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Tag: Okoh Aihe

  • The many “sins” of Asue Ighodalo – By Okoh Aihe

    The many “sins” of Asue Ighodalo – By Okoh Aihe

    Let me make this declaration that if Asue Ighodalo belonged to any other party outside of the PDP, I would still have written this material as a proud Esan man just to address some issues so manifestly manipulated by politicians who trade on falsehood to earn some advantage. 

    From the foregoing, please, understand that this is not about a party but a people who with all humility so proudly declare themselves as a proud tripod of the Edo people benevolently planted at Edo Central by the Creator, and blessed with the capacity and capability to aspire to any position in the State as a common heritage. 

    I write in support of Asue Ighodalo who, penultimate Wednesday, declared his readiness to contest for the number one position in Edo State in the elections coming up later this year. It is within his rights to do so but so are the other aspirants who are perfecting their plans to outsmart each other in a race which usually they hardly give to the most reasonable or the most qualified, who can change the desperate situation of their people. 

    I write this material because if the good people of Edo State do not try to rechannel the political conversation that will be thrown up within the intervening period leading to the governorship election, the very mundane will occupy the centre of discourse, leaving the people short by miles and wishing for another messiah that may emerge in the horizon after four years. 

    No. This shouldn’t be allowed to happen. The mundane is already being played up by some politicians who claim ownership of the truth and even stronger ownership to a State as their birthright to rule forever. 

    The reality gets a beating when they start to list the many sins of Asue Ighodalo which include: not a proper Esan man because of his inability to communicate in the Esan language, a political outsider who has not contributed to building his party in the State, an imposition by the current governor and therefore, a third term in disguise for the governor, and so many other allegations that politicians weaponise against their opponents. 

    In Asue, deja vu enjoys some ignoble comfort. Back in 1979, when Prof Ambrose Folorunso Alli, a professor of Morbid Anatomy at the University of Benin, wanted to run for the governorship position in the old Bendel State, now Edo and Delta, his traducers said he wasn’t Ishan because he couldn’t speak the language, and that, in fact, he was a Yoruba man because of his middle name. 

    For a State with cosmopolitan understanding of contemporary developmental trends, that blackmail didn’t wash. Ambrose Alli won the elections and became one of the best governors that ever ruled Bendel State. Some giant strides recorded at that time are still noticeable in the area of his domain, to the extent that his political enemies  conspired to put him in prison when the soldiers came. But for Alli who took a page out of the free education policy of his party, the Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN), led by the late sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, some of us would not have been so fortunate to smell the crumbs of western education, not to even aspire to full blown education robust enough to pay bursary to students. Alli demonstrated why knowledge is superior to the reasoning of political area boys. 

    In contemporary Nigerian politics, the qualities and services of area boys are needed to over awe opponents. Asue comes with none. At least from what I have observed becasue he is somebody I have not met. Surprisingly.

    Here is one of Asue’s major sins in aspiring to the top position in Edo State. Few months ago, there was suddenly a groundswell that Edo Central, whose turn it is to produce the governor, did not have men and women with capacity to occupy that position. Some said the Senatorial District doesn’t have the population to go into such a contest, with some even making short films in Bini language to demonstrate their warped knowledge of the State. Death to zoning, they raged in their political battle cry.

    Asue comes with a background and an elevated reasoning that overwhelm such  mundane myopia, flaunting a corporate pedigree that is as intimidating as it is real. A corporate lawyer and former chairman of Sterling Bank, Nigerian Breweries, Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG), Director,  Nigerian Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA), head of the Edo State Economic Team, just to name a few, Economic Adviser to former governor, Adams Oshiomhole, now a Senator, and a confidant of Governor Obaseki, Asue has credentials and connections that can intimidate his opponents into spilling gibberish as political campaigns to beguile a people much wiser in their political beliefs.

    Has Asue responded to any of the cardinal sins listed against him? He hasn’t, and is not likely to. He is standing on higher grounds, beyond platitudes and base expectations. 

    Making a formal declaration at the PDP office in Benin City, Asue preferred to remain on the platform of ideas as a way of reaching the hearts of the people. 

    “As governor, by the grace of God, my mission will be to create an Edo where quality education is accessible to all, where hard work is rewarded and where our talented youth can turn their dreams and aspirations into reality.

    “I believe in the promise of an Edo where every person, regardless of their start in life, can write their own story of success, if we take the right steps, together,” he added.

    Demonstrating his understanding of the State, Asue made a commitment: “No part of Edo will be left behind. From the high plains of Kukuruku to the lush vegetation of Ilushi; from the rich, red sands of Sakponba, to Esanlands’ incredible biodiversity, we have all that is needed to make our State a mesmerising destination for progress and wealth.”

    Those who grew up in Bendel State and later Edo State, will understand Asue’s trajectory. Under the administrations of Samuel Ogbemudia and Ambrose Alli, each part of the State was known for something – farming, palm production, solid minerals, transportation; the State was a major hub for everything and the people were at peace, with manifest love for each other.

    Which is why those who made the short film about Benin and Ishan are so daft that they probably never heard of the name, Esangbedo (the family grew to be very prominent in the State) – the Esan person doesn’t fight a Bini, with all subscribing to the overarching supremacy of the Oba of Benin. How does somebody use politics to destroy such a relationship? 

    By way of demonstrating that he has not fallen for such cheap tricks, Asue said on Arise TV, ‘’The people of Edo State are clear, just and fair.”

    Yes. That’s who we are. A fair and just people who are very clear about who and what they want. Like Ogbemudia.  Like  Alli. Like Odigie Oyegun. And permit me to add, like Adams Oshiomhole. Very grudgingly. 

    Asue confessed being a native son of Edo State. His father lived in New Benin in Benin City, and his uncle, Aguele, from Ewohimi in Esanland, was a former PDP chairman in Edo State, with whom he discussed local politics. Somebody lived his growing up years in the heart of Benin and is taken as an outsider just because he would later move to Lagos. What will politics not do to corrupt the minds of those who make themselves cheap candidates to falsehood!

    Asue stated that there was so much to do in Edo State which requires creative thinking, creative financing and love for the people, pledging that if given the opportunity, he was prepared to attract the most brilliant, the most creative and the most adaptive of Edo people, anywhere in the world, to return and regenerate the fortunes of the State. 

    For me, I believe Asue has more than enough capacity to sit at the head of the table concerning the affairs of Edo State, but so are the other distinguished sons and daughters of Esan extraction, which include: Prof Osariemhen Osunbor (former governor), Dr Martin Ihoeghian Uhomoibhi (a respected diplomat), Dr Mike Onolememen (former Minister of Works), Kenneth Imansuagbon (the rice man), Dr Dorry Okojie and Col. David Imuse, just to name a few. 

    So, those who speak about capacity apropos the Esan people either do not get the dictionary meaning of the word or they are just wretched candidates for mischief. But whatever their lot, I appeal for the politics of ideas and strategic thinking that can deliver our dear State from her present morass.

     

    Okoh Aihe writes from Abuja

  • Between NBC and MRA, what happens to regulation now? – By Okoh Aihe

    Between NBC and MRA, what happens to regulation now? – By Okoh Aihe

    The National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) got a dip in reputation and responsibilities last week when a Federal High Court in Abuja shaved it of its capacity to ever place a fine on any of the broadcast stations it regulates. It was a major victory for Media Rights Agenda (MRA) which had taken the Commission to court over the fine it imposed on some broadcast houses for alleged breach of the Nigeria Broadcasting Code sometime in 2022.

    For a nation looking for a voice against everything that is wrong in a government system that looks oppressive always, it was the kind of judgement the people yearned for, as the outcome quickly went through the nation like a flame. But it wasn’t a good one for the regulator which has gotten singed for fault it shouldn’t carry.

    For years insecurity has been a major headache keeping people awake day and night. At a  particular time in 2022, when the Buhari administration awarded itself pass marks for technically defeating the bandits that had taken over swathes of land in different parts of the nation, the BBC ran a documentary that was carried on some broadcast channels in the country, which seemed to put a lie to the position of the government.

