Connect with us

Business

NBC accused of using hostile tactics to recover media debts

Published

on

NBC DG, Bello Shehu Ilelah ban 52 stations in Nigeria

The National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) has come under fire from the president of the Nigeria Labour Congress, Ayuba Wabba, for imposing sanctions on a number of particular radio and TV stations, claiming that doing so could lead to press emascu­lation.

Wabba claimed that the NLC learned of the license cancellations of 52 media outlets, including electronic television and radio companies, with shock.

He called the NBC’s explanations for why the affected media outlets didn’t pay for their license renewal “draconian.”

“While we understand that the NBC has a regulatory duty to ensure rules keeping, we believe that the action taken by the NBC is a little too dras­tic, dramatic, draconian, and debilitating not only for the affected media houses but also for their staff and indeed mil­lions of Nigerians who follow programmes from the affected media houses.

Advertisement

“The first natural instinct to the withdrawal of the op­erating license by the NBC is the idea that the affected me­dia houses did not deliberately avoid paying for their operating licences. Such would be akin to cutting so close to the bone.

“The most palpable reason for the failure of many of the media houses to pay for the renewal of their operating licences could be easily found in the deteriorating economic conditions in Nigeria.

“This is understandable giv­en the severe stress and strain that businesses in Nigeria have been subjected to owing to fall­out of the COVID-19 lockdown in 2020, the ongoing disruption in global and domestic energy supply, the foreign exchange volatilities, and the associated hyper-inflation,” Wabba stated.

He pointed out that many media outlets, like the majority of businesses in Nigeria, face the dual threats of rising operating expenses and declining sales.

He claims that the government is largely to responsible for this sorry state of affairs because of its mishandling of the economy, which has caused the price of a litre of diesel to nearly reach N1,000.

Advertisement

The problem is made worse by the intermittent national grid collapse and the epileptic supply of electricity that has been occurring recently.

According to him, there are also salaries to be paid, maintenance services to be provided, and various other basic operating costs in addition to the skyrocketing and frighteningly rising energy costs, which hit electronic media houses hardest given that they must always be on air whether it makes economic sense or not.

He stated further, “Amidst these operational suffoca­tions, how does the NBC expect the media houses to generate the money to renew their operating licences? In­deed, Nigeria’s media houses should be eulogised for re­silience, and tenacity in the face of prevailing economic blizzards.

“The action of the NBC also smacks of insensitivity to the welfare of the staff of the me­dia houses which operations are being shut down.

It is un­thinkable that in the middle of very traumatic economic realities, government would be thinking of flinging many Nigerians into the unemploy­ment market. Well, this is not new.

Advertisement

“A few days ago, the Nige­ria Governors’ Forum made a case for the mass sack of Nigerians in government em­ployment.

The unsolicited ad­vice which had been robustly deflated by the NLC reveals a very embarrassing underbelly in the thinking of those com­manding the reins of power in Nigeria today- crass insen­sitivity. This is very sad and unfortunate.

“In defence of the media, democratic and economic rights of Nigerians, we call on the NBC to rescind this deci­sion to withdraw the operat­ing licences of the affected 53 media houses.

In light of our foregoing concerns, we urge that the media operating li­cence be reviewed downwards as information dissemination is a social service.

“Albeit, we just received with some relief new reasoning by the NBC to allow the affected media houses to continue to operate. This is commendable.

Advertisement

Yet, our concerns conveyed in the foregoing subsist”.
Remember that in addition to the backlash that the NBC move has received, the Federal Government has been sued by the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) and the Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE) to stop the action.

 

 

 

Advertisement

 

 

IndepedentNG

Advertisement
Advertisement
Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Copyright © 2015 - 2024 ChronicleNG

Discover more from Chronicle.ng

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading