TheNewsGuru

Tag: Okoh Aihe

  • Time for TV to help the ordinary folks – By Okoh Aihe

    Time for TV to help the ordinary folks – By Okoh Aihe

    The election season has the magic of driving me to images of the past, a particular story which brings a wry smile to my face. One day at the National Association of Broadcasters Conference (NAB) in Las Vegas, my friend who used to play very heavy in Nollywood, was interested in buying a particular camera lens to enhance the movie output of his company. 

    Meanwhile, a guy got his eyes fixed on my friend, perhaps awaiting his final decision. With his patience exhausted, he moved closer to my friend to find out why he needed to buy such lens. Are you a politician? he asked. 

    It was my friend’s turn to be perplexed. Without giving him further opportunity to continue in that perplexity, he explained to my friend that the lens was mostly favoured by politicians who were always anxious to double or multiply the attendance in their political rallies. 

    Something crept out to me immediately. One. There is a general belief all over the world that politicians were insincere. Two. That politicians were always ready to distort the truth in order to enjoy some advantages or personal gains. 

    Oh, like that young man in New York, a Republican, George Santos, who got into the US Congress with dubious credentials, dubious names and dubious everything to the extent that people are saying, “we don’t really know who this guy is.” Does this story have any similitude with something we know in this part of the world?

    These are great times for television. Political campaigns are in full steam as politicians move from one end of the country to another, promising heaven and earth and a little slice of the sun and the moon, jumbled together to give a special blend of our politicians’ capacity for abracadabra. 

    There is hardly a day without a live telecast  of major political outings with all the attendant crowd. Is the crowd fake or doubled? I am convinced that what we see on televison is real because the people are so boxed into a surreal existence that some elaborate drama which, our politics provides in real life, is needed to spice up the daily drag of life.

    I am happy that some of these stations are making some money out of politics to support their operations. The reason being that when an economy is impaired or failing, one of the first sectors to be affected adversely is the advertising sector. Plus making a little money, the broadcasters are doing well in transporting into our homes the escapades and adventurism of some  politicians whose entertainment value makes Nollywood look small. 

    Promises are rolling out in torrents. I will build every road in your domain. Every child will be at school. Your people will no more be hungry. Universities will no longer go on strike for a full academic session, and transportation – rail, road and air – will be easy and pleasurable. And the crowd gets ecstatic and delirious!

    Is there something we are missing here? Methinks. 

    One of the beauties of television is its immediacy and it’s ability to capture that immediacy for today and store it for tomorrow. For this reason, those who make promises are summoned tomorrow for their promises of today. Have our broadcasters been able to do that?

    Not a straight answer yet. I think that before the campaigns gathered momentum last year, the broadcasters were given the scare of their life when the government, through the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, warned that fake news and disinformation could pose a serious threat to the 2023 elections. 

    It was a subtle warning because, even now, the definition of fake news remains only in the purview of the government, who could use it to achieve any end. Most News which do not enjoy the approval of government and those with the capacity to intimidate, are now branded as fake news and some media practitioners may be trying to unlearn what they were taught at school.

    Perhaps, in order to validate the position of the minister, the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC), which he superintends, also warned against fake news and hate speech during camapaigns. Speaking at a sensitisation programme in Abuja, the NBC Director General, Mallam Balarabe Ilelah,  sent out a warning, saying the Broadcast Code has made generous provisions to deal with those who breach the law. 

    The position of the broadcast regulator is in order. For as long as I can remember, the commission has always been proactive in stemming the deviousness of our politicians.  Except that under this government, truth wears a coat of many colours that could only be interpreted from the eyes of top government functionaries. 

    What is missing at the moment? The boldness to flash the lives and promises of politicians who are strutting the podium with provocative boldness, making promises in order to pile more layers on top of the ones made previously. Unfortunately, the stations have been cowed into caution. Or is it because they are politically aligned for endless flow of lucre?

    I appreciate the boldness of some AM TV presenters and those who handle some special political programmes who are still able to interrogate the arrogance of those who claim to have the license to rule. History is documenting even the on-air harassment which some of them suffer.

    But I believe that the past remains in pictures. In January 2012, President Goodluck Jonathan had increased the fuel pump price from N65 to N140 by way of resolving the fuel subsiding torment and creating a realistic pricing for the product. There was outrage. Civil society and political groups gathered for 9 days in Lagos, singing and dancing but in very stout protest to what seem a scandalous elevation in price. The government buckled and the price was pegged at N97 after negotiations. Those who spoke in that programme are still alive, a number of them are in this government, fuel queues have lingered in Nigeria for more than a year because the system has failed the elementary process of demand and supply, and above all, nobody really knows the price of fuel now, not to add diesel and kerosine. Some of those who led that protest are superintending the pains Nigerians suffer at the moment!

    In 2015, the political campaigns were intense and words became far cheaper than the epidemic pain troubling the nation today. The President was clueless. He couldn’t  even solve the simple problem of power generation or even to deal with his primary commitment of securing the lives of the people. Promises were made. Nigerians were promised a new world and new experiences by a class of people led by a former military leader who, during his first sojourn in office, broke the spine of the nation.

    Words are cheap and time goes at the speed of light. Nearly eight years later Nigerians have gotten into a cul de sac, and the coming elections present an exit point. But as the politicians trend around the nation in their flowing agbada, truth seems interred. Unfortunately, poverty has been so weaponised in Nigeria that it may damage the ability of people to make informed decisions and choices based on the scanty truth that is available. 

    This is why I appeal to broadcasters that as the nation heads towards the elections, they need to take advantage of their profession and do much more for the ordinary folks out there by following the laws of the land and the Nigeria Broadcast Code to continue to speak the truth that is backed by law. 

    It is true that some candidates will not want to speak on certain platforms. It is also true that some of them have cupboards full of dry skeletons that they are afraid of any one capable of throwing light at them without fear or favour. What I can say here is that the journey from 2015 is shorter than the amount of pain it has unleashed on the people. 

    It is not evil for key actors of this administration to trumpet how well they have done for the nation and her people. But what is the truth on the roadwork, from 2015 to 2023The TV camera can tell a good story in documenting the true story, not the fake ones, the pervasive insecurity in the land, the mass graves in Kaduna, Benue, Plateau, Maiduguri and some other states of the federation, the bad roads all over, the perennially declining power supply, the hunger – over 133m people plunged into multidimensional poverty, the fuel queues that have refused to go away, and the general lack of direction and hopelessness while top government functionaries flash toothepaste smiles. They all need to be recorded, what damage they did to us as a people.

    The TV can do so much more for the people in exposing the backside of the politicians. It will not be fake news nor will it fall in the category of hate speech. 

  • A place for Peace among the Stars – By Okoh Aihe

    A place for Peace among the Stars – By Okoh Aihe

    Our dear friend, Peace Anyiam-Osigwe, went on a long journey last week and she is not likely to be back soon. No, not ever. She has gone the way of all mortals, living behind a gamut of works packed into her short life span to speak for her in a most voluble way.

    Hers is a life which nobody forgets; her journey lingers in memory, sweetly, like the aftertaste of black soup washed down with generous cold water after a sumptuous evening meal. That residual sweetness resonates a good life and sweetness which a chance encounter with Peace could ignite and remain ever aglow. 

    With Peace, life sparks light and rippling ideas, like a particular night in Finland when the Sun does not go down at all. Do you prefer to call it Nightless Night or the Midnight Sun or even Polar Day? It is one day nature shows another face to keep humans delirious for all of twenty four hours. In bright Sunshine, like Peace and her pot of ideas. 

