Experts task NBC on community radio digital migration

They also canvassed the need to avail stakeholders with the copies of the White Paper on Digital Migration, which the government claimed it had released since last April.

Akinfeleye decried inability of the airwaves’ regulatory agency translating the presidential announcement of granting the NBC permission to commence licensing of community radio stations into reality almost two years after.

The communication scholar was referring to the submission made by President Goodluck Jonathan on Tuesday, October 19, 2010 at the 8th International Conference of African Broadcasters (AFRICAST) held at Ladi Kwali Hall, Abuja Sheraton Hotel and Towers.

“We are aware of the need to expand the broadcast space and give more voice to the people.  Consequently, the Federal Executive Council has considered and approved the guidelines proposed by the National Broadcasting Commission for the licensing of Community Radio in Nigeria.  Further, we have devolved to the Commission, the power to consider and issue the licences without further recourse to the Presidency, provided such applicants have met all the conditions stipulated by law,” the president had said at the occasion.

Prof. Akinfeleye recalled an interface he had recently with the Information Minister, Mr. Labaran Maku at a conference in South Africa, where he enquired why Nigeria is yet to licence the establishment of the community radio in spite of this public announcement made by the president even with presence of participants from all over Africa as well as in Europe and America.

According to Akinfeleye, the Minister blamed the NBC for the delay, saying, what was needed to do was for the commission to forward a memo through the ministry to the presidency in order for the public pronouncement to be backed with a written memo, which NBC claimed, had stalled the execution of the order.

“Those foreign guests will never take us serious. Can you imagine that almost two years after the statement, no community radio has been licensed,” stated the university don, who wonders what excuse would be tendered at the forthcoming 9th AFRICAST in October this year.

The same delay tactics, he insisted, is affecting Nigeria’s march to digitisation. He could not fathom why the White Paper on Digitisation remains a secret document almost four months when the Federal Executive Council announced that it had been released. “Nobody has seen that document. I have asked the commission severally, I am not sure they even have a copy. It is embarrassing!”

On whether president’s advisers could be held responsible for these delays, Akinfeleye diasagrees, although, he said, “ they have never advised him well.”

He explained, “Take the issue of  UNILAG’s attempted change of name, can somebody sit down and on a Democracy Day say you want to change the name of a university when you have all kinds of problems facing Nigeria, including Boko Haram. And this is a president who told us, he had no shoes when he was young during his campaigns. Now, he has shoes and the shoe is not oversize, the shoe is new, well polished by the votes we cast for him, so he should use that shoe to kick out Boko Haram, use it to kick out poverty and corruption. In the same vein, use the shoe to bring about peace and tranquility including security of life and properties.”

To Akinfeleye, it is glaring that “the so-called advisers are misadvising him and if care is not taken, they will push him into confusion. I think if I were him, I will sack all the advisers and bring another set of people or do like the former president Obasanjo, ‘you are my advisers but I may not take your advice.’

Certainly, “his advisers are misleading him and it is time for him to take full control. If he fails, it is going to be very sad for Nigeria, because this is the first time in the history that we would have an educated person, who has a doctorate degree from a recognised university as President. It has never happened. Before then, we had been having generals, who never fought and won any wars. But this is the time we metamorphose from general to university people, that is Yar ‘Adua with a Masters Degree; now a Ph.D holder as president and his deputy with MSc certificate. This is an opportunity to explore and be seen to have passed through the university and the university passed through them. The leadership has a lot to do and the advisers should better shape up or shape out.”

The grouse of another Journalism teacher at the Lagos State University, Mr. Tunde Akanni with the NBC is that it has never distinguished itself. “Ironically, it has been led by distinguished persons like erudite Tom Adaba, and even the incumbent, Yomi Bolarinwa, a most versatile professional.”

Statutorily, Akanni insisted that the agency is handcuffed. “It can set standard but cannot conclude the same process it is mandated to oversee. I mean the licensing of broadcast stations. Why won’t NBC be given same measure of power as Nigerian Communication Commission NCC?.

“Good news however is that technology is smarter than the mischievous law and policy makers we are unlucky to have here. They only need to find out how powerless they are now with the inception of new media technology. In Brazil today, several radio stations simply choose to broadcast from Net without bothering to seek any licence from government. Can you imagine any government toying with the idea of proscribing any newspaper like Abacha did years back? One certain thing is that Orosanye or no Orosanye, NBC has limited time to leave given the weakening effect technology keeps impacting on it” Akanni declared.

Media critic and Managing Director/Editor-in-Chief of Media Review, Mr. Lanre Idowu, scored the agency high in area of serving as a credible monitor, promoting the quest for sanity on the airwaves. Idowu however canvassed more autonomy for the agency for it to bark and bite appropriately in the effort to raise the bar for swifter response to ethical and regulatory infractions.

“The good work that the NBC has done in the area of providing guidelines for community broadcasting has remained mere intentions because it lacks the policy muscle to execute without awaiting the approval of government, Idowu reasoned. He said further that, “at a time that the country is talking of amending the Constitution, the time has come for an amendment that allows a levy on radio  and television receivers to be collected by the NBC as part of the move to build a fairly independent regulatory body that is not beholden to the government of the day.”