Tag: Okoh Aihe

Fresh concerns about 5G and aviation safety amidst assurances – By Okoh Aihe

By Okoh Aihe

For most of last week 5G had a bad story. For a technology that is expected to foster advantage in affecting human connectivity and machine to machine connectivity as well, 5G got into some kind of nightmarish flux that really made people begin to have a second look at the technology.

This wasn’t the kind of story Nigeria wanted to hear at all. I am writing this material on January 24, 2022. In another one month, February 24, 2022 to be specific, the Nigerian Government is expected to harvest $546million from both MTN Nigeria and Mafab Communications who won the 3.5GHz Auction on December 13, 2021. 3.5GHz is the spectrum for 5G technology. I can bet that at this particular time there are some people in high places in government who already have their calculators before them calculating who gets what from a windfall that is still a full month away.

All things being equal the money would come in and find its way into some really good projects instead of being split into tiny bits for the various tiers of government. That was what happened to the money from the Digital Mobile Auction in 2001. While MTN and Econet Wireless paid $285million each to the Nigerian Government, as payment from Communications Investment Limited (CIL) was shrouded in controversy, even as nobody knew what happened to payment for the reserved license for NITEL, the Government failed to invest the money into providing some facilities in the telecommunications sector, and thus created serious infrastructure deficit from day one.

The field of play has changed drastically anyway. Nobody expects government to still be concerned about putting facilities in an industry in private hands but it may make some sense for such chunk of money to go into some projects that could provide a historical reference point.

All things being equal as they would say in elementary economics class, this writer is praying that after every thing has been put on a scale and weighed, the stories out there don’t abort or affect the capacity and possibly of both parties to make payment .

But on 5G we stand. The days ahead will vindicate my position, whether the nation is ready or not. For the time being, the rambunctious positioning of government on the issue is encouraging, and one is sure that investors will feel some peace around them.

While one would conveniently observe that concerns about 5G safety had been raised in the past, the situation boiled over last week because two strategic agencies of the United States Government – Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) didn’t seem to have a common position on the safety of 5G to airline operations, prompting major airlines in the US to do a letter to the government stating their position, and opting to take appropriate measures to protect air travellers.

The letter which was jointly signed by the chief executives of major American airllines and some shipping companies which include: American Airlines, Delta Airlines, United Airlines, UPS Airlines and FedEx Express, among others, called for urgent government action in order to avoid an aviation catastrophe. The issue was about safety on which nobody was ready to cut corners.

Their position was predicated upon the 5G service rollout by AT&T and Verizon which they protested would hamper flight activities in some airports. The two companies won nearly all of the C-Band 5G spectrum in an $80bn auction last year and have just started to roll out services which, it was argued, would affect some airports operations across the US.

Plane manufacturers, Airbus and Boeing have expressed significant concerns about some of their fleet that may be affected.

The 5G technology needs concentrated base station roll out to achieve its monster speed and beauty. The airlines are expressing the fear that with such concentration of service deployment close to the runway in some airports, planes with highend modern avionics, especially those equipped with radio altimeters which pilots find very useful during landing and take off in bad weather conditions, could face some challenges.

Although the telecommunications operators have observed that C-Band 5G has been successfully deployed in about 40 other countries of the world without aviation interference issues, they have agreed to a scale back on rollout until all doubts and fears are cleared.

As the parties work towards a solution, some major international airlines, including Emirates, Japan Airlines and Air India cancelled their flights to some of the affected airports.

In a quick response to global concerns on 5G and aviation safety, Prof Umar Garba Danbatta, Executive Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) informed that “the NCC is studying the situation closely and would put measures in place, consistent with global best practice, to ensure Electromagnetic Compatibility (EMC) of 5G services with other services.”

An NCC source told this writer last night that most of the airports affected are category 3 airports, while the biggest airports in Nigeria – Lagos and Abuja are only category 2. They don’t even have the capacity to carry some of the affected planes. The source also explained that 5G base stations may not be permitted in places near runway where they can impact other sensitive communications negatively.

Even with promises from this vital agency in Nigeria, it will be to the benefit of the various stakeholders if the NCC works with the aviation industry to have commanding control over unfolding issues concerning 5G and aviation while carrying out a sustained study.

There are concerns from sensitive quarters of the global community concerning 5G. Nigeria must share in these concerns in order to put aviation safety in the forefront.

January 26, 2022
Twitter returns with a message – By Okoh Aihe

By Okoh Aihe

The Nigerian Government was effusive last week as it announced lifting the ban which it placed on Twitter since June 4, 2021. Like a flash, the news trended globally, with local and international media organisations feasting on the statement from the government, to the effect that the action was taken after the microblogging site had agreed to all its demands.

The demands include setting up offices in Nigeria to enable direct interface with the Nigerian government and the business environment, and running its operations in such a way that Twitter will no longer jeopardise the nation’s security architecture.

The Government, in statement by the Chairman, Technical Committee, Nigeria-Twitter Engagement, and Director-General, National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi,informed that “Twitter has agreed to act with a respectful acknowledgement of Nigerian laws and the national culture and history on which such legislation has been built and work with the FGN and the broader industry to develop a Code of Conduct in line with global best practices, applicable in almost all developed countries.”

It is the responsibility of any government to protect the lives and properties of its people; in fact, protect the people from self-ruination which can emanate from over indulgence of platforms like Twitter.

Please, note the painstaking efforts of Government. It had to set up a big Committee of some egg heads to engage with Twitter. The Committee was headed by the head of a parastatal who reported directly to a minister who, in turn, had to do a memo to the President, furnishing him with progress in the negotiations, before the patriarch of a nation could allow the return of the American company.

So, plush the business components in the negotiations, the government statement also revealed as follows:

“As patriotic citizens, we need to be mindful that anything illegal offline is also illegal online and that committing a crime using a Nigerian Internet Protocol (IP) is synonymous with committing a crime within our jurisdiction.

“Considering Twitter’s influence on our democracy, our economy, and the very fabric of our corporate existence as a Nation, our priority is to adapt, not ban, Twitter. The FGN is committed to working with Twitter to do anything possible to help Nigerians align and navigate Twitter algorithmic design to realise its potentials while avoiding its perils,” FG stated.

To all of this seeming adulatory achievement on the part of the Nigerian government, Twitter had a laconic response.

“We are pleased that Twitter has been restored for everyone in Nigeria. Our mission in Nigeria & around the world, is to serve the public conversation.