    Circumlocution can be a way of burying pain my dear, just looking for fitting words to mask a void. Peace’s departure suddenly magnified a void which venerated movie maker, Amaka Igwe, had left years ago, since April 2014. 

    They were two amazons who bonded to promote a nascent industry from different ends and they made strong impressions and left indelible imprints all over for the discerning to behold as clear paths into the future. 

    Peace had boldness mixed with smartness and was formidably built to fly the industry flag beyond the confines  of our nation. 

    I didn’t always know Peace. But one night in Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory, I can’t remember whether it was at AFRICAST, the flagship event by the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) which used to gather broadcasters from Africa and beyond in Abuja every two years, until the coming of this administration, she premiered a documentary on Bayelsa State, the home of Oloibiri – the first location crude oil was discovered in Nigeria in 1956. 

    I remember that night very well. There was outrage. Hardly anybody in the audience agreed with her interpretation of the state in that documentary. Harsh words came in torrents for Peace but her peace was hardly impaired. She had a smile for every criticism, she had a thick skin to deflect very hurting adjectives. 

    “We can always do another cut and voice it all over again,” she said with a stubborn smile. It was the beginning of her climb, a paradigm of one who would stoop to conquer. It was her beginning to reach the world, and she got there in no time. 

    Earlier on we were on a couple of trips to South Africa, at Sithengi in Cape Town, which was one of the pioneer spots where she began marketing her ideas internationally. She was an industry ambassador extraordinaire and had no apologies for her bullish belief in an industry that was to take the world totally unaware. Nobody can diminish her contributions in this respect. 

    Only a few people will have the idea of what it takes to start and fund a film industry academy awards and find a place for it in the global calendar of entertainment events. Before starting the Africa Movie Academy Awards (AMAA), Peace traversed the world film festivals, especially the Cannes Film Festival where she would secure a night to host a party and draw global attention to her creative octopus that was springing out of a beautiful embryo. 

    It was therefore very elevating when a friend conversant with the global film circuit asked about Peace in a far away land. Who is that Peace from Nigeria? She must be very powerful to attract some big star personalities to her party in Cannes.

    I had a suppressed laugh. What Peace wants Peace gets because she is so focussed and very determined to achieve her goals.

    She put together a jury comprising a constellation of movie personalities, which include: Keith Shiri, Steve Ayorinde (Chair of the Jury who, in those days, was arguably the most prominent Nigerian journalist at the Cannes Film Festival), Shuabu Hussein, Bernie Goldblat, Asantewa Olatunji, June Givianni, Dorothee Wenner, Ayoku Babu, Ambassador Savadego Phillip, John Akomfrah, Charles Burnett and Prof Hyginus Ekwuazi. The thirteenth member, Amaka Igwe, took an early exit for a protracted but deserved rest. It was a good cast by all standards and they did their job with relish.

    AMAA was a major hit ab initio. Luckily she found the ears of the authorities in Bayelsa State who gave impetus to her ideas. It was always a carnival as the entertainment world with all its stars visited Bayelsa once a year. In one of those awards, Cuba Gooding Jr  of Boyz n the Hood fame and Oscar winner with Jerry McGuire was in attendance. There was hardly a better opportunity to market a very small state which would one day produce a President for Nigeria in the person of Dr Goodluck Jonathan.

    Lagos State trailed Bayelsa in domesticating AMAA, and the environment has not just been appropriate but lavish and stupendously inviting, with the right hotel picks and locations to boost the ego of movie super stars, a percentage of whom love to walk with their heads in the wind.

    From the federal government to her home state, Imo, other state governments, professional colleagues and other professions, tributes are pouring for Peace. She deserves them all without demanding them. She earned all the plaudits and should be proud to wear a garland on her way home. 

    The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed described Peace as “a legend, strong and positive force in the nation’s creative Industry’’. He appealed passionately that her AMAA dream should not be allowed to die. 

    But I particularly love the submissions of Rita Dominic and Ramsey Nouah. For Rita, 

    “We have lost an enigma, an icon, a trailblazer. We have lost a sister. We have lost the founder and director of the Africa Movie Academy Award  – it is so difficult to say goodbye.”

    A pained Ramsey said: “I wish that maybe it’s all a nightmare I will wake up from. You had plans. There were so many heights to reach, so many grounds to break and so many destinies waiting to take flight on the wings of your platform. Life really is fleeting.”

    The truth is that so many destinies have already been made from the AMAA platform. Peace was a star maker of sorts. Sometimes, it is not always about the movie but about the right platform for the movie to gain traction and explode. She provided a platform for industry players to shine, from the super star to the little supernumerary who is looking for a place under the sun. Peace put sheen on them and gave them a voice. 

    I am happy to read that the family has promised to sustain her legacy. That is great news to hear as her memory deserves every encouragement. Peace was more than an industry awards organiser. The industry needed her intellect, boldness and determination to put a leg through the door in the pursuit of a broad vision, and she was not selfish in offering all. 

    She was more than an industry impresario; she was also its ambassador. Thankfully, Peace has left us with enough work to last us more than a lifetime. She merits her place among the Stars and may her memory remain a blessing.

  • Does the Cybercrime Act protect Empress Njamah and other tormented? – By Okoh Aihe

    Does the Cybercrime Act protect Empress Njamah and other tormented? – By Okoh Aihe

    Those who rail against social media have their reasons. They are aware of the beauty, advantages and even the opportunities the various platforms can confer. But they are more troubled by the scurrilities the platforms can dredge up and splash on the face of a society already reeling from the malfeasance of politicians without conscience. Especially in the season of failing political certification, the plural belief is that the ruling class feels discomforted by social media because members of that privileged class don’t want their sins uncovered. 

    But sins do have their end-point and their rewards; so no matter how hard our politicians try, the day of reckoning will come, and that is not far away anymore; next month. However, they attract my sympathy because their good intentions are impaired by the disadvantages of failure which their stay in office epitomises. 

    This material is not about the fears of the politicians but about the travails and triumphs of a certain Empress Njamah, whose spurned lover, George Wade, allegedly splashed her nude pictures all over the social media, with so many people having a voyeur from another’s pain. Thankfully, she is strong and has affirmed her strength in one video I saw as I write this material. 

    “Love you guys, I’m good. Thank you, guys, for all the love, support, and messages and visits.’ And then from another source, “I’m alive, I came out alive and I’m able to speak out, so many women are hiding under this torture, this torment, last-last, we move. I’m excited about my freedom,” she said defiantly. 

    I am happy about her strength of character, I am happy about her ability to overcome an orchestrated evil with a smile, boldness and a straight face that has humbled the source of that evil. In situations like this, some people could just flip and keel over, but not Empress. I have followed her career since when her elder brother, John Njamah, was a budding protege to my great friend of blessed memory, Amaka Igwe, and I am happy with what they have become. 

    I have a weakness for Nollywood, the industry minted by the genius of some determined people. I feel saddened and grateful to those who nurtured the industry with their blood and remain elated by the determination of the living who continue to sustain the industry irrespective of the challenges imposed by the operating environment. 

    However, my heart goes for the people, those Empress described as “hiding under the torture, the torment.” I believe the law protects them and should enjoy that protection when the evil in the hearts of men comes into the open to disrupt the natural order of life with all its happiness. I am of the opinion that this class of people should seek expert advice on how the law protects them instead of just building up inner strength to wish evil away.

    The foregoing thought steered my attention to the Cybercrimes (Prohibition, Prevention, etc) Act, 2015, which has sections that clearly comfort people that are distressed by the wickedness of other human beings. 

