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Tag: Okoh Aihe

  • Periscoping issues in the Information Minister’s plate – By Okoh Aihe

    Periscoping issues in the Information Minister’s plate – By Okoh Aihe

    Specificity is the most suitable honorific that one can allocate to the Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris Malagi, who at a maiden event for him in Abuja, said he was a reporter reporting for duty in an industry where he has operated for nearly three decades. Meaning he has enough experience in his seams to reposition the Information sector as he has promised. And the workers in his ministry would want him to do exactly that as that area has been so forsaken and degraded that they need something close to a miracle to return to life, literally. 

    I promise to be specific in telling my story and relating that story to the challenges that would confront the Minister in the Information Ministry. I grew up at a time the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) was the king of the broadcast industry, presiding over and providing what it wanted people to hear, and dictating and deciding who should participate in content production and development. 

    I worked in the newsroom when the news editor would set up a team to monitor the NTA 9pm Network News, which was a must, as it was the only voice of government at the time, and another team to deal with Radio Nigeria and process NAN bulletin. You may call that the age of the dodos but tasks were set aside for government agencies and workers must do their work with commitment while applying requisite knowledge. 

    The NTA was vibrant and strong, and readily acquired the payoff line of ‘’the biggest network in Africa.’’ There was no formal contest for such position or assumption. NAN was strong and was able to bring news from different parts of the world and so was Radio Nigeria which would feature government news from the federal to states and local councils. One can really say with impish retrospection now that government really worked at the time.

    The evolution of the satellite dish came to demystify or, for search of a better word, diversify the sources of news in the newsroom; but the trio of NTA, Radio Nigeria and NAN remained resolute, warding off the brazen incursion of modernity instead of taking the more conciliatory steps of adaptation to new tech trends, or climbing down their high horses to learn a little bit about what awaits them in future. 

    Private broadcasting came in 1992. The pioneer owners came with such rambunctiousness, that after a momentary feeling of they-will-soon-fizzle-out, the government channels yielded grounds for easy conquest and faced nearly an inexplicable obliteration from the airwaves. More opportunities were missed.

    A new Minister has come with the promise to reposition the Information and Orientation Ministry; unfortunately, this is not the era of a Tony Momoh or Prof Jerry Gana, when the Ministry had better attitude for, and resistance to competition with facilities which even at the time were receding into antiquity. This is the age of Malagi. This writer will be specific in saying a few things. 

    I will look at a few agencies under the Minister and, in doing so, I want to be specific in looking at things in ways not too flattering. I will start with the NTA, the oldest television station in Nigeria, which has since receded into the unenviable status of an industry Lilliputian. The picture that comes to mind ingloriously is the picture of that young lady reading news, Iroyin Yoruba, on NTA, Ibadan; the entire set just came down on her head. Only God prevented a fatality. If you put your memory to good use, television broadcasting entered Africa through Ibadan, under the political wizardry of Chief Obafemi Awolowo, and over six decades later, the station still depends on planks and canvass to build a broadcast set. 

    This is the kind of ugly situation the Minister will meet at NTA. The Ibadan fiasco is only emblematic of the rot enveloping all the NTA stations across the country. Still relying on funds from government and patronage from politicians without vision, the NTA remains a hovel of poorly motivated workers who shouldn’t have a place in a modern broadcasting industry. And they do not.

    For what should be a country’s frontline broadcaster, NTA is too antiquated for modern operations. In a world of digital broadcasting, the station is so ill equipped for modern operations in terms of equipment and personnel and it is no surprise that it has virtually lost out in all ramifications to private broadcasters. While a number of stations in the country rely on cyber sets, including expansive video walls, with a full range of digital equipment, the NTA still remains on analogue equipment and sends out dark and funny looking pictures to people who are still unfortunate to watch the channel. 

    The NTA is expected to sell government projects which it cannot. Reason being that NTA is dead in ideas, in originality, in concept and creativity. The station that once boasted of The Village Headmaster, Hotel de Jordan, New Masquerade, Icheoku, Cockcrow at Dawn, The Sam Akpabot Show, Bala Miller Show, Morning Ride and other flagship programming has simply gone quiet in the creative front. The 9pm prime time belt has gone to other stations because of the ineptitude and complacency of those saddled with the responsibility of leading the station. It is the responsibility of the Minister to purge the entire system, make new investment in equipment and training of personnel to give the station a new lease of life. There may be the need for new recruitment to achieve some standard in personnel and competition. 

    I am not about to say that the Minister is inheriting a number of dead institutions as he joins a new government struggling at doing things. Let me here list some organisations that have since lost relevance and moving far away from reality. They include the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), Voice of (VON) and the Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria (FRCN). The National Orientation Agency (NOA) comes with its own bucket of concerns. But nobody remembers that, apart from having the capacity to be heard all over the nation, FRCN also has a chain of 36 FM stations across the federation that is scarcely heard. I hardly see newspapers quote NAN, or take news from Voice of Nigeria or FRCN. Poor leadership, inability to respond to the calls of new technologies and inadequate funding have robbed the government agencies of verve and clarity of vision. The country is in all kinds of trouble with the best of our young men and women fleeing from the land  in the ignoble japa syndrome, and we cannot see the bravura of an Andrew checking out of Nigeria in a message that resonated across the country because the National Orientation Agency is disoriented both in leadership and concept. 

    However, one of my most immediate concerns is the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC). The body set up in 1992 by the military administration of Gen. Ibrahim Babangida to regulate broadcasting and, indeed started so well by introducing private stations, has variously been abused by succeeding Ministers into impotence, to the extent that it was shaved of some of its vital functions by the gluttony of such Ministers.  

    Under Dr Tom Adaba, the pioneer Director General and successor, Mallam Danladi Bako, the NBC recruited professionals from diverse backgrounds, who were prepared to be schooled in broadcast regulation. They quickly cut their teeth and proceeded to establish the foundations of one of the most robust deregulated broadcast environments in the continent. Their efforts immediately flowered in a multiplicity of stations across the nation. Other countries came to Nigeria for peer experiences and they looked forward to Africast – Conference and Exhibition that was held every two years in Nigeria. 

    Like a curse, good things don’t last in this nation. NBC was slowly taken down by Ministers who turned themselves into regulators and denied the institution of funds that should grease the efficiency of the agency. Licensing became politicized and, like other agencies, employment was ethnicized with attendant consequences. 

    The NBC started to fail in its responsibilities and commitments. For instance, the Digital Switchover (DSO) which is sanctioned by the ITU to enable countries embrace digital broadcasting and vacate some frequencies for telecom activities, has left Nigeria behind, embarrassingly. The Minister should call for the documents on DSO and reactivate them for immediate implementation in order to save the nation from international opprobrium. 

    The NBC needs help and so are the other agencies in the ministry. Even selfishly, I would advise the Minister to release oxygen into the agencies in order to make his assignment easy. 

  • With Daar Communications in Port Harcourt, history suffers jeopardy – By Okoh Aihe

    With Daar Communications in Port Harcourt, history suffers jeopardy – By Okoh Aihe

    News coming out of Port Harcourt concerning the decommissioning of Daar Communications broadcast facilities is not good at all, especially following the recent apotheosis of founder and Chairman Emeritus, High Chief Raymond Aleogho Dokpesi. In the immediate, both AIT and Raypower have been knocked off the air by the activities of the Rivers State government. 

    Even before the sudden departure of Dokpesi, there were skirmishes between the State government and Daar Communications which some may have mistakenly attributed to the political differences between former governor of the State, and now minister of the Federal Capital Territoty (FCT), Chief Nyesom Wike, and Dokpesi.  But the matter goes beyond that. Dokpesi did not have time to carry grudges against people, except those who tried to kill him directly, and I am not sure Wike was one of them. 