    The broadcast organisations involved were Multichoice Nigeria Limited, owners of DSTV, TelCom Satellite Limited (TSTV), Trust-TV Network Limited; and NTA Startimes Limited, a joint venture between the government station and some Chinese business concerns.

    The documentary reflected the dangerous reality of life in the country especially in Zamfara but the pill was too bitter and shameful for an arrogant government to swallow. And officials needed immediate action. Punish those stations that could engage in such perfidy at a time there was such tranquillity in the nation, at least in the estimation of government officials that could see only good in their failure. The airing of the documentary allegedly undermined Nigeria’s national security!

    But there was a problem. Officials of the NBC, the broadcast regulator, had watched the documentary over and over, even with magnifying glasses, and came to the conclusion that there was nothing wrong with it at all. If the government felt otherwise, the most it could do was to enjoy a right of reply or do another documentary to tell its story.

    There was anger in high places. And the government got into a nasty groove. A document was written, and a fine was imposed, the heaviest of them all, N5m, something that looked punitive. It was the beginning of a long battle.

    The freedom of the media is not something taken lightly anywhere in the world, let alone Nigeria, where the Buhari administration had been known for its nastiness to free press. Under this administration, there had been too many fines, which really irked people to no end.

    Unable to accommodate such continuing restrictions on the media, the MRA, through their lawyer, Mr Uche Amulu, went to court to ask, among other things, that “the NBC’s action of imposing a fine on each of the media platforms and the station for broadcasting a documentary about the state of banditry and security in Zamfara State is unlawful and unconstitutional and has a chilling effect on freedom to impart information and ideas. MRA contended that it would deter the platforms and station from reporting the true state of affairs regarding the security situation in Nigeria, and therefore constitutes a violation of the rights of MRA, its members, and other citizens of Nigeria to freedom of expression, particularly their rights to receive ideas and information without interference, as guaranteed by the Constitution and the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights.”

    MRA also sought other declarations, including the procedure adopted in imposing the fines, which it said, was a flagrant violation of the rules of natural justice and the right to fair hearing under the Nigerian Constitution and Article 7 of the African Charter.

    In a ruling last week, Justice Rita Ofili-Ajumogobia of the Federal High Court, Abuja, declared as null and void the provisions of the Nigeria Broadcasting Code authorising the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) to impose fines on broadcast stations for alleged breaches of the Code, ruling that administrative and regulatory bodies could not exercise judicial powers.

    The NBC, according to the judgement, is not a court of law, and it acted above its powers by imposing such fines.

    It is unfortunate that the NBC is trapped in a situation that it really cannot explain and for which it has to suffer buffeting from all angles. This writer is aware of the politics behind the fines which the NBC would never be able to declare openly. It is a handicap emanating from a flawed Act. I am told by insiders at the Commission that NBC will go for an appeal. I expect the regulator to do so.

    All of last week, I was asking myself: so what happens to regulation now?

    Commercialisation and deregulation were a feature of the late 80s and early 90s as a major push or encouragement for the government to evacuate its intruding presence from businesses by way of attracting private investors while making more money in the process. The laws deregulating the various sectors were specifically crafted to protect the investors and their businesses. Broadcasting and Telecommunications were major  beneficiaries of the process.

    Under Section 2 of the National Broadcasting Act, CAP N11,Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004, the NBC is empowered to establish and disseminate the Code, and also to apply sanctions to defaulting stations which violate the Code. Section 23 empowers the NBC to make regulations for the purpose of giving effect to the provisions of the Act with the approval of the Minister.

    The Nigerian Communications Act 2003 also empowers the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) to make and enforce regulations that could give full force and effect to the provisions of the Act, except that the NCC can do this without the intrusion of an external entity. Quite different from the NBC Act.

    A friend, a learned one for that matter, once told me that these regulations and guidelines are ancillary laws that could be enforceable. I couldn’t argue with him because I don’t wear the appellation of a “learned colleague.”

    A regulator once told me that fines are regulatory instruments with which regulators knock some froward operators in line. I may not have swallowed that completely but I did ask myself, why is it that heavens do not come down when, for instance, the NCC and the Central Bank parcel out hefty fines to their operators?

    Here is what looks like an answer. I was at a dialogue on the broadcast industry put together last year by the Institute for Media and Society (IMS). Edetaen Ojo of Media Rights Agenda (MRA) was in attendance.  I could recall and it was generally agreed that nobody was against the NBC doing its job but almost everybody faulted the Commission for not following its own processes in taking decisions that could have far reaching effects on the industry. There was also the complaint of arbitrary fines being imposed on broadcast houses by the regulator, especially under the Buhari administration.

    NBC is witnessing public sandbagging and nobody seems to care for the simple reason that emotions are hitting the wrong nerves. The bellicosity of the Buhari administration to the media cannot be forgotten so soon, and so is the painful reality of victims of, or people losing loved ones to insecurity or even living permanently in fear. And the government didn’t want us to talk about it.

    Here is my take. The ruling last week may transcend the NBC to affect the fortunes of other regulators in the country. I do not believe that NBC is a loser. Not at all. But it has to be given the latitude to grow as an institution and be able to withstand pressures from industry and the government. The latter exerted too much pressure on the regulator under the last administration.

    The NBC needs help from the National Assembly through a review of the Act. For instance, it is common knowledge that the current Code had too many  external contributions and influences that have put it under permanent pressure, all arising from a defect in the Act. The NBC I know has the capacity always to produce a document that can serve the industry and country.

  • All that talk about MTN and Globacom – By Okoh Aihe

    All that talk about MTN and Globacom – By Okoh Aihe

    What should be a normal business dispute between two mobile operators, MTN and Globacom, has provided a fertile ground for pseudo patriots and even ignoramus to spew all kinds of comments that can further poison relationships in the industry. For most of these people, and you will marvel that some of them actually fall into the elite category, Glo is a Nigerian operator and must be protected by all means irrespective of the cause of the dispute.

    I am not so persuaded by their position. In a business relationships things can boil over. It is the responsibility of the concerned parties to sort themselves and resume their relationship or call it quits forever. In telecoms, it is much easier to pick a needle from the bottom of the ocean than to crash relationships. And that is why the regulator is there to do a job. A damn good regulator knows what to do per time because it bears the responsibility to protect the integrity of the industry as well as ensure that services are seamlessly good.

    Which is the reason I will give some credit to the regulator, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) for externalising the dispute between the two operators which ordinarily should be enjoying some ignoble comfort under the carpet. I will call what they did regulatory agility in getting the operators to address their differences and ensure responsible practices in the telecom ecosystem.

    In announcing the Pre-Disconnection Notice, the regulator in a statement signed by the Public Affairs Director, Reuben Muoka, said: “The Nigerian Communications Commission hereby notifies the public and subscribers of Globacom Limited (Globacom) that approval has been granted for the partial disconnection of Globacom from MTN Nigeria Communications PIc. (MTN), due to non-settlement of interconnect charges.”

    Basing its action on the provisions of Section 100 of the Nigerian Communications Act, 2003 and Paragraph 9 of the Guidelines on Procedure for Granting Approval to

    Disconnect, NCC explained that it came to the decision after Glo refused to comment on the complaints by MTN. 

    Section 100 of NCA 2003 states: Notwithstanding the terms of any interconnection, a party thereto shall not at any time and in any circumstance disconnect or discontinue interconnection to any interconnectng party without the prior written approval of the Commission. 

    Telecommunications operators in the country maintain a complex relationship with each other through interconnection which process is superintended by the regulator through strict Regulations and Guidelines to ensure that operators respect each other on the platforms of technology and even the business end while providing very robust services. Under the NCC Guidelines no operator is allowed to deny another operator interconnection in order to guarantee interoperability in service provisioning. Every dispute must be reported to the regulator and that’s what MTN did.

    In taking a regulatory decision, NCC has said that at the expiration of 10 (ten) days from the date of this notice (January 8, 2024), subscribers of Globacom will no longer be able to make calls to MTN, but will be able to RECEIVE CALLS. The partial disconnection also allows inbound calls to Globacom network from MTN.