    Under Cyberstalking, the Act in Section 21, states as follows: Any person who knowingly or intentionally sends a message or other matter by means of computer systems or network that –

    (a) is grossly offensive, pornographic or of an indecent, obscene or menacing character or causes any such message or matter to be so sent; or

    (b) he knows to be false, for the purpose of causing annoyance, inconvenience danger, obstruction, insult, injury, criminal intimidation, enmity, hatred, ill will or needless anxiety to another or causes such a message to be sent:

    commits an offence under this Act and shall be liable on conviction to a fine of not more than N7,000,000.00 or imprisonment for a term of not more than 3 years or to both such fine and imprisonment.

    (2) Any person who knowingly or intentionally transmits or causes the transmission of any communication through a computer system or network –

    (a) to bully, threaten or harass another person, where such communication places another person in fear of death, violence or bodily harm or to another person. 

    My little understanding of the highlighted portion is that the law protects the abused from the wickedness of the abuser. One other interesting thing to note is that even those who received the nude pictures in the case of Empress Njamah may not be innocent and could be as guilty as the primary source of the materials. 

    It is also possible for some of these demented fellows to enjoy the opportunistic  thinking that after sending pictures and all kinds of lurid messages from the phone or computers, one can quickly delete and move on to the next unfortunate target. Not so fast, my dear. The Act in Section 38 ascribes some responsibilities to the service providers, which responsibilities are also captured in the ancillary laws of the telecoms regulator,  the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC). 

    For instance, under Records retention and protection of data in Section 38,  a service provider shall keep all traffic data and subscriber information as may be prescribed by the relevant authority for the time being, responsible for the regulation of communication services in Nigeria, for a period of 2 years.

    A law enforcement agency may, through its authorized officer, request for the release of any information in respect of subsection (2) (b) of this section and it shall be the duty of the service provider to comply, the Act says.

    The service provider now bears the weight of the law where the data is not available or may have been wiped or lost. The Law goes the distance to provide the opportunity for the abused to find some comfort. 

    Not being a lawyer myself, I had to find validity for my thoughts which I got from the site of AOL (Olisa Agbakoba Chambers). The article titled: Defamation and the Law in Nigeria, which also captured Online Defamation, draws support from The Cybercrime (Prohibition, Prevention) Act 2015, and states as follows:

    “It has been established that when an individual posts something on social media they are acting as publishers and can be sued for making false statements or defamatory comments.

    “Online defamation conforms to the same standard of proof as the generally known type of defamation.”

    Positing that  a defamatory statement can be of two types, Libel and Slander, I find AOL’s position on Libel interesting and positively congruent with my line of thought. 

    “The dissemination of a defamatory comment in written or permanent form is referred to as libel. This could be an email, a blog post, a tweet, a text or WhatsApp message, a newspaper article, a television or radio broadcast, a video clip uploaded to the internet, or even a handwritten letter. Libel could be filing a false domestic violence action against a spouse or sexual harassment complaint against a coworker, which could lead to any of the conditions for defamation,” AOL wrote.

    I do not know at what point young men and women have to take nude pictures of themselves but I do sense that there are so many young people involved in packaged love nowadays which flies in the face of reality and common sense, but laced with lots of fatal attraction to scandal. Irrespective of extreme love or hate, whoever breaks the Law will have a date in court. Whatever the nationality of George Wade, my submission is that the Law of the land should bring him to common sense in the process of determining his guilt or innocence.

  • Even with technology, time outsmarts the politician – By Okoh Aihe

    Even with technology, time outsmarts the politician – By Okoh Aihe

    The ephemerality of time is one thing that gnaws the innards of the politician. If a wish list was possible in the New Year, he would ask God for time to stay still, you know, like Joshua making that great declaration for the sun to remain still right in the middle of the sky, over Gibeon, until he put the battle to rest. 

    But time is fleeting, like a wink of the eye, a constant moving machine which runs so fast, until life is by the red sand to answer the final call. Venerated poet, J.P. Clark, captured the transiency of time in the conversation between that little Child and the Bird in Streamside Exchange. “Will mother come back today? ……. Tide and market come and go/And so shall your mother.”

    Just like that. Life’s episode is gone and the child would not understand but waits expectantly. The politician would not wait, instead he would think of other means, of  time apropos the time machine and the possibility to zoom into the past and return to the present before heading into the future. Unfortunately, such a possibility belongs only in the movies. 

    In real life, time runs its normal speed, unhindered. So, when the politician makes promises and prays for the day of reckoning to be deferred, time supervenes and aborts the prayers. Which is why 2023 is here. The year could not be put on hold or on a time machine; all the promises made by the politician will now be put on a scale for proper stocktaking. 

    Talking of promises, my mind goes back to a particular one in 2016, in the early days of APC, when every little positive move was attributed to the body movement of the new government, the MInister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, went to launch the Digital Switchover (DSO) in Jos and released a bouquet of promises to a populace that was hungry to sponge up every good news. Digital Switchover is the migration from analogue television transmission to digital transmission. 

    Having sang the Buhari administration to power, the minister looked for a quick fix, something to immediately grab the people’s attention as proof that the government was working miracles. What usually is defined as low hanging fruits. The DSO was chosen. The orchestration looked perfect. Something with a little bit of razzmatazz, something that can be etched in memory and pressure the people to salivate for more. TV and its associates would do the magic.

    Jos was chosen because of the city’s long romance with television. Remember TV School and the Nigerian Film Corporation, located in the same city because of the breathtaking cinematographic environment and locations, which the constant assault of marauders has not been able to attenuate. Jos was a beckoning attraction and the government seized it with both hands.

    The optimism was high and the minister pressed the right keys to make his words sink in. 

    ”Nigeria currently has 20 million TV households, and DSO will make the country the biggest free-to-air market in Africa and indeed the world, and a host of value added services such as news, information and video on demand. Also, bandwidth will be freed up for other uses.

    “5,000 direct jobs will be created for young engineers and technicians and another 10,000 jobs from small scale entrepreneurs and technicians who will start up distribution and retail outlets throughout the 774 local government areas.

    “More creative hands will be required to create the 24/7 content needed to operate the digital television channels, thus leading to the creation and spring-up of new TV content producers and artists. The DSO will also allow Nollywood producers to monetise their movies directly to 20 Million TV households in Nigeria at the same time, and this will solve the problem of distribution and piracy,” the minister told his excited gathering in Jos. 

    For the ITU Region-1,  which includes Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Central Asia and the Islamic Republic of Iran, the DSO process began on July 17, 2006, according to an agreement at the  Regional Radio Communications Conference in Geneva. It was scheduled to end on June 17, 2015, for the UHF Band, with a five year extension for the VHF Band (174 -230MHz) July 17, 2020, in some countries.

    The country had reasons to hope. The DSO would free up frequencies that would be monetised by the telecoms regulator, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), who would make more money for the nation. 

    But wishes can go up in smokes. The country’s DSO plan fell flat on the face. A ministerial committee was set up to override the presidential committee that had been put in place by former president, Dr Goodluck Jonathan. The implementing agency, the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC), was overwhelmed by superior powers, and then started to limp from one controversy to another. Money became an issue, a very big issue. Some approvals that were made suddenly got vaporised. It might be easier to track a dissolving piece of sugar in the mouth than tracking how all that money went.

    The final report is that in nearly eight years of this administration, DSO has only been flagged off in about eight states, and signal coverage in each state is not more than a quarter. Remember, the world has since moved on. But here is the question, what will the minister write in his handover notes concerning the DSO? Will he include all the hidden hands that collected the budgetary approval by the government for the project?

