L-R: Dr Akingbola, Facilitator, Dr Akingulu, Executive Director of IMS, third from left, Dr Qassim and other participants at the public unveiling of the publication in Ikeja, Lagos.
Against the backdrop of the Federal Government’s move to re-organize the National Broadcasting Commission, NBC, for better service delivery, a foremost media group in the county, the Institute for Media and Society, IMS, has publicly unveiled a publication containing stakeholders’ robust proposals that would assist the government in accomplishing its mission.
Titled “Towards The Review of the National Broadcasting Commission, NBC, Act, Nigeria: Proposals of Stakeholders, the publication which was unveiled by the Lagos Nigeria Union of Journalists, NUJ, Chairman, Dr. Qassim Akinreti at a gathering of media stakeholders in Lagos, recently.
Akinreti hailed hailed it as timely and disclosed that with the publication the union would be in a better position to engage the Commission’s management in their scheduled meeting next month.
Earlier, Dr Akin Akingulu, Executive Director of IMS, explained that it was in the course of “ implementing the Support To The Media component of the EU Support to Democratic Governance since late 2017… through four outcome pillars; enhanced professionalism of media professionals; strengthening and deepening delivery of civic and voter education; strengthened capacity of the regulatory code to perform its mandate and improved engagement in promoting women, youths persons with disabilities and other marginalized groups in the electoral process and politics in general”, that the organization initiated the publication, following “a process which seeks to review the broadcasting regulator.”
He further stated that the conversations and proposals of the stakeholders had a specific objective; independence of the NBC.
Giving a pip into the proposals on the broadcast regulators’ independence, he listed seven features, namely, the need for the NBC to be a full legal entity protected from political and economic pressures and interests and need to grant the Commission full regulatory powers. Others are exclusion of representatives of the Ministry of Information and the Department of State Services, DSS, from membership of the governing board which should be appointed alongside its D-G by the President upon consultation with groups they represent and the Senate; Ministerial involvement where necessary should be tailored to formulating, monitoring, regulating the general policy of broadcasting sector in Nigeria, regulating and implementing international broadcasting-related treaties and agreements on behalf of Nigeria and notifying the Commission in writing form time to time on the general policy direction of the Federal Government in respect of the broadcasting sector and ensure the independence of the Commission is protected at all times..
Other areas in the proposal deal with licensing function of the Commission, viz:
The regular publication of its licensing process, specifying persons who are eligible to apply for licenses; within 30 days of receiving the application for licence, provide written information for applicants on the status of their application; ensure that the revocation of license is done through a transparent process with clearly stated criteria that are publicly available, and without pressure from any other authority and provide space for appeal of regulatory decisions, through the establishment of a high-level appeals committee, whose decisions should be subject to judicial review.
Another area in the proposal, according to Akingbulu, deals with the public accountability;
Under the proposal, the following suggestion are captured
The Commission to prepare annual reports of its activities and submit to the President and through the President to the National Assembly; prepare and publish to the public periodic reports during each year in the status of licences granted, renewed or sanctioned, performance of licences and industry developments, quality of services, and the availability and adequacy of services in all parts of the country. Others are that the funding stream of the Commission from government appropriation should be through direct budgeting allocation from the consolidated fund rather than from the share of nthe budget of the Ministry of Information and that the powers granted in the Act for the Commission to collect radio and TV licence fee should be activated, and Section 1 (b) of the fourth Schedule of the Constitution which empowers local governments to collect the fees should be removed or amended to enable BNC exercise this power.
Concluding, Akingbulu said the plan to have the law reviewed would start with wide dissemination of the publication, engagement with government agencies, civil society groups leading to legislative activity at the National Assembly.
Dr Akingbulu, standing, to his left, Mr Arogundade, IPC, Director, Dr Akinreti and other guests
Before the unveiling of the book, the gathering had taken part in a roundtable, themed, “The media in the progressive refinement of Nigeria’s Electoral Processes”, Chaired by Mr Lanre Arogundade, Director of International Press Center, IPC and facilitated by Dr. Tunde Adegbola of the African Languages Technology Initiatives.
Adegbola urged to media in Nigeria to take comfort in the fact that they are assisting to build a democratic culture and not necessarily as an immediate corrective measure of what they see as inappropriate in governance.
“The job of the media is to play a role in building a democratic culture. Democracy is a process not a destination in which certain social imperatives are continuously and continually being engaged,” he said, adding that democracy in Nigeria is a work in progress. “The question is how much progress are we making. Democracy is constantly moving, so we should also refocus on our vision.”
Participants, after an exhaustive discussion, agreed that the media was best suited for the role suggested by the facilitator and identified the professional and environmental challenges that needed to be overcome with creativity and imagination to fulfill the mission.