    What is playing out in Rivers State is the story of the man who holds the yam and the knife, and enjoys the beneficial responsibility of slicing out pieces for those waiting for crumbs from the master’s table. Otherwise, how does a layman, not learned at all, interpret a case that is in court and a party to the case taking what seems conclusive decisions and actions? But let’s leave that to the court and the interventions of good men.

    The first thing I want to say here is that my friend and brother, Raymond Dokpesi, was not a land grabber at all. He wasn’t also a troublemaker. He fought very good fights on behalf of the ordinary folks of this nation and, at times, also to protect himself and family. His stations were burnt down a number of times and he dodged fatal bullets, losing his head driver, Danladi, in one of those attacks. I have had to state this because it is possible for people to recall his several brushes with governments and not imagine that some of those brushes were carefully orchestrated as smokescreen to silence him. 

    Dokpesi was a first class marine engineer who pioneered private broadcasting after his first foray into politics in the old Gongola State as Chief of Staff to Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, was abrogated by a military coup on December 31, 1983, of which former President Muhammadu Buhari, was the head. He had a dream to provide an alternative voice for Nigerians to speak or enjoy an escape from their sorrows through entertainment, and Daar has provided that, at least from the testimonies of so many Nigerians. 

    I don’t know why the stations in Port Harcourt should be off the air except that there can be quite some people without respect for yesterday or would not devote scant time for the ephemerality of power. 

    My friend is not a land grabber. Those whipping up the sentiments at play in Rivers State may have their reasons beyond the scope of our immediate understanding. I have had to look at a couple of materials in the past few days to confirm my understanding of the story playing out there. 

    Let me make a confession here. I love Rivers State. I did my National Youth Service in the state and had some great fun there. Professor Ola Rotimi, of blessed memory, who presided at the Crab Theatre in the University of Port Harcourt, was my friend and mentor. It was such a great honour to watch the rehearsals and performances of The Gods are not to Blame and Hopes of the Living Dead. He was one of the very best in theatre productions. So my memory of Port Harcourt remains fresh and understandably enviable. 

    I was in Port Harcourt in May 2007 when the stations were launched and was fully aware of the sentiments behind the station but didn’t know of the subterranean interplay, until recently. In the process of working on The Handkerchief, the authorized biography of Dokpesi, along with a couple of my friends, Adebayo Bodurin and I had approached Dr Peter Odili, former governor of Rivers State, for an interview which he kindly granted. 

    The relationship between Odili and Dokpesi is well known and perhaps documented. With a cocktail of licenses in his bag, Odili was one of the early converts of the broadcaster who had the ambition to build a network that would dwarf the nation’s public broadcaster. In Port Harcourt, the governor, who was well known and was also doing great things for his people, quickly found confluence in the plan of a South South man who wanted to rule the nation’s airwaves, and hatched his own plans to lure him to the state. 

     ‘’Seeing how much ground he had broken, it wasn’t difficult encouraging him to come closer home and expand this magic that he had put in place. As they say charity begins at home. It’s not my words but we grew up to learn that charity begins from home, because just as family is the nucleus of the society, the home is the nucleus of the state, region and the nation. So, it was not difficult assisting him to come to the area, inviting him to come and make this magic happen,’’ Odili told us. 

    Odili dreamt development always and could see from afar a man who personified his dreams and that understanding nurtured a relationship that was painfully severed only recently. 

    It may seem now that part of that encouragement was to provide a conducive environment for Daar’s operations in form of land. Dr Shadrach Akalokwu, the governor’s Senior Special Assistant on Communications, was given the challenging responsibility of smoothening the process. A communications expert who was at the time also thinking of the new world economic order, which also includes a new information order, It was Shadrach who facilitated the 43 hectares of land that was given to Daar Communications somewhere in Choba, a location not too far from the University of Port Harcourt. This writer is aware that a hefty amount in several tens of millions was paid for the certificate of occupancy nearly two years ago. 

    Dokpesi’s dream was to build a broadcast hub in Port Harcourt in the mode of Alagbado in Lagos and Kpaduma Hills in Abuja, which feat was realized immediately. So, when the AIT operations from the Lagos headquarters were crippled on the day of the 2007 governorship elections by a massive fire, which followed a massive explosion, the transmissions were moved seamlessly to Port Harcourt and Abuja. The viewers hardly noticed anything and the broadcaster hardly lost its capacity to perform optimally.  

    One good thing about broadcasting is that it takes development to any environment it operates in. The coming of Raypower to Alagbado changed the property value in that part of Lagos; this has also happened around Kpaduma Hills, Abuja, where property value hit rooftops overnight. Sources in Port Harcourt told this writer that what is happening in Port Harcourt is about land, and nothing to do with propriety in politics or concerns for the people. The Daar land has since been shared among politicians and close friends, leaving only about three plots for the broadcaster. 

    Those with a little knowledge in broadcasting will confess that three plots will not even provide enough space for the guy wires supporting the mast, not to talk of other facilities. As it is, new owners of a land in dispute have taken possession while the entire community of new owners with the prompting of government collectively took down the Daar broadcast facilities.

    In executing such plans, nobody thought of the investment, nobody thought of what happens to the workers or the right of the people to be informed and entertained. At inception, about 80 per cent of the workforce was sourced from the local environment, and by now some of them have received high profile industry training. Nobody thought of what signals are being sent out to the investing public. As it is, politics is the big thing, the politician is the new king, and the world should revolve around him in a country where poverty has been weaponized. 

    This was not the spirit in 2007. Such action doesn’t interpret the kind of enviable relationship Dokpesi had with Odili. It does not feed the spirit that nurtured the South South Peoples Assembly and created a voice for the South South people. There is a calamitous blunder here that should be righted immediately and the new lords of Rivers State should realize that the beauty of tomorrow is about the ingredients of yesterday and today being applied in good measure. 

    Dokpesi has been apotheosized. History has him in a good place. What about you?

  • Welcome notes for the Information Minister – By Okoh Aihe

    Welcome notes for the Information Minister – By Okoh Aihe

    There is a new song in town summarized in sudden excitement. Tinubu’s Ministers have been waxing lyrical about their readiness to transform this nation, called Nigeria. It has been one wave of euphoria after the other. The President has given me a job. I will do it without looking back, some have vowed.

    All of a sudden, it’s like an opportunity of a new dawn has come and nobody, it seems, wants to fritter any atom of it. After all, it can be justified privilege for one to be given a prime job by a new boisterous government from a population of over 200 million people. Emerging from the swearing in ceremony, the first primary assignment perhaps, was to burnish promises into the people’s psyche, even if they were just words which, according to Prof Femi Osofisan, in Who is Afraid of Solarin, are cheap.

    But that is the prevailing atmosphere in the country so far. Government officials and even lawmakers, rich in words but very poor in action. Things have happened in the life of this young administration that are difficult to explain. If wonders don’t happen in Nigeria, it means the word has no meaning in the dictionary sense of it.

    Apart from a few fresh brains that really signpost a readiness to offer something new, none of the Ministers, including former governors, feels any sense of remorse for being a member of a party that has dug the country into a devilish hole in the past eight years. They feel no responsibility, even vicariously, and would wish the entire nation overlooks that shameful page of our history, except that a body knocked out of shape or twisted by hunger cannot be fair to, or lie about history or give meaning to words issued by people that ruined their past and are, unfortunately, primed to do so, well into the future.

    In the bedlam of these syndicated promises, one man has remained cool, so cool that when he spoke the other day, it was so refreshing and so nearly out of sync with the daily nightmares that confront us as a people. While people were still trying to situate the personality of the Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris Malagi, he simply shocked them when he said he would not lie under any circumstance in the pursuit of his new assignment.

    Speaking at an official reception organized by the Ministry in Abuja, Malagi was reported to have said: “Today is not for policy announcement but a day to familiarize ourselves with all the stakeholders in the Ministry. We are poised to ensure that the Renewed Hope of Mr. President gets serious traction. Mr President has sent me to come and say it the way it is. He didn’t send me to come and lie. And this is the new covenant with you and Nigerians. We are going to say it as it is.”

