Dear Honourable Senators & Representatives,

Dear Sir,

I wish to register my displeasure on the way the Nigerian Television Authority displays its unpatriotic nature by not televising matches involving the Super Eagles live.

Sir, can you imagine that while the NTA busies itself showcasing both live and old matches involving foreign clubs and National teams, Nigerians are denied the opportunity of seeing our own National team, Is this inferiority complex or just their way of showing our national team is not important to us?

During the last match between Nigeria and South Africa, Nigerians in the USA had to resort to watching the match live on the internet through www.livefooty.doctor-serv.com/ however, we were not so lucky for the second match with Sierra Leon. We were even made to know that Nigerians who saw the match at home saw it through private TV stations and a South African cable station, Supersports 3. This is really absurd for a match being played inside Nigeria not to be shown by a Nigerian station but a South African one!

It is disheartening and frustrating that while we take day off from work just to see our darling team play, NTA often spoil the fun. There is no match involving the USA national team that is not shown here. And you all will agree with me that the USA is in no way near Nigeria when it comes to soccer.

In order to know if NTA would show the match involving Equatorial Guinea, I got the NTA number from a website, http://www.lyngsat-address.com/ln/NTA.html and it has the information thus;

Street Address Television House, Area 11, Garki
PMB 13
City Abuja
Country Nigeria
Telephone +234 (0)9 234 5907 / 5915
Telefax +234 (0)9 234 5914
Email webmaster@ntanetwork.cominfo@nbc-ng.org
Home Page http://www.ntanetwork.com
Satellites Intelsat 905  Intelsat 907 
© LSC, last updated 2008-06-09

Sirs/Madams, I called the telephone numbers as you can see from my call log below


Date Time To Duration (hh:mm:ss)
Nigerian Time
Jun 13, 2008 09:09 PM 23492345915 00:02:00
Jun 13, 2008 09:04 PM 23492345915 00:02:00
Jun 13, 2008 08:58 PM 23492345907 00:02:00
Jun 13, 2008 08:55 PM 23492345907 00:02:00
Jun 13, 2008 08:54 PM 23492345907 00:01:00
Jun 13, 2008 08:51 PM 23492345907 00:02:00
Jun 13, 2008 08:43 PM 23492345907 00:01:00
Jun 13, 2008 08:40 PM 23492345907 00:01:00
Jun 13, 2008 08:37 PM 23492345907 00:01:00

However, whenever the phone is answered, and I ask if that is NTA? The caller starts to laugh and I hear the voice of a little baby crying at the background. This has lead me to wonder if it’s really NTA’s number or another 419 stuff. You all can see I called the number nine times!

During the regime of Gen. Ibrahim Babangida, Super Eagles matches are frequently shown, it made us believe in Nigeria for that was the only thing that relieves the tension we went through everyday in the country. When we think of the anomalies that go on everyday in the country after a soccer match, we tend to forget our problems.

The NTA should know that showing Nigerian matches more helps to make people believe in the country and also, it helps to project Nigeria to the outside world. I remember a day I was speaking with a Mexican, he asked me where I can from, I said Nigeria and he said …haaa Nigeria soccer good good good,  I can never forget because on that particular day, I felt so proud because apart from Nigeria 419, Nigeria 419 we hear everyday, we still hear …haaa Nigeria soccer good good good. And even though the guy’s English was not so good, the message was clear!

Right now, I am watching Netherlands vs. France (Euro 2008) on ESPN (an American station). To my surprise, NTA is showing the match. I cannot remember a time an European TV station showed the African Cup of Nations neither was there an American station that did same. But here we are, NTA is showing a foreign competition while ours is neglected. Even the last 8-nation invitational tourney that was held in Malaysia last month was not shown, not even the highlights!

I am really sad because NTA is helping to dampen the spirit of Nigerians here. Most of us subscribed to a cable company here called COMCAST COMMUNICATIONS because of the simple fact that it has NTA as one of the stations it carries. This station is quite expensive but because of the love of Nigeria, an extra mile must be met in order to continuously pay for the bill.

Please sirs/ madams, we are humbly requesting the National Assembly to prevail on NTA to make it a duty to always show any match live (home and away) involving all the national teams, Super Eagles, Super Falcons, Dream Team, Under 20, Under 17 etc. We love our country so much and we should not be discouraged.

May God bless you.

Imonitie Aitalegbe

***NIGERIANS, PLEASE VISIT www.nassnig.org AND SEND A MAIL TO ALL SENATORS AND REPRESENTATIVES. NTA MUST BE ALIVE TO THE YEARNINGS OF NIGERIANS.