    For those with knowledge of the industry, this is not a light punishment. With 91.9million subscribers to Glo’s 60.3million, according to the January 2024 subscription data released by the regulator, MTN enjoys a notable dominant role in the nation’s telecommunications industry and this is duly recognised by NCC which has put some bind on MTN.

    This puts Glo in no good position at all. It means that calls from MTN can actually overwhelm the Glo network within this period while its subscribers can only carry out on-net activities within the period, should the service provider fail to act. Frustrated subscribers may be forced to migrate to other networks. I don’t expect Glo to aspire to that point of desolation. 

    But what really happened? There is something called Termination Rate which is the amount an operator pays to generate a call and land it or terminate it in another network. In Nigeria it stands at about N3.90 only. It means that for each call a Glo subscriber makes to MTN, Glo pays MTN N3.90, and vice versa. This is called Termination Rate based on interconnection. The reconciliation is usually done by the end of the month, and with tech support at the backend, this is not a difficult thing at all.

    This writer gathered that Globacom allowed payment to pile up over a time to the extent that it became a concern to MTN and even the regulator which had to resort to regulatory arm-wrestling as a last resort. 

    I am happy to announce that the partial disconnection may never happen as Globacom has paid a hefty amount to MTN, over a Billion Naira. Globacom has complied substantially but there remains some lingering issues of VAT and interest on the money. One would expect that such issues can be resolved by the two organisations without a third party intervention. 

    Here is my understanding of the matter. The relationship between MTN and Globacom is purely business and there is no criminality or shame in anybody owing in business. Especially in businesses as complicated as communications, where there are so many interconnections and handovers, there will always be the need for teams from parties in dispute to sit and resolve knotty payment issues. There was therefore no need for Globacom to release a statement saying they were not owing anybody; it was totally superfluous. After all, it has nothing to prove after two decades in getting into business which the promoters knew nothing about but has become a leader in some respects. 

    Having already stated that it was good for NCC to externalise the dispute in order to resolve what seemed an unnecessary situation, the question may then arise, was the NCC publication the most expedient thing to do? I don’t have the answer because I am not a regulator. But my little response will be that there is a debtor in the industry which the NCC, more than anybody, knows. What is being done to make this particular debtor operator return to the part of sanity and contribute meaningfully to the growth of the industry?

    I clearly agree that the NCC must take some actions to protect the industry. Without some hard decisions some faceless but very strategic service providers like the Interconnect Houses who bicycle calls for major operators may not have a future in the industry. Really, they and other service providers as well, need to be protected. 

    It is my suggestion that as far as regulation can permit, the regulator should put in place some lithe governance principles that can help monitor the health of the operators in the industry and also smoothen relationships between operators before they grow into festered concerns. 

    Eddie Amana, the man who never got angry

    It took a brief phone call last week for my friend to announce the departure of Edward Idris Amana, the Chairman of the DigiTeam. The call didn’t do me well and it made my environment hot immediately as I stood reflecting momentarily on the mystery of life and the way good men go.

    I have known Eddie since 1993 when he joined the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) from the NTA as Deputy Director in the Engineering Department. All that time, never once did I chance on him being angry or upset. He always carried a smile which the death of his wife over 20 years ago could not diminish. I was told by close friends that he carried the pain of that loss daily but buried it in such equanimity that told a different story.

    He grew the Engineering Department of the NBC and mentored a line of laudable engineers who would do the country well locally and internationally.

    On retiring from the NBC, Eddie returned to the NTA as the Executive Director, Engineering. He was a broadcast engineer without limits and enjoyed deserved respect within the International Telecommunications Union (ITU),Commonwealth Broadcasting Association (CBA) and at the international section of the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB). 

    Eddie was made the Chairman of the DigiTeam under the President Goodluck Jonathan administration, a body that was charged with the Digital Switchover (DSO) programme – the migration from analogue to digital broadcasting. He worked tirelessly to achieve results but politics was a major impediment. Other nations sought his knowledge but, at home, politicians and appointees of government, undermined his capacity to give the nation a fully digitised broadcast system. 

    Eddie managed the situation still with a smile. And now he is gone with his knowledge forever. BON says his death “has robbed the country of the encyclopaedia of broadcast digital migration.”

    His family has a reason to celebrate the passing of a good man and may his memory remain a blessing.

  • RMD, NGX, NOLLYWOOD and monetisation of content – By Okoh Aihe

    RMD, NGX, NOLLYWOOD and monetisation of content – By Okoh Aihe

    I saw Richard Mofe Damijo (RMD) flanked by members of his family, Nicol and Tega, ring the closing bell on the last trading day at the Nigeria Stock Exchange (NGX) in an atmosphere one would want to relish forever. It was pretty cool. A family chosen for such honorific was a defining finale for a year many would wish not to see again.  

    But instead of seeing it as an honour done the RMD family, what occurred to me was a Nollywood on the ascendancy, commanding attention and enjoying a stratospheric rise that has been its fortunate lot previously. Which is good, really. For me however, a new layer of conversation has started at the NGX, and there are several layers of conversations going on at the moment concerning how to further unlock the fortunes of an industry which has done the nation a lot of favour.

    Just a few days prior we had met somewhere to talk about a transcendental opportunity to survive in an industry that continues to record a lot of casualties in form of incapacitation or even death. RMD has survived and doing great things not just to cement his place in history but to transport his adorable images into homes and movie theatres around the nation while staking out for a place on the global entertainment platforms. 

    He does that with a winning smile. In his face I recall the enchanting words of the American actor, Gary Busey, a much older person, “I like acting. You fly from place to place and count your money in the plane.” Yes, the life of the film actor is on the movie sets that could feature in different ends of the earth. I know that RMD has done a lot of flights to shoot movies. Yes. We do talk. I am in Kigali or I am heading to South Africa for Netflix or I am in Canada or in the US. Quite an enviably busy schedule but I am not sure if he is counting his money inflight yet!

    Which makes his journey to NGX even more interesting as it may provided an opportunity for a double pitch – on the side of NGX which seems to know when to hit a home run and even for RMD to stake the misunderstood fortunes of his industry.

    But I was speaking about several layers of conversations going on about Nollywood. The Vice President has had two meetings with a team of industry players. RMD is in the team. A Ministry of Art, Culture and the Creative industry has been created  to accommodate the demands of, and aggregate the fortunes of Nollywood  and the entire entertainment spectrum. A certain bank wants to throw in some cash. And the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) is retooling the Digital Switchover (DSO) process to ensure that Nollywood is a major beneficiary. There is so much going on at the moment that demands strategic and painstaking aggregation in order to achieve desired results. 

    Back to the floor of the NGX. Having pursued money all year round, trading ravenously at the Exchange, the high-wired traders needed to be reminded of their humanity, according to an official, that they still have blood flowing in their veins. They cornered the reality check of a Nollywood razzle-dazzle personality, RMD, whose latest film, The Black Book, may have hit a nerve at the NGX to alert them to a business that is ready for the taking.

    Nobody wants to mess with the scent of money. The  Black Book which cost a million Dollars featured a stellar cast which include: RMD, Alex Osifo,Sam Dede, Ireti Doyle, and Shaffy Bello, among others. The film is executive-produced by some tech founders in the persons of Kola Oyenyen, Ezra Olubi (co-founders of Paystack), Odunayo Oweniyi (co-founder and COO of Piggyvest), Gbenga Agboola (founder and CEO of Flutterwave), Kola Aina (founding partner at Ventures Capitals), and Olumide Soyombo (co-founder Blue Chip Technologies). 

    It was a daring but very creative fund syndication which has produced the most expensive Nollywood film directed by Editi Effiong for Anakle Films.

    “There is a convergence between business and the show biz sector. There is a reason it is called show business. We have concentrated too long on the show side without giving business a deserved thought. My coming here is like a precursor of the possibilities that we can have,” RMD stated very succintly. 

    I stated earlier that Nollywood has done the nation a lot of favour. Let me try to give an explanation with the help of RMD himself. “We are magicians in Nollywood. We defy all odds to raise money from families and friends to do movies,” he said. 