    Here is another low hanging fruit, something that binds with a spell. After nearly all  the legacy projects in the telecommunications industry had been decimated by a minister who saw himself more as the regulator than a minister who should give policy direction, there was a sudden burst of inspiration for the regulator, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), to auction two Lots of 100MHz in the 3.5GHz spectrum band, which is used for 5G technology.

    Again the song was waxed: the nation will make money; there will be pervasive broadband all over the nation; businesses will thrive and e-everything will flourish in the country. Everybody loves a good song, especially if it brings hope. 

    Three Lots of 100MHz have been successfully auctioned since December 2021, one Lot each to MTN and Mafab, valued at $547, 000, 000 for the two, while another was successfully sold last December at the Reserve Price of $273, 600, 000 to Airtel, which had buckled at a point during the auction in 2021. 

    The other day, the President bragged a little when he said that the government had raised $547, 000, 000 from fifth generation (5G) spectrum auction. The coordinates weren’t totally right because if you add the $273, 600, 000 of last December, the amount would be much higher. Was that a mathematical oversight or simply because the last auction hasn’t been fully paid up yet? 

    Whatever it is, money has gotten to the government, even President Buhari has acknowledged receipt. What does that mean to the ordinary folk on the street? Not much really. Under this administration the telecoms industry has taken a dive, services remain poor, service gaps are popping up more regularly, availability of ubiquitous broadband is better illustrated by the frustration on the faces of those who try to conduct electronic transactions, or do a transfer in the bank and had to sit out until acknowledgment from the other end. Life has become a drag and sustained frustration. 

    But this is 2023, farway from 2015. Political promises are coming home to roost in so short a time. Politicians are pleading for a deferment of a shocking reality check in order to protect their balloon of lies. Tide and market come and go, and so is the era of this government that is bound to record an inglorious documentation at the exit gate. 

  • With NITDA Bill, NASS prepares hemlock for telecoms industry – By Okoh Aihe

    With NITDA Bill, NASS prepares hemlock for telecoms industry – By Okoh Aihe

    Writing on the NITDA Bill on September 1, this year, this writer concluded aphoristically: This particular Bill is outrageous and annoyingly duplicitous, a grotesque mirror image of the original already in existence. The National Assembly should be wary of all contraptions that come in the name of Bill, including this ostentatious manifestation of ignorance, arrogance and avarice. The only place for the Bill is the trash which should be heading to the incinerator, after which the ashes should be blown in the wind, as a lasting evidential ignominy and escort for those who don’t mean well for our nation.

    As it is now, the NITDA Bill didn’t go to the trash, not even to talk of the incinerator. All that use of words to evoke an immediate response from the relevant authorities, seems more of an academic odyssey which means little for the swine destroying gold in the mud. The irony of that conclusion is only now playing out on the writer who is being schooled very rudely that the National Assembly has no time for rigorous examination of documents that ordinarily should die at birth.

    Or how else does one explain that on a day (December 23, 2022) that most Nigerians were confused about Christmas that was only two days away, no food on the table, nobody is talking about the usual seasonal festivities, people stranded at the motor parks, unable to afford the transportation that has shot beyond the moon, more so because of fuel scarcity, when people were shouting at the airports as the N120, 000 one way ticket from Lagos to the east was an overkill, on a day the pall of mass burial in Kaduna was hanging ignominiously over the nation, the National Assembly members sneaked into their sanctum to give a surreptitious approval to a most annoying bill minted by stealth manipulators, whose pipe dream is to rule the industry forever.

    Mind you, the deaths in Kaduna were no matters of urgent national importance, the poverty in the land even at this time that people are supposed to have a little fun is not their headache, not even the attack on INEC offices across the nation. Instead some members of the National Assembly are in a satanic league with some people deprived of good reasoning, who harbour the baloney that getting into a government office is an opportunity to hold that office in perpetuity through surrogates and all kinds of misfits.

    As the Senate and the House of Representatives Committee on ICT and Cyber Security hurriedly scrambled together a Public Hearing on that bleak Friday morning, to transmogrify the National Information Technology Development Agency Act No.28, 2002, to the National Information Technology Development Agency Act, to provide for the Administration, Implementation and Regulation of Information Technology Systems and Practices As Well As Digital Economy in Nigeria and for Related Matters, 2022, there was outrage by some stakeholders and an ominous silence in the industry, and even from the regulatory towers where people now talk in low voices because of fear.

    That very morning, one bold young man, Iyin Aboyeji, Founder and General Partner, Future Africa, was taking full advantage of the opportunity provided him by the Arise TV platform, to warn Nigerians about the dangers of the Bill, appealing to them to do something urgently. He wasn’t speaking out of emotions but had obviously contributed to the preparation of the foundation documents until a grotesque version was introduced.

    “The Bill has the potential to reverse all the gains we have made in the digital economy, it is power grab, contentious and overreaching. It is an attempt to take power through the back door,” he alerted.

    Match this with what we said on September 1. “First the Bill is aimed at power-grab in the industry. Apart from creating all kinds of channels to levy, fine, impose charges and even criminalize some operations, the Bill is making forays or stage-managed raids into the purview of hitherto more powerful agencies in the industry. In summary, the Bill wants to seize the data ecosystem of the industry and subordinate it to its incompetent and miniscule self.”

    The fact that concerns are overwhelmingly synchronous should compel the National Assembly to have a rethink, and, in fact, spend more time to examine the manipulative urgency of the sponsors of the Bill, and also do a pan industry inquisition.

    Fortunately, there is a little reprieve. Proponents of the Bill, Communications and Digital Economy Minister, Dr Isa Pantami and NITDA Director General, Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi,  were not in attendance, leading to a postponement of the Public Hearing.

    In the intervening period, there is an exigent need for the National Assembly to take a critical look at the various Acts setting up all the agencies under the Ministry, which include: the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Galaxy Backbone, National Identity Management Commission (NIMC), Nigerian Communications Satellite Limited (NigComSat), Nigerian Postal Service (NIPOST), and the National Frequency Management Council (NFMC).

    It is worth pointing out that the NCC, USPF and NFMC are housed in the Nigerian Communications Act 2003. It is also recommended that they also speak to some curators of the industry, who include: Engr Titi Omo-Ettu and Dr Chris Uwaje, just to name only two. The telecommunications industry needs help, the law makers should not help to bury it instead.

    There seems to be an anomalous concourse to ruin the industry or prime it for perennial personal benefits. Ironically, the supervising minister, Pantami, is the one writing the script. He started out by coercing the NCC into troubling silence unbefitting of a regulator hitherto recognised globally.

    Speaking to a couple of senior members of the Commission, some of them spoke in whispers even in their homes. “The minister has conquered us. He has coerced us into silence,” they moaned.

    This is an unfortunate position for the regulator to be in. The Nigerian telecoms regulator has been captured, totally. The industry calls such conquest “Regulatory Capture.”

    A search through the various departments of the NCC unearthed a review of the proposed amendment titled: Review of the Draft National Information Technology Development Agency (Repeal & Re-Enactment) Bill 2021. This document, which x-rayed the various sections of the proposed Bill, was authored in February 2001. While the National Assembly is almost signing off on the Bill, this writer gathered that the NCC position has not been officially accepted. Why would the National Assembly work on a Bill without the input of critical stakeholders ?

