BON raises a cry for NBC

It was pretty cool last week when the Broadcasting Organisation of Nigeria (BON) made a plea for the survival of the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) as it called on the government to adequately fund the organisation to enable it to do its job successfully.

The NBC is the regulator of the broadcast industry. Usually the relationship between the regulator and BON members is mired in controversies, in licence fees not being paid by operators, petulant fines imposed by the regulator or even government hiding under the regulator to make the operating field for broadcast operators difficult. It’s hobbling from one litigation to another and with the regulator at the losing end nearly always.

But rising from the 79th General Assembly which held in Benin, Edo State, last week, BON called on the “Federal Government to adequately and effectively fund the National Broadcasting Commission as a regulatory agency and remove it from the list of revenue generating agencies of government.”

While appreciating the Renewed Hope Agenda of the Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu led administration, the broadcasters confessed that their industry was facing an existential threat because of hard economic decisions by the government, including the removal of oil subsidy and the deregulation of the foreign exchange market which on their own have bred other problems with the astronomical increase in electricity tariff as the most damaging for their operations.

BON which, in a 9-point communique, appealed to the government to take urgent measures that can cushion their industry in these challenging times, including an indefinite suspension of NBC’s demand of 2.5 percent on the gross earnings by broadcasters, equally stated its position on other industry issues as follows:

“The meeting reviewed the controversy the NBC Code has generated in recent times. In addition to pronouncements of courts on the same matter, we call on the NBC to urgently convene stakeholders for a review of the 6th NBC Code.

BON further calls on the Federal Government to expedite action on the migration from analogue to digital broadcasting. We request that NBC in conjunction with BON and other stakeholders should return to the drawing board to analyse the achievements recorded on Digital Switchover with the aim of mapping strategies for a migration that will be beneficial to the citizens.”

It is fitting that BON is looking beyond the severe concerns of the broadcast industry to begin to make a case for the survival of the regulator by raising a number of issues that impact on their sector at the moment and as always. When properly addressed, the industry and regulator can be at peace with each other and May even enjoy a whiff of prosperity.

Without a squint of the eyes, this writer can say straight away that the Code needs urgent review in order to weed out some very seedy sections that maliciously target some operations. An industry manual needs consensus building which this Code lacks, as some of its contents bear the imprimatur of some shadowing personalities whose understanding of the industry never rose above point zero, but had all to do with pecuniary returns.

Calling for stakeholders gathering over the Digital Switchover (DSO) is most patriotic. Nigeria seriously lags behind in the exercise sanctioned by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) in July 2006, and is therefore shut out of the plethora of benefits that should accrue to the nation. The benefits are far-reaching and the broadcasters are right in saying that we must fix the process and then explode a sector that is shamefully diminished.

But some have said that the government cannot directly put money in a regulatory agency without controlling its activities. I want to observe that there is hardly a regulator in whatever field anywhere in the world that is not a product of the government as it tries to create conducive environments for businesses. The supervening factor is that once the law has been put in place, the regulator should be allowed to exist independently on the basis of the law.

The above scenario featured in Nigeria from 1992, even with all its imperfections, until the coming of the Muhammadu Buhari administration in May 2019. The administration came into office with characters that least understood the place of the regulator or were too selfish to acknowledge the prime relevance of the regulators to the economy and plunged several of them into deep trouble or depreciated status of relevance.

NBC was one of them. Overnight some of these regulators who were hailed globally for keeping the frontiers of modern regulation, were designated revenue generating agencies and all their earnings shaved away. The government didn’t need any permission to take their money. Their accounts with the Central Bank were raided regularly. The Tinubu administration didn’t initiate this although the practice has continued.

This is one of the problems that has kept NBC in a very helpless position. The Buhari government started by taking 25 percent of their revenue and this graduated to 50 percent, and of course, the handshake would grow beyond the elbow and become a full fight. At some point, all the monies were taken and it took indeterminate periods for their portion to be returned. From all indications, this government inherited a ruined economy and is even more frantic for cash. That means organisations like NBC will continue to suffer.

Sources within the Commission told this writer that things were not looking good at all. Every money that goes into the CBN account of the organisation, including small loan repayments and other refunds by staff, is mistaken for revenue by the government and is simply taken away, leaving the agency with very little to float on.

A source informed that they have not able to do monitoring of broadcast stations which is very important to the regulator and the agency is also unable to put money aside for Zonal Operations.

“They should stop going on that it is business as usual. They should face the reality hitting us in the face,” an NBC source warned.

Let’s situate the fears of the industry and also the apprehensions of some workers of the NBC. Without a good Act that is void of government interference, the regulator is impotent. Without good funding, the regulator is castrated and will freak out before, or be manipulated by operators. And without requisite industry knowledge that comes from training which would always need funding, the regulator is a little shadow of itself, afraid of even good intentions from the stakeholders. The NBC shouldn’t wear the foregoing paraphernalia because they don’t look good at all.

A former chief regulator of the broadcast industry has suggested that the government should cede part of the proceeds of spectrum sales from the broadcast band to the broadcast regulator. This is a long standing industry suggestion but has really not been given serious consideration by the government.

But the broadcast regulator needs to be strengthened. We have already stated here that the problem it faces today wasn’t created by the Tinubu administration. However, this government can take another look at the plight of the regulator through strategic engagement with the management of the Commission, consultations with some previous regulators and other industry professionals to ferret out solutions that can redeem the regulator and the industry from their parlous position. The government needs to engage in activities and strategic actions that can help the regulator build capacity in its staff.

One other thing. There is no crime in self preservation which is a decision BON has taken by supporting the regulator. Irony sometimes is redeeming. NBC has to live to prevent the broadcast industry from plunging into disarray and near death or according to BON, “to prevent the unprecedented shutdown of many broadcast media houses.”