    Inadvertently, the Minister may just have made a parabolic reference to a period that is not far away from us, a time people wished never existed, a period of eight years that a government in power was in attrition with itself, seeing enemies in the eyes of innocent people, and blaming everybody but itself for glaring failure. Even the media was vilified and numerously scapegoated by a government which never took responsibility for anything, including the fate of millions of Nigerians plunged into poverty. By the time Muhammadu Buhari administration was packing up in May, the nation had been plunged into multidimensional poverty besides being the poverty capital of the world.

    I have no reason to serve a dreary picture of our nation because we are all going through it. I have only tried to recount what everybody knows since there is a gentleman in this government who has promised to break from an unsavory past in order to offer something new, to say the truth and nothing but the truth. Methinks, such a man will also want to hear the truth and that is what I have decided to serve here.

    The Minister may not get the truth from the kind of gathering that welcomed him. Instead they will say the things he wants to hear and try to move on with the tricks of the civil service while studying his administrative style. But truth has one colour which hardly changes no matter the heat, circumstance and time.

    The Minister should know that the information Ministry that should function as a unified whole to communicate the activities of government, functioned in silos under the previous administration with the Minister presiding over a divided house where he thought he was king. For reasons that may remain in the realms of mystery, not even the Nigerian Television Authority liked the administrative style of the Minister. Of course, they would usually grumble behind him and execute his directives very reluctantly.

    Under former Minister, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) suffered the most. The activities of the broadcast regulator were not only put on hold, instead some functions were completely taken over and executed from the Ministry. For instance, licensing which remains a cardinal responsibility was done directly from the Ministry with the regulator being only directed to allocate spectrum to the organizations so licensed in such a dubious manner.

    It wasn’t just that the NBC decided to be insipidly docile but its hands were tied behind by the National Broadcasting Commission Act CAP No 11, 2004, which gives overwhelming powers to the Minister. It takes a good man to have a sharp cutlass in his hands and not use it to do evil. The former Minister used the Broadcast Act to the best of his capacity and took actions that history will not forget in a hurry.

    Section 6 of the Act states as follows: ‘’Subject to the provisions of this Act, the Minister may give the Commission directives of a general character relating generally to particular matters with regard to the exercise by the Commission of its functions under this Act and it shall be the duty of the Commission to comply with such directives.’’

    There have been Ministers before Lai Mohammed but he can simply be referenced as one Minster that gave life and impetus to what may have been overlooked or treated with caution by his predecessors.

    For instance, early February 2021, after the Federal Executive Council (FEC) approved the sum of N9.4bn for the NBC to escalate the Digital Switchover (DSO) process, the money found its way to the accounts of the Ministry where it was being approved piecemeal to pay for contracts executed at the NBC until the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC) stepped into the matter. How can a parastatal’s money find its way to the accounts of the supervising ministry? This writer is not aware that the matter has been resolved by the ICPC. Perhaps the wheel of justice is grinding slowly.

    Oh, the matter of the DSO should attract your attention immediately. While the DSO process was expected to have ended globally nearly a decade ago, that matter has stalled shamefully in Nigeria. By way of giving bite to the process, President Goodluck Jonathan had set up a Presidential Committee to drive the process. This Committee was replaced by former Minister with a Ministerial Committee and domiciled same in his office to drive the process. The DSO simply died in Nigeria and every little stir in the sector was designed to fester the esoteric taste of interlopers.

    The broadcast sector was supposed to have profited from the digital dividends. As I write I am not sure the sector has received any share.

    Let me suggest here that you should actually start by mending the broken relationship between the media and government as a direct fallout of serial intimidation by previous administration. Stations were demonized and fined arbitrarily.  I can recall a particular story. Former Minister insisted that the name of a particular station must be added to the list of debtors just to humiliate the owners even when they had made substantial part payment.

    The Minister should not abnegate his policy functions for regulatory meddlesomeness. I pray your pedigree serves you right and, just to add one more thing, only a Minister with a large heart and responsible knowledge can stir a robust and productive regulatory environment. I wish you well.

  • Time to rebuild the Communications Ministry – By Okoh Aihe

    Time to rebuild the Communications Ministry – By Okoh Aihe

    I do not know Bosun Tijani, the new Minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, who, along with his colleagues, was sworn in on Monday. But I can see the picture of a young man standing before some dodos and dinosaurs in the National Assembly, who dredged up his past to invalidate his opportunity of being a Minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. 

    They were never moved by the credentials of this young fellow standing before them. Instead they nurse latent outrage that he would aspire to be a Minister under a party and in a nation he had impugned with some kind of misguided social media rant. How dare you!

    Yes. Quite a number of people in that hall had a past to hide. Some had lived dubious existence. Some had the misbegotten opportunity to rule their respective states and ended up as final undertakers of those states as they plunged their people into depths of poverty. They loathe criticism with a passion. 

    It is such an unfortunate twist of irony that the Nigerian state has a way of rewarding the crafty and the scoundrels that have brought her to this bedraggled, ignominious impasse; and quite a number of the guys who were frothing in their mouths, bellowing out questions to the nominee, are beneficiaries of a system that reserves the honoured sanctum of the National Assembly for some people with questionable past and claims to inexplicable wealth. For them wealth conquers all; but not the memories of a people sentenced to periods of sustained pain and lack. 

    There are two victories here. One for President Bola Ahmed Tinubu who picked Tijani because of his knowledge and achievements over a past that the elders of the party would not like, and the other for Tijani himself who apologized, perhaps realizing that not doing so may deny him the opportunity to contribute to the reconstruction of this nation that is in desperate  need  help. 

    Those in the age of Tijani have reasons to be angry at this nation and the elders who have failed in positions of leadership should be humble enough to admit their roles in the fate that has befallen the nation. 

    I am not making a case for Tijani but I am happy that his case has been sorted and that he has become a Minister of an important ministry that equally needs help at this time. Although, really, the entire nation needs help. Only the people ensconced in the comfort and security of the National Assembly do not know the challenging times facing the country as they joke with grave matters of letting the poor breathe!

    Some people are celebrating Tijani whose flash of genius and creativity at Co-Creation Hub (Cc-Hub), brought global attention to Yaba in Lagos State as a Tech development epicentre which has equally attracted tech personalities like Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, among others. He is doing so much for the youths and with the youths. That may have led to the frustrations expressed by Tijani who had daily contact with young people at the Hub and could share in their bouts of frustrations traceable to elders who refused to affect their world positively. They have lived their own life and are eating up, ignominiously, the portions of their children.

    Some say he is globally connected and that the nation needs people like him now. There is no doubt about that except that it will be good to point out that transiting from business to holding a political office won’t provide the attraction of a Yoghurt drink, sweetened or unsweetened. 

    No, this can never be Yoghurt although a Yoghurt drink is very nourishing. The meeting with the Senators may only be a precursor to the condition and reception awaiting him in a ministry that is fractured through the middle, actions that will be veiled in niceties and pretenses. The system is used to welcoming top government functionaries, no matter their stance and knowledge, with orchestrated respect and then swallowing them up tantalizingly for total ruination. 

    But while I will want to sound a note of caution to Tijani, unsolicited, to be very conscious of smiling faces that never tell the truth, apologies to the music group, The Undisputed Truth, there will be the urgent need for him to reunite the ministry where the parastatals were working against each other because of the acrimonious personality of the former minister. 

    There are six agencies in the ministry which include: Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), National Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Galaxy Backbone, Nigerian Communications Satellite Limited (NigComSat), Nigerian Postal Services (NIPOST), National Identity Management Commission (NIMC), but  for very personal reasons perhaps, former Minister, Dr Isa Pantami, deracinated a unit of the NCC, the Universal Service Provision Fund (USPF – see Sections 112 and 114 of The Nigerian Communications Act) from the Commission and made it a parastatal of its own although it still depends on funds from the NCC. 