    Permit me to serve you part of the conclusion of that document.  “The review has shown the different areas of overlap between the Draft Bill and the Nigerian Communications Act 2003; this will create structural and regulatory conflicts in Nigeria. Yet the most worrisome impact of the Draft Bill is its immense potential to jeopardize the vibrant communications sector by creating uncertainty and drawing a grey map of applicability. This will not only jolt investors and distort the market structure, but can lead to multiple regulatory oversight and lack of coordination in managing the Sector. Therefore, the impact is far reaching and fundamental to market sustenance and deepening the gains of the sector that has twice driven Nigeria out of recession in the last six years.”

    But how come a once tiny technology development agency is assuming the shape of an octopus, to become a regulator of regulators? Answer: the little bird dancing in the middle of the road with the drummer in the bush nearby.

    A little recall may suffice. The minister, Pantami, used to be the Director General of NITDA. While I will not want to say there is conflict of interest in the way he runs the ministry, I want to observe however, that he has not been able to emotionally detach himself from the operations of NITDA, to the extent that a brand new law is being put in place, to empower the agency and superimpose it on other agencies. Little pinch of power is made here and there, from other more established agencies, to embellish NITDA and make it super fit and ready for the proposed operations. This is awfully wrong, counterproductive and insidiously destructive. This outrage is playing out in high places. By the time it percolates, a once promising industry could be laid to waste.

    The National Assembly should listen to the warnings of Iyin Aboyeji and weigh the concerns of other stakeholders. It is the responsibility of an individual to dream dreams, including building castles in the air. But it is the responsibility of the lawmakers to curb individual whims and caprices with relevant laws.

    While the minister may nurse a perception and picture for the telecommunications industry, it is the responsibility of the National Assembly to align his vision for the industry with the various regulations to ensure that all agencies and their sectors are well protected. The minister has demonstrated his inability to conduct the activities of his ministry without bias. The NITDA Bill is a painful pointer.

    Our prayer to the National Assembly is not to give approval to the NITDA Bill as it is very dangerous to the industry. Doing so will be akin to preparing hemlock for the telecoms industry and the Nigerian public as a parting gift.

  • Cashless Policy with loads of headache – By Okoh AIhe

    Cashless Policy with loads of headache – By Okoh AIhe

    I like the story of the madman and the fire in the bush which I always tell with relish. In one of those remote villages in Edo State where the harmattan could hit with ferocious force, the madman had set a little fire to warm himself. All of a sudden the whole bush was on fire. Still warming himself up, he really didn’t care about the inferno building up, until he was asked what happened here?

    The answer for him was simple. I only set a little fire here to warm myself. I really don’t know about that huge thing billowing up there.

    When I look at the recent monetary policy on withdrawal limits put in place by the Central Bank of Nigeria and the mixed reactions that have greeted a seeming laudable project, my little smile is that the Central Bank Governor, Godwin Emefiele, doesn’t look like the kind of guy that would ignite the bush and really won’t care what happens to the whole environment.

    I also look at the flip side of the little guy or the rural woman out there, like my mother, during her lifetime, when she would go to the market with a couple of yam tubers, so that she could sell and be able to feed the family. What would have been her concern with withdrawal limits? Like the madman, she wouldn’t bother herself with the conflagration, inferno or anything you may like to call it, because she didn’t have pile of money out there. Her primary goal would have been to quieten the butterflies in the stomach.

    That was her concern in 1983, when a certain government initiated a similar policy they thought would receive hosanna from the ordinary folks. Instead, the policy brought pain, immeasurable pain, that as an undergraduate, continuing at school, which was already a challenge, got extremely complicated. People suffered. People died. Unfortunately they were not even lucky enough to make the stats of the departed.

    In fairness to the CBN Governor, some of his policies have always targeted the ordinary folks, to include them in the nations monetary system. For instance, a major objective of the Payment Service Banks (PSB), which was recently revved up, is to enhance financial inclusion in rural areas by increasing access to deposit products and payment/remittance services to small businesses, low-income households and other entities through high-volume low value transactions in a secured technology-driven environment.

    What then is the difference? The nation’s currency, the Naira, has been redesigned. People with cash have been asked to deposit same in the banks. All of a sudden, monies from sealed rooms and even graves, are showing up in the banks in dematerialised form!

    The weekly withdrawal limit has been pegged at N100, 000 for individuals and N500, 000 for corporate bodies. Daily withdrawal even at POS is N20, 000.

    In some quarters there is near dancing in the streets. This is the best thing to have happened. It will curb fraud, extinguish vote buying and put a damper on the ability of terrorists to fleece their victims of humongous sums of money. The country really is headed in the right direction!

    The apex banks sees it as a further consolidation of the cashless policy introduced under President Goodluck Jonathan. Addressing the Senate Committee on Banking, Insurance and other Financial Instituions, Mrs Aishat Ahmad, Deputy Governor, Financial System Stability, who appeared for screening alongside her counterpart, Edward Lametek Adamu, Corporate Services, said the latest policy would boost the cashless policy of government.

    “The cashless policy in Nigeria, was first introduced over 10 years ago in 2012 starting in Lagos State. In 2013 the policy was later extended to six additional states and the Federal Capital Territory. Since then, Nigerians have continued to embrace the cashless policy by using electronic channels for their transactions, whilst the Nigerian payments system and telecommunications infrastructure continued to develop.”

    Really? How often does  Ahmad leave the Central Bank vaults for the village to see the amount of electronic transactions going on there? There could be a similitude of good things happening in the cities as far as electronic transactions are concerned but not in the villages, where networks remain a nightmare, where people queue for hours just to be able to withdraw some money as little as N2000.

    Will this curb corruption? Perhaps. Look at the story this way, without the sweetness it contains. For over seven and half years, this administration maintained a double forex window – the  Central Bank rates and the black market rates. For all these years people benefited, collecting dollars at the official rates and selling them off at the black market. At a time it was more than N300 difference in one US dollar. Now the new monetary policy is targeted also to address the forex market problems; who then were the beneficiaries of such a convoluted scheme? Will they just be allowed to go free, like a bird in the air, away from the fowler?

    What then is the difference between what the CBN Governor has done and other practices before him? Pretty straight, I believe. And the Governor should be sincere enough to confront the truth and make amends to bruised sensibilities. Here it is. From the moment he nursed any interest to run for the highest office in the land, his office became pigmented with the hue of a politician, and every of his little step bred suspicion. For the first time his tenure at the Central Bank is becoming so controversial that there are now instances of people demonstrating for, or against him. It was never so. It will remain very difficult for him to demonstrate that his actions are without biases.

    Is the nation ripe for a cashless policy? Somebody told me the story of four major markets in Nigeria, which include: Apongbon Market in Lagos, the main market in Kano, Onitsha Market in Anambra State, and Ariaria Market in Abia State. In these markes, any sum of money in cash could be mobilised at any time. The Cable News Network (CNN) had once reported that there was so much cash available in the Lagos market that it was possible for a woman to bring out over $100, 000 from under the mat in the small shop. Perhaps the people have to be encouraged to put their money in the banks instead of preferring to transact business in cash. There may be very little the government can do about that age-old practice.

    I have spoken with some people and none had anything against it except that it should have been introduced in phases. A process has to start at some point but the people must find a reason to be part of it. Quite a few people believe that in introducing the policy a clear difference should have been made between the city and the rural areas where it is still pain to do electronic transactions.

    In addition to the foregoing, is the infrastructural gap in the rural areas, some miserable level of development which is only understandable on the grounds that the telecom operators will first direct investment to areas that could give handsome returns on investments before sinking money in rural areas. This is not a crime but a matter of investment decisions. In summary telecoms services in most rural areas are still very challenged; in fact, the telecom backbone is too weak for such transactions. It thus behoove the government to be more analytical, preemptive and forward looking in introducing some policies.

