relentless efforts to force the Commission to rescind its decision to stop
renewal of the broadcast licenses of GoTV on different terms from the past
years, as part of the implementation of the Federal Government Digital
Switch Over (DSO) policy by the Commission.
The NBC had early in 2018 issued a warning notifying all DTT pay
television service providers in Nigeria that their operating licenses will
be reviewed in the year 2019.
The relationship between NBC and GoTV has been the subject of agitated
interest among stakeholders in the DSO and the broadcast sector in general
following the barely concealed resistance to the June 2019 deadline for
GoTV to comply with the policy of the Federal Government on the DSO and
channel the carriage of its content through any of the licensed signal
distribution hubs of the DSO.
The unsolicited deposit of N2 billion into NBC’s account by GoTV some
months ago raised eyebrows as it was seen as ploy to circumvent the
proposed change in the license terms of GoTV. The belief was that a
cash-strapped NBC could not refuse the funds. However, NBC Chairman, Ikra
Bilbis reportedly ordered the return of the money to GoTV with a stern
warning to GOtv to abide by the NBC’s earlier notice, emphasising that
there would be no waiver or exemption.
While some stakeholders in the broadcasting industry were commending the
NBC Chairman, the South African owned GoTV were undeterred in their
determination to evade NBC’s DSO implementation agenda by other means.
These took the form of commissioning several petitions against the NBC and
the DG with particular interest in smearing the implementation of the DSO
with trumped up allegations.
Not done with petitions, GoTV along with some unscrupulous, selfish and
unpatriotic Nigerians in the NBC and the House of Reps to cause a change
to the laws of Nigeria to favor the position of GoTV that the DSO be
jettisoned. The refusal of the Presidency to assent to the Bill dealt a
huge blow to their aspirations.
Sources also revealed that a major anti graft agency was not amenable to
the ulterior motives of the sponsored petitions especially as all the
stages of implementation of the DSO since 2014 were found to have met the
requirements of due process and all payments approvals in line with the
directives of the Federal Executive Council.
It was therefore surprising to many stakeholders that another sister anti
graft body (name withheld for now) took up the misinformed allegations in
one of the petitions. The inclusion of numerous factual errors and wrong
identification of the NBC and the objective of the DSO in their now famous
press release issued in November 2018 ostensibly show-casing the
anti-corruption agency’s feat, triggered public outrage and raised serious
doubts as to the genuineness of the purported investigations and motives.
Sources close to the anti graft body’s management revealed that the fiasco
over the NBC/DSO investigation was “embarrassing” as it exposed them to
public ridicule over the numerous errors that could not have been the
outcome of proper investigation but the decision to take the matter to
court to freeze accounts and arraign NBC and Pinnacle Communications
Limited executives had been fast-tracked prior to the fiasco.
An indication of the credibility of the petition-based action of agency
was the unfreezing of the accounts of Pinnacle Communications Limited
after it sued the said agency before an Abuja Federal High Court presided
by Justice Dimgba who berated them for taking action against the company
without thorough investigation or justification.
Expectations that the inauguration of a new board for the anti graft
organization, which had been operating without a board and under an acting
chairman, would lead to a review of the whole investigation proved
misleading as the Executive Chairman appears to have ignored all
entreaties to review the investigative processes. The suspicion is that
the Executive Chairman may have been inadvertently dragged into the Gotv
plot due to his alleged affinity with a top official in government. The
top official, who is said to wield a lot of influence in directing the
anti graft agency , shares the sentiments of GoTV to the detriment of the
interest of the Government of Nigeria.
Meanwhile, there are also allegations that part of the N2 Billion GoTV
money rejected by NBC is said to have found its way into private pockets
of some of the agency’s operatives. These operatives are said to have
sworn to destroy the patriotic zeal of the NBC DG and the world class
delivery of Pinnacle Communications Limited, who received only partial
payment well after six months of excellent delivery of the Abuja project
by the President through the Vice President and six months before the
Kaduna delivery commissioned by the Governor of Kaduna State.
The scheming has led to the delay/suspension of the otherwise steady
roll-out of the DSO to the states since February 2018 in Osogbo where
Information Minister Lai Mohammed, who has maintained a loud silence till
date, bragged “within the next few weeks, we will be rolling out in many
more states as we seek to take the digital television experience to all
the six geo-political zones. We now have our two Signal Distributors in
full operation mode, the National Broadcasting Commission, the Set Top Box
manufacturers, Digiteam Nigeria and indeed all stakeholders are pulling
all the stops to ensure that the DSO train continues unimpeded on its
journey across the country.”.