    Everything about the former minister was about conquest, about power, about hubris, about self-aggrandizement and a narcissism without limit. The minister was the colossus bestriding the entire ministry with every parastatal and even their chief executives and directors, squirming under him. He had his unholy supporters who edged him on.

    The Nigerian Communications Act of 2003 is one of the best laws in the country but the former minister stood on the law and on everybody that was supposed to implement the law. The law restricts the minister and his ministry to policy decisions and representation of the nation at international fora (see Section 23, 24, 25 of the Act). Not Pantami. He left his office at the ministry which has been a pantheon of his predecessors and got embedded in the NCC property at Mbora, a district of Abuja. Tijani should reverse this decision.

    Such action is something the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) and the Mobile World Congress, the collective of mobile service providers across the world, frown against. He got too close to the regulator and expectedly seized its regulatory functions. He went on employment binge, without even the benefit of job interviews and, within four years, doubled the nominal role of the Commission. He got involved in internal matters of the regulator, including travels, promotions and staff transfers. 

    The regulator was captured nearly irretrievably and the industry suffered in fear. One day I made a call to one of the operators about the decision the minister just took. I could feel the man trembling on the phone swearing that I should take it that this conversation never held. Things were going awry in the industry and the operators, investing billions of Naira, were too afraid to attempt a remonstration because they knew the kind of government Buhari operated for eight years could take any decision without thinking of the consequences on business. 

    Funds earmarked for some special projects were diverted to other concerns without reasonable results to show for them. The regulator had been boxed into silence and helplessness. It was a classic case of regulatory capture. 

    In the final days of the Buhari administration, the minister created a wrench between the NCC and NITDA as a new bill sponsored by the latter at the National Assembly was designed to swallow up the telecoms regulator with most of its function appropriated. The bill got frustrated but not laid to rest yet. 

    Being a tech aficionado himself, Tijani will already have the story of the industry beyond my rehash. I will want to suggest that his coming can initiate a fresh start by rebuilding confidence and trust within the ministry and its parastatals. The minster can also call a stakeholders meeting of the industry to reassure them of the safety of their investment through the promotion of a good business environment. The minister will need to put his house in order, I mean the operating environment in order, before inviting his international connections to play a part in the rebuilding and development process. Our prayers are for him to do well.

  • For telecoms, figures and counter figures – By Okoh Aihe

    For telecoms, figures and counter figures – By Okoh Aihe

    There has never been any doubt about the transformative power of technology both in terms of cash availability and socio-economic development of any environment or nation. You only need to look at the big tech companies in Silicon Valley at San Jose in the United States, and the top range tech companies in Asia to sketch an understanding of the kind of financial muscle power they display.

    They are creative, bold and daring in searching for the niche factor that opens fame and fortunes from an avalanche of prime products. They dictate the pace and tempo of modern existence and are even now creating machines to help in moments they think that humans are not fast enough. So, there comes artificial intelligence (AI). They are recreating the world in terms of tech and cash.

    For instance, Apple cash on hand for the quarter ending June 30, 2023, was $62.482bn. This is more than twice the size of Nigeria’s foreign reserves as per the latest figures from the Central Bank which stand at $30.1bn. Their figures are there for global viewing while the Nigerian Central Bank has only managed to release its audited figures after seven years, and the reasons for such opacity are now very clear.

    In our part of the world, the telecommunications sector is very much different. The sector has never been shy in providing stats for measurement. Even pre 2000, the regulator, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), would always say that industry investment and connected lines stood at about $500m and 350,000 lines respectively.

    But the story has changed and the industry more brilliant in expressing its achievement. Which is why each time the NCC speaks and presents figures about the industry, it’s more like looking at the telecoms dashboard, very beautiful, fascinating and lucidly interpretative. One of such presentations was made recently when the regulator placed a value on the various consumption services in the industry, in the form of data, airtime and other telecommunications services in 2021.

    The monetary value was placed at N3.25tn, which is a 12.74 per cent increase from the N2.88tn for 2020 and 31.55 per cent increase from the N2.47tn of 2019. From all indications there is a steady growth in the consumption pattern and the regulator was only too happy to demonstrate that in figures and solid data. Also within the period, foreign direct investment (FDI) stood at $417.48m, according to the NCC.

    From the COVID-19 era which hit Nigeria in February 2020, telecommunications have attained a centrality in the life of the average Nigerian. Lifestyle and social relationships have changed, economic activities and business transactions have mostly moved online, while even the global community had to learn the new normal – working from home, and this has equally gained traction in Nigeria, and even made more expedient today by other intervening factors. Whichever way, telecommunications remain a proud winner, enjoying a nexus of attention and indispensability.

    ‘’2021 witnessed an uptake in online activities as people had to use their devices online,’’ the regulator said.

    While the data and airtime consumption figures made so much sense and paint a picture of an industry in an upward swing, one was compelled to look at other industry figures housed at the NCC website. One had to look at the market share by the major operators very closely to see if there is anything there that could have impacted more on the consumption figures or even change the pattern of consumption.

    The market share is as follows: MTN – 84, 663, 653 (38.52 per cent), Globacom – 61, 333, 528 (27.91 per cent), Airtel – 60, 190, 732 (27.39 per cent), and 9mobile – 13, 578, 431 (6.18 per cent). The foregoing represents the industry share per operator as June 2023.

    From the figures, there is a clear leader in the industry in every respect; whether in the area of line connection, data usage and even corporate subscription, MTN has had a clear lead ab initio. In fairness, Globacom, trading as Glo, and Airtel have not done badly, especially looking at the challenging business terrain of the country. Glo came in much later, behind MTN and Airtel, and it is only fair to observe that it has competed so well that nobody knows that any more.

    Even more deserving of mention here is that at the premiere licensing stage, NITEL (NATCOM) which now trades as NTEL, was equally given a soft licensing to enable it provide mobile services, taking a spring from the legacy facilities of the former monopoly. Even with prime advantage, NATCOM has simply faded out, rendering an important license underutilized.

    The case of 9mobile which started operations as Etisalat is even more troubling. After putting up a great show in the field of play, by demonstrating that it had capacity to compete in spite of starting operations in October 2008, way behind the others, the fortunes have crashed, making people to dump their lines, except those holding on to them for sentimental reasons. An operator that boasted of over 20m lines in its prime has crashed to just 13m. But two strong industry sources told this writer that things are not well with 9mobile at all. The sources disclosed that 9mobile may not be doing more than 6m lines as at today. And there are very strong indications, and this has been confirmed also by an industry source long ago, that 9mobile is looking for a buyer.

    At the moment the organization is stalemated. The network is shrinking. The subscribers are taking a scram. And the buyer remains in the shadows with uncertainty being a more possible commodity. There will be more time to write the story of 9mobile, except that for the time being, it is safe to observe that the organization is in no place to compete at all. A source said ‘’the company is like a sinking ship. The workers and subscribers are jumping out.’’

    For me, the market share by operators are the counter figures that communicate so much about the service consumption figures which put a sheen on the industry, that everything is all well and fine. Such a feeling can beguile the regulator with a false sense of achievement and weaken its resolve to take measures that can address the deficits and ailments of the industry.

    With all the earnings by the operators and with the ability of the sector to provide a super structure to carry other sectors of the economy and, irrespective of how good we feel about achievements in the industry in over two decades, the fact is that any time a subscriber can’t make a call successfully in the city or even in some rural areas that are semi urban, it means there are major challenges that need to be tackled by the regulator.

    An industry source told this writer within the week that the country urgently needs a regulator that understands consumer regulation and consumer protection, to protect the small players from being trampled upon, and be strong enough to word off regulatory capture and operational conspiracies by the big players. The source stated that the regulator needs all the licensees to function optimally in order to unleash employment opportunities in the sector.