    Nollywood has depended on unstructured finacial sources to make movies, sometimes, at great pains to everyone involved in the value chain. The actors get themselves so financially exposed by ploughing their last drop of funds into their productions and even earn pittances to the extent that they are unable to protect themselves at the approach of any challenge. They give the society so much glitz and glamour and burnish our tattered image abroad that all we can do is to write great lyrics and obituaries when there is incapacitation and even a death, which happens so often. 

    But the industry has survived and can earn the bragging rights of doing more for Nigeria than several politicians put together in a bunch. 

    Just before one could fully absorb the stirring relationship between Nollywood and NGX, gbam!! landed the big one which has sent reverberating echo across the nation. A Tribe Called Judah, a film by Funke (Jenifa) Akindele, has grossed over One Billion Naira from the box office, a record breaking feat. She has been receiving commendations from the industry, the business community and even from President Bola Ahmed Tinubu,  who couldn’t let that opportunity slip to confer recognition on her even when they don’t belong to the same party. Cosmopolitan reasoning by the President. She was the runnng mate to Abdul-Azeez Olajide Adediran on the platform of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in Lagos. 

    Nollywood, once described as very woolly and therefore cannot attract investment, is producing films that are globally appreciated while one has just hit the billion Naira mark. Gone are the days of big fights at Idumota and Alaba markets in Lagos, and Iweka Road in Onitsha, Anambra State, where Nollywood films were marketed in tapes before VCDs. This is the big season and Jenifa, oh, Funke Akindele has just broken the entertainment barrier.

    She has taken the conversation some notches higher. Asked to make some comments on how Funke’s achievement would impact his efforts to attract investments to Nollywood, RMD was full of praises and very excited for the industry impresario who has continued to drop one hit movie after the other.

    “She is breaking her own records right now. This is breakout time. All the glass ceilings are being shattered. Funke Akindele just made it more exciting with her efforts,” RMD enthused.

    There is a coalition of thoughts and opinions on how Nollywood and the entire entertainment industry can create jobs for the youths, become much bigger and stake a valid claim to one of the biggest entertainment industries in the world. But more work needs to be done. The government must go beyond words to make a commitment by providing seed funds for the industry, and activating flexible policies and conditions that can attract investors and enhance creativity. 

    Believe me, Nollywood needs help. The industry needs a solid structure that can carry the weight and accommodate the fears of practitioners. There has to be a structured monetisation of content that can be beneficial to everyone in the industry value chain. Because really, some of the practitioners are in a state of nirvana whose end would always bring pain to those around them and even the nation at large.

    Let there be more robust conversations. Let the layers of discourse be richer. And let more attention be paid to Nollywood. After all, the actors hardly live for themselves anymore. They live for us all and make the nation look good while some politicians steal money in billions and pour dross on our faces.

  • Giving broadcasting a fresh start in 2024 – By Okoh Aihe

    Giving broadcasting a fresh start in 2024 – By Okoh Aihe

    While a comprehensive housekeeping is going on at the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) – internal movements of staff, transfer from the head office in Abuja to other parts of the country or even outright uprooting from one area of specialisation to a completely new one, with the hope that such action will lead to reformatting the organisation for performance, some stakeholders are pointing to areas of interest that should be tackled urgently in the new year. 

    Even as one would admit that such movements may be indicative of a flawed past which previous actions need to be remedied, this writer was told, as the old year faded last week, that one of such areas is the operating document of the NBC, appropriately titled: National Broadcasting Commission Act CAP N11, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004. 

    The law came into effect 20 years ago. At the time it had some capacity to cater for activities in the industry but not any more. Even if the weaknesses are overlooked the mere fact that broadcasting is driven by technology, clearly demonstrates that the present Act should be heading to the archives. At the time over-the-top (OTT) operations, for instance, broadcasting over internet protocol, wasn’t very popular but that is thriving right now, especially with the telecommunications industry maturing to an extent. Every little precocious guy sits in the corner of his/her house belting out music or live pictures to the rest of the world and even sometimes very base materials injurious to the society. So the Act must be reviewed to capture breaking technologies and save the society from overbearing tech bullying.

    Two other areas of the Act, some have observed, must be looked into critically in order to position the NBC for performance. They include the Composition and Tenure of the Board,  and the Relationship between the Minister and the NBC. 

    Section 3 (1) of the Act says: The Commission shall consist of (a) a chairman; and (b) ten other members as may be approved or represent the following interests, that is – law; business; culture; education; social science; broadcasting; public affairs; engineering; State Security Service; the Federal Ministry of Information and National Orientation; and the Director-General of the Commission. 

    This Section was never fully obeyed. Previous boards were peopled by mostly politicians who were more interested in contracts to fester their pockets, with little drops for their constituencies, and political ambitions, and without such contracts, there was constant war within the Board and with the regulator. Except under the military and then under the Obasanjo administration, the Board was never properly constituted. 

    One other problem with the Board is the tenure, which is Three years. Quite a number of government Boards have a life span of 4 years. The Three years tenure for the NBC Board does not allow for planning and providing proper leadership for the regulator. One would want to suggest the lawmakers should look at the Communications Act to create a proper law that can stabilise the broadcast sector. For instance, since the DG stays in office for 5 years, like the Communications Act, the Board members should enjoy the same tenure and let the DG be an Executive Director who is first among equals.  

    For me, one of the most wayward portions of the Act is Section 6, which is the Power of the Minister to give directives. The Section castrates the NBC of its capacity to regulate the broadcast industry which the Minister can dismiss with a wave of his/her ministerial hand. That Section creates most of the problems in the broadcast industry as the Minister wears the garb of the government to deal with investors in the sector. The Section should be deracinated immediately in order to give some semblance of independence to the regulator. 

    You can’t pillory the broadcast industry for not trying. A source told me that there are at least three Bills making the rounds at the National Assembly without any of them making a headway – just one has passed through the first reading. “Some of the Bills don’t appear to carry serious legislative documentation,” my source lamented. 

    The source is recommending serious conversation at various levels – involving the National Assembly, the Ministry, the Regulator and the various stakeholders. In fact, there should be a much bigger stakeholder engagement in order to tackle the political and economic side of the business and prevent the industry from atrophying away, the source observed. 

    The Nigeria Broadcasting Code, once described as the Bible of Broadcasting, also comes with a basket of concerns. The First Edition was published in 1993. The current edition, which is the Sixth Edition, was published in 2019. There has never been a more controversial document. At a time it was difficult to know which particular version was going to be accepted as the authentic document. The reason being that too much pressure was brought to bear on the document review with so many interests trying to seize the vitals of that document. 

    It wasn’t just the Code, it was the industry. If you could control the content of the Code to some extent, you may be able to take hold of the industry. There are some sections of the Code concerning content which, in lay man’s perspective, look suspicious and have been the subject and source of some litigations. In spite of some positives, the industry could insinuate about some external strong forces trying to take control of the broadcast sector with the current Code but the Code remains and it is still the handbook of the industry. 

    Fortunately for the NBC, the Code is due for a review this year and stakeholders are requesting the regulator to work with the industry and produce a document that should address the concerns of the various stakeholders, which include the government, the regulator and the industry – comprising broadcast operators, content makers, equipment manufacturers and equipment vendors. They see it as an opportunity not to be missed; especially with the coming of a new DG, immediate positive takeaways for the industry should be created.

    “The Code should be reviewed from the beginning,” a source warned, “and the regulator should be very careful otherwise they will shake down investment confidence in the broadcast business.”

    One of the most illustrative examples of failure in the industry, some stakeholders have pointed out, is the Digital Switchover (DSO) which was supposed to have concluded in 2015 and extended to 2020 but still failed. Writing a preface to the Sixth Edition of the Code, former DG, Ishaq Modibbo Kawu, wrote: “We must have a Code that anticipates the challenges of the new era.”

    Embedded in the “challenges of the new era” is the DSO which has really not worked in Nigeria. Some of the activities listed in the preface to the Code were hardly done. The review of the Code presents the NBC with a fresh opportunity to make a bold launch. 

    For the NBC, 2024 presents the opportunity for a fresh start and to make the kind of name it has lacked previously. There is a strong optimism that proper realignment of efforts by the various stakeholders – the government, lawmakers, regulator and the industry – will create a better ecosystem that can attract more investment and boost creativity in all ramifications.

