Flowers for Arise News

I am fascinated by the packaging of Arise News. History is unfolding before our very eyes and we hardly know it. Global TV depends on premium TV programming to attract TV eyes. Everyday, Arise News delivers something substantial, always leaving enough juice to titillate the senses of those who love or hate them. And they come in equal measure.

On the day that the war in Gaza ended and President Donald Trump of the United States was visiting Israel to  mark the momentous occasion, Arise News had a reporter in Israel and another in Egypt to bring live feeds to its viewers. It was a daring decision to send reporters into such fluid environments.

The war in Gaza had lasted for about two years and three days, from October 7, 2023 to October 10, 2025. Lives have been lost in thousands, and destruction of property and ruination of the environment was horrendous, or apocalyptic may be a more befitting word. The global community was relieved to see the war come to an end. Arise News was there to cover the breaking story live.

Looks pretty easy, eh? It is not. Think of the sheer logistics – the flight arrangements, the satellite flyaway kits or arrangements for equipment rental if you were not carrying your own – it is not a game for the lilly-hearted. You must have a large heart for such high risk endeavours. Prince Nduka Obaigbena, who is chief promoter of the broadcast outfit, has more than a large heart. In terms of his approach to business, I always see the media mogul as a stunt man, but he does his stunts so well that the global community cannot fail to recognise his glittering presence in the global media ecosystem.

Wikipedia says “Arise News is a Nigerian world news channel. It has studious in New York City,  London, Johannesburg,  Abuja and Lagos. The channel features African, US and European content. It is operated by Arise Broadcasting Limited, which is owned by Nigerian media mogul, Nduka Obaigbena.”

Elsewhere,  the station says, “We broadcast 24 hours a day from our studios in London and New York and can be seen here in the UK and across Europe on the Sky platform (Sky channel 516), Freeview (Channel 136) as well as in the USA on the Centric channel and also on the Hot Bird platform, which transmits to Europe, North Africa and the Middle East.”

In Nigeria, Arise News is on DSTV, Channel 416, and Channel 24 on GoTV.

A former broadcast regulator told this writer that Arise News secured a Direct-To-Home (DTH) Direct Broadcast Satellite (DBS) license from the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC), meaning that in terms of business and broadcast configurations, the promoters had their eyes on global audience, but wasn’t sure however,  if that was being achieved.

It is difficult to affirm here if the appeal for global audience has been achieved. The studio spread in key jurisdictions may be indicative of a positive answer. Here is the other pointer. Each time I see Adefemi Akinsanya in London, at the Vatican in Rome, the United Nations in New York, each time I see Kachi Offiah and Seyitan Atigarin at the Oscars, and each time I see the Arise News crew at The World Economic Forum (WEF) Annual Meeting in Davos, Switzerland, or at the ongoing Future Investment Initiative (FII) in Saudi Arabia, I simply chuckle to myself: these guys aren’t doing badly at all.

My prayers are for them, and you may not understand why until you read this material. Global television doesn’t come cheap. It needs cash. It needs commitment, and it needs gravitas of the highest order and you must also have a large mouth to proclaim your presence. Ah! Is that not what they call self bravura?

Forerunners of global television have their blisters and their pains but the world only see the externalities, the razzle-dazzle which covers so many things, including personal pains and financial losses.

Without doubt, the Cable News Network (CNN) remains one of the biggest examples of global television. Mocked at inception as the Chicken Noodle Network (CNN), the station wasn’t even allowed to hang microphones in major news events. But the owner, Ted Turner, persevered. He would go to advertising agencies to canvass for adverts and endure all their jeers.

They said a 24 hour news television station couldn’t survive in America. Ted Turner soaked in all the pressure. But when the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded 73 seconds after take off above the Atlantic Ocean, off the coast of Cape Canaveral, Florida, on January 28, 1986, CNN captured it live. CNN was in Tiananmen Square when the Chinese government ordered military tanks to take down demonstrating students in the night of June 3-4, 1989. When Mikhai Gorbachev of the Soviet Union was signing out of office on December 25,1991, in a move that dissolved the union into 15 independent states, CNN President, Tom Johnson, who sat close to him had to lend him a pen. The Chicken Noodle Network had proved a point in perseverance, and a surge of new broadcast renaissance emerged immediately.

Dr Raymond Aleogho Dokpesi who departed this part of the divide over two years ago,  was one of those who watched Ted Turner very closely and had to eventually build a relationship with him. This writer was in New York September 20,  2003, when President Olusegun Obasanjo launched AIT International, the satellite broadcast arm  of Daar Communications via the Dish Network for North America. It was a carnival of sorts and President Obasanjo and Dokpesi canvassed the need for Nigeria to redirect the world information order with broadcast content coming out of the country. At the time, it looked impossible but the music and movies from Nigeria have reinvented and reinforced that possibility. Dokpesi was a pathfinder and he placed his head on the stone for the broadcast regulator, the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC), to crack palm kernels on it.

At the moment, Prince Nduka Obaigbena, one of those who have successfully climbed on the shoulders of Dokpesi, is taking global TV from this part of the world a notch further. I am pretty sure that what Arise News is doing will not be lost on President Obasanjo.

Apart from the capacity to take risks and embrace failure with boldness where necessary, Obaigbena is a quintessential manager of men and material. In plain metaphor, he has the knack to pick a needle from a haystack or even turn dross to gold. I will take only a segment of the programme menu, The Morning Show.

The presenters on The Morning Show are Dr Reuben Abati, Rufai Oseni, Ojy Okpe, Ayo Mairo-Ese, Vimbai Mutinhiri and Seyitan Atigarin. The team features so much quality and knowledge, so much self-belief that those who come to meet them every week day have to be responsibly prepared or be damned.

For instance, the pedantic and sartorial Reuben Abati, who mints words like Okinba Launko’s Coins, was a former presidential spokesman. He has seen life and power at the highest level and could look at you straight in the face and ask any question. He goes into pedagogy and imbues live television with exhilaratory moments of learning and niche information dissemination.

Rufai Oseni would always ask the hard questions and request that you support your answer with facts. He can be persistent and unyielding (for instance insisting that the Minister of Works must tell the viewers the cost of a kilometre of road), so they hate him for being so rude and attribute all kinds of irresponsible behaviour to him.

The ladies come with so much soft power, erudition and persuasion that you feel shame not to respond to their questions with respect and gentility. ‘What’s Trending with Ojy Okpe’ remains one of the best streaks of programming genius I have seen anywhere in the world, and I have seen lots of TV, believe me.

Somewhere in The Morning Show, Rotus Oddiri throws in a splash of Business news, while Aaron Akerejola and Ebeagbor Iyomon will introduce the Sports segment in what looks more like a perfect blend of TV programming alchemy.

This team doesn’t fear faces and positions, doesn’t retreat in the face of anything and doesn’t look prepared to genuflect to any powers. This is not arrogance. It is just the knowledge of who you are and what your profession stands for.

In pursuing the dreams of global TV, Obaigbena has recruited a pool of talents that can stand anywhere in the world and make a commanding presentation. He has played a good game, to win TV eyes at home and extend the same  to the global community. I am a witness. I was in a few places recently and found out that Arise News is equally very popular among Nigerian communities outside the country.

Each time I see an Arise News  reporter anywhere in the world, it is patriotism that creeps through me. I see Nigeria in that environment, and Nigeria exporting something to the rest of the world.

Some people maintain extreme loathsomeness to Obaigbena’s eccentricities and let that impair his good deeds. I am of the opinion that with Arise News, he has nearly made a perfect score with his team. They deserve their flowers.