    The near absence of NATCOM and 9mobile in this respect is a major drag on the efforts of the other operators that need to be addressed urgently. Nigeria is a fairly large country and needs to appropriate the efforts of all the operators to deliver acceptable services to the various ends of the country. No area should be left uncovered or unreached. Telecommunications services should be democratized enough to reach all Nigerians irrespective of class or status.

  • Why is NCC fretting over MAFAB? – By Okoh Aihe

    Why is NCC fretting over MAFAB? – By Okoh Aihe

    It is not impossible for a regulator to be worried about the health of one of its licensees. There are several reasons for this to happen. It’s either the operator is not performing well in the market place or there could be some backend happenings impairing its operations. For an operator worth its salt, whose activities still wear the badge of some human feelings, there is always every reason to worry about a licensee or even the health of the market generally.

    There are no indications that MAFAB Communications is having any such operational challenges or thrust in any situation that should compel the regulator of the telecommunications industry, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), to begin to make statements on behalf of the operator. Twice in less than two years, the regulator has made statements in support of the operator even if the operator should actually be speaking for itself, just like the other operators.

    MAFAB is an elite licensee of the NCC. You don’t want to agree with me? When the regulator decided to launch the country into the new world of 5G, through the auctioning of 3.5GHz spectrum in 2021, MAFAB was one of the three bidders to dare the field which requires so much investment to operationalize. The other two were Airtel and MTN but based on the bare facts that only MAFAB was coming in fresh, we dubbed the contest a David and Goliath fight, that is, if you have a little bible history of a rookie fighter, David, who triumphed over a boisterous Goliath of the Philistines. Just like David, MAFAB won at the auction of December 13, 2021, and duly paid the license fee of $273.6m, according to the NCC.

    Really, I was happy for MAFAB but waited for the rollout surprises that would come, with the two operators, MTN and MAFAB,  given August 24, 2022 deadline for rollout.

    Things were working according to plan. The NCC had made money for government and also for itself. But with a little known MAFAB able to shell out that hefty amount for a license, there was swirling rumour of some money bags who may have a hand in it. Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu was listed as one of them. Remember, he wasn’t President of Nigeria in 2021 and 2022. The rumour had gained traction and was assuming the shape of truth.

    NCC took preemptive measures. Two days after the auction, on December 15, 2021, the Commission denied that it had any knowledge that former Lagos State Governor had interest in MAFAB, adding that the auction process was transparent and internationally acclaimed. The statement signed by its then Public Affairs Director, Dr Ikechukwu Adinde, read in part: ‘’In the course of its routine media review, today, December 15, 2021, the NCC became aware of publications in some online media channels alleging the involvement of Senator Bola Tinubu, former Governor of Lagos State, in MAFAB Communications Limited, one of the winners of the 5G spectrum sold by the Commission in a public auction conducted on Monday, December 13, 2021, at the Transcorp Hilton, Abuja.”

    That tendentious statement was overlooked by many, including this writer. After all, so much money had just been made for an economy that needed serious help. The statement really didn’t give me so much worry until another one that was released last week.

    In the statement titled, MAFAB HAS LAUNCHED 5G SERVICES IN NIGERIA, the NCC said: ‘’The attention of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has been drawn to some misleading comments on social media which falsely claimed that ‘’MAFAB Communications, one of the companies granted Fifth Generation (5G) licenses by the Commission is yet to roll out the service, nearly two years after obtaining a license, and one year after the roll out date.’’

    ‘’Consequent upon the issuance of the 5G license, and in line with the roll out conditions, MAFAB publicly launched its services in Abuja on January 24, 2023, and in Lagos on January 26, 2023. At launch, the services were targeted at six cities – Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt, Enugu, Kano and Kaduna,’’ the statement pursued further.

    Trying to understand the above statement only magnified the obtuseness of the December 2021 statement. Why was it ever necessary for the NCC to disclaim Senator Tinubu’s relationship with MAFAB, if any? Tinubu was a private citizen and a businessman and had the freedom to invest in anything, including tomato farming and fried been cake (akara) on the way to Osun State, if he wanted, not to talk of a high yielding field like telecommunications. That statement was incongruous and overreaching and communicates very little respect for a Commission which prides itself as independent and transparent in its operations and auction processes.

    However, the most recent statement was the ultimate clincher in frivolity and unwarranted meddlesomeness in matters completely outside the purview of the Commission, if only for ethical reasons. The regulator has no reason speaking for, or defending an operator except there are issues beyond the comprehension of those who think know how a regulatory agency and the industry should relate.

    It is true that MAFAB actually launched services. I am aware of the launch in Lagos. But I have asked a few colleagues who attended the Lagos programme whether there was any practical demonstration of how the technology works. There was none.

    In my neck of the wood, they would always say the taste of the pudding is in the eating. How could there be a launch of technology without any demonstration and there is a subtle push for the acceptance of the existence of such technology? This writer is aware of 5G services by MTN and Airtel respectively, and the cost of each product. I have no information on MAFAB, whatsoever.

    There is nothing wrong if MAFAB is making grand preparation to launch its services. It should be allowed to do so, for the simple reason that 5G deployment is cost intensive even for existing operators, not to talk of a new entrant who will build from the scratch. What is wrong is the regulator releasing press statements on behalf of a particular operator. This is compromise without measure, it is favoritism beyond the call of regulatory relationships.

    I will want to suggest there is more information people may have on MAFAB beyond the walls of the regulatory agency and it is only commonsense that they are not pressured to regurgitate them to the discomfort of a company trying to find its feet and even the unsettling of a whole industry.

    My other suggestion. NCC and the other agencies of government should leave the President alone to face a much bigger assignment that has been thrusted upon him. Having already stated that Tinubu is a big business man and a wealthy man (even his wife said so), what this writer will want to hear is that all his business interests have been consolidated in a Blind Trust where they will suffer no manipulation of power and influence, and insulated from conflict of interest. He will be celebrated for embracing probity, away from a past silhouetted in a welter of controversies.

  • Technology gives no hiding to wickedness – By Okoh Aihe

    Technology gives no hiding to wickedness – By Okoh Aihe

    The story of Nigeria gets convoluted by the minute. Just when you think a resolution is becoming a likely prospect, a sub plot simply pops up to complicate the entire story line and make suspense the most readily available commodity to a flummoxed participant. 

    There is always a new story; like the story of the 103 #EndSARS dead that are looking for a final resting place. The bodies have become so troubled where they are that a benevolent Lagos State government wants to spend over N61m to give business and comfort to the living and ensure that the dead remains dead forever. The cause of death undetermined while the government is in denial on behalf of their killers who still move about freely in the society, looking for their next victims, perhaps.  

    The development would have gone unnoticed but technology, dear friends, gives no hiding opportunity to evil. And that makes technology very dangerous, even more dangerous in exposing evil than it is useful in our daily life, that is, if you allow me the poetic license of deploying hyperboles uncontrollably. 

    The business end was almost concluded but for a leaked memo conveying the approval of the Lagos State Government for the burial of 103 EndSARS Victims at the sum of N61, 285, 000. The procurement planning has been done; it was the letter of no objection that suddenly shocked the nation back to the ugly days of October 2020. The memo dated 19th July, 2023, is titled: LETTER OF NO OBJECTION. MASS BURIAL FOR THE 103, THE YEAR 2020 ENDSARS VICTIMS. 

    Just as humans are angry about the waste of lives that was loudly denied in 2020 by Federal and State officials, technology is even angrier as it gave wings to a memo that was probably leaked by an angry courier. The document simply went viral. Where does one even begin to explain that the nation lost 103 persons at peace time because of a peaceful protest over the high handedness of an arm of the Police Force? One of the demands of the protesters was improvement in the welfare of the Police they were protesting against. What an irony!