  • SIM/NIN harmonisation, the genie lives on – By Okoh Aihe

    SIM/NIN harmonisation, the genie lives on – By Okoh Aihe

    The inability of the nation to complete the SIM/NIN harmonisation programme introduced by the government a couple of years ago is a clear illustration that there are no simple processes or even stories in our part of the world. Ordinary SIM registration which a traveller would normally conclude at any international airport on acquiring a mobile line, has become so convoluted that you would wonder at the multi agencies involved in the process in Nigeria.

    Just when you think that SIM/NIN would begin to fade from the nation’s lexicon, it pops up in another corner like the genie that doesn’t accept suppression. Only last week the story came alive again that the Nigerian government is pegging sometime in February as the final date for the programme to be concluded otherwise over 12m mobile lines would be knocked off the networks.

    This is not the first time such a deadline would be given. There have been several of them but all pointing to a shameless failure in the implementation of simple tasks which failure would usually exacerbate to trouble the lives of ordinary people.

    Nigerians are very tolerant people and would do anything to conquer the spectre of insecurity which has been their lot for as long as they can remember. The NIN/SIM harmonisation programme which was projected as a magic wand to insecurity was supposed to be a quick walk – just 15 days and everything is over. Insecurity would be a thing of the past as nobody would be able to use mobile numbers again to demand ransom.

    Just a few days to the end of 2023, insecurity remains more hydra-headed, putting a lie to the efforts of the government and various communities. Just a couple of days ago, a young lady had told me that secret killings were going on in the Plateau and that nobody was reporting them. By Christmas day over 50 people were killed in one fell swoop, thus unmasking our pretences and the propensity to bury our heads in the sand like the ostrich. Insecurity. More kidnappings are happening and more banditry recorded and no magic wand has resolved the anger of the children of hell running rampant in our nation.

    Insecurity. Feelers from the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) clearly demonstrate that concerns over the exercise has been elevated to red to the extent that another deadline is being contemplated. But it would seem as if the mobile operators are the main culprits why the process is faltering. Not at all. This writer has been reliably informed that anybody conversant with the process since the SIM/NIN get-go would really be angry.

    Okay. Let’s go step by step. SIM Registration began in 2011. It continues to be ongoing. By 2015, MTN took the fall for the entire industry when it got slapped with a fine of N1.04 trn in October for failing to disconnect 5.1m lines on its network. The fine was reduced to N330bn in June 2016 after protracted negotiations. MTN took the fall because I can say without equivocations that it was not the only guilty party. But that has not resolved the problems of SIM registration or the pervasive insecurity plaguing the nation.

    By December 2020, a little complication was introduced to the process of SIM registration. The process must be harmonised with NIN acquisition. Although at the launch of SIM registration in 2015 the NCC had said that the National Identity Management Agency (NIMC), alongside the security agencies would be some beneficiaries of the process in carrying out their national assignments, NIMC would become a more central player in the entire process and, in fact, nearly dictating the entire registration process.

    In Nigeria, there are parallel layers of identification an individual must go through or carry even as a burden. There is the International Passport, Driver’s License, Bank Verification Number (BVN) with NIN created as the supremo. No one comes easy so the individual must suffer. For instance, during the COVID-19 pandemic, Nigerians were made to suffer all sorts of indignities, including going to queue in crowded places to be able to harmonise their SIM with NIN. They risked their lives to use their phones.

    Since then, NIN seems to be enjoying a contrived voyage and relevance. In whatever you need to do officially, your NIN is required. It even occupies a pride of place in your international passport, and may soon become a prominent requirement in contracting marriage or having a girlfriend! Oh, the story of Nigeria, how the leadership wants to make us look stupid.

    The drawback however, is that NIMC doesn’t seem to have the capacity to shoulder its can of responsibilities and this resonates in the flip-flop process of the SIM/NIN harmonisation. An operator once told me that the NIMC platform is so small that it cannot handle activities from the operators without breaking down. The story has hardly changed.

    There are other problems – the big man syndrome as most big people impose their importance on Nigeria by refusing to obey the laws. They refuse to release their real identity and direct their aides to do some dirty jobs on their behalf. Apart from high networth individuals, this writer was told that even some lawmakers who should be the first to obey the laws they make don’t have valid registration.  It is the case of leadership creating problems for the ordinary people to solve

    And then the Nigerian factor where individuals must profit from any process.This is not dredging up scurrilities just to damage the nation’s image but about weaknesses in the value chain of processes which we permit to fester so that some individuals can be happy to retain their ego and cream off the nation’s commonwealth.

    An industry source told me within the week that the SIM/NIN harmonisation policy is a good policy but the driving force was not for the policy to succeed. There was something else, the source maintained. There are several layers of contractors working at the backend.

    NIMC introduced the Virtual NIN which only the organisation could develop and send to the operator. Under the process, it was possible for one person to still be able to register as many SIMs as possible, even over 100. Each virtual SIM cost money which did not go to NIMC but to the contractor embedded in the process through a process called Tokenisation.

    So, if the harmonisation policy was for phone users to carry proper identity and in the process fight insecurity, that was lost to the greed of individuals who must feed on the people’s misery.

    “It is not that we do not have the capacity to do this business except that some people put themselves in the middle of the government’s business in order to profit from the process,” the source lamented.

    Although the mobile operators have every reason to be alarmed about another deadline being set for the completion of the harmonisation process, one would want to suggest here that what should enjoy priority is auditing of the entire process. From all indications, the exercise was so rotten that innocent Nigerians were tricked to feed a process which proceeds ended up in private pockets.

    Auditing the process is not only about money but also to deracinate the various bagagges that had stifled the entire policy implementation. “There is a criminal ring around SIM/NIN registration that has to be dismantled,” the source informed.

    For this writer, it is not just about deadlines or blaming the mobile operators about the failure of the policy implementation but first about putting the NCC and NIMC in order before whipping the industry in line.

    “The last administration created more problems than we tried to solve,” according to my source but time has come to start rebuilding the process all over. Passing the buck, one would want to observe, is one expressway to failure. I will want to assume here that the President Tinubu administration would tread the narrow path to put the SIM/NIN harmonisation policy to bed.

  • Between two young minds, a pledge to revamp the telecoms industry – By Okoh Aihe

    Between two young minds, a pledge to revamp the telecoms industry – By Okoh Aihe

    The story of their meeting excited me. In my mind’s eyes, I have always pictured two friends meeting, not a boss and a subordinate, but two friends with corresponding minds and interests but also with transcendental knowledge of the millennial generation on tech issues, to discuss the fate of an industry and a regulatory agency which one of them would describe as important and relevant in achieving the nation’s digital aspiration.

    My excitement derives from the homogeneity of two young minds tackling the fate of an industry which has largely remained in the hands of some elderly predecessors who were more measured on issues relating to risks and industry development. But the elders did well.

    Time has come for a baton change and another drive, a race for the young minds to make their mark in the same industry. But first the house cleaning. The statement from the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) was a clear pointer that the house needs a lot of scrubbing.

    Transparency shall be our bedrock in telecom regulation – Maida, read the headline.

    “The Executive Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Dr. Aminu Maida, has pledged that transparency will form the bedrock of his leadership as Nigeria’s chief telecom regulator as this will enable a solid foundation in building a resilient, accountable and efficient institution,” NCC said, in the opening paragraph of the statement, signed by the Public Affairs Director, Reuben Muoka.

    Key words for me in the foregoing are: transparency, accountable, efficient and institution. They point to an immediate but ignoble past where everything that could go wrong went wrong for an institution because of human weaknesses and incapacity to stay by the rules and mock those who see power mongering as a rewarding pastime.

    The statement also suggests that Maida, within the period of his appointment, may have seen a scratch of the layers of rot at the Commission and is ready to make a clean break in order to steer the agency in a new direction.

    “I have been on this seat for about six weeks, and it has afforded me the privilege of a bird’s eye view to understand things better, and identify areas that we urgently need to work on. We are currently carrying out an in-depth study and critical review of issues within the industry. One of the areas we are placing priority on is Quality of Experience,” Maida told the Minister.