“We are deeply committed to Nigeria, where Twitter is used by people for commerce, cultural engagement, and civic participation.”

Apart from Twitter’s promised commitment to Nigeria, one phrase arrested my attention: to serve the public conversation. Two words therein, public conversation, actually pushed me to take another look at the meaning of the word, public. One tranche of meaning is “the people constituting a community, state, or nation.”

Take a closer look at it. Government is in this, so are the ordinary fellas in the society, including the Nigerian youths with which the government was so irritated in the first place and just so angry overboard that it had to throw a hammer at Twitter by way of squashing it out of the country’s tech ecosystem. So with very little words, used in absolute beauty and efficacy, we are back where we started: Twitter would rather pursue a conversation to the public good instead of satiating a few people in messianic garbs.

But it is all well and good that we have a semblance of settlement and some degree of understanding. Is it all settled really?

In 279 B.C, Pyrrhus, King of Epirus organised an expensive military expedition against the Romans in the battle of Asculum. Pyrrhus won the battle but he suffered heavy losses both in men and materials. He obtained victory at a very heavy cost. Those who plan for war would always weigh all the options to know if they want to follow the path of Pyrrhus. Pyrrhic victory is in memory of that expensive military misadventure.

At what cost has our nation arrived at a settlement with Twitter? I have seen some news media try to work out figures in several hundreds of billions of Naira. In a country where data suffers integrity deficit like most of our politicians, those figures are easily disputed. The point is that money was lost, businesses died and streams of income simply vaporised by a single government action, carried on behalf of the people. To me, this is even the aspect that is manageable. What I have seen in the spirit of enterprise displayed by so many young Nigerians, is that in no time they will recoup their losses. After all, the government has promised to give Twitter the right environment in which to do business.

For me the bigger problem has do with credibility issues, the serious dent to the nation’s image arising from an action that should have been settled amicably or at worst go through a legal process. But we decided to throw the hammer and demonstrate to the rest of the world that our democracy is still that of the strong man who is infallible no matter how ominous his verbal obscurantism could be sometimes.

I saw the global response to the lift of the ban, the media reportage and the response of some embassies and international organisations, and I bled inside, asking myself what damage we have done to ourselves.

The Nigerian leadership has tried to rationalise their actions. A decision was taken to protect the nation and its people. So, in taking that decision, something happened on the night of October 20, 2020. The youth who endured that night have their story. The government also has its story. In between the disputations there is a truth that must one day come to light.

When that truth does emerge, Twitter says it’s mission is to serve the public conversation. My humble take is that the truth will be fed into the public conversation channel. Until that happens this government may not claim to have the trust of the youth that were so irredeemably repressed one fateful night.

January 19, 2022
For technology, the men who saw tomorrow and their dream – By Okoh Aihe

By Okoh Aihe

For nearly two years the global digital ecosystem has altered drastically. Social relationship has taken a tumble, leaving solitude and individualism as necessary evils to accommodate. Education services delivering are oscillating between online and in-person, a nuanced hybrid that puts so much pressure on digital tools and network build out. Businesses are searching for new approaches to regain verve and speed, away from the chaos they were thrown into. The airline and hospitality industries suffered a knockout punch and are still reeling to regain some little pride and little of the prestige they were once associated with.

COVID-19 and it’s mutated variants has hit the world so hard, that even now, the fear of the pandemic is more real than the actual disease, forcing governments, policy makers and corporates, among others, to endure some incontinent arbitrariness in decision making and policy formulations.

I have found myself in solitary moments trying to contemplate what the situation would have been if the nation didn’t have the good fortune to pry open the telecommunications industry in 2001, when the tipping point of the sector began? A friend has told me that the media is always looking back at that particular year to project the good things that have happened in our telecommunications industry ever since.

My little response was inspired by some elders in my village in Edo State who would always say that when you continue to talk about the dead before the living, you are only reminding the living that they are not doing enough to rival the performance of the departed.

I will restrict myself only to the telecommunications industry where some great things happened at the time, and the momentum is such that the present is a beneficiary. My question lately is whether the leadership of the telecommunications regulatory agency, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), of Engr Ernest Ndukwe, Executive Vice Chairman (EVC) and late Ahmed Joda (Chairman) saw tomorrow by setting up some of the programmes that would live proudly into the future?

In their time, they set up the Digital Bridge Institute (DBI), structured to train manpower for the telecommunications industry, the Advanced Digital Appreciation Programme for Tertiary Institutions (ADAPTI), aimed at bridging the digital divide existing in the academia with the provision of computers and other ICT tools to equip lecturers and other ICT experts, and the Digital Awareness Programme (DAP), which is a special intervention programme to address the digital information knowledge gap in the country, especially among the youthful population. This was directed mainly at the high schools.

Call them the basic tools we should have in our institutions but we didn’t have them. Nobody contemplated that a few years down the line that the Joint Admission Matriculation Board (JAMB) examinations would be computer based. Nobody projected that pedagogy would be online and that corporate executives and workers in various offices would have to work from home. My little friend never contemplated that she would be living in Atlanta and be going to work every day in California, a flight time of nearly five hours. Welcome to the new world where COVID-19 regulates the activities of humanity.

But some gentlemen saw tomorrow in Nigeria and tried to prepare the nation for a life of the future which would come soon enough.

This is a good story which may be suffering some momentary impairment. One can almost say that there will be so many computer boxes in schools across the nation that can hardly come alive when powered. It means the purpose of their deployment may have been damaged willy-nilly.

What would have been if these projects were never put in place and what would also have been if the implementation has been faithfully followed?

An industry source told me that those projects were developed with very good intentions but sustainability has been a problem. There are duplications of efforts by different agencies of government, so that on one site there could be so many boxes that wouldn’t work. The source also informed that bandwidth has become a big problem because when computer boxes are placed in locations without connection to the internet, they can be used only for training purposes. There is also a suggestion that the schooled-based computer projects should be taken over by individuals of goodwill in other to effectively manage the cost of maintenance.

This writer will want to suggest an auditing process of the various initiatives to determine their functionality and usability. An impact analysis is necessary to ascertain whether anybody is benefiting apart from those who supply the tools.

In a world where COVID-19 is a bizarre reminder of the bleak life awaiting countries without requisite investment in information technology, it may be necessary to ask whether Nigeria is doing well. One is aware that in October 2019, the Nigerian Government renamed the Ministry of Communications as the Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy, saying the action was taken in order to “properly position and empower the ministry to fulfil its digital economy objectives”.