The match was played at Freetown, Sierra Leone not Nigeria


NTA won't air the game if they got no sponsor


Father[b]AIT[/b]a AIT has the rights to air Super Eagles' matches (so I heard)


Did u confirm if the numbers on , http://www.lyngsat-address.com/ln/NTA.htm were the same with those on NTA's official website?

Mustay, sure NTA needs sponsors to air live matches! But whose duty is it to source for sponsors? I do not think its the job for you and me, thats why they have a Marketing Division. They are responsible for looking for sponsors and if they cannot get, it means they are ineffective then they should resign from the jobs.

NTA frequently shows live PDP RALLIES, ARGUNGUN FISHING FESTIVAL, RIVERS STATE TRUTH & RECONCILIATION COMMISION. I watch them live here from the USA and so many programmes of no immediate importance.  Like you said, AIT has the rights to air Super Eagles matches. If this is true, what stops NTA from seeking to get rights from them. I believe this is all stupid politics!!

It is unwanted arrogance and irresponsibility for NTA not to want to show the matches because the rights belongs to a private station. If they know they are too big, then they ought to have gotten the rights before AIT. This shows the guys at AIT Marketing are more serious and effective than the ones in NTA who do not take government work serious.

This is just politics that serves no one no good. Please invetigate and you will see its just bitter rivalry between NTA and AIT thats making it impossible for NTA to show the matches.[/b][color=#006600][/color][b][/b]

Before the match day, everyboy knows months before that on a given day, a Super Eagles match would hold. So, why has NTA not deemed it fit to source for sponsors before these dates.

How do they get sponsors for English Premiership matches. Who sponsors old mathces they keep showing even after the end of the league. No company would sponsor old matches! So it means NTA just shows them because it is their miopic belief that Oyinbo people are superior to Blacks.

If British people don't show their premiership games to make it popular how would people know whats going on the their various stadia. So, if NTA doesnt show ours, how can the world know the talents of Nigeria.

We watch NTA in the USA. This alone is an avenue to showcase Nigeria. They should have their heads examined![color=#990000][/color][size=8pt][/size]

Wack country

AIT will be a better option for u than NTA.

we all know the demerits of govt staions - he who pays the piper. . .

Watch out for Daarsat. Then you will not have trouble watching all Nigerian national matches.

AIt dey US now

@ FatherAita
It is quite unfortunate that you and many million other Nigerians out there did not see the Super Eagles Match, i really feel ur pain, but I'll like you to know that the face of broadcasting has changed in Nigeria.

Gone are the days when NTA will air the matches by fiat, because its government tv station with nothing going back to the NFA and they will even give other private staions commandments on how to and when to show the matches. the rules have changed, if we desire to have a credible football system, you'll agree with me that it requires money and government is not ready to single-handedly foot the bill anymore, so it behoves on NFA to source to other ways of making revenue to uplift football (whether this will be judicoiusly used is a discourse for another day).

So just like every FA in the world, TV stations were asked to submit bid to buy the rights for all national teams matches, the NTA felt they can use the government might to get a waiver, alas AIT offered NFA $2.2million for the rights and the deal was signed.

Today, only AIT had the right to air all national team matches, but the contract allows for other TV stations to sign up with AIT, hence u see stations like Silverbirb TV, MBI and others showing the match from the fed from AIT.
But typical of the big for nothing NTA, they felt too big to approach AIT for feed and perhaps pay a token, That is why many Nigerians in diaspora who depend on NTA will not be able to watch the matches.

there may be times when phone calls may not be answered. some offices do that. so confirm from ait

FatherAita, I feel ur pains, it only goes to show you the kind of poeple we have in such a sensitive sector as broadcasting, the government will go out and lavish some huge public fund on useless iamge projection only for thier own NTA to make nonsense of the whole thing.

You need to understand that we still have the civil servants in NTA, who sees nothing wrong in doing what they have been doing for ages in same manner irrespective of the global trend. NTA as it is a bereft of innovative people and such indivudual comes along, such initiative will never see the light of the day.

As for AIT in US , i dont know much about it, but one thing i have noticed across africa is that, we dont know what is called "customer service"

May God help us

So NTA is not showing all these matches live? Unbelieveable. I remember the Nigeria-Mexico match at Atlanta 96 where there was a 15-minute time delay between the NTA's coverage and the live game. That is about the worst I remember from NTA when I lived in Naija. So to hear that they are not even showing matches anymore is unbelievable. Lucky for us, we have AIT in the UK.

I really envy but also happy for you. So, you enjoy AIT in London. How I wish I could watch these matches. Infact its making my blood pressure to rise. How can you imagine a Nigerian not watching our national team play when he/she wants to? Onyl God will change the minds of these useless NTA staff and make them humble to sign up with AIT.