NBC, DSO AND THE DARA REPORT
The NBC should live up to its regulatory functions, argues Ayo Yakubu
It is intriguing that the industry regulator, National Broadcasting Corporation(NBC) which is charged with monitoring and supervising the broadcast industry in Nigeria has so far maintained a loud silence while the Integrated Television Services (ITS) scandal unfolds. The NBC should have been the first to identify any deviation from set standards and impose the necessary regulatory sanctions to ensure compliance, especially at the critical stage of commencement of the digital switchover. The only conclusion this surprising negligence of duty and aloofness to the exposure of malpractice raised is culpable collusion. This deplorable attitude was responsible for the initial installation of obsolete equipment by ITS as well as the cover-up of the scandal during and after the celebrated launching of the Jos pilot project.
An indication of the culpability of the NBC was given the other day on Channels TV when Armstrong Idachaba, the NBC director specifically charged with the monitoring of broadcasting erased any doubts about the Dara Report findings and the implication that his organisation failed to perform its fundamental duty of monitoring and regulating the very first official roll-out of the DSO in the Jos Pilot Project. Confronted with the Dara Report’s shocking revelation that ITS commenced the implementation of the DSO in Jos by deploying equipment that have been discontinued by the original equipment manufacturer, Mr Idachaba was clueless as he declared the indicted ITS more competent to respond and even offered contact details for Channels TV to “Bring them in and let them explain”. In other words, NBC as the government regulatory agency in broadcasting and the DSO in particular, could neither deny nor confirm that ITS actually rolled out obsolete analogue equipment for the Jos pilot digital switch over project!
The same Mr. Idachaba had earlier bragged that “Jos was a fantastic experience for NBC”, and that “all the theorising and planning we did regarding framework for DSO we had a chance to implement in Jos” and crowed about how the local people in Jos were enjoying digital terrestrial television free of charge on 30 channels. He obviously was not expecting to be asked about the Dara Report and was visibly flustered having to literally eat his own words by admitting also that ITS had not met the 30 channels requirement and had still not covered the entire Plateau State (not even the entire Jos township according to Dara Report), since the fanfare launch in 2015 in violation of the timelines set by the NBC. The NBC cannot feign ignorance of the damning revelation of the Dara Report without admitting deliberate negligence to perform its statutory resonsibility as government regulator of the broadcast industry. Mr. Idachaba’s refusal on national TV to give an honest and transparent response to the Dara Report as NBC’s head of broadcast monitoring is not good enough. By an unexpected turn of events, the NBC has been caught on camera exposing the deliberate derailment of its regulatory role from public interest to the pecuniary interests of a mafia-type cult of government officials intent on a digital swindle operation under the cover of the digital switch over. Against the background of several deliberate failures of NBC to meet set deadlines for the project launch in the last five or more years, the confessional conspiratorial conduct of the regulator in the “pilot” plus the weighty material evidence of the Dara Report should convince the federal government beyond reasonable doubt that corruption will not kill DSO NIGERIA if the culprits can be brought to book.
It is therefore necessary to urge the federal government to revisit and expand the scope of the initial investigation by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission that resulted in the arraignment of the former DG of the NBC. It is quite clear now that it is not only the handling of the contracts for set top box “manufacturers” that was riddled with financial irregularities and violations of due process but also the entire process of implementing the DSO. Indeed even the surreptitious manner by which StarTimes hijacked and proceeded to subjugate its supposed licence holder NTA in the pay TV sector calls for thorough investigation.
The House of Representatives Committee on DSO should take the lead by concluding its investigations and release a report of its findings. Sad it is that the jinx that has bedevilled our DSO since 2014 remains a cog in the wheel of progress in 2017. Now that we know where the problem comes from, we stand a better chance of eliminating it once and for all.