Apart from the usual bravura of blowing one’s trumpet, has any impact been made? Wiley Digital Skills Gap Index (DGSI) 2021 has an answer for us.

Wiley leveraged on its global network and expertise in education and workforce development to compile the Digital Skills Gap (DSGI) 2021, which ranks 134 economies based on a battery of global indicators reflecting how advanced and prepared an economy is with the digital skills needed for sustained growth, recovery, and prosperity.

The Digital Skills Gap Index 2021 was built on six pillars; Digital Skills Institutions,

Digital Responsiveness, Government Support, Supply, Demand & Competitiveness,

Data Ethics & Integrity, and Research Intensity.

Put on this scale, Nigeria came out at number 103, far behind some other African countries like Kenya, Rwanda, Egypt, Tunisia, and South Africa, just to name a few. What is clear is that in terms of digital tools and infrastructure, usage, acquisition, application and pedagogy, among others, Nigeria is not doing well at all.

There is the need to shed this billowing spirit of arrogance and retool for a better future for the nation and her people.

January 12, 2022
Tech suggestions for govt in a defining year – By Okoh Aihe

By Okoh Aihe

So early in the year, there are plans and projections, hopes and promises, and optimism so strong in the air that life can be a sustained swan song. But there are also fears. People thinking that the kind of uncertainties and bloodletting we witnessed in the previous year may have enough momentum to stain the optimism that spreads into the future.

But the spirit is to count tomorrow as gain. 2022 is a defining year for Nigeria, a year that politics will take centre stage, when politicians will dress in their big robes crisscrossing the country to sell manifestoes, mostly lies garnished as truth to a long suffering people, nearly emasculated by the seasonal hallucination of a tiny political group.

In this season of politics, everything takes back seat. Development is suspended. Pressing national or state issues are given the silhouette of politics or even derided as the rantings of opposition elements. Budgets and plans are streamlined to achieve one purpose and that purpose only: successful campaigns with enough gathering to form some tiny countries in other parts of the world, gatherings peopled by the ordinary folks with empty stomachs who would value the little purchase fee of sometimes, N2000 from the politician as the kind of manna that comes from the devil they see once in every four years.

Just less than one and half years for the ruling party at the Federal level and in some States to join the dinosaurs of history, there is the reading, based on the auguries of history, that there is no time for any other thing at all other than politics. But there is aciatinary proviso: that the people should marshal the hunger in their stomach to make better choices next time or they remain perpetual victims of feeding the wickedness of a tiny few that eats up the future of other people.

Knowing that politicians will always be politicians and that the variance may be in a matter of details only, this writer would humbly suggest to this administration the need to put closure on some projects and make urgent conclusions, at least to earn some campaign points, although the truth or even verification of performance or projects hardly matters in our campaigns. There are some low hanging fruits they can hold on to but there are others receding into a distance with their nebulous features that have to be recovered urgently.

NCC 3.5GHz Spectrum Auction

December 13, 2021, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) conducted a successful auction for 2 Lots of 100MHz, the band for 5G technology. The Generic Reserve Price (GR) was $197, 400, 000 only. Although there were complaints about such a steep price which tended to place more emphasis on revenue generation than service deployment for pervasive use, the auction which involved MTN Nigeria, Airtel Nigeria and Mafab Communications, a tech greenhorn with a history that is even greener, went through eleven grueling rounds with the price peaking at $273. 6m. Both MTN and Mafab emerged epochal winners of such a defining tech moment which could mean so much for the country in its determination to align with the rest of the world, to march into a future where machines could whisper to each other, more than human to humans. Payments are expected to be concluded before the end of February 2022.

Although there was a little stir about the identity of Mafab, this writer posits that this is a low hanging fruit that should be harvested immediately without procrastination. NCC should pursue payment of fees with determination and ensure that rollout obligations are simple enough for the operators to understand the import. The foregoing suggestion is informed by the underperforming status of Nitel which had a reserved Digital Mobile License (DML) at the auction in 2001 but had hardly had any success ever since. The NCC should put a closure to the 3.5MHz deal.

SIM/NIN Integration

Penultimate December, the government made a policy decision that mobile users in Nigeria must sink their Subscriber Identification Module (SIM) with their National Identification Number (NIN) which is issued by the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC). It was to be done in two weeks. The exercise has witnessed a lot of resistance because of the complaints of multilayer data collection processes in the country, but is fairly on the way now. Closure is indeterminate as the date has had to be moved severally. Just last week another shift in date was granted by Dr Isa Pantami, Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, who oversees the Committee that steers the registration process.

The Federal Government, according to a statement, has extended the date to March 31, 2022. The statement adds that so far, NIMC has issued 71m unique NINs with about 3 to 4 SIMs linked to a number. Observe that the statement is unclear how many SIMs have been properly linked to NIN. But here is the math. By October 2021, phone lines in the country peaked at over 191m. Just think of how long it will take to achieve a SIM/NIN harmonization or what they call integration.

Here is my little counsel. Let there be no pretenses. SIM/NIN integration is a constantly shifting target, made even more complex by officials who live in a dream world. The government should be frank enough to fix a realistic date which is within the window of its exit from power, to enable Nigerians take its activities seriously and work towards realistic results.

Digital Switchover

The Digital Switchover (DSO) started in Nigeria in 2016 after the presidential Digiteam set up by former President Goodluck Jonathan, made all the preparations for the launch in Jos. Information and Culture Minister of the government that inherited the project, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, made a meal of the determination of the Buhari administration to stick strictly to the switchover date as sanctioned by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU). Understandably, he was excited about the job spin-off that would come from the exercise and the rain of funds that would also come from the sales of the vacated and freed spectra released by broadcast stations.

Then the crisis at the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC). From leadership crisis to some dose of scandals. Nigeria missed the switchover date twice. But lately there has been a rejuvenation in focus. However, complaints that launch is different from actual switchover and availability and activation of set top boxes, are clear pointers that this government has to properly audit the process and ensure that proper timelines are set for implementation.

Rebuilding the networks

This is an issue that people hardly talk about because of its very sensitive nature, lives being lost and property destroyed on an extensive level. Insurgency in parts of the North has laid to waste telecom infrastructure on a massive scale. In some places, base stations have been bombed out. So much ruination has been caused by these devils from the hottest part of hell that this government just has to encourage the operators to remobilize to site. It’s like starting afresh. Some operators have confided in this writer that they would like to work with the governors of the affected States.

Yes. So much love for a nation by the operators but they must be encouraged to do so.