    The way to go in this modern world is to embrace technology but it is going to be pretty difficult for President Mohammadu Buhari and the CBN Governor, Emefiele, to explain to rural folks that this cashless policy was not introduced to punish them.

  • For 5G, little lessons that build an industry – By Okoh Aihe

    For 5G, little lessons that build an industry – By Okoh Aihe

    What seemed a miscarriage of reality last year was righted last week when mobile service  provider, Airtel, became the sole contender in a 5G Auction scheduled for this month. As the sole bidder, Airtel will now shell out the sum of $273.6m as payment for a Lot of 100MHz in the 3.5GHz spectrum band.

    A statement released by the Commission through the Director of Public Affairs, Reuben Muoka, informed that while only two companies had expressed interest in the Auction by the close of business on Monday, December 5, 2022, only Airtel was able to pay the Intention to Bid Deposit (IBD), which is 10 percent of the Reserve Price (RP). 

    The other company, Standard Network & Connections Limited (Standard Network), had communicated with the Commission via an email, appealing for the deadline to be extended by twelve (12) working days which was not acceptable in view of the auction timetable.

    “Having met all the provisions in the IM, Airtel has therefore emerged as the sole Bidder,” Muoka said.

    How times and fortunes change! The first 5G Auction held in Nigeria last year with MTN and a hardly known MAFAB becoming the pioneer winners, with each paying the sum of $273.6m for a Lot of 100MHz. Airtel posted an Exit Bid of $270m. This writer gathered at the time that the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), the telecoms regulator which sold the licenses on behalf of the Nigerian government, had given a firm word that there would be no 5G Auctions for two years. 

    After all, the financial windfall was good and those dropping such hefty sums needed to be reassured that the system would keep their back and ensure they make some returns on their investments that would eventually run into billions because of the cost of 5G deployment. 

    But with a band of politicians ready to exit government in the next few months, pressure came on the regulator to put the remaining two Lots in the market with the narrow excuse that so much money could be raised for a government in dire need of cash. 

    The drama began with the Information Memorandum published on October 21, 2022. Stakeholders were encouraged to raise questions and comments on the Memorandum. Some of the concerns boiled over at the Stakeholders Engagement Forum which held on November 15,2022. While Airtel argued to be allowed to pay the RP, MTN canvassed a position that it be allowed to participate in the Auction although it currently holds a license. 

    Definite decisions. Airtel’s wish was refused. The window of 100MHz as the upper limit for an operator was adjusted to 200MHz, meaning MTN could participate and that even a bidder could snap up the two Lots. 

    These are interesting times. This writer has a little conservatism on his side, spiced with some regulatory experience. This was why we warned that the Auction be suspended for the following reasons: the election period would breed some uncertainties to frighten investors, the regulator needed to be firm and not yield to the greed and manipulation of politicians, the regulator should not break its promise to previous winners or even industry operators, and that the industry and its investment needed to be protected. 

    This was only a suggestion that was contemptuously ignored. Not that we expected otherwise. There is always a feeling that we can conjure up magic to impact on our wishes and designs. Unfortunately, magic belongs to the realm of deceit; oh, the ambience of abracadabra. 

    So, ironies conspired to collapse the plans. MTN froze on its plans, perhaps taking a cautionary appraisal of the market it has invested so much in, Airtel had its way to pay the Reserve Price (RP), while the little other outfit that had interest couldn’t survive the heat of an unpredictable market. Nobody would be ready to lay out that kind of money to an upstart in an industry where sharks could be complimented as friends. Generally, interests cooled in the industry because there are things that are not right at the moment.

    The drama ended before it could start. No climax. No denouement. A simple slapstick. But what lessons have we learnt from this insipid episode?

    Airtel attracts my first attention here. The company should build some more trust in countries where it is doing business. Each time there are spectrum sales in Nigeria, the service provider would behave like an organisation frozen in time, not too much effort to hit the glass ceiling.

    But the parent company, Bharti Airtel, in August 2022, had to pay $5.45bn for 5G spectrum in India before it could begin to place a value on the cheap product it declined to pick in Nigeria. This writer was reliably informed that plus the unwholesome pressure from the politicians, Airtel, since then, has mounted pressure on the regulator.

    Unfortunately for the operator, which has now won a 5G license in Nigeria, it is one year behind its competitor, MTN, in service rollout. 

    I also want to point at the operators and industry bodies who are ever so afraid of ever testing the activities of the regulator with available regulatory instruments. There is too much silence, too much acquiescence to regulatory inconsistencies and infractions from the regulator. You don’t build a big industry that way. 

    My last appeal is to the regulator. Beyond the adulatory sloganeering of best practices and regulatory transparency, there will be the need to audit its activities in the over seven years of this administration, highlight its successes but also be very sincere enough to look at its failures and be able to make corrections that can revive the fortunes of the industry.

    I do not want to submit that there is too much focus on legacy glory but the path to a great future is always missed by those who constantly look behind. 

    At the expiration of the lifespan of the Buhari administration, the regulator will have to do a lot of work to clean up its image and reinvent its activities.

    Meanwhile congratulations to Airtel, and may their service rollout come with speed.

  • Startup Act 2022 as apologia for stale reasoning – By Okoh Aihe

    Startup Act 2022 as apologia for stale reasoning – By Okoh Aihe

    It is obviously quite refreshing to hear things that make sense, and also well presented; far away from the avalanche of campaign dust and induced violence, away from the political drama and hugger-mugger that are building into a depressing trademark of our politics.

    The gentleman was speaking about the Startup Act 2022. The voice enjoyed some pellucidity in response to questions but I enjoyed the little confusion between calling it a Bill or an Act. Oswald Osaretin Guobadia still has not come to the full understanding that the Bill has made its rounds at the National Assembly and that President Muhammadu Buhari has assented to it. That doesn’t mean understanding in the literal sense of it but an overwhelming sense of achievement that a tough journey has come to a beautiful conclusion.

    He was saying something about the Act establishing a Council for Digital Innovation and Entrepreneurship, which shall be domiciled at the offices of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA). There they go again, an inner voice rang a warning, always looking for an opportunity to load the system with more agencies and councils.

    A long time ago, a friend who is an interesting mischief maker, saddled himself with the unsvouring and unrewarding effort of listing federal government agencies and parastatals, just to be able to demonstrate that some of them are nondescript but only exist to collect allocations from government, for which they will never be called to give any account, like money for the boys. In all my years in journalism and later in the civil service, I had never heard of three quarters of them! Is the Startup Act 2022 yet another one, put in place to create some bogus entities?

    Looking at the slow-grind of lawmaking in Nigeria, the Startup Act metaphorically flew on supernatural wings. The first draft of the Bill surfaced in July 2021, hit the floor of the National Assembly in December 2021, Public Hearing was in June 2022, Bill was passed in July 2022, and assented to by the President in October 2022. What a journey!

    Guobadia can enjoy some days in the sun. He is Senior Special Assistant on Digital Transformation to the President of Nigeria and the Program lead of the Nigeria Startup Bill. It is absolutely nourishing to be given an assignment and deliver on it in record time. My little experience is that people in that kind of position simply fritter away opportunities and responsibilities. Guobadia has presented a bright exception.

    President Buhari’s annotation to the Act demonstrates a measure of confidence in the entire process and what the Act is expected to achieve. “The Act is aimed at ensuring that Nigeria’s laws and regulations are clear, planned and work for the tech ecosystem. This, we believe, will contribute to the creation of an enabling environment for the growth of the ecosystem, as well as the attraction and protection of investment in tech startups,” the President said.

