Fear grips television, radio stations as NBC revokes broadcast licences

The headquarters of the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) was besieged Thursday by some representatives of many television and radio stations who were there to find out the status of their broadcast licences. On Monday, the NBC announced that it had revoked 54 broadcast licences for their failure to pay the required fees.  Mallam Is’haq Modibbo […]

The headquarters of the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) was besieged Thursday by some representatives of many television and radio stations who were there to find out the status of their broadcast licences.

On Monday, the NBC announced that it had revoked 54 broadcast licences for their failure to pay the required fees. 

Mallam Is’haq Modibbo Kawu, the commission’s director-general told journalists at a press conference in Abuja that some of them got the licences but failed to pay within the 60-day stipulated window.  He also said about 120 companies which got and paid for the licences but failed to go on air in the last two years would soon have their licences withdrawn. 

An NBC act empowers the commission to revoke any broadcast licence not put to use two years after it was issued. 

“Frequencies cannot be held indefinitely by individuals. We are delighted that Nigerians are investing in setting up radio and television stations. They create jobs, open up access for content producers to showcase talents, and are contributing to national development. But no one has a right to hold on to allocated frequencies indefinitely when the resource itself is finite and there are other people waiting and ready to make use of those frequencies,’’ Mallam Kawu said.

He said although the NBC understood that these are difficult economic times in our country, “that cannot be a justification for not meeting lawful obligations.’’

He said some of the licence fees were due even before the economy entered recession. It means they had refused to do the right thing, even in a period of economic normalcy, he added.

Daily Trust on Sunday learnt in Abuja Thursday that most of the licences revoked were the ones hurriedly issued to cronies of the immediate past government.

Our reporter learnt that among others, a former petroleum minister, a powerful politician in the South-West and a publisher of an Abuja-based newspaper, also lost their licences.

Former President Goodluck Jonathan awarded 72 licences for radio and television broadcasting to some of his political associates and friends few weeks before the end of his administration.

Our findings on the allocation list showed that key members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) such as Chief Bode George, an Ibadan-born industrialist, and chairman of the finance committee of the Goodluck Jonathan Campaign Organisation, Otunba Funso Lawal, an oil mogul and a friend to the former president, Chief Emeka Offor, among others, were among those who got the licences.

Others are the former national chairman of the PDP, Chief Barnabas Gemade, national coordinator of the Transformation Ambassadors of Nigeria (TAN), Patrick Ubah, as well as some former ministers: Olajumoke Akinjide and Labaran Maku, among others.

Daily Trust on Sunday had reported that some of the politicians used unregistered companies to acquire the licenses.

This was against the procedure for obtaining a broadcast licence as stipulated by the National Broadcasting Commission Act No. 38 of 1992 (as amended).

Meanwhile, the NBC spokesperson, Hajiya Maimuna Jimada, told Daily Trust on Sunday that some of the stations which owed the commission licence renewal fees had started paying. She said the extended payment timeline for all debtor television and radio stations remained March 31.

Many private and government-owned broadcast media companies owe the NBC N5 billion as licence renewal fees, according to the commission. 

The NBC director-general had said on Monday that if the defaulting stations failed to pay by March 31, they would be closed down by April 1. 

“At our stakeholders’ conference with broadcast organisations I had informed stations of a persistent pattern of refusal to pay licence fees. Stations around Nigeria owe the NBC over N5 billion.  

“Licence fees are in arrears. There is no plan by many of these stations to pay, while some even have the temerity to write the NBC, the regulatory institution, stating that the amount they were obliged to pay was too much. Consequently, they told us how much they were willing to pay, and even added the time they would pay such sums. 

“In truth, a pattern of gross indiscipline and misbehaviour has been central to the relationship many of the licencees had established in the past with the NBC,’’ he said.

He also disclosed that stations would henceforth be required to turn in their annual reports for the NBC to carry out the obligatory assessment of what constitutes a percentage of the annual turnover they are also obliged to pay the commission.

He said many stations had failed to give a six-month prior information to the commission before the expiration of their licences, adding that same stations had also failed to signify their  intention to continue as licencees or otherwise. 

“Our licencees carry on as if they had their licences for keeps and the NBC cannot withdraw them. It is important to remind us that all licences are provisional, no matter how long you have held them,” he said.

But the chairman of the Broadcasting Organisation of Nigeria (BON), Mr. John Momoh, pleaded for more time for the members to renew their licences because broadcast stations “are going through hard times.” 

Momoh said radio and television stations were increasingly finding it very difficult to pay salaries of staff members and maintain their stations because of the rising cost of operation. He called on the NBC to stop over-issuing broadcast licences because the market is almost oversaturated.

The NBC also warned stations against illegal and rampant use of transmission power. 

Mallam Kawu further said radio stations procured transmitters without respecting the stipulated and recommended power in city-based FM stations. The consequence of this, he said, was frequency clashes occurring all over Nigeria. 

According to him, the NBC has compiled a total of 69 stations around Nigeria that have installed transmitters beyond the transmitter power stipulated in their licences, “and that is not even exhaustive.” 

He said, “A top Nigerian politician who was given a licence installed a 10KW transmitter; began transmission even before the NBC gave him the permission. And when NBC engineers went to inspect his facilities, he sent his thugs to chase away. 

“Let me make some points clear here. Henceforth, no broadcaster would be allowed to import a transmitter beyond the power allotted in the licences issued.”

The NBC boss also warned stations who are yet to install aviation warning lights on their masts to do so before March31.

“We have also seen that there are stations that have refused to install off-air recording facilities. We all know that this is also an imperative. The NBC monitoring officers around Nigeria will check every station to ensure compliance. These must be in place latest by March 31, 2017. Thereafter, all stations that have not installed these recording facilities would be closed down,” he said.

About 146 radio stations now dot all six geopolitical zones of Nigeria; more than half of them in Lagos axis and Abuja.

There are also a number of community radio stations across the country. The number of community radio stations licenced to operate in the various communities in the country is 17, according to the National Broadcasting Commission.

The NBC said community radio was a key ingredient in the democratic process in Nigeria as the third tier of broadcasting closest to the people. It is expected to fill the gap of accessibility to radio to rural communities.

But the community radio should not be for profit; rather, they should fill the void left by commercial broadcasting, the NBC said, adding, “They should foster a lot more of civic responsibility amongst the people. We hope community radio would help develop unity and cooperation among Nigerians.”