January 5, 2022
For technology, 2021 a year of the silver bullet – By Okoh Aihe

By Okoh Aihe

For technology, 2021 was the year of the silver bullet. When every little flash in the pan idea was expected to resolve every problem, no matter how intractable or deep-seated. But the fact that the flash even came at all means that government was aware of certain challenges and was desirous of resolving them.

So, this year as insecurity continued to trouble the nation, government had to take some drastic decisions, including suspending the use of mobile phones in parts of the north, spanning some states – Bornu, Zamfara, Katsina, Sokoto and Kaduna. It was the first time ever for such idea to be contemplated. It was reasoned that once that happened, the bandits or to use the appropriate despicable appellation, terrorists, would have problems communicating with each other and that would mark the beginning of their end and the end of the problems they had caused this nation. Lots of people dying and the economy of a vast section of the country being devastated. Nobody caught or punished.

Now they would be stopped from coordinating their activities with telecommunications tools and their end would come. Everybody complied – the regulators of the telecommunications industry, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), the subscribers and even agents, except the terrorists themselves who devised other means of escaping that punishing decision. At the end it became pretty much clear that everybody paid too much of a price and got punished inadvertently, because once there was security breach the people couldn’t make immediate report or contact with authorities because, they too, have been truncated from the rest of the country. The collateral consequences, methinks, were hardly anticipated.

Another brilliant idea preceded this, and it also had to do with telecommunications, being the superstructure of infrastructures. December last year, phone users woke up one morning to the news that they would have to sink their phone registration with their national identity number (NIN) in a process captured as SIM/NIN registration. It would take only two weeks to do so, they said. It didn’t matter that there were nearly 200m phone lines in Nigeria that would be registered within the two-week window. It didn’t also matter whether the parties involved – the NCC and the National Identity Card Management Commission (NIMC) had the facilities to carry out the assignment that must be executed with extreme speed.

But here is the other story. The NCC commenced SIM Card registration on March 28, 2011. At the time it envisaged that all existing 89m connected lines in Nigeria would have been registered by June, 2013. That didn’t happen. The process looked easy but it turned to be much more difficult than policy statements, work plans and job schedules. At the same, NIMC was also carrying out enrolment and issuing of ID cards to Nigerians. NIMC enjoyed off season in doing this job, no attention from anybody, no special expectations.

It took the genius of Dr Isa Pantami, the Communications and Digital Economy Minister, to convince Nigerians that these two convoluting jobs could be done within the little window of two weeks and everybody walking the streets of our nation would bear a digital identity. There comes the silver bullet. It would resolve all the security problems, and Nigeria would be on the move again. Voila. A philosopher king is born. The only problem is that Pantami has a questionable background apropos religious fundamentalism, and he does his job with the excitement of a fellow engaged in an animated experiment whose outcome is as sure as the stupendous wealth always associated with our country. Unfortunately, he is experimenting with the lives of millions of Nigerians whose only fault is trusting an official of government.

So from April 19, 2021, two weeks have stretched into months and the months could become a year and years. One thing became clear. The idea was never really thought through. And it shows clearly that the Minster has little knowledge of the intricate workings of the industry but masks this pervasive ignorance with sheer braggadocio. The result is that were the SIM/NIN registration to be enforced today, nearly two thirds of phone users would still fall hapless victims.

But as the year hobbles to an end quite a few thoughts crowd my being to obviate the dreariness just listed above. Looking at the figures I get the stirring that there is no need to look back in anger except to feel disdain for those who make us look small in the eyes of the world.

I am not too dampened by the fact that Nigeria is tumbling down the ladder of foreign direct investment (FDI) in Africa, slipping down from top five to nest very ignominiously at number fourteen. Some other figures give a lot of hope and encourage the reason to anticipate a better tomorrow.

For instance, a seeming innocuous story in Vanguard on November 1, 2021, came with the headline, Foreign investors stake N412bn on 35 Nigerian startups in 10 months, with Ambassador Ayo Olukanni, Director General of the Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce Industry Mines and Agriculture (NACCIMA), declaring that such level of investment reflects the capacity of Nigerian tech entrepreneurs.

Some of the figures include: Opay – $400m, Andela – $200m, Flutterwave – $170m, Kuda Bank – $80m, $Decagon – $26.5m, Mono – $17m, and Autocheck – $13.1m, just to list a few.

The tech sector continued to tell a good story. Early December, Equinix, a California based company splashed $320m on MainOne, a foremost undersea cable operator helmed by tireless telecoms proponent, Funke Opeke. The MainOne cable has landed in some countries of Africa, even as the organization has laid fibre cables across some states of the federation.

Without doubt a lot of sunshine has come upon the Fintech sector from the international community. This attention may have magnified the failure of government in breathing life into The National Financial Strategy (NFIS) which sought to ensure that over 80 per cent of the bankable adults in the country had access to financial services by 2020. Initial licensing achieved very little results. Early November the Central Bank had to correct its earlier mistake by awarding MTN and Airtel Payment Service Bank (PSB) licenses. It will be interesting to watch what happens in that sector in the days ahead.

Final crown of the year would go to the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) for the successful auction of 2 Lots of 100MHz in the 3.5 GHz band, ranging from 3500 – 3600MHz and 3700 – 3800MHz. Each Lot cost $273m. The band is for the operation of 5G technology.

The fact that MTN Nigeria and Mafab Communications were ready to splash such monies on the country’s telecoms sector is clear indication of the huge confidence on the nation.

But don’t be deceived. This is no mark of achievement or something to regale about. If the nation was not adrift, seemingly in an unannounced war, with its huge population and untapped economic potentials, Nigeria would be the honey pot for foreign direct investment.

This writer is not looking back in anger. This is only a concerned call for the government to do the right things that can give the nation a better life in 2022.

December 29, 2021
NITDA Bill deserves a place in the trash, By Okoh Aihe

By Okoh Aihe

There is so much happening in the telecommunications industry that it is difficult to thumbnail any particular development that could spell more danger for the industry in the days ahead. But there is also so much facade over the industry, like some figures of achievements being bandied around, that it will be difficult for anybody to be hunting for what is not going well. But there are several and I will pick only one.

The National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) has recently moved to amend its 2007 NITDA Act to properly situate the agency to promote development in the tech ecosystem and tackle problems that may impede growth in the industry. The Director General, Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi is enjoying a little gloat over this and he has his army of supporterswho are edging him on. They have been told the good side of the story and they can’t wait for miracles to begin to rain down from heaven, and jumpstart the nation to leapfrog Dubai or South Korea in tech growth and adoption.