    The Startup Act makes a good read but with a sprinkle of convoluting presentation. The following are the objectives of the Act: provide a legal and institutional framework for the development of startups in Nigeria; provide an enabling environment for the establishment, development and operation of startups in Nigeria; provide for the development and growth of technology-related talents; and position Nigeria’s startup ecosystem, as the leading digital technology centre in Africa, having excellent innovators with cutting edge skills and exportable capacity.

    The Act establishes the National Council for Digital Innovation and Entrepreneurship, referred to as the Council, whose membership shall include: the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, who shall serve as the Chairman; the Vice-President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, who shall serve as the Vice-Chairman; the Minister responsible for Communications and Digital Economy, who shall preside over the Council in the absence of the President and the Vice-President; the Minister responsible for Finance, Budget and National Planning; the Minister responsible for Industry, Trade and Investment; the Minister responsible for Science, Technology and Innovation; the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN); four representatives of the Startup Consultative Forum established under section 12 of this Act; one member to represent the Nigeria Computer Society; one member to represent the Computer Professionals (Registration Council of Nigeria); and the Director-General of the National Information Technology Development Agency, who shall serve, as the Secretary of the Council.

    Here is my observation on the foregoing. Must the President, his Vice and the Minister be engaged in a process to determine its seriousness? Except for the purpose of flaunting power and be able to influence some decisions at the snap of a finger, their inclusion in the Act is superfluous and intended only for influence peddling and power manipulation. If your response to my observation is to the effect that their inclusion will enhance accelerated decisions, I will point out that President Buhari has been the Minister of Petroleum for nearly eight years; yet, the sector remains in chaos and both chambers of the National Assembly have not even been bold enough to invite him for any explanations. So, what happened to accelerated decisions!

    The Secretariat, which is housed at NITDA, with the approval of the Council, shall establish a Startup Support and Engagement Portal, which shall be managed by a Coordinator. Codenamed, the “the Startup Portal”, the Coordinator shall ensure that the Portal, among others, shall: facilitate the issuance of a permit or licence to a labelled startup; provide platform for interaction between a startup and the Federal Government, private institutions, angel investors, venture capitalists, incubators, accelerators and other relevant institutions; and create opportunities for a startup to participate in beneficial challenges and programmes including, incubation and accelerator programmes, showcases, pitch competitions, fellowships, and other related programmes.

    There are quite some opportunities and advantages that startup organisations will enjoy after due recognition from the Council. For instance, the Act recognises the establishment of the Startup Investment Seed Fund (not less than N10bn annually) which shall be managed by the Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority through a Fund Manager. Startups will have access to this Fund.

    What is NITDA doing here, playing host to this young Council, I asked myself. The answer for me is elevating. The NITDA Act of 2007 says it is a development agency that should have its imprimatur on technology growth and adoption across the various sectors of the economy and the entire tech ecosystem. The organisation is fulfilling one of its cardinal assignments, although I hardly agree with some of the functions it has appropriated lately.

    Since President Buhari described the Nigerian youths as lazy in April 2018, some of them have demonstrated a capacity to rule the world through tech startups (some acquiring the status of a unicorn), entertainment – music and movies, and other businesses where they have literally been in front of the line, attracting the world to Nigeria.

    The Startup Act seems to me an apologia from the Presidency. “Our young people are our most valuable natural resource, at home and abroad. Their ingenuity, creativity, innovation and entrepreneurial spirit is evident to all,” President Buhari has acknowledged at last.

    While I recommend this document for your reading, I want to appeal that the Fund and other activities of the organisation, like the Startup Portal, be properly managed and not be used as favour to family and friends. History teaches us that the management of Funds, especially in parastatals under the supervision of overbearing ministers, can really be embarrassing, even as the head of government looks on nonplussed.

  • For broadcasting, foreboding times and days of restraints – By Okoh Aihe

    For broadcasting, foreboding times and days of restraints – By Okoh Aihe

    I like this feeling of optimism that the various laws spring upon Nigerians as the political fever breaks. You know how the holy books put it: “old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new,” especially if you follow the laws of the land concerning elections or even concerning broadcasting during elections.

    What the laws presuppose is that politicians have suddenly become angels; they will no longer buy SUVs for village heads, even while working in government offices. They will no longer fly bullion vans to their homes during elections, and brag, “it is my money.” They will no longer instigate area boys to break heads or cause people to be burnt in their homes, without any investigations by the security authorities. No, in Nigeria, angels will now live on earth, no longer in heaven, in the apparition of politicians.

    There is a spending cap. You flout it and you will be given some paltry fines or you spend a little wink of time in jail; which may never happen anyway, especially, if you are the all powerful. But nothing says the politician will forfeit the rewards from ostentatious exhibition of power!

    In this season, so much is expected of broadcasters, to hold the nation together with their professionalism and be fair to all who walk in to do business. That has always been the creed, further accentuated by the Nigerian Broadcasting Code and the Electoral Act 2022. I am anxious for the day the government controlled stations – Federal and States – will allow opposition parties to enjoy generous airtime in their stations.

    With that impertinent (impediment?) aside, let me observe that I do not like the bind being put on broadcasters, like all sins hail from them, with some subtle hints that the stations are the repositories of slush monies. While the stations may be struggling to unravel the meanings of certain provisions of the law, there will be the need to be mindful of some little traps, so that we do not have the innocent heading to jail just to profit one greedy and scheming politician.

    A certain document from the broadcast regulator, National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) caught the attention of this writer. Titled Countdown to 2023 General Elections: A Call for Caution. The letter pointed out some relevant sections of the law which demand cautionary dealings or business transactions from broadcast operators.

    Quoting relevant sections of the Money Laundering (Prevention and Prohibition) Act 2022, the letter signed by the Director-General of the Commission, Mallam Balarabe Shehu Ilelah states as follows:

    Section 2(1) No person or body corporate shall, except in transactions through a financial institution, make or accept cash payment of sum exceeding – (a) N5, 000, 000 or its equivalent in the case of an individual; or (b) N10, 000, 000 or its equivalent, in the case of body corporate;

    Section (2) a person shall not conduct two or more transactions separately with one or more financial institutions or designated non-financial businesses and professions with the intent to avoid the duty to report a transaction which should be reported or breach the duty to disclose the information.

    Then this followed. “Pursuant to these provisions, the Commission enjoins all Broadcast Stations to keep a log of all advertisements, Campaign Rallies and sponsored programmes during this period showing, Name of advertiser, Frequency/volume of advert, date and time of broadcast; amount paid for Advert/programme; type of payment (cash/bank transfer) etc.”

    Then there was the platitude about their stations not being used to perpetuate Hate Speech, inciting Comments and Fake News, which they don’t monitor anyway. That is, based on what we have seen so far, where politicians use their tongues to pauperise Nigerians or lacerate other political parties from their Icarus position of wealth! Not even a caution. But threats are rolled out every day by relevant authorities when the powerful makes all such good efforts look silly.

    The Electoral Act seems to have agreed with the NBC concerning fairness in broadcasting an advert spend. But Section 95 warns that broadcast and media stations should not be employed to the advantage or disadvantage of any political party or candidate at any election.

    It states in part: “Media time shall be allocated equally among the political parties or candidates at similar hours of the day. At any public electronic media, equal airtime shall be allotted to all political parties or candidates during prime times at similar hours each day, subject to the payment of appropriate fees. At any public print media, equal coverage and visibility shall be allotted to all political parties.”

