The National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) has held a meeting with owners of stations at the Lagos Sheraton Hotel, Ikeja, over the huge debts they are owing the NBC. Assistant Editor Arts OZOLUA UHAKHEME reports.
National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) Director-General Mallam Is’haq Modibo Kawu is angry with owners of radio and television stations over the huge debts they owe the commission.
At a meeting with the stations’ owners at the Lagos Sheraton Hotel, Ikeja, Kawu said: “One and a half years after, licencees have continued to owe the NBC over N4.2 billion. The consequence is a near paralysis of the operations of the commission. The NBC carries out its statutory functions on the basis of the obligatory licence fees that broadcasters pay. But the pattern is refusal on the part of licencees to pay, and in some cases, a few arrogantly tell us they cannot pay, because the sums are too high; or they claim that the business environment is not good enough, so NBC should accept whatever they choose to pay!”
At the meeting were members of the newly inaugurated board of the commission, such as Alhaji Ikra Aliyu Bilbis (Chairman), Mallam Nasir Danladi Bako and Salihu Bandele Aluko. Licencees from the academia, public and private sectors such as Prof Raph Akinfeleye (Unilag), Prof. Oladokun Omojola Covenant University), Tony Akiotu (Daar Communication), Olutayo Somide (Faaji FM), Abbas Dalhatu (Freedom FM, Kano) and Oyebisi Ashimolowo (Splash FM, Ibadan) among others were in attendance.
The battle to retrieve the debts has been long, according to the commission. But, there is unwillingness by the stations to redeem their debts. Kawu described refusal to meet their licensing obligation as persistent.
The meeting, a follow-up to last year’s gathering on February 27, provided an opportunity for stakeholders to discuss payment plans before the September 15 dealine. For over one hour, speakers painted gloomy pictures of the industry and their inability to pay their licence renewal fees. Their excuses ranged from huge overhead cost to low returns, low patronage from advertisers, shrinking listeners and stiff competition from major broadcast outfits, including foreign stations, such as the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) and Voice of America (VOA).
Interestingly, none of the speakers offered possible options on how to redeem their debts until Prof Oladokun Omojola of Covenant University, Ota, Ogun State stirred the hornets’ nest. He challenged the stations to make effective use of marketing research to drive their programming. According to Omojola, with a dynamic marketing backed by research on target audience, stations will have no business complaining of paucity of funds. This, however, drew the ire of many speakers.
Unimpressed by licencees’ excuses, the commission declared that no persuasion would change the deadline for the repayment, adding that failure would amount to removing debtor stations off air.
Kawu, who disclosed that N4.368 billion was being owed the commission by some stations for licence renewal fees, advised defaulting stations to work out repayment plans as the commission will keep to the September 15 deadline for payment of renewal of licence fees.
He stressed that such stations must show commitment to paying before the 2019 elections, otherwise the commission would take them out before the election’s adverts start coming in. “The payment plan between now and September 15 will not change. There must be undertakings by the stations,” he said.
“Licence fee is a mandatory fee you must pay for you to operate the business of broadcasting. And I cannot do anything about it. I am not a supporter of capitalist business, but in business there are no emotions. I don’t enforce emotions. I enforce the laws. You get fined if you violate the commission’s code. On a quarterly basis we bring out report on this. I deal with objective reality, which is that you owed the NBC. And you must pay. The obligation to pay has nothing to do with the profit you made. People confuse the two, they are not the same,” he said.
He described licence fess as basic, obligatory and non-negotiable, noting that the plea that the economy was in a bad shape was unacceptable.
Referring to his statement last year, Kawu said: “The first is the situation whereby many stations have refused to pay their licence fees; even the statutory act of informing the NBC, six months before the expiration of license and signifying intention to continue as a licencee is ignored. Our licencees carry on, as if they have their licences for keeps and the NBC cannot withdraw the licences.
“It is important to remind us all that all licences are PROVISIONAL, no matter how long you have held them. And for emphasis, I want to let you know that stations are owing over N5billion as licence fees. I will like to use this medium to inform you, that the NBC would be invoking the relevant laws against erring stations. Consequently, stations without exception, are expected to complete all payments owed to the Commission by the 15th of March, 2017.”
He recalled that, in the past, some licencees exploited their political connections and got the Presidency to lean on the NBC, to look the other way, while they operated as if they had veto power over the regulator.
“As Director-General of the National Broadcasting Commission, I will have to own up to the fact that there was a historic pattern of relationship between regulator and licencee, which was based upon a notion of “nurturing” their stations. This was at the beginning of a deregulated broadcasting industry, when there were just a few private operators in the business. So, a notion emerged, that they should be “nurtured” and not allowed to go down under.
“So, a rigorous regime of licence fee payment was not enforced. That approach might have had an altruistic motive, but was immediately seen as a point of weakness by licencees, who then began to proffer all manner of excuses, as to why they cannot pay their obligatory licence fees, either on time, or in many cases, at all,” he said.
Kawu noted: “We cannot have anarchy in a business environment like broadcasting. There is no obligation to go into a business if you cannot afford to do it.”
On unused licences, he said it is not what any investor should laminate and keep in his wardrobe.
He warned broadcasting stations to desist from using foul languages to create disharmony and tension among Nigerians, saying NBC will not hesitate to sanction any station that uses broadcasting to destabilise the country.
On the closure of Ekiti Radio, he said the station was shut for violating the commission’s code, particularly for allowing the government to announce election results instead of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), the authorised agency.
“You will recall that in 1983, it was the announcement of election results not by the lawful authority that led to the mayhem in that part of the country. We saw that there was going to be a likely repeat of such scenario, so we forestalled it,” he said.
He however assured that the commission was working hard to reopen the station after it agrees to obey the NBC code. “It must meet all its obligations under the NBC code and give us an undertaking that it will respect the NBC code and pay all money it owes the commission. When that is done, certainly we would allow them to go back on air,” he added.
On the purported NBC’s banning of the music by a young Nigerian musician, Falz, Kawu said what NBC frowned was the line: ‘This is Nigeria… we are all criminals.’ Unfortunately, Falz’s father Femi Falana (SAN) is not a criminal and he is one of my closest friends. So, if you generalise, we cannot afford to have such on our airwaves. In fact, we do not ban songs; what we do is issue to our licencees songs that must not be broadcast because of the lyrics or videos.
The commission’s former DG, Mallam Nasir Danaladi Bako stressed that some stations owed the commission. He said NBC will not take responsibility for “you after taking licence to employ a chemical engineer to run your station because he is your in-law and you can’t make money”. He challenged the stations to improve and review their contents to attract quality advertisers.
“Go and wake up and do your homework. Put on your thinking cap and improve your contents,” he said.