After all, we are so used to fantabulous tales in our present state of being that truth and reality have been trapped in the conspiratorial web of politicians who prey on the ignorance of the majority to earn a living out of failure. But we have also been speaking to the other side, the group whose members don’t take vacuous bravura as organizational policy but are genuinely searching for lasting documents that can do the nation good apropos technology. When we spoke there was some kind of wailing, like some guys taking a final look at a loved one in the cemetery. But they were wailing for the disguised but orchestrated assault on, and attenuation of the telecommunications industry.

I could only understand their concerns after going through the proposed Bill. 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 hither to more power 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 future of the telecommunications industry is data. Very soon voice will become a very small part of the business, leaving data to control everything. Already with data, a subscriber can make a voice or video call without using the phone line directly. Whoever controls the data platform controls the industry, andthat is what NITDA wants to do, to control the telecommunications industry and its massive infrastructure with scant knowledge of the amount of labour that has gone into building the sector. Just like a rat waking up from a dream to swallow up an elephant! Except this is Nigeria.

Just three functions in Section 5 of the Bill may suffice. They include: issue regulations, guidelines, frameworks, directives and standards to facilitate the establishment and maintenance of appropriate infrastructure, and information technology systems,to support the development of digital services application in Nigeria; develop, test, and certify information technology systems, services and practices to promote innovation and use of emerging technologies to improve efficiency in service delivery including registration of devices and type approvals; and promote universal access for information technology, digital services and systems penetration in urban, rural, under-served and unserved areas.

Having just listed the above, let us also look at only two functions of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) as stated in the Nigerian Communications Act 2003. They as follows: proposing, adopting, publishing and enforcing technical specifications and standards for the importation and use of communications equipment in Nigeria and for connecting and interconnecting communications equipment and system; and carrying out type approval tests on communications equipment and issuing certificates therefore on the basis of technical specifications and standards prescribed from time to time by the Commission.

Section 1V of the Act permits the NCC to consider, design and determine a system which shall promote the widespread availability and usage of network services and applications services throughout Nigeria by encouraging the installation of network facilities and the provision for network services and application services to institutions and in unserved, underserved areas or for underserved groups within community (USP)

The Commission shall then set up a fund known as the USP Fund, part of which monies, shall include a portion of the annual operating levies (AOL) paid to the Commission by the licensees. NCC gets 2.5 per cent of the annual operating levies from the operators and give 40 per cent of that amount to USPF.

What the above means is that the USPF is a structure set up by law which has guaranteed source of funds to handle its projects across the country and not to constitute a leech on others in order to survive. A little annotation here: equipment type approval is done by the Department of Technical Standards and Network Integrity.

Dr. Chris Uwaje, Oracle of the nation’s technology industry warned that the Bill is danger waiting to happen and will encourage exodus of digital innovators. Engr. Titi Omo-Etu, one of the founders of the tech industry is afraid that investments will become a major victim of the planned Bill. Co-founder of Flutterwave, Iyinoluwa Aboyeji, after looking at the various charges, levies and other draconian provisions of the Bill, has regretted voting for this government.

But this is all about power grab. The Agencies under the Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy are: 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), which is domiciled in the Ministry but serves all sectors of the economy.

The Minister who was former DG of NITDA would attest to the fact that his organization was one of the least empowered with nebulous responsibilities, a situation which constantly pitched him against the NCC. Could the unfolding scenario in his ministry be a cherished opportunity to weaken other parastatalsfor the ascendancy of NITDA?

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.

September 1, 2021
Technology as the devil in national discourse

By Okoh Aihe

The last few weeks have conspired malevolently to create a State of Anomy in our land, apologies to Prof Wole Soyinka, whose post-colonial and civil war experience, in 1973, influenced the title of one of the two novels of the Nobel Laureate. A well-coordinated movement and demonstration by some Nigerian youths simply spinned out of control and the nation is still reeling in confused helplessness.

A once innocuous and enlightening movement unfortunately went awry. Lives have been lost. Properties worth trillions of naira have been destroyed in a moment of epidemic violence, and a new one, looting, crept into our shores and shameful images of what is happening in Nigeria is splashing across the world. If anyone ever doubted why Nigeria enjoys the infamy of the poverty capital of the world, the evidence is all over the place, blowing in the wind. In addition and, very unfortunately, truth has also died, as nobody really wants to agree to what happened on the night of October 20, 2020.

So, there has to be a scapegoat, a fall guy to bear the ugly burden of an obtuse narrative – technology. Technology is being blamed for all the evil that has bedeviled the land previously, including the inaction of government to respond very creatively to the articulate demands of a restless bunch who remain the best of our presentation going into the future. This was before the enemy came in to stoke fire and Armageddon.

Technology has become the devil in the new national discourse and everybody is readying new weapons to lay it to rest. Please, permit me, in this instance, the latitude to approximate technology to broadcasting and communications, two fields which since their deregulation in 1992, remain the poster boys of our national renaissance. With the proliferation of the different genres of broadcast stations across the country, one would readily confess that broadcasting has done well, and, in fact, has done even better when it comes to rescuing democracy from the hands of the wicked. Same can be said of communications where telecommunications has been so democratized that even the number of activated lines available in the country are much more than the population of our country which can be put at 200m irrespective of the various metrics of measurement. The teledensity is actually 106. 62 per cent translating into a total line uptake of 203, 529, 809 as at August 2020.

My fear penultimate week in an article, EndSARS: The triumph of telecoms, was to express the difference between what happened at Tiananmen Square in 1989 which was the age of global television, and what is happening in Nigeria, the age of telecommunications, which drives the social media. One would never know that the cloud was gathering and would soon bring monster rain of bullets on the young souls who were gathered at Lekki. That will never be history. It will always present a monstrous reality.

In the ongoing narrative, technology has become the villain. The Broadcast regulator, National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) has parceled out fines to three broadcasters – AIT, Channels TV and Arise Television which it claimed to have erred in their reportage of the Lekki disaster. On top of that, the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, is threatening fire and brimstone that something must be done urgently to save the nation from Fake News and Social Media. In fact in one of his presentations on television, he referred to China as one of the countries of the world that has put bites on social media in order to preserve public good. We shall return to the story of China.