    What happened in Lagos that fateful night can only be compared to what happened in Tiananmen Square on June 4, 1989, when the Chinese government turned dangerous war machines against its young population and killed as many of them in what has come to be known as the Tiananmen Square Massacre. The students led protest began on April 15, 1989, and by June 4, the government had had enough and decided to move in men and machines to put a final end to such youthful insolence. The story shook a world that could hardly be shocked by even the worst happening from an authoritarian state.

    Without confessing so, Nigeria took a page out of the China debacle. After several days of peaceful protest at the Lekki Toll Gate, the Nigerian government decided to move in the army in the evening of October 20, 2020, under cover of darkness, where they rained bullets on a surprised citizenry that least expected their own government to use them as shooting targets. Yet Nigeria is a democracy where China is the direct opposite. But such difference was lost on the Nigerian government which denied that anybody died under the rain of bullets at the Toll Gate.  

    But this writer relied on technology to produce its magic at some point. December 9, 2020, we wrote on this page: ‘’Dear friend, technology can be a freak and can put shame to our agelong tradition of doing things and expecting the outcome to be shrouded in mystery. Oftentimes, technology refuses to keep secrets. That is what happened. Technology refused to keep secrets at Lekki Toll Gate on October 20, 2020.’’

    Now technology is at work again, telling the story of the anonymous dead they want to stack in one ditch, with their identities and even their death unknown to their loved ones, and even parents who were borrowing to train their children. What is more, the Lagos State government has now confirmed that people died but not at the Lekki Toll Gate. That is where death should not happen since the soldiers who had denied being at the Toll Gate had confessed to using rubber bullets. The bodies in search of a convenient place of final rest, died in other parts of Lagos. Would we ever know their names?

    But for the media, history would have gotten an underwhelming citation. The world watched live as soldiers descended on Lekki Toll Gate and also watched the unfolding dog fight on the streets thereafter, across the nation. But broadcasters were punished for broadcasting ‘’unverified images of alleged shooting.”

    ‘’In line with the provision of section 5.6.9 of the Nigeria Broadcasting Code which states that the broadcaster shall be held liable for any breach of the Code emanating from the use of material from user-generated sources, the Commission (National Broadcasting Commission, NBC), therefore sanctioned Arise TV, Channels TV and AIT in line with the provision of the broadcasting Code,’’ Prof. Armstrong Idachaba said at the time.

    ‘’Channels Television, Arise TV and AIT especially continued to transmit footages obtained from unverified and unauthenticated social media sources,” the NBC fumed.

    The three stations were fined N3m each for such perfidy and for trying to bring the country down with their operations. 

    It was such a tough time to be a civil servant working in a regulatory institution with the government capturing the power of regulation and dishing out orders and fines. The discerning minds knew the broadcast regulator had become a ventriloquist to higher powers. But the broadcasters took the fall for the wickedness of a government against its people.

    It was a tough time for broadcasting because of the immediacy of news transmission. Little could be done about the Social Media in spite of all the threats and even less about the print media. The attention was on the broadcast stations that the government could steamroll as frequency which is a primary resource in broadcasting belongs to the government.  

    Even the international broadcast media was not speared of the government scourge and vituperations. Former Minister of Information and Culture, Alh. Lai Mohammed, mocked the American broadcaster, the Cable News Network (CNN) for reporting a massacre at the Toll Gate, saying that for first time, there was a ‘’massacre without blood.’’ 

    ‘’CNN engaged in incredible sensationalism and did a great disservice to itself and to journalism. In the first instance, CNN, which touted its report as an exclusive investigative report, sadly relied on the same videos that have been circulating on social media, without verification,’’ he pooh-poohed.

    Mohammed railed that CNN should be sanctioned but that imposition looked remote because the organization has its base in Atlanta in the United State and does not rely on any broadcast spectrum to get signals into Nigeria. 

    Now, the real story is out. Not fake news any more. People died but not at the Toll Gate. Perhaps, death is only death when it happens at the Toll Gate. It is unfortunate that some young Nigerian lives were abrogated midflight, and they bear no names, no identity or any sort of origin. Broadcasters were fined for reporting what they claimed they saw and supported with pictures, but which were fake, unpatriotic and illusionary from government’s point of view.

    Technology has stepped in as a lasting arbiter. It is gratifying that very soon, the anonymous dead will find a resting place, where they can find peace before their Maker, far away from the wickedness of humanity. Until there is a closure to the matter with appropriate apologies and reparations, some people who were in government or are still in government, may not enjoy the benefit of such rest. Technology will not give them a hiding place. Instead, it will store their wickedness in the cloud where a little touch of the phone or computer button will regurgitate that moment of infamy.

  • NBC seeks redemption with AFRICAST 2023 – By Okoh Aihe

    NBC seeks redemption with AFRICAST 2023 – By Okoh Aihe

    Without mincing words, the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) is trying to claw its way back from the nadir of regulatory uncertainty and capture to a stirring renaissance where its relevance and importance will be felt again in the industry. Which other way to do it other than a return to the very roots where it all began, Lagos, in 1992, when the industry was deregulated and the broadcast landscape altered forever.

    What is more? The NBC is making a grand return to the premium stage with one of its flagship programmes, AFRICAST, which has been off the radar, with COVID-19 being given the notorious credit for such a troubling absence from the broadcast calendar of events. In truth, it goes beyond COVID-19. It was more of a systemic failure.

    But the story has turned a corner. Speaking at a press conference in Lagos yesterday, Mallam Balareba Shehu Ilelah, Director General of the Commission, announced the return of AFRICAST in October, which occasion also provides some cover for the NBC to start to reinvent itself, especially in areas it has suffered deficit. It is no assumption to state that a rebuilding process may have started, and that it will be good for the NBC to redeem itself or salvage what is left of its pride. 

    The theme of the 13th edition of AFRICAST which holds from October 24 to 26th, as announced by Ilelah is, Broadcast Content: Synergy, Finance and Market. Quite thoughtful. For a long time,  content has been taken as the blood that flows in the veins of broadcasting, the king of the industry, and the creators as a special class of people that need to be encouraged to create more fun and make profound statements with their works. 

    However, what will be of more importance to the industry stakeholders are the updates the broadcast regulatory boss provided on the activities of his organization. Coming into the NBC in June 2021, Ilelah inherited baggages that were primed to abort even every of his best effort at the Commission, the most noticeable being the intrusion of a supremo from the ministry whose ignorance and power mongering affected the industry adversely. 

    The grounds covered in the updates include: Review of the Nigeria Broadcasting Code, Completion of Digital Switchover, Proposed Upward Review of Broadcast License Fee, Nigeria Broadcast Institute, Automation of License Process and NBC Power to Sanction. 

    While it provokes nourishing feelings to know that the lifespan of the 2019 Code is coming to an end, it will be remiss not to state that the Code remains one of the worst documents produced by the President Muhammadu Buhari Administration. The innocent intention behind the review of a broadcast industry document was hijacked by subterranean forces who introduced strange elements into the document. The Code was not only controversial but based on latent interests that weakened the document, the NBC lost a couple of cases in court. 

    Booby traps were placed everywhere, from content creation, content ownership and sharing, content exclusivity and all kinds of ignoble provisions. The controversy generated nearly overwhelmed the NBC but those who placed the traps were laughing in the market place, while bending the law to serve their warped financial sinkhole. 

    At the briefing, Ilelah said: ‘’In line with the NBC enabling Act, the Commission has invited Broadcasters and relevant stakeholders to make inputs towards the review of the 6th edition of the Nigeria Broadcasting Code. The Code, which is updated every four years, aims to enhance operational standards in the broadcast industry and address emerging trends and technologies especially, as it affects broadcast content and delivery.’’

    If we had submitted in the past that the present Code was created to serve private and personal interests, it is my hope now that broadcasters and broadcast stations will seize this opportunity to activate their regulatory departments to spring into action and present documents whose observations and arguments will be strong enough to correct present anomalies. In more serious environments, consultants are actually engaged to combine strength with in-house capacity in order to achieve desired results. In this clime, we do things very differently.