    Quality of Experience (QoE). That resonates. It was always Quality of Service (QoS). Meaning that the quality of the industry was measured from the output of the operators, who sometimes are very smart with figures. It seems however that the NCC under Maida will gauge the quality of the industry based on what the subscriber encounters on the network. It can be very frustrating. Signals still bear the qualities of a mirage with subscribers, sometimes, having to climb on high grounds or platforms to make or receive calls.

    Maida spoke of his readiness to spruce up the NCC to attract more investments to the industry, grow 5G and Broadband to enhance connectivity across the nation and enthused that his visit to the Digital Bridge Institute (DBI) in Lagos provided ample evidence that the institution has capacity to drive a knowledge-based economy which falls under the Knowledge Pillar in the Strategic Plan of the minister.

    “Consequently, we will be prioritising the revamp, retooling, and redirection of the Institute towards extracting its optimum value in line with our objectives,” Maida pledged.

    From an insider perspective, one would want to affirm here that what the EVC can do with DBI goes beyond what he has seen already. The original plan for the institution was to develop tech knowledge incubation centres across the nation that could help grow a new generation of IT denizens. But the journey started from Abuja, closely followed by Lagos and some other facilities in Kano, Enugu, Asaba and some other places. Former Board Chairman, Alhaji Ahmed Joda, who went on a final journey a couple of years ago, and Engr Ernest Ndukwe, EVC, who brewed the original idea had undiluted patriotic blood running in their veins as they contemplated the future of the younger generation. This was years before DBI became a harvest field and a cesspool of wanton deals.

    Their thoughts for the industry were congruously mutual.

    “The NCC is a stellar agency, and you have my respect for the work that you do. There is no future for the country without the NCC. Already, the quality you have is good; what we need to do now is to tap into this quality to bring about greater value for the country,” said Bosun Tijani, the Minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy.

    “I want to assure you that you have the best partner in me. We will work together to achieve the goals and vision we have set,” the Minister assured the NCC CEO.

    Why would this public affirmation be necessary? After all, the Nigerian Communications Act 2003 mandates the Ministry and NCC to create good policies and the right regulatory environment that can help grow the telecommunications industry. The beauty of the Act is in the distinct separation of powers between the ministry and the regulator and this provides a fecund environment for needed growth in the industry.

    However, I am of the opinion that such affirmation is necessary as the industry needs a new wave of support and confidence to mobilise fresh funds for growth. Only recently, the Minister said the Federal Government would require a hefty $2bn to deploy fibre optic cables across the nation. Although, for me, such an amount is but a little drop  (the minister may have his stats which I am not privy to) I want to state clearly that nobody would have been ready to plow such money into an industry that suffered regulatory capture under the last administration.

    The EVC told the Minister that he would create an industry to see more investors come into the telecommunications sector, with the attendant creation of vertical businesses and increased Foreign Direct Investments (FDI), revenue generation, and employment.

    My friend and mentor, Prof Femi Osofisan, declared in one of his books that “words are cheap.” I am persuaded to believe that the two young men know the value of words.

    Talking seriously, the meeting may have afforded the minister and his guest the opportunity to confess the truth about the industry they inherited which looks strong outside but carries a soft underbelly. They may also have contemplated the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity given them by the President and resolve to take full advantage of the intrinsic and exogenous knowledge capital available in the ecosystem to build a new industry capable of leapfrogging the nation to the apogee of modernity. The meeting may have provided a ready opportunity to reflect on the various things that went wrong in the sector under the last administration, especially the sand-bagging of the regulator by the ministry and the duo may have resolved not to thread that ignoble path of the past.

    Tijani was right when he observed that “there is no future for the country without the NCC. Already, the quality you have is good; what we need to do now is to tap into this quality to bring about greater value for the country.”

    Quite profound with uncanny exactitude. In spite of the years of the locust, there is so much knowledge available at the NCC that can help this nation. It is good that Maida has noticed it and the minister, Tijani, has pledged to work with him. The power of two is always better than one. Such cooperation is much better than crash opportunism and a propensity to intimidate. It’s goodbye yesterday and welcome to a more promising future.

  • Between MTN and 9Mobile, not yet the case of big fish swallows small fish – By Okoh Aihe

    Between MTN and 9Mobile, not yet the case of big fish swallows small fish – By Okoh Aihe

    One of the most profound headlines for me in those days came from a Nigerian magazine whose name I can’t recall. Big Fish Swallow Small Fish was the title of the  story. I think it was in the 80s, I am not so sure any more, but it remains etched in my memory till the end of time. I am sure that story was about the practice of big organisations just swallowing small ones in corporate takeovers without even a wince.

    Since then there have been so many swallows. Especially under democratic dispensation, individuals have swallowed up whole states. Some more audacious undertakers have even tried to swallow the nation but the process appears more convoluted and complicated, unfortunately for them.

    As  I received quite a number of calls in the past few weeks, with a number of callers asking concernedly whether frontline mobile operator MTN was buying 9Mobile, that headline came all over again with a rhythm as haunting, if not a threnody. Is MTN, the dominant operator in the country’s mobile ecosystem swallowing up the struggling 9Mobile, the Big fish swallowing small fish?

    From findings within the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), this writer can state without equivocation that there is no arrangement for MTN to buy 9Mobile although there are spectrum trading discussions between the two organisations which has not even been brought to the attention of the regulator, according to my sources.

    There are Guidelines for Spectrum Trading published on the NCC website, www.ncc.gov.ng, but there are no provisions therein for one organisation to swallow up the other. The Guidelines are strictly for Spectrum Trading, spelling out conditions that will make such a transaction possible.

    The Spectrum Trading 2022 provides a Secondary Market for operators to sell unused spectrum and thus be able to put such spectrum to effective and efficient use in providing needed services for the telecommunications industry. This, the NCC projects, will help in good service roll out, coverage and affordability.

    The scope covered under Spectrum Trading includes: Spectrum Transfer, Spectrum Leasing and Spectrum Sharing.

    However, the Guidelines demand that “both the Buyer and the Seller must be in good regulatory and financial standing with the Commission for a minimum of two (2) prior to the time of trading.” All such transactions must carry the imprimatur of the NCC who bears the onerous responsibility of ensuring that all spectra must be put to effective and maximum use across the nation.

    Under the Guideliness as already stated there are no provisions for a complete sale and takeover of a telecoms operator especially at the level of MTN and 9Mobile.

    Unfortunately for 9Mobile, every whisper and assumption has almost assumed the shape of reality. The company has been in troubled waters financially even before the Etisalat Group of the United Arab Emirate (UAE) left Nigeria in 2017, leading to a corporate scramble in which about 16 organisations, among them, MTN, Airtel, Ntel, Virgin Mobile from the United Kingdom, Vodacom from South Africa, Bua Group, Morning Side Capital Partners, Obot Etiebet and Co, Teleology, Smile Telecoms Holding, and Hamilton and George International Limited were jostling to acquire the ailing organisation.

    Fortunately, Teleology won with a bid of $301m over Smile Telecoms which had put in an offer of $300. The problem only became more convoluted and complicated. Even before the final announcement and approval by the NCC, there was already a split in Teleology whose top officials were fighting over a game that had not been properly harvested.

    The cumulative impact of what is happening at 9Mobile is devastating. An NCC source told this writer that the regulator did a health check on 9Moblie; “what we got wasn’t too good but redeemable if management is put right.”

    In the process of fighting for survival, 9Mobile, we gathered, was involved in a lot of financial engineering. The operator is indebted to Keystone Bank, AfriExim Bank unable to pay interconnect fees to other operators and also unable to pay annual operating level (AOL) to the regulator. The workers are leaving in droves and its subscriber base has plunged from over 22m to as low as between 6m and 7m, although the NCC still records 13.58m, a figure which even the workers of the Commission are questioning.

    Some sources within the Commission admit regulatory failure concerning 9Mobile, saying that they have no idea why former EVC, Prof Umar Danbatta was unusually soft to the organisation, a regulatory failure or misguided help that may have further pushed the operator into the mire.

