers, motivational speakers, the clergy and other gatekeepers in the spoken word industry,” she said.