Coincidentally on October 20, the NBC had sent out a press statement to the broadcast operators reminding them of their responsibilities in moments of crisis. Titled, Reminder of Rules on Coverage of Crises, the statement cautioned in part: 5.4.3. In reporting conflict situations, the broadcaster shall perform the role of a peace agent by adhering to the principle of responsibility, accuracy and neutrality; and 5.6.2. The broadcaster shall approach with restraints, the use of materials from user generated sources in order not to embarrass individuals, organisations, governments or cause disaffection, incite to panic or rift the society at large. Addendum).

It should be observed here that the old Code simply cautioned broadcasters to be mindful of materials that may embarrass individuals or organizations, or cause disaffection, incite to panic or rift in the society, in the usage of user generated contents (UGC). There was no mention of government anywhere. In the new Code the imprimatur of government is preponderant.

Only a few were therefore left in the lurch when the NBC descended on some broadcast operators with a fine on the grounds that they have fallen short of the expectations of the Nigeria Broadcasting Code. Some of their news items, according to the regulator, were not verifiable and such action falls short of professional standards. The response to the regulator was instantaneous, from across the land and divide, the shouts of various groups and individuals that the government was only hiding under the NBC to rail against organizations that dared report goings on in the country.

The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) and 261 others are suing the NBC by way of forcing the regulator to reverse the fines on the broadcast operators, arguing that such action only muzzles the free press which has its avowed roles in a democratic system. Unfortunately for the NBC, there were residual grievances against the Code which is believed by many, to have been unduly influenced by the Minister. The fine, to some of these people, is only a confirmation of their fears and many more of such actions that may come. Furthermore, there is also the suspicion that the NBC is only trying to reinforce the government narrative that nobody was killed in Lekki even when the same government has agreed piecemeal that people died. The equivocation is in the number/numbers not in the importance of lives that were so lost.

Fake News and Social Medial have been weaponised by the current dispensation to destroy even legitimate aspirations, agitations, contributions and achievements. In canvassing his point, Mohammed drew on the example of China and how that country has had commanding control on Social Media. This is not to downplay the downside of Social Media except to hint that there is always a benefit in looking at a region or country in all ramifications. Please, observe that China is not a democracy, and it has never been. That is the seamy side of that country.

Why would Mohammed look at China and Social Media without looking at the development strides of China, a country which was not in the development radar only a few decades ago but has worked its way up to become one of the biggest economies in the world; in fact, big enough to worry the almighty America. When China has a problem, it confronts it frontally. For instance, here is a country that has as one of her celebrations, National Humiliation Day, following a humiliating event in 1931, in which the Chinese acquiesced to all the demands by Japan during a war. Progressively, the succeeding leaders shut the country in to build a national identity, part of which was showcased to the world at the Beijing Olympics in August 2008. A country that suffered so much of humiliation that it nearly doubted its capacity and existence in the comity of nations has become the new colonialist in just a few decades. The world is moving to China and some of our people can only see the Social Media strand. China produces its billionaires and does not put the life of its people in the hands of a few good billionaires.

Another case. WhatsApp does not work in Dubai, the fishing settlement that has become the lure of the world, but you hardly have anybody complain because the government has built a life for its people and visitors to Dubai. The world would rather enjoy the facilities in Dubai than complain of access to WhatsApp.

I will want to observe that Social Media did not make Nigeria the poverty capital of the world. This was directly caused by the failure of successive governments to have a good roadmap for the country and address basic issues of development. It may serve the country better to observe the frothing energies of the youths from across the table than push them underground, the end result may be too malignant to contemplate.

Working with a government that is too tentative about so many things but very troubled by public assessment of performance, I will want to say that these are very troubling times for the NBC and NCC, two regulators that are directly concerned with ongoing discourse. However, there will be a need for the regulators to seek a redeeming place in history by giving wise and professional counsel while deploying every skill to ward off a regulatory capture of two important sectors by a government that is frenetically afraid of shadows.

Okoh Aihe writes from Abuja.

November 4, 2020
From the frontline, broadcasters cry for help, By Okoh Aihe

By Okoh Aihe

We expected a storm. Nobody knew the storm would grow into a hurricane in a flash. The coming of COVID-19 was anticipated as it had troubled other parts of the world. Some feeble efforts at preparation were even made. But nobody ever anticipated that COVID-19 would make landfall with such ferocity as to obliterate every feeble attempt at human readiness.

But in moments of trouble heroes emerge. Circumstances assume unusual importance. History looks for those who will stand up to be counted; those who are ready to forget the dreams of the bedroom; those who will take a bullet for people to have peace.

Take the Governor of Lagos State, for instance, who has risen to become the avatar of the war against COVID-19, he has been leading from the front, trying to provide answers even when situations make the answers amorphous. That is who a leader is. As a result, his admirers are increasing by the day. Perhaps, he was made for this moment.

Yes, in war times, heroes emerge. Like our medical professionals who have been thrown into the frontline with barely the needed materials to confront a novel enemy with scant known features. Viewed from the background of a notoriously failed health sector, history will reserve a generous space for them when it makes a recall.

For, me there was always going to be another class of heroes – the media, who, oftentimes are under-appreciated, if not held in volatile suspicion, even in matters of development. Ordinarily, the media is encouraged to mobilize the government and the people and other agents of development into building a more commodious society for the overall well-being of the citizenry. No matter how tough the terrain is – in war times, natural disaster or in moments of epidemics – as we are in at the moment, the media practitioners should confront danger and also face the scorn of the authority and the powerful, to bring the news to the public. The media should enlighten and educate the people and even throw in some dash of entertainment to relax the nerves of the troubled.

In all of this, however, I would never have imagined that a few weeks down the line, we would not only be pleading for providential mercy for self-preservation but also for the survival and sustenance of businesses in the face of a hapless rout by a global pandemic.

I would not know what the tonic was, whether it was the visit of the Acting Director-General of the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC), Prof Armstrong Idachaba, to broadcast stations, requesting for understanding in the reportage of COVID-19, or some kind of push to stay in the vortex of an unfolding story. It was difficult then to understand the nature of such visitation but look at where the story has brought us, a virus in stubborn defiance of science and technology, and for once, pushing skeptics to acknowledge the existence of an almighty God who oversees the affairs of men.

The broadcast media got traction immediately, committing men and resources to pursue the COVID-19 story from the various ends of the country. There was always going to be a problem. The entire system has been on lockdown. In such dreary moment, advertisers are the first to take a flight, yet people want to receive signals at home and be informed and entertained. The Pay-TV operators may be smiling to the bank as subscriptions are spiking but not the terrestrial broadcasters who have to fund their operations on adverts and other forms of sponsorship. Their business is in shambles except those who enjoy some subterranean political backup.

