NBC: In search of regulatory integrity

By Braeyi Ekiyi Tony Iredia, former Director-General of the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA), and one-time spokesperson of INEC, now a professor, came hard on the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC)  on Monday,  July 10,  2022). Incensed by what he thought was the government’s overbearing influence on the commission’s management on the discharge of her regulatory functions, […]

By Braeyi Ekiyi

Tony Iredia, former Director-General of the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA), and one-time spokesperson of INEC, now a professor, came hard on the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC)  on Monday,  July 10,  2022).

Incensed by what he thought was the government’s overbearing influence on the commission’s management on the discharge of her regulatory functions, Iredia came clean on his disgust for the establishment during a primetime interview on ARISE TV morning show.   

The National Broadcasting Commission was established with the objectives of promoting fair, efficient and effective competition and  regulating the acquisition and sharing of content rights in the broadcast industry.

The said contentious articles in the amended 6th edition of the NBC Code, which especially examines the relevant provisions of the Code on the subject matters of exclusivity, compulsory sub-licensing, sports rights and the constitutional concerns have raised the current fierce criticism of the commission from both broadcast practitioners and others in related fields.

Iredia sees these amended provisions in the NBC Code as gagging or strangulating media practitioners.

Prof. Iredia, therefore, called for the self-regulation of the media in Nigeria. According to Iredia, with self-regulation, media practitioners would be offered the opportunity to grow in the industry and in the process, formulate guidelines and principles and regulations that would be best suited to the media in line with their professional ethics and laws.

The current battle of supremacy between the NBC and the Broadcast Media operators reminds one of the show of strength and authority between the military regime and the Newspaper Proprietors Association of Nigeria (NPAN) in 1978 during General Olusegun Obasanjo’s supreme leadership as military Head of State.

Speaking to supreme power on the then offensive Press Council Decree at its general annual meeting in Kaduna on the 14th of September, 1978, the Chairman of NPAN, late Lateef Jakande had knocked the then Press Council Decree for its ill-conceived mission to administer penalties to defaulters of the obnoxious Decree.

Jakande had said a Press Council is not, and should not be a disciplinary Council but to provide a complaints forum for the general public so as to check any abuse by the press, which may be actionable in a court of law or in which the offender may be willing or unable to take to court.

Jakande stated that the disciplinary council for any profession is a purely professional body, which is established to discipline members of the profession concerned and does not include members of the other professions.

Happily, these offensive articles or clauses in the amended 6th edition of the NBC Code of Conduct have since been challenged by Femi Davies, an actor, in a Federal High Court in Lagos. The trial judge held that the Nigerian Broadcasting Commission lacks the power to prohibit exclusivity on privately acquired intellectual property right in programme contents of a right holder.

The court also set aside the proposed amendment to the 6th edition of the NBC Code for being ultra vires, incompetent, null and void, and perpetually restrained the commission from implementing the said amended Code.

The NBC Act empowers the commission to work with the industry to produce a Nigerian Broadcasting Code of Conduct that would guide operators in the broadcast industry. From recent developments, it is clear that the lack of consultation with its constituents and the unpardonable unilateral manner with which the NBC has carried out its regulatory functions leaves much to be desired. It is commonplace that the amended 6th edition of the Code virtually made it impossible for people to transact good business in broadcasting or for a broadcaster to source for premium content to boost market opportunities—a compelling imperative for the financial, economic and infrastructural transformation of broadcast industry operators.

That even the former board, headed by Alhaji Ika Aliyu Bilbis rejected the version of the 6th Code on the grounds that it contained amendments that the board was unaware of, to say the least, is unfortunate. The Bilbis Board declared the Code presented by the minister of information as unfit in the regulation of broadcasting in the country.

Bilbis further stated that the NBC Code had been publicly presented in 2019 in Kano without those amendments and alleged that the minister unilaterally implemented a review without consulting relevant stakeholders.

Meanwhile, a new board has been inaugurated by the Minister of Information, Lai Mohammed in April 2022.

The new board certainly has a herculean task in reconstructing a largely discredited commission whose regulatory capacity has been seriously challenged in very unsavoury terms. The board, observers hope, would stand up tall and accountable to the commission and not to the government in the discharge of her functions.

The commission should be conscious of its integrity deficit. In this regard, it is advisable that the independence of the commission should not be sacrificed on the altar of government’s undue control of its regulatory functions. That would guarantee the effective performance of its function as a regulatory body. That is the sure way for NBC’s regulatory capacity and power to dispense or communicate its functions as a regulatory body to the broadcast industry.

The NBC to my mind, needs to start working towards building trust between her and the local broadcast industry operators with a view to enhancing a symbiotic working relationship that will be mutually beneficial to both parties, and for better service delivery to the various viewing and listening broadcast publics.

The times, therefore, call for the placement of sound professionals in the commanding heights of the National Broadcasting Commission, including its board, saddled with the onerous regulatory function of monitoring the broadcast industry to achieve professional integrity and excellence. Government, in collaboration with stakeholders in the industry should work to avoid the embarrassment and humiliation the NBC had suffered in recent times, for its lack of inclusivity, consultation and regard to due process.

Ekiye, Publisher of EnviromentWatch writes from Yenagoa [email protected]