Today, August 27, 2025, marks exactly 34 years since Abia State was carved out of the old Imo State. A milestone like this should ring bells, spark conversations, inspire documentaries, and stir reflections on our journey as God’s Own State. Yet, scrolling through the airwaves and flipping across local stations, you’d hardly notice that Abia is celebrating anything at all. The silence is louder than a stadium siren.
One begins to wonder: is this forgetfulness, fatigue? Media—especially broadcast media—isn’t just about jingles, breaking news, and political soundbites. It is the mirror through which a people see their past, understand their present, and imagine their future. If our journalists and broadcasters cannot pause to mark the day our state was born, then who will remind us that we’ve even come this far?
It is not about throwing parties or printing glossy banners. It’s about asking honest questions: In 34 years, what has Abia become? Where have we stumbled, and where have we soared? What stories of resilience, creativity, or even failure should we tell ourselves, so we don’t forget? A simple one-hour radio discussion, a retrospective TV feature, even a heartfelt commentary could have sufficed. But instead, silence.
This silence reveals something deeper—the shrinking role of the media in civic education. When the media chooses ratings over responsibility, trending hashtags over historical reminders, society slowly loses its sense of memory. And a people without memory can hardly shape their destiny.
Abia at 34 should not just be a government ceremony. It should be a citizens’ reflection. And the media must lead that reflection. Because if the storytellers do not tell the story of Abia, outsiders will tell it for us—half-baked, incomplete, and maybe not in our favor.
So, dear colleagues in the media, let’s not wait for the 35th anniversary before we dust off our archives. Abia deserves more than silence. Abia deserves her story told.
Michael Oni is a BBC-trained broadcast journalist specializing in news and current affairs, as well as a public affairs analyst based in Aba.
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