There is another little matter which is often overlooked. Broadcasting was deregulated in 1992 in a process which looks pronouncedly evident that government continues to have a hand in it by funding government stations to the disadvantage and envy of the private broadcasters. This creates a kind of disequilibrium in the sector needing the urgent intervention of the NBC.

However, the cry coming from the broadcast industry is not by the private broadcasters alone. A statement by the Broadcasting Organisation of Nigeria (BON), the umbrella body of all broadcasters in the country, signed by its Chairman, Usman Umar Bello, sounded an urgent appeal to the government to rescue broadcasting from imminent collapse by taking some exigent measures which include: the funding of advertorial and public information campaigns running on broadcast organisations; and government approval of a stimulus package for the broadcast industry through tax rebates and an intervention fund for the broadcast industry to access long term capital at a single-digit interest rate. The body also canvassed the speedy conclusion of the Digital Migration process which has been lingering for several years.

In yet another appeal, the Independence Broadcasting Association of Nigeria (IBAN) in a statement signed by the secretary, Guy Murray-Bruce alerted the government that “The broadcast media has been hit both on the demand and supply side which has not only led to cash flow problems but has also resulted in an existential crisis for the Independent Private Broadcasters.” IBAN is calling for government support including the commissioning of a multi-billion COVID-19 awareness advertising campaign in an effort to support Nigeria’s struggling media industry.

The Association of Licensed Set-Top Box (STB) Manufacturers spoke from their corner of the business, urging the government to complete the broadcast digitization process which will unlock the manufacturing potentials of its members, and unleash the creative capacity of the entertainment industry. The statement signed by Godfrey Ohuabunwa, Chairman of the Association, noted that completing the process will free up some frequencies which government can auction for huge cash for telecommunications services especially as other sources of funds are drying up.

The lesson from all this is that COVID-19 is shrinking life, and businesses are shrinking even more. The business ecosystem is struggling for air and very soon all sectors will be rushing to the government for a bailout even when governance is nearly on dialysis. Organisations like the NBC will have to deflate its civil service bubble and biases to appropriate the fears and suggestions of its various stakeholders and articulate a position for urgent action by the government. Otherwise where we are is still nirvana. The dark end may not be too far away.

Okoh Aihe writes from Abuja

May 6, 2020
Telecoms: Is MTN leaving Nigeria?, By Okoh Aihe

By Okoh Aihe

Penultimate Wednesday I received two calls from the UK with both callers asking the same question: Is MTN leaving Nigeria? Why are they dumping 15 per cent of their shares in the market at this time?

There was no ready answer for the questions but I played for time. Having been a journalist for most of my life and just over a decade in government in a related sector, they probably ascribed to me the uncanny propensity, more than capacity, to respond to questions even if they came in my sleep.

I also understand the concerns of the voices from the UK. MTN by far is the largest telecoms operation in the country. A number of times the company has been accused by even the most informed of making too much money from Nigeria and remitting same to the country of origin. In our part of the world, emotions can make a compelling case. MTN has often been hurt in the process, without expected sympathy. In other instances, MTN has also landed in the wrong side of the law causing the organization to bleed agonizingly in terms of hefty fines.

But times have changed, without notice. The COVID 19 pandemic has sent the markets all over the world into a spiral to the extent that nearly all the major exchanges have had to quickly close shops or suspend trading in order not to completely obliterate the value of their markets and send priced stocks to worthless junks. Even what used to be the safest of havens are scrambling for the survival of human life before paying attention to the safety of trade. Financial life jackets are been proposed by countries with the capacity to do so but that will be after humanity has found a space in a very turbulent world.

I played for time. Within the intervening period my mind went into frightening introspection of the telecommunications industry, the industry I reported for a decade and half before a glorious opportunity to work at the regulatory agency. I am looking at the faces of my colleagues who endured all kinds of travails to write the industry into existence, and sometimes having to go to some far ends of the world to source those stories.

We knew when the telecoms subscription figures were very shameful. We also knew when the figures shot up astronomically, shaming all projections and giving Nigeria a much deserved pride and opportunity to raise her head in the comity of nations as a country blazing a trail in modern telecoms development. In fact, actually pointing the way to a number of African countries.

You see, barracuda sounds musical in the ears but just a little mistake, the barracuda, properly seasoned, becomes very tasty fish especially when eaten at a restaurant overlooking the sea which used to be its abode.

Introspections can be scaring. But this looks temptingly illuminating. Even then my verdict is bleak! With all the noise, with all the documented achievements in preceding years, the telecommunications industry is not strong on ground. Just a little mistake the industry can go crashing down and taking so many other sectors with it. The barracuda makes a good meal but such a rout in telecoms and sundry industries can only be confined to the imagination for its seismic impact, not savory at all.

Where will the mistake come from?

My first response to the above question is: if the regulator is shaved of its regulatory strength and independence.

Can such ever happen in Nigeria, a country that was hailed globally as a shining paradigm of a deregulated telecoms market?

That was in the days of yore. Speaking on April 5, 2020, on Channels Television, concerning 5G as a direct cause of coronavirus, the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr Isa Pantami, kept saying I have directed the NCC to….Does a Minister have the powers to direct the Regulator?

Chapter 16 of the Federal Government Public Service Rules which defines the nature of Government Parastatals, their Board and relationship with supervising Ministry, provides some assistance. Two points to note. (1) A Board shall not be involved directly in the day-to-day management of a Parastatal. (2) A Minister exercise control of Parastatals at Policy level through the Board of the Parastatal only.

Even without going to the point of law which so many of us don’t have the capacity to, as unlearned lot, the aforementioned provides a cushion of independence for any Parastatal especially under a democracy. However, there is further elucidation and reinforcement in the Act setting up each Parastatal as in the case of the NCC.

Chapter 3 of the Nigerian Communications Act 2003 which deals with the Functions of the Minister and National Frequency Management Council, states very clearly: The Minister shall have the following responsibilities and functions pursuant to this Act – (a) the formulation, determination and monitoring, of the general policy for the communications sector in Nigeria with a view to ensuring, amongst others, the utilization of the sector as a platform for the economic and social development of Nigeria; (b) the negotiation and execution of international communications treaties and agreements, on behalf of Nigeria, between sovereign countries and international organisations; (c) the representation of Nigeria, in conjunction with the Commission, at proceedings of international organisations and fora on matters relating to communications.

Where will the mistake come from?

