NBC is asleep

Its mandate also extends to (a) advising the federal government on the implementation of the National Mass Communication Policy, with particular reference to broadcasting; (b) receiving, processing and considering applications for establishment, ownership or operation of radio and television stations, including cable television services, direct satellite broadcast and any other medium of broadcasting; (ii) radio […]

Its mandate also extends to (a) advising the federal government on the implementation of the National Mass Communication Policy, with particular reference to broadcasting; (b) receiving, processing and considering applications for establishment, ownership or operation of radio and television stations, including cable television services, direct satellite broadcast and any other medium of broadcasting; (ii) radio and television stations owned established or operated by the federal state and local government; (iii) and stations run under private ownership.
Since the return to civil rule, there has been exponential expansion in the number of the broadcast medium in the country. Unfortunately, regulation has not kept pace with the multiplicity of broadcasting outlets. The absence of effective monitoring has led to a disturbing decline in what should be good taste in the programming content of some the broadcast stations.
That conclusion is clear in the manner they handle partisan political materials packaged for public broadcast.
In the competition to sway public opinion to their cause or against their opponents, the political parties have resorted to distortions and even outright falsehoods.
That wouldn’t be a problem if the platforms were to be at political rallies. But to pass false, and sometimes ethnically or religiously sensitive and emotive materials through publically licensed radio, television or cable TV outlets is the height of irresponsibility, even if in the heat of a political campaign season.
The public broadcaster Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) appeared to have thrown caution to the wind in its swallowing hook, line and sinker political materials brought to it by the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and agents linked to it, without fear of being sanctioned by the NBC.
Both the privately-owned Africa Independent Television (AIT) and the NTA both screened a contentious documentary recently about General Muhammadu Buhari, the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) that was replete with distortions of religious facts, as if they were intended to drive a wedge among Nigerian citizens along ethnic and religious lines.
Although there were numerous historical inaccuracies in the documentary , it is the religious and ethnic cards that should not have passed muster of the editorial gatekeepers of the stations. That they failed to do this should have attracted the attention and sanction of the regulator, the NBC. It did not either.
This is why the call by the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NCSIA) that the NBC should take ‘urgent action’ against offensive television advertisements is timely and appropriate. The Council said that such materials were capable of ‘sending dangerous signals of religious crises’.
In a statement signed by its secretary general, Professor Ishaq Oloyede, the NCSIA noted that it was ‘scary’ that such an advert was allowed to be aired on a federal government-owned station, despite the provocative content.
There has been a trend in recent years in which public institutions, which by their mandate should be impartial and accessible to all parties, have reduced their roles to being appendages of the ruling party. The NBC has dangerously fallen into this category.
If it cannot sanction the government’s media for flagrant violations of their public charters and the NBC regulation, it would have no moral ground to bring other culprits to account.
The NSCIA’s focus for its complaint was a promotional advertisement sponsored by a group known as ‘Initiative for Peaceful Elections’ on behalf of the PDP which it said maligned Islam and portrayed Nigerian Moslems in unflattering light.
This issue is serious enough for the NBC to wake up from its slumber and inquire into how lax controls at these stations led to this wanton breach of the rules.