    The good news however, is that in spite of the travails of 9Mobile there are new investors ready to come into the business, take share control and inject new funds into the organisation and give it a new life. But my source cautioned that the current Board should forsake its present intransigence for a redeeming corporate survival to take place.

    While it is important to state here that 9Mobile may qualify for Spectrum Trading, the organisation is not been sold in whole but is discussing to put parts of their spectrum for sale, not all of them. Selling all of them would mean that 9Mobile will not have capacity to operate any more and will not enjoy the approval of the NCC.

    Without a doubt, the NCC’s position will be informed by the Nigerian Communications Acts 2003 and Spectrum Trading Guidelines 2022. But one of my NCC sources says: “For me, if such a transaction will make MTN own too much spectrum, it is not good. MTN has already bought the 700MHz from the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) and Visafone 800MHz through the back door. It may not make regulatory sense if the NCC sanctions the spectrum trading transaction whenever the matter is tabled before the regulator,” the source noted.

    Meanwhile, 9Mobile needs help very urgently to stay alive as a corporate entity. The regulator has been complicit in extending a helping hand, sometimes too generously. In a flash of such generosity, the NCC on May 8, 2023, in the final days of the Buhari administration, waived over N70bn in  spectrum fee payment by 9Mobile to the Nigerian government. The letter was signed by Danbatta and this writer has since learnt that it was a deal conjured between him and former Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr Isa Pantami, and pressed on the government for high level approval.

    That shot in the arm didn’t bring so much life to 9Mobile. More may still have to be done to rescue the organisation from palpable demise. The Spectrum Trading transaction may be one of such opportunities to scratch up cash for sustenance.

    On this I agree with my NCC source. “All we just want as a regulator is for the business to work well and deliver service to customers,” the source stated.

    Nothing could be closer to the truth. The telecommunications industry, like every other industry, is about service, the customer and affordability. The regulator needs to do more to return the industry to its glory days through lithe regulatory services capable of creating the right atmosphere for industry harmony and performance.

  • From WRC-23 to COP28, telecom binds with a thread – By Okoh Aihe

    From WRC-23 to COP28, telecom binds with a thread – By Okoh Aihe

    The story of Nigeria’s attendance at COP 28 holding in Dubai will not stop making the rounds very soon. How a country with so much hunger, so much bile, and so much poverty in the extreme could take a contingent of 1411 people to a climate programme in a gathering of the global community in Dubai where even the rich countries are frugal at dealing with finances.

    Already, it is recriminations upon recriminations, how some superficial but superfluous personalities were taken to a programme where serious discourse takes place and more serious deals are struck to deliver man from the hell that is to come because of the inordinate ability for humanity to endanger nature and create more insane wealth.

    Climate Change. They will talk about carbon emission, clean energy, fossil fuels, and humanity will pledge to be of better behaviour and to clean up the mess of previous misdemeanour. The rich will try to grandstand and bluff through a history of undeserving throwback. Climate change.

    But there is another meeting holding in Dubai. The ITU World RadioCommunication Conference (WRC-23) is holding in Dubai. The conference, which is addressing the future of space, sea and land-based radio communications, will also seek to update Radio Regulations and allocate scarce radio-frequency spectrum to members.

    ITU WRC-23 is a constellation of national government authorities, telecommunications regulatory agencies, representatives of key radio communications users and providers, country representatives, companies and other organisations who have gathered to discuss rules that will ensure the best application of radio waves, set out under an agenda featuring a broad selection of topics put forward at the end of the conference.

    For instance, some of the items in WRC-23 agenda include: Identifying additional frequency bands for the continued development of International Mobile Telecommunications (IMT), including the use of high-altitude platform stations as IMT base stations for the universal deployment of wireless networks; Improvements to the international regulatory framework for geostationary orbit (GSO) and non-geostationary orbit (NGSO) satellites while promoting equitable access for all countries; Use of satellite technologies for broadband services to improve connectivity, particularly in remote areas; and New spectrum to enhance radiocommunications in the aeronautical mobile service, including by satellite, and to facilitate the use of the space research and Earth exploration-satellite services for climate monitoring, weather prediction and other scientific missions.

    The world has gathered in Dubai for WRC-23 and over 4000 delegates are attending the intellectually but technically stimulating conference, from November 20 to December 15, 2023.

    The Ministry of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy leads the Nigerian delegation to the Conference which holds every three or four years, and participation are drawn from the Ministry, Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), the Navy, Airforce, Army, the telecommunications industry, Maritime and even Aviation, among others.

    WRC-23 is hosted by the Telecommunications and Digital Government Regulatory Authority (TDRA) on behalf of the government of the United Arab Emirate (UAE).

    As news broke of the huge Nigerian delegation attending COP 28, my mind was thinking of a much bigger picture, of the several conferences holding in Dubai at the same time, a very small city completely built up to play host to global events including trade.

    Years ago when the metro was being built, this writer asked an information officer: why are you guys building a metro when you don’t even have enough passengers for the taxis and buses? The answer came without hesitation, “we know the number of visitors we are expecting to visit Dubai from 2020. We have to prepare for them.”

    When the international airport was expanded almost by half, the answer was the same: “we know the number of people we are expecting to visit from 2020. We are preparing for them.”

    This very moment of WRC-23 AND COP 28, my mind went to the hotel occupancy rate in Dubai, other allied hospitality businesses, including transportation, safari, restaurants, the various tourism spots beautifully orchestrated to make Dubai a tourism destination of choice.

    Dubai has been preparing for the world for just a few decades, now the world has found Dubai irresistible. At this point cash from oil may mean little. It is all about services. Good services sometimes without blemish at all but well paid for.

    Dubai is a total package with facilities for all, irrespective of class. It has provisions for top government functionaries as well as global civil servants and even ordinary politicians who would usually go with a retinue of aides.

    For me, the clincher is the city’s ability to host WRC-23 and COP 28 simultaneously in a world where there would be so much competitive bidding to host such events. It is a clear sign that whatever Dubai is doing, technology is very much part of that package. Technology has been so much a part of the packaging of, and planning for Dubai.

    Dubai provides an opportunity for the global community to reason together in order to deliberate over, share and continue to protect a common resource that remains relevant for the growth and preservation of humanity.

    Speaking at the opening on November 20, Secretary-General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, in a message delivered on his behalf, noted that the World Radiocommunication Conference “is a testament to the power of international cooperation in tackling global challenges. Radio frequencies, whether on Earth or in space, form the backbone of advanced communications for all humanity. From education to healthcare, from agriculture to climate monitoring, expanding radiocommunication services and bridging the digital divide is key to reducing inequalities and advancing the Sustainable Development Goals.”

    “We are at an inflection point in tech history, and radio communications are at the top of the global agenda,” observed Doreen Bogdan-Martin, ITU Secretary-General. “Equitably managed spectrum and the associated satellite orbits are among the best tools in our toolbox to make good on our commitment to build a digital future that works for everyone and for our planet.

    It is serious business going on in Dubai. My joy is that Nigeria is very much part of that business irrespective of the sheer number of attendance which many rightly suspect can be an open gambit to waste and unnecessary distraction. The question remains, what lessons are we learning?

    Once at the ITU World in South Africa some years ago, I asked one of the top government functionaries from Nigeria: why can’t our country bid to host any of these top global events? Innocent question methinks. He glared at me: where are the hotels and event centres? Oh, you don’t get the drift? Show me a hotel in Nigeria with 3000 rooms or multi-event halls? The story has hardly changed ever since.

    No matter the public posturing by our politicians and public servants, the country continues to regress into the glory of the past. No structured planning. No challenging or earth-shaking projects. Only platitudes about fighting hunger, about promises and hope in abeyance but little about the epidemic poverty of the many, even epidemic poverty of thoughts and reasoning, sometimes, at leadership levels.

    For instance, Dubai is completely built up, laced with state-of-the-art technology to the extent that mobile operators in the city are able to migrate their 5G signals to areas of population concentration. They did that successfully during COVID-19. I can say here without equivocation that even with the volume of visitors pouring into Dubai, subscribers will not witness call drops or data glitch.