    The NBC’s communication on the Digital Switchover is pure obscurantism, which perhaps questions whether the regulator is ready to fast track that all-important project which has been completed in several jurisdictions of the world. Acknowledging that the DSO has faced challenges in the past, Ilelah informed that ‘’the Commission has been able to facilitate the signing of a memorandum of understanding between one of the signal distributors, The Integrated Television Services and NTA StarTimes for the deployment of simulcrypt, which permits the FreeTV to leverage on the transmission infrastructure of NTA StarTimes to boost signal coverage across the Country and speed up the completion of the project.’’

    This means very little to the ordinary man out there who is expecting the DSO process to be completed so that he too can have access to digitally processed signals and multichannel TV programming as well as the digital dividends that will arise from the spectrum that be will yielded up for telecommunications services. It is a well-known fact that telcos are in a better financial position to pay more for spectrum uptake than broadcasters. This would always mean more money for the government and for the people.

    The NBC’s position on the Power to Sanction casts the regulator as a victim, which it is not. I don’t think there is anybody connected to the broadcast industry who nurtures the idea that NBC cannot sanction. The point at issue is that NBC should follow its own processes to impose sanctions on erring broadcasters. Those investing billions of Naira in the broadcast industry are not daft. Quite a number of them suspected that some of the fines recently parceled out to them only came from one source who sought to punish them. And the courts have not disappointed in giving judgment.  The NBC should acknowledge where it has erred and initiate some internal remedies.

    I don’t know who is advising the regulator but if I found myself in that position, I would have counseled against any upward review in license fees at this time. The regulator, according to the DG, is contemplating an increase in the license fees to reflect the reality of the times. Which is, everything spinning out of control. Is that what the NBC wants too? For me, it would have made more sense and meaning to leave the license fees as they are but audit the industry and cause it to function properly so that operators can make more money for the NBC to collect its annual operating levy. 

    You try and see this matter with me, as they say in the local parlance. Broadcaster operators are already indebted to the Commission in the sum of several billions of Naira. With an increase, there may be a spike in the debt that may never be paid. Which offers more appeal, for the industry to work or for the regulator to contemplate more money in the air?

    I am happy that AFRICAST is returning to the broadcast circuit. It gives me joy too that the regulator is organizing this event in collaboration with a consultant, Broadcast Media Africa (BMA), who should be able to add some flavour and depth to the programme. 

    But I have also looked at various sub themes of the conference and can’t see anything about Digital Switchover and the Code Review which, I believe, should enjoy prime attention. I just hope the NBC does not miss a clear and glorious opportunity to attract industry experts to comment on disturbing industry issues. AFRICAST 2023 should provide a defining moment for both regulator and operators to look at each other in the eye and resolve to do things differently to the benefit of the industry irrespective of the storm they carry inside. 

  • Politicians put NCC on panic mode – By Okoh Aihe

    Politicians put NCC on panic mode – By Okoh Aihe

    In spite of being subjected to a sustained subterranean assault in the past eight years of the Mohammadu Buhari administration, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) still remains one of the five star agencies in the country. The pillars holding that regulatory agency have been built over a time but some staff of the Commission are not sure any more how much longer they can hold out.

    Reason. Under the new administration, the dark clouds are gathering as some politicians who claimed to have worked for the victory of the APC, the party in power, are scrambling for the leadership of the agency, like vultures circling to make a final pounce on their prey.

    Recall that the boards of government agencies, parastatals and companies were recently dissolved by the new government in a whiff of good news. Ironically, that triumphant decision has opened a gambit for lobbyists to swing into action, ferreting out the best opportunities. This writer has it on good authority that no fewer than twenty former governors are jostling for the board chairmanship of the Commission.

    Yes. The bad news, dear friends, is that some of these politicians, after ruining their states, are looking for the next good spot to sow their bad seed and begin a new season of despoliation. Yes, they want to head a technical agency with their political paraphernalia of ignorance and make the nation a laughing stock in the eyes of the world.

    Just raising an alarm? No. Antecendents support their obnoxious expectations. There is saying in my part of the world that when mother cow is chewing the cud the little one is watching. In the past few years, politicians have watched the NCC from afar and can now confirm that the Commission has the capacity to meet their festered, insatiable greed.

    For instance, in the life span of the previous administration, the NCC suddenly became a revenue generating agency and would pompously announce its contribution to the coffers of government. It is possible that in previous governments before Buhari, the NCC may have made more contributions to the Federation Account very quietly. Nobody spoke about it because the remittances to make to government were quite clear and had to be done mandatorily. Under the previous government the story was different. Everything was in the public domain because the story had to be told that government was working when, indeed, the razzmatazz was a ruse to beguile an unsuspecting public.

    Even license renewal which is a fundamental responsibility of the Commission to the industry became public discourse. Expectedly the two auctions for 5G spectrum which happened within a year, in contravention of the set rules, enjoyed hyperbolic transfusion into the spongy psyche of a public hungry for good news, no matter how small.

    A happy President Buhari would announce in December 2022, that the Nigerian government made $547m from MTN and Mafab alone. The duo were the winners of the first 5G spectrum auction. If you add the $316.7m from Airtel Nigeria for a 5G spectrum license and another spectrum to enable it expand its 4G services, the math becomes very interesting. And most Nigerian politicians are math savvy especially where money becomes the central issue. All the while they were watching the NCC from afar.

    The politicians know when to make a launch for the object of their greed and two significant but sordid developments may have sealed the fate of the NCC. One, is the unbridled power of a minister who literally pocketed the Commission and ran the regulatory agency from his office at Mbora. The other is the ability of the Commission to give a waiver on spectrum fee payment in excess of N72bn to an operator, EMTS. The politician loves this kind of game which smells of underhand dealing.

    A pained source at the Commission puts the situation very succinctly.  ‘’As of date, new staffs are still resuming work in the Commission purportedly recruited on the behest of the former minister as a glaring example of his misadventure. In the past four years, when Dr Isa Pantami held sway at the Ministry of Communications, there has been no advertised vacancy in the Commission, yet about 1,000 staff members have been employed, who are daily proving to be misfits.’’

    The source warns that ‘’this manifest breach of administrative procedure has to be addressed, if the Commission is not to go under.’’

    In all of this, the politicians have been watching from afar. There is nothing they like more than to stand the law on its head and employ only their children and those who can pay for employment slots. Now they want to move in to have a ball irrespective of what happens to the NCC. I will admit here that a certain category of politicians built the NCC by properly deploying technocrats and serious minded people whose driving force was their knowledge of the centrality of telecommunications in driving modern development. Now a new set of politicians is hanging in the wings and the flatulence from their greed may permanently destroy the regulatory authority and the industry forever.

    The clouds are gathering and the signs are not good at all. I have had conversations this past few days with sources at the Commission and the endgame looks very nihilistic. I have had little balm for those who are hurting and very afraid. The dangers ahead are too ominous to be ignored.

    There are quite a number of people within the regulatory authority who fear that should the politicians be allowed to have their way, it will sound a death knell to the NCC especially after surviving the wringer of the last administration.

    Here are their thoughts. ‘’Tinubu (they actually mean President Bola Ahmed Tinubu) should realise that in this era of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR), telecommunications is the infrastructure of infrastructures. Every other thing rises or falls on it. The very nature of the technical issues involved in regulating the industry entails that it should not be about a job for political acolytes, but head-hunting of technocrats, taking into consideration Affirmative Action. The industry will farewell if women like former minister, Mrs Omobola Johnson, and a host of other seasoned professionals who retired from the Commission, are appointed on the board,’’ they moaned.

    There is something about the wisdom of my people which says that when the living begin to relish the memory of the departed, they are actually mourning the impotence or failure of the living. All of sudden minds are going to the past, about Affirmative Action, whether women don’t deserve a place on the board of the NCC or even the headship.