The Communications Act has no place for the Ministry to encumber the Commission. It is very anomalous therefore for a Minister to dish out others to the regulatory authority without the world taking keen interest in his utterances and what they mean to their invested funds. The Act has no place for the Minister to make regulatory statements for the industry without the industry taking conscious notice of it. Such actions that may look innocuous superficially and sometimes enthusiastically received because of their social relevance may become very detrimental on the long run and should therefore be nipped before becoming infectious.

What does this have to do with MTN leaving Nigeria? And is MTN leaving Nigeria?

Simple. Operators in an environment including MTN would always watch out for miniscule landmines that would blow up a sector on the long run and begin to make strategic plans. To finally address the question whether MTN is exiting the Nigeria market. I have done a little search within the hierarchy of the organization; the answer I got is No. MTN remains in Nigeria for the long haul but is currently looking at the Scoreboard and Dashboard in the manner of Todd Henry in Herding Tigers to determine its long term survivability and profitability while widening its base of ownership.

To address the exit issue more directly, recall that over a time there was pressure even from the National Assembly on the Nigerian mobile operators to list at the country’s Exchange by way of allowing more Nigerians to have a stake in their business. On Thursday, May 16, 2019, MTN accepted that challenge by doing a flotation of 20. 35 billion shares worth about $6bn at N90 per share. In taking that action MTN became the first mobile operator to scale the rigorous rules of the Security and Exchange Commission. This development was excitedly received in the business community with the Chief Executive of the NSE, Mr Oscar Onyema inviting other operators to emulate MTN. Within a couple of days the shares were heading to the skies. Given the opportunity, most operators would want to continue to sip from that tantalizing honeypot. I was reliably informed that in a market of abundant possibilities, especially when properly regulated, MTN by releasing another 15 per cent of its shares, has activated its next line of action to attract investors to take some more pieces of their business.

That also means sharing the risk. Take a little bit of the business with coated vanishing sugar; take some of the risk that may hurt sometimes.

Okoh Aihe writes from Lagos

April 15, 2020
A Broadcast sector in search of a better future, By Okoh Aihe

For broadcasting, the challenging times may be over and a new dawn of orchestrated change on the cards as the acting Director General of the National Broadcasting Commission, Prof Armstrong Idachaba, has pledged to follow every word of the Act setting up the Commission to deliver and refocus the industry.

At different times in Abuja and in Lagos Idachaba is pushing the need for the Commission to be desperate in advancing the cause of the broadcast industry and realign it to the part of growth by way of meeting the expectations of the various stakeholders – audience, government and operators.

And there are quite a few things in the plate needing urgent attention. They include: Implementing the Reform Implementation Committee Recommendations as approved by the government; Promoting Broadcasting for National Development, Economic Growth and National Cohesion; and Aggressive Pursuit of the Digital Switch Over.

Broadcasting was deregulated in Nigeria in 1992 leading to a plurality of stations across the land which Idachaba has put at about 270 stations, including Radio, Television and Satellite TV operations. He ascribed this as a manifestation of the country’s free press. Unfortunately there has not been too much of security even with this number and economic prosperity has been very elusive, thus opening too many flanks for Idachaba to begin an aggressive fight to right a sector where something has gone very wrong, especially in the immediate past.

Idachaba is not the only one who knows that something is wrong with the industry. The Nigerian Government has been looking at the sector and recently came out with a position document through the Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, requesting the NBC to breathe some fresh air of reform and modern regulation into the broadcast sector.

The reforms if professionally implemented will address very key areas of the industry which include but not limited to the areas of welfare of the regulator, amendment of the Broadcast Act and proposal for inclusion of certain new laws especially in the area of the Independence of the regulator and the participation of the industry in the board of the Commission. The reforms will also extend to the New Regulations on content emanating from the social media.

The recommended reforms have largely been received with controlled excitement especially from a section of the society which has reasoned that for broadcasting to enjoy growth and quality output the regulator must be spruced in new welfare packages in form of remunerations, training and other ancillary accoutrement needed for modern regulation in a fast changing converged digitized society. It is also right thinking for a government to begin to think of the independence of the broadcast regulator especially with the realization that part of the existing Act which places the final burden of license approval on the President of the federation is a superfluous provision. In a deregulated market the independence of the regulator is a major factor needed to boost the confidence of investors in the sector.

A primary concern of any regulatory agency is the growth and development of the people and the economic health of the industry it regulates. Particularly in our environment, broadcasting is an enabler, a medium for economic growth and societal upliftment through the developmental information it disseminates.

For this reason Idachaba has pledged to reposition the industry for better performance in building the society and growing the economic well-being of the operators. One measure he hopes to take in achieving this is to revisit the monopolistic hold of some operators over some very pricy contents.

“Another key area in the reform is in the area of regulating Monopolistic tendencies by Rights owners. The point is that the regulator owes the country a responsibility to provide regulations that will promote the economic and overall interest of the vast majority of Nigerians. We need direct foreign investment [DFI] no doubt but even the DFI should further expand the opportunities for the growth of our citizens. Therefore, the idea is that Rights owners will have their rights protected but they should be willing to allow Nigerians benefit from the exploitation of those rights,” he said.

This may of course draw some resistance from a number of operators who spend heavily to acquire and produce high end content for their channels. But what will by far pose the biggest challenge for Idachaba and the entire NBC at the moment is the digital switch over (DSO) where the country has faltered serially. The transition from analogue to digital broadcasting, as recommended by the ITU, was expected to have happened years back. Some actions of the Minister clearly demonstrate that government is anxious about getting the process through. However, there has not been too much of coherent understanding of the process especially in the most recent times.

Hopefully there is a revamped interest by government to pursue the process, according to Idachaba. “The Commission and indeed the Federal government remains committed to the realization of the Digital transition because of its vast benefits to the vast number of Nigerians. We acknowledge that roll out has been slow, but with the support and drive of the Minister of Information and the Board of the NBC we are resolved to continue with the roll –out-therefore the Digiteam and the NBC along with stakeholders shall release a new roll out time indicating switch dates,” he informed.

For the time being, Idachaba is enjoying a pulsating shift in focus and momentum. Luckily, the Board headed by Alhaji Ikra Aliyu Bilbis, a former Minister of Communications, has thrown its weight behind him. He is excited about this support and the human capital resource available within the Commission. Little wonder, that pressed to comment on the challenging days of the Commission, Idachaba stated: The NBC is an old regulatory institution. It has developed the capacity and character for a self-run.

Okoh Aihe writes from Abuja

April 9, 2020