In 2019, broadcasting for public good

Dear Editor, please permit me space in your widely-read publication. After 26 years, it must be a high definition reassurance of the necessity of its regulatory functions that its 4th Annual Lecture ended with a consensus among a hall-full gathering of stakeholders and participants, not just applauding the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) but urging it to bare its teeth and bite harder into the ranks of violators of the broadcasting code, particularly those who fan embers of ethno-cultural and religious antagonism and intolerance. It was also most appropriate as an agenda -setting antidote against escalating political tension heralding the potentially-volatile 2019 general elections that NBC adopted ‘Broadcasting And Nigeria’s Ethno-Cultural And Religious Divide: Bridging The Gap’ as the this year’s focus.

The establishment of the NBC was a strategic component of the liberalization of the broadcast media as part of the enabling factors for a thriving democratic dispensation, a major policy shift from exclusive government ownership which was alien to the print media throughout the colonial and military eras. Though the pen is mightier than the sword, the emergence of broadcasting presented an even more hazardous threat to democracy on account of its vastly faster and wider coverage, throwing up greater challenges of gate-keeping, monitoring and sanctioning.

Fortunately, the professional calibre of the NBC Director-General as a veteran broadcaster and former newspaper editor has proven potent in giving the regulator the required expertise and experience to transmit corrective signals and silence loose tongues in accordance with the letter and spirit of the Nigerian broadcasting code that “broadcasting shall influence society positively, setting the agenda for the social, cultural, economic, political and technological development of (the) nation, for the public good”. He assertively set the stage in his opening remarks by emphasizing that “the broadcast media belongs to all of us, it is not one for abuses and hateful speech” as a restraining reference to the tendency of broadcasting to reflect and convey deep emotions associated with our ethnocultural and religious disparities as well as the “imperative for broadcasting to be a bridge-building industry”.

The unavoidable grumbling of some “free media” zealots, eager to find fault rather than see reason in the clear and present basis for NBC’s doctrine of necessity amid incessant outbursts of hate speech and related threats to peaceful co-existence were convincingly dismissed by the well-researched and eloquently in the lecture, delivered former Foreign Minister, Ambassador to the UN and former UN Under-Secretary General, now founder Savannah Centre For Diplomacy, Democracy And Development (SCDDD), Abuja, Professor Ibrahim Gambari.

The professor pointedly advocated “new messages of national solidarity and strength in our diversity should be escalated to counter the dubious narratives of ethno-cultural and religious divide being perpetrated especially by politicians close to national election times in order to continue to divide and rule the country”, thereby fortifying the role and determination of the NBC to bark louder and bite harder against abuse of our broadcast frequencies to spread hate and provoke disturbances. At a point in the general discussion on the indispensability of regulating broadcasts, there were strong suggestions for more effective measures such as electronic jamming of offensive broadcasts and the establishment of tribunals to dispense deterrent penalties.

These other factors notwithstanding however, the NBC annual lecture succeeded in drawing timely attention to the double-edged derivatives of broadcasting as well as the necessity of NBC remaining a vigilant and effective regulatory institution to minimize if not eliminate destabilizing collateral impact of rogue broadcasters. It was alarming to hear that even in the insurgencyinfested north east of the country some private radio stations had been recently sanctioned for broadcasting extremely provocative religious content.

The urgency of reviewing the prequalifications for obtaining a broadcast license as part of the on-going review of the NBC Act and the broadcasting code being vigorously carried out in response to emerging challenges by the NBC must be reinforced by the drafting of a longoverdue mass communication policy as advocated during the agenda-setting 2018 Annual Lecture of the National Broadcasting Commission. A stitch in time will certainly mend the tear in the fabric of broadcasting for public good by sharpening the teeth of NBC’s bite! Labar is a retired broadcaster, based in Maiduguri.