Like a scene from a blockbuster movie, Nigeria’s broadcast regulator, the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC), announced to a wearied nation last Friday, August 19, 2022, its decision to revoke the operating licences of 52 broadcast organisations in the country. Their cardinal sin, it seemed, was their failure to pay their licence renewal fees, which had remained unpaid for some time. If they failed to pay, the broadcast organisations would have their operating licences cancelled. The chilling news came down so quickly.
The decision taken by the NBC was melodramatic, high-handed, inconsiderate, insensitive, thoughtless, uncaring, and vicious. The NBC said it had ordered those organisations unable to pay their licence fees off the air effective last Saturday, August 20, 2022.
The NBC cited Section 10(a) of the 3rd Schedule of the National Broadcasting Commission Act, Cap N11, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004, as the ground on which it ordered the closure of the broadcast organisations. That section states that “A licence may be revoked by the Commission in the following cases, that is (a) where the prescribed fee has not been paid on the due date…”
The NBC also explained that the organisations that defaulted the renewal of their licences were given sufficient time to pay their debts as far back as May 2022. It said this followed the publication in national newspapers of the list of broadcasters indebted to the NBC. The broadcast regulator argued it granted the broadcasters two weeks to pay their licence renewal fees.
Although the NBC acted according to the letters of its mandate, the behaviour of the broadcast regulator and the speed with which it reached the decision to take the broadcast stations off air because of their failure to pay their licence renewal fees could be termed an overkill. The punishment did not match the sin. The NBC’s swift decision relates very well to what British playwright William Shakespeare wrote in one of his classic plays about power and how it is abused. In Measure for Measure, Shakespeare wrote: “It is excellent to have a giant’s strength, but it is tyrannous to use it like a giant”.
As the regulator of the broadcast industry in Nigeria, the NBC certainly has the power to shut down any broadcaster that fails to pay its licence renewal fees. But the way the NBC ordered the closure of 52 broadcast organisations because of non-payment of licence fees was rather like squashing a house fly with a sledgehammer in such a violent way as to disrupt or terminate the organisations’ business operations.
Ordering the broadcast organisations to close, even if they owed their licence renewal fees, was not the best way to resolve the problem. Consider the following questions. What would have happened if the organisations refused to pay? What would have happened if the 52 broadcast organisations went off the air? The consequences would be unimaginable. The decision by the NBC was morally and logically unjustifiable, tyrannous, unreasonable, haughty, insensitive, and hard-hearted, particularly as there exist other alternative ways of dealing with the problem. It is difficult to defend such a decision.
The immediate consequence of the NBC decision is that audiences at home and overseas who patronise the services of the broadcast organisations would be denied access to the programmes. While shutting down the broadcast organisations would hurt the senior management of the stations and their ability to earn revenue, the more serious impact would be felt by media audiences. That is why the decision to order the closure of the media organisations must be viewed as brainless and stupefying.
It is true the NBC acted within the letters of the law that set it up, it is not bound to use that power in an abusive or arrogant manner. This is one situation in which the NBC behaved like a headless giant. Common sense should have prevailed, but the NBC executives did not apply good judgment.
Following mediation by the Nigerian branch of the International Press Institute (IPI) a day after the NBC announced its hare-brained resolution, the broadcast regulator said it would hold off the cancellation of the licences of the 52 broadcasters that could not pay their licence renewal fees. But the change of heart would last for only 72 hours. The broadcasters were given till 6pm today, Tuesday, August 23, 2022, to pay their unsettled licence fees or close their operations by 12 midnight tomorrow, Wednesday, August 24, 2022.
The mediation by the Nigerian branch of the IPI would appear to have yielded short-lived outcomes for the 52 broadcast organisations. President of the IPI branch in Nigeria, Musikilu Mojeed, said last Saturday: “We are glad to report that the director-general of NBC, Malam Balarabe Shehu Ilela, has graciously agreed to grant an extension on compassionate ground.”
I do not believe a 72-hour period of grace granted to 52 broadcast organisations to pay their licence renewal fees or face closure could be considered kind-hearted or benevolent. The extra time granted to the broadcasters is simply insufficient and practically impossible for them to find the money to clear their debts.
Logistically, it is unfair to expect major broadcasters to raise finance within three days to pay their licence fees. The NBC cannot claim ignorance of the current economic hardships facing many businesses not only in Nigeria but across the world. The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and its persistence for two years disrupted many businesses. Adverse business environment compelled many organisations to shut down. Many human activities across the globe were either cancelled or postponed indefinitely.
While it is true that the world is gradually opening and returning to normal business activities, it is rather too soon to expect the broadcasters to make profit within months to cover their losses. This is the reality of the world in which we live. And it is this reality that the NBC has ignored.
It is clear the NBC acted before thinking about the implications of its decision to roll out the suspension order. Those implications were outlined in a press release by the Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE) in which it also expressed worry over the NBC decision. The NGE said it “is worried because media houses, which played and continue to play a key role in the nurturing and development of democracy, can’t just be off air, no matter the reasons…While the Guild is not against broadcast stations fulfilling their financial obligations to NBC…the current harsh operating environment that has crippled every sector in our nation was not taken into account by NBC before its action.”
Anyone who is familiar with the modus operandi of the NBC would not have been surprised by the swiftness with which the industry regulator ordered the shutting down of 52 broadcast organisations. Last week’s order was not the first time the NBC had used its powers in an extraordinary, sweeping, and abusive way.
The decision by the NBC has raised serious questions about the relationship between private media organisations and the Nigerian state, how journalists should operate and the freedom of the media to carry out their role in society. Broadcast media organisations that are constrained by government laws are not free. It is hard to see how private broadcasters in Nigeria can contribute to the growth of democracy in an environment in which they have to constantly look over their shoulders to navigate imperious laws that govern their operations in the country.
If private broadcasters are restricted overtly and covertly from performing their official roles through vexatious laws, democracy would be imperilled and our society would be the loser.
The NBC is a bully that acts in ways that suggest it is a Leviathan that threatens private media organisations in Nigeria.