Engineer Vincent I. Maduka

Vincent I. Maduka (born October 5, 1935) is a Nigerian engineer, broadcaster and the first director general of the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA). He holds the Nigerian national honour of the Officer of the Order of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, OFR (2003). He is currently a senior fellow at the Pan-Atlantic University, Lagos, Nigeria.

Maduka was born on October 5, 1935 in Epetedo area of Lagos state, Nigeria, to Albert Uzeduno Maduka and Cecilia Amamuziam Maduka, who hailed from Illah in Oshimili North Local Government Area of Delta State. At the traditional christening, he was named Ifeanyichukwu, however, his father’s friend and neighbour gave the name Bamidele and that (Dele) quickly became the neighbourhood preference. He was baptised at the Holy Cross Cathedral three months after he was born, with the name Vincent.

He had his primary education at Lagos Government Primary School, Sandgrouse and was later admitted into King’s College in 1949. He was granted a Western Regional Government Scholarship and admission into Leeds University in England in 1956, where he graduated B.Sc Hons (Electrical Engineering) in 1959. Maduka started work at Marconi, at Chelmsford. From there, he was recruited by Western Nigeria Television (WNTV) Ibadan, owned by the Western Nigerian Government Broadcasting Corporation (WNBC) in 1961 where he met Olu Layinka. Maduka left WNTV for University College Dublin in 1967 for an MEng.Sc degree. He married Olu in North Wales on 17 December 1968.

After few months at the Irish public radio and television organisation Telefís Éireann, Maduka returned to WNTV in 1968 under Teju Oyeleye who retired in 1973 and whom he succeeded as chief executive officer of WNTV-WNBS. Under his tenure as chief executive officer WNTV-WNBS Ibadan became a show-piece in programming and commercial viability. Four years later, in 1977, the military administration of General Obasanjo appointed Vincent Maduka pioneer Director-General of the new federal television monopoly, the NTA.

The civilian administration of President Shehu Shagari in 1979 did not accept the non-partisan posture NTA was adopting under Maduka and in 1983 he, was summarily removed from NTA and assigned him to the Ministry of Communication as a Technical Adviser.

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