    Affirmative Action at the NCC is a topic for another day. We have had women at the NCC who performed at the optimal level. Senator Abiodun Christine Olujimi remains about the only woman that has served on the board of the NCC since 1992 and she did well. I was in the Nigerian team to the 2014 ITU Plenipotentiary Conference PP14 in Busan, South Korea. The delegation was led by Mrs Johnson as the Minister of Communications. She shone like a diamond in the sky, if you remember the cliché, and even did the nation proud by winning a global prize – the GEM-TECH Award, for initiating policies and programmes empowering women and girls via ICT. And there are so many women in her class or even better. Who says women haven’t got fire power!

    The story is really about the expedient need by the new government to save the NCC from the greed of the politicians and preserve the tech hegemony of an institution that remains perennially relevant to the development of the nation. It is about the need to look at the failures of the past and recalibrate for a challenging journey ahead in order to reposition the nation for good and deliver the people from multidimensional poverty, which keeps expanding.

    Technology will ever remain in the heart of every strategy to turn the nation’s fortunes around. If you accuse me of hyperbolism, please, tell me the market worth of Apple apropos our nation’s GDP!

  • Where would the Nigerian entertainment industry be without DAAR? – By Okoh Aihe

    Where would the Nigerian entertainment industry be without DAAR? – By Okoh Aihe

    The apotheosis of Dokpesi Anthony Aleogho Raymond (DAAR) was confirmed penultimate week in Agenebode, Edo State, when, in an elevated moment of deserved glory, his remains were placed in a mausoleum at his residence by the riverside as a lasting testimony for his progeny that “here lives the spirit of a man who gave the nation very profound and unforgettable moments.”

    It was a fitting and pleasurable harvest of good deeds that the platform of DAAR Communications –broadcasters of AIT, Raypower and FAAJI FM, the irrepressible platform which Dokpesi used to tell the story of the poor folks and sundry struggling people of Nigeria, and elevated quite a number to stardom, the very platform which internalized the beauty of our culture – music, movies, arts and craft, and plain, lucid storytelling, was there to bring his heroic exploits to the global community. A star was in apotheosis and comets were all over the heavens!

    Quite a number of people have told me that they didn’t really know the man, and that he had affected the nation to such an extent, and that his image looms much larger now than anybody would ever have contemplated.

    Yes, they now agree with me that the nation never really knew Dokpesi, and unfortunately, never will. So, the nation’s leadership, for as long as I can remember, pressured him to a departure that we all now regret. Because, from all indications, he had so much more to offer to a nation that would always eat up its best. But that will not stop his followers, admirers and beneficiaries from saying the truth; nothing but the truth, the unfailing truth that hurts the wicked.

    In the past couple of weeks, say a few days over a month now, I have asked myself one question: where would the entertainment industry in Nigeria be without Dokpesi? Could the answer to this question just be like arrogating to one man an overwhelming sense of achievement?

    Two significant dates changed the story of entertainment in this country. September 1, 1994, when the first private radio station in the country, Raypower 100.5, hit the airwaves and December 6, 1996, when the first private TV station, the African Independent Television (AIT) introduced television viewing diversity to our screens, courtesy of the audacious investment undertakings of Dokpesi. It was a dangerous launch into the deep but the attendant success and appreciation of nation starved of meaningful entertainment, have made all that pain endurable if not pleasantly.

    Entertainment hopefuls used to hang around the few government broadcast stations available, knocking on doors that may never be opened to them. You know monopoly has a way of breeding arrogance and this thrived in Nigeria of yore.

    Some entertainers tell their story in Dokpesi’s authorized biography, The Handkerchief. This is the story by Wale Adenuga, one of the biggest content producers in Nigeria, whose company produces hit TV programmes like Papa Ajasco and Super Story.

    ‘’My vision and dream was to transform those characters in my magazines onto the television screen. And before then, I have run from pillar to post. I have been to a couple of TV stations, but then I was not lucky till I got to AIT and in no time, the proposal was welcome and accepted. He supported me with equipment, money and every other thing and I produced under the supervision of their producers. In 1997, Papa Jasco TV drama was born on AIT. By then, it was called the Ajasco Family. It came out beautifully. From episode one we started to make waves. So in short, in that year, the programme would not have come out but for the intervention of Aleogho and I give that to him. At that same time, he was also bankrolling and producing programmes like the Family Circle and so many others. So most of us who are big producers today owe High Chief so much gratitude for making our dreams come true. I can never forget. He was God sent because God actually sent him to help us actualize our life ambitions,” Adenuga stated in the book.

    Idris Abdulkareem of Nigeria Jagajaga fame has his testimony as well. ‘’Without Kenny Ogungbe, there wouldn’t have been Idris Kareem. There wouldn’t have been Timaya, D-Banj, and the new school music. Without Chief Raymond Aleogho Dokpesi, there wouldn’t have been Kenny Ogungbe. See the spirituality. There’s no way I will talk about Chief Raymond Aleogho Dokpesi and I will not talk about Kenny Ogungbe…..Chief Raymond Aleogho Dokpesi, thank you Sir. On behalf of the new school, those who started in the afro Raypower that is now called the Afro Beat all over the world.”

    He listed a few of the beneficiaries as follows: Daddy Showkey, Lagbaja, Baba Fryo, Nicrogravity, 2 Face Idibia, and even Sunny Ade. People may see the inclusion of Sunny Ade quite differently. But between Sunny Ade and Dokpesi, there was an unbroken link that may need a dedicated episode to explain.

    Let me touch the case of Kenny Ogungbe which is even more interesting and seems to have strong imprimatur on the early achievements of Dokpesi’s broadcast company. Ogungbe had lived in Los Angeles. At the deregulation of broadcasting in Nigeria, Ogungbe had taken Dokpesi to visit Steve Wonders radio station in Los Angeles. With the kind of studio he saw and the quality of music belting out, Dokpesi didn’t need any convincing any more. ‘’I need to bring this kind of broadcast quality to Nigeria,’’ he told himself. He ordered his equipment on the spot. The initial amount was staggering.

    Ogungbe was to return to Nigeria to form the kernel of a risk-taking group of young men and women that would make broadcast history in the country. He minted some live radio programmes that yielded a bunch of aspiring musicians that would eventually be nurtured to stardom under his new music label, Kenny’s Music. Quite a number of them have moved on. But Ogungbe, kekeke, the sobriquet that would swallow up his name, had made his point. He was making stars why he too, along with D-One, was becoming a big star. The music sector of the entrainment industry was witnessing a renaissance while Nollywood was loading fast. The country’s entertainment industry has become a global puzzle but some people paid the price.

    I have always comforted myself with this information, that Raymond Aleogho Dokpesi, more than anyone else, had built the entertainment sector almost solely with his ambitious investments and visionary propositions for broadcasting. Because, really, entertainment feeds the hub of content while content provides the backbone for broadcasting. In this complicated relationship, Dokpesi was weaving a beautiful story that could be told from Africa especially led by Nigeria.

    Zeb Ejiro, popularly called the Sheik of Nollywood, told me a story that had both of us scrambling for beautiful memories of the past.

    ‘’Dokpesi is a man that does not know how to say no to his friends. He would put himself in very disadvantaged position to help people. He would always find a way. Domitilla stands as one of the best movies of the 90s, all because of Dokpesi. I went to NTA with the movie and they asked for N6m. I went to Dokpesi and told him we need to go to the cinema with Domitillia. And you cut the promo. I want it as loud as Benson and Hedges Loud in Lagos. He said, we will make it louder. And Domitilla became a hit. He sees a good thing from afar,’’ Zeb recalled.

    Like most of us, Zeb Ejiro refuses to believe that the man has gone on a long journey, so the present and the past become mixed up in the system. My final affirmation however, is that Dokpesi and the entertainment industry embraced each other very conveniently, but the latter climbed on his broad shoulders to hail the attention of the community.