    Nigeria is in Dubai haggling and bargaining for more spectrum which globally is a very scarce resource but the ones we have were recently shunned at an auction, making the telecoms regulator to baulk at its revenue target. The only reason being that the regulator dropped the ball of transparency somewhere along the line and lost the respect and trust of the industry.

    Dubai is a city completely built up. We have no city or state capital in Nigeria which is trying to learn any useful lessons. For instance, Abuja should be one place the international community would love to visit. Telecommunication enjoys major consideration in the travelling arrangement of some travellers. But here in Abuja, telecom services are poor, very poor. Only recently,the service providers, at a meeting in Lagos, had to appeal to Dr Aminu Maida, the Executive Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) for special intervention with the FCT authority so that service deployment in the nation’s capital can happen without frustrations.

    WRC-23 and COP 28 are moments of inflection but should also be  moments of sincere introspection by the Nigerian delegates. How do we plan for Nigeria and remove the nation from squalor in every respect? How do you build up the telecommunications infrastructure? How do you build the roads or,in fact,  just give a little facelift or urban renewal to some of our cities? How do you stop criminality including once-chance in Abuja,  the nation’s capital, where some unfortunate passengers are harassed and sometimes thrown out of moving vehicles?

    Quite some assignment in the plate. Without a scratch attempt at fixing even the smallest of our problems, the world may not want to come to Nigeria even with more roadshows and reinforced sermonisation. The journey for hope and reinvention begins here. Otherwise, Nigeria is not Dubai yet and may not attract investors and visitors in the manner of our expectations.

  • Making the DSO work in Nigeria – By Okoh Aihe

    Making the DSO work in Nigeria – By Okoh Aihe

    The story of the nation’s implementation of the digital switchover (DSO) process  appears convoluted and headed towards an uncomplimentary denouement except urgent steps are taken to refocus the exercise.

    Yes, urgency should form the soul of the implementation process. DSO is not just only about the benefits of the exercise in terms of quality of broadcasting and digital yields (digital dividends – DD) but more of prestige, of the biggest Black Country in the world being able to complete a simple process, show example in tech leadership and answer the name of a big brother which, unfortunately, is eluding us in several circumstances.

    Sanctioned in 2006 by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), at the 2006 ITU Regional Radiocommunication Conference (RRC-06), DSO, which is the transitioning from analogue to digital broadcasting, was projected to end in June 2015 but extended to 2020, two deadlines which some of the ITU Region 1 countries, including Sub-Saharan Africa could hardly meet.

    The countries assented to what is generally known as the Geneva 2006 (GEO6) Agreement, but that was the simplest part of the exercise. Members of the International Radio and Television Union from about 50 countries which met in Yaounde, Cameroon, in September, observed that the exercise has failed in a majority of the countries in the Sub-Region largely because of human, material and financial factors, among others.

    The GSMA has done more in-depth work. In a document titled: Digital Switchover in Sub-Saharan Africa – Bringing Low-Band Connectivity within Reach, the association periscopes the implementation stages of the DSO in selected African countries and concludes that more needs to be done for the various countries to free up needed frequencies for mobile operations for the benefit of their people.

    GSMA is the umbrella body for mobile operators, equipment manufacturers and vendors, tech developers and a host of other organisations involved in the value chain of mobile services provisioning. One is careful to observe that the primary focus was on how the switchover would benefit the telecommunications industry and by extension the people. Industry preservation is not a crime at all. But that would also mean more money for the government and better services for broadcast and telecoms consumers.

    Poster countries for the switchover exercise in Sub-Saharan Africa are: Mauritius, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda which were among the first to switch. These countries surmounted numerous problems but established clear rules of engagement, funding options and implementation timelines which earned them valuable results.

    For good measures, Kenya, after the analogue switch off (ASO) in 2015, had in 2016 and 2017 respectively, successfully reassigned DD1 and DD2 which include frequencies in the 800 MHz and 700MHz bands to mobile operators. The country recouped some generous money, which was a further justification of DSO.

    Nigeria is not listed among the countries doing well in the DSO implementation. And we are not. That also means the country is yet to reap the benefits of a successful migration process. And we need the money!

    There was a Presidential Committee called the Digiteam set up by President Goodluck Jonathan. The team was to work with the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) and the Ministry of Information and Culture for early and easy implementation of the DSO. Under the Buhari administration, the minister instituted a Ministerial Committee which became the arrowhead of the project under the ministry. A source at the NBC confessed to this writer that the ministry took over DSO and the NBC.

    The DSO launch in April 2016 in Jos, Plateau State, came with a lot of promise, pomp and pageantry that ironically did not sound beyond the city of Jos. Since then the exercise has hobbled from one problem to another; unstable leadership at the NBC, lack of funds, near absence of stakeholder engagement and public information on the exercise, absence of proper implementation plan,  strife between the NBC and the parent ministry, and just anything that won’t make such a huge project work. And it has not worked.

    Like many other nations in the Sub-Region, Nigeria had the regulator, a white paper, set up committees, licensed new companies – Pinnacle and ITS owned by NTA/Star Times – as super signal carriers for the broadcast industry, also licensed set top box (STB) manufacturers or distributors, and applied sundry funding options – public and private – for the implementation, just like the rest of the world. But the process became unwieldy, boxed in confusion and controversy and grounded to a halt.

    There was a switch in a couple of states, including Plateau, Kano, Kwara, Lagos, FCT and a few others, perhaps. But not a step further. Presently, the DSO is looking for new impetus, new funding and new vision for resuscitation.

    Mr Charles Ebuebu, the Director General of the NBC may have had a good dose of the DSO challenges already and has promised to do things differently by providing the right leadership. Speaking at Africast in Lagos, Ebuebu declared that the Commission under his watch is committed to the Digital Switchover (DSO) project and will ensure that clear timelines, processes and objectives are set up in order to realise the tremendous opportunities for the economy.

    Words, they say, are cheap. It is our responsibility however to encourage Ebuebu to move beyond words and the frustrations in a big office that castrated those before him. But first the gains.

    The DSO will enable a more fascinating broadcast experience with clearer TV signals and picture quality, and multichannel TV viewing as about 8MHz of space occupied by one analogue TV channel can accommodate as many as 20 digital TV channels. DSO will further expand the TV space by unleashing infinite opportunities for content creators who will have to work extra hard but gainfully to fill up the multi TV channels that will open up.

    But the other big win is that the freed up broadcast spectra, relishingly called digital dividends (DD), will be available for International Mobile Telecommunications (IMT). And the operators love this for obvious reasons. One, the spectrum has the capacity of expansive reach and at good rollout cost and therefore very convenient for service deployment in the rural areas where subscribers will have to pay less. Two, the spectrum assignment means more money for the government who at the same time will have the people provided with needed telecoms services.

    It is a win-win situation. Government benefits. The regulators and industries are happy. And the people savour the joy and plurality of quality services in respective sectors.

    This is the more reason, Ebuebu should act fast and smartly too. An industry source told this writer that the fact that smaller countries in the Sub-Region could complete their switchover within stipulated times, means that Nigeria can also do it. It is no rocket science after all. He was therefore advised to disband legacy committees which have outlived their call and replace them with a very smart committee that is able to deliver results within a year.

    The three primary phases of DSO implementation are as follows: Digital switch – the beginning of digital broadcasting services; Simulcast or Dual Illumination – the coexistence of analogue and digital signals in the broadcast ecosystem; and Analogue Switch-off (ASO) – the final face when analogue signals are switched off.

    The foregoing recognises that all the planning and the hardware deployment would have been done. However, DSO has assumed the status of a myth in Nigeria, an apparition designed to scare away the ordinary minds with a table prepared for illicit beneficiaries of a failed project.

    Unfortunately, too many people have suffered in the value chain. I will want to appeal to the NBC to have a mind for the set top box manufacturers or suppliers. A couple of them have raised a cry that they are in debt for trying to do a service in their country.

    I want to suggest that it is not a shame to engage in peer review mechanisms with some regulators in the Sub-Region that have successfully executed the programme. The only shame is when in a couple of years down the line, we will still be talking about our inability to implement DSO or unable to harvest the digital dividends or enjoy even the rich and multiplicity of quality TV programming arising therefrom.