    It is all well and good to issue warnings and directives to broadcasters while the politicians search for every ingenuity to circumvent every law and regulation, to push the broadcast stations into trouble, just because the economy is so bad and they need to survive.

    I sympathise with broadcasters because there are some people so steeped in the act of governance/government that they have little time for reflections or introspections before saying certain things. So they have an idea of what it takes to run a broadcast outfit? Do they have any idea what the failing economy is doing to broadcast operations in the country? Do they know what it takes to mobilise for live broadcasting? These are questions the broadcasters and even the regulator should answer because, as a regulator, you have to know the health of the industry to protect those who operate in it.

    A little while ago I was with one of the chief executives of a major broadcast chain in Nigeria. One of the lieutenants came to discuss the cost of operations with him. A sore point of discussion was the cost of running the generators every week, and a quick summary brought the cost to several millions every month, only at one location. It was frightening. You can do a business like that and survive.

    While the law stands supreme and operators should do everything possible not to run foul of it, this now is my humble suggestion. Elections are some months away. The broadcast operators should endeavour to conduct training programmes for their staff on the various intervening laws concerning the elections, to prevent their business from being plunged into uncertainty and avoidable difficulties.

    The days ahead, if signs are anything to go by, are going to be very interesting, even tempestuous and challenging. The broadcast operators should be on their feet to report the end of a blighted era, and contribute to writing an elegy for a regime that caused the nation pain.

  • 5G: Spectrum Cap, Spectrum Auction and matters miscellaneous – By Okoh Aihe

    5G: Spectrum Cap, Spectrum Auction and matters miscellaneous – By Okoh Aihe

    With the Stakeholders’ Consultative Forum held mid November and the publication of the final Information Memorandum (IM) on the website of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), it is no longer in doubt that the 5G Auction scheduled for December 19, 2022, will hold. All initial doubt and public apprehension pale into insignificance except that they help to incident a huge process that could still be up for questioning in the future.

    At the Stakeholders Forum, which held in Lagos, healthy concerns were raised. The Reserve Price (RP) of US$273,600,000 for one Lot of 100MHz TDD for a ten (10) year licence tenure, was on the high side, they observed. Having participated in the last Auction which was held last December, Airtel,  who participated in that process, canvassed to be offered one Lot through an administrative process, meaning it would not have to be part of the Auction process again but allowed to pay the RP. MTN,who was one of the winners and has commenced limited 5G service roll out, the other being Mafab, made a case to be allowed to participate in the December 2022 Auction. Ikenna Ikeme, General Manager, Regulatory Affairs at MTN, explained that his organisation participated last year because it had the understanding that it would be an open Auction going forward. Of course there was an outrage because that would confer the status of a dominant player on MTN in the nascent 5G sector in Nigeria.

    The outrage was rooted in the draft IM which pegged the Spectrum Cap at 100MHz per operator. The Cap is the spectrum upper limit that an operator could not exceed. When the regulator auctioned 2 Lots of 100 MHz each in the 3.5 GHz band, ranging from 3500 – 3600 MHz and 3700 to 3800 MHz last year, they were won by MTN and Mafab. That success ironically rendered them unsuitable for the current process that will peak on December 19, 2022.

    Sensing the complexity of responses, the regulator had to do a quick rethink and take immediate action. The RP stays, like words carved in stone, except that this is liquid cash. To even have a little sniff at 5G services, Airtel must go to the Auction and show its financial strength. Then the big one that seemed impossible. MTN will be part of the Auction. This became manifest in the final IM. Not that it was stated clearly but a little magic wand to redeem the regulator from a sure imminent headache.

    “The Commission places a cap of 200MHz as the maximum amount of Spectrum an Applicant can acquire in the 3.5GHz band. A Licensee with an existing Assignment in the 3.5GHz band is eligible to bid for only one (1) Lot of 100MHz. However, Applicants without Spectrum holding in the 3.5GHz band are eligible to bid for the two Lots on offer,” the IM stated.

    Like shifting the goalposts when the game is already on? Not at all. There was an immediate need to apply cooling balm on a business process that should have been heated up if decisions went contrary.

    How? This writer was informed by a source within the Commission that, based on decisions and promises made last year, MTN would have had a good reason to go to court if it was pressed to. There is no need for any litigation now.

    There is yet another angle to this story. What really is the purpose of this Auction? The regulator tried to provide an answer.

    “I want to disabuse the mind of those who feel that the objective of the NCC to auction the first and the second rounds of the 5G spectrum bands is to generate money for the Federal Government. This is not correct. The overriding consideration is not to generate money for the Federal Government but principally to ensure deployment of 5G services that enhance better life for Nigerians and the growth of the nation’s economy as a whole through provision of qualitative high-speed Internet services that increase productivity and efficiency across sectors,” the Executive Vice Chairman, Prof Umar Garba Danbatta, explained at the Forum.

    There is no need for disputation here. His sense of patriotism is duly recognised. But three things, we insist,  seem to be at play here in this order – cash, desperation to satisfy some interests, and efficient service delivery.

    We also want to observe here that in doing an Auction, the regulator must look out for organisations and individuals that can validate the process through their participation and the ability to raise the cash. MTN is one of such organisations. The organisation’s sense of patriotism and commitment to the country and her economy, no matter the political uncertainties, cannot be faulted. In nearly every Spectrum Auction, MTN participates and pays up immediately.

    A source within the regulatory authority gave this testimony. “If not for the likes of MTN, we would have been in a mess right now. MTN has a good corporate structure. And in terms of corporate governance, they are number one.”

    A long story has been told in such a few words. MTN is paradigmatic of what is good in the telecommunications industry, such corporate spruce up, has also attracted a streak of envy that earns it no good report.

    What does the regulator want this time? One of the 5G licenses given out last year went to  Mafab at $273.5m. The money was quickly paid by the winner. But for Mafab, 5G remains a greenfield, which is perhaps the reason it is still struggling to roll out services. Summary: the people don’t have any service from Mafab yet.

    If the regulator will want to place emphasis on cash and service delivery without any emphasis on patronage, we plead to provide this cautionary support by telling the story of India once more. When the country concluded her 5G spectrum sales on August 1, 2022, a bouquet of spectrum bands – 600MHz, 700MHz, 800MHz, 1.8GHz, 2.1GHz, 2.3GHz, 3.3GHz and 26GHz, were on offer.

    At the final sound of the bell, Reliance Jo had a lion share of the sales, shelling out a humongous $11.15bn, Bharti Airtel followed with $5.45bn, Vodafone Idea (Vi) came third with $2.37bn, while wireless service provider Adani Group, kept a distant rear with $26.84m.

    The entire package was about $19bn, which is a very huge amount coming from just a sector of the economy within a few days. There is no doubt that emphasis was on money but they also ensured that the licenses went to those who could afford them and had the proof of ability to roll out services. This is what I will suggest to the NCC. Give licenses to those who can pay. Those who can roll out service. Forget about market dominance and platitudinous innuendoes.

    Finally, let me state very clearly that I support the transparency claims of the NCC in executing its regulatory responsibilities. But time has come to remove legacy blinkers from the eyes and face up with the reality that certain things are not going well in the telecommunications industry. Competition is impaired, services are growing increasingly worse, and there are loud complaints of an overbearing external influence on the Commission.

    I can observe that President Muhammadu Buhari is struggling to at least have one legacy to point to after May next year. 5G obviously is an easy pick. The NCC should make his job easy by conducting a good Auction that will yield results in cash and in service delivery.