Public Broadcasting: The Objectivity Challenge

Alhaji Lai Mohammed, Nigeria’s brand new information minister is one of the most controversial spokespersons of political parties in the history of the democratization process. His other opposite in the Peoples Democratic Party Mr Olisa Metuh is also a firebrand although both have combative kind of styles that lacks finesse and refinement.

For nearly three years that he (Lai Mohammed ) held sway as the national publicity secretary of the then opposition All Progressive Congress which then was in a high level competition to displace the then national ruling party of the Peoples Democratic Party, Alhaji Lai Mohammed made his mark as a very versatile and proactive spokesperson who goes to war with every conceivable weapons in his armament without sparing his rival.

with this appointment and elevation to the cabinet level position of the information minister, Alhaji Mohammed has not started badly going by the tone of his maiden parley with the media chiefs of the publicly funded broadcasting entities. But he seems to be in another voyage of discovery and has established a kind of impression that as someone in the highest echelon of government having tasted opposition politics, he is willing to be considerate to the sensitivities of all class of people not minding the political or social affiliations. But time shall tell but for now we are looking at how the objectivity challenge he has thrown widely open in which he demanded that publicly owned broadcasting institutions accommodate all opinions can be sustained over a considerable periods of time.

The minister of information looked the Directors of these government owned media houses in their eyes and told them the home truth that they have not being at their professional best even as he criticized them for acting as the propaganda machines of the powers-that- be and that over time due to their excessive biased and unbalanced coverage that favored the federal government, most persons around the world have rated such reportage as lacking in credibility and reliability.

Mr. Mohammed, while noting that government-owned media organizations pioneered the profession in the country and have a wide range of highly trained personnel; working tools, as well as a wide reach, condemned the unfortunate trend of outright unprofessional conduct prevalent in public media houses.

“Why have you all chosen to play second fiddle in the country’s media landscape? I ask because the NTA and FRCN of yesterday is not the same as what we have today.”

There is no denying the fact that the private radio and TV stations are doing much better, at least going by the fact that most Nigerians prefer them to the public broadcasters”.

“Indeed, most Nigerians find the private broadcasters more credible”, Mr. Mohammed noted.

He condemned the disregard for editorial independence.

They have mortgaged their credibility on the altar of political correctness”; Mr. Mohamed said.

Mr. Mohammed said the problem of lack of finance often heard in public media houses could be traced to lack of credibility.

“There is a link between credibility and profitability”.

Advertisers will surely flock to more credible media organizations, and of course it is also true that content drives advertisement”, he added.

Mr. Mohammed said the News Agency of Nigeria was fast losing its reputation as the leading medium in Africa and was now “punching far below its weight, despite its presence in all the states of the Federation”.

He said the present administration plans to reform government-owned media houses.

We intend to provide leadership for the Federal Government-owned media organizations in a manner …they can more effectively function as a vehicle for the change mantra of the Buhari Administration,” the minister said.

Mohammed however challenged them to “first enhance their own credibility, because no credibility-deficient news organization can successfully propagate the message of change”.

Mr. Mohammed said the Buhari administration would not be possessive of the media, as was witnessed in the just concluded administration.

But time is the wisest counsellor. This same Lai Mohammed is widely seen as the master of propaganda but in his new garb as minister of information he is now singing a new song to win the acclamation of critical minded members of the Nigerian community. After lampooning the immediate past administration for misappropriation of the publicly funded media houses to service the partisan needs of the then ruling party, he however vowed that the current government will not repeat the historical mistake of its predecessor.

Hear him: “Let me assure Nigerians that under this administration; no Federal Government-owned media organization will deny the opposition the opportunity to air their views.

“It is true that while we were in opposition, we were treated as outcasts by these public broadcasters”.

“But in an era of change, which is our mantra that cannot and will not continue. Opposition members are Nigerians, just like members of the ruling party.

“Therefore, let the ruling party and the opposition air their ideas and let the people, who wield the ultimate power, decide at the end of the day.”

He said his administration would ensure full digitalization of the National Broadcasting Commission. But seemingly simplistic assessment of the government's funded media houses did not capture the infamous role played by the National Broadcasting Commission which ought to be as independent as it's British counterpart known as Broadcasting Standards Commission. But unlike this British entity which is the statutory body for both standards and fairness in broadcasting the Nigerian Broadcasting Commission is interested in generating incomes from the sale of licences but does practically nothing in terms of regulating standards and fairness. In Britain the Broadcasting standards Commission is accountable to the parliament and each year publishes a full report of its works but the Nigerian Broadcasting Commission’s hierarchy has no regard to the demands of public accountability as it is only interested in settling the relevant committees of the two chambers of the National Assembly so as to grant it softlanding even when it has failed abysmally in its statutory duties.

The minister’s rebuke is coming only few weeks after the senior special Assistant on media to the president Alhaji Garba Shehu accused the Nigeria Television Authority (NTA) of betrayal of the then presidential candidate of the All Progressive Congress Muhammadu Buhari who is now the Nigerian president.

Garba Shehu had on October 15th 2015 stated thus:“Americans say that elections are won on the dollar. It’s very improbable that anybody can win an election without money. We didn’t have advertising money on our campaign. Even when we had little money to spend on advertising, the Nigerian Television Authority was not making available to us slots, neither was African Independent Television”.

He continued his accusation of professional misconduct against NTA’s management thus; “I remember on a particular night I called NTA, they have 16 slots of one minute advert and I said I wanted to buy one minute for the Buhari campaign, they said all 16 had been sold…they simply won’t advertise us.”

What these two gentlemen belonging to All Progressives Congress are simply saying is not different from overwhelming public opinion which seems to say that publicly owned broadcasting institutions should not be administered as official megaphones of those in government since those media organs were set up in the first place to serve the people of Nigeria.

The Nigerian Constitution in section 14(2)(a) and (b) states that; “ it is hereby, accordingly , declared that sovereignty belongs to the people of Nigeria from whom government through this constitution derives all its powers and authority.”

Section 22 of the constitution provides that;“the press, radio, television and other media agencies of the mass media shall at all times be free to uphold the fundamental objectives contained In this chapter and uphold the responsibility and accountability of the government to the people.”

The information minister is right to have verbally criticized the managers of these government run media houses.

In 2011 when the election campaigns were ongoing the then management of Nigerian Television Authority (NTA)headed by Alhaji Usman Magawata was praised for providing equal broadcast opportunities to all political parties including the opposition party, sadly the man who won the 2011 election, the immediate past president Dr Goodluck Jonathan refusedto renew the term of office of this professional broadcaster Alhaji Usman Magawatawhose administration attracted a lot of acclamation for the professional excellence shown by NTA.

That said, I also think that the statutes setting up those media houses need to be tinkered with fundamentally to insulate the managers from the apron strings of the executive arm of government at every level.

Nigeria may gain a lot from the British system whereby an Independent Commission aforementioned that is only answerable to the parliament is clothed with the powers and authority to supervise the affairs of the publicly owned media houses to ensure that only public interest is served in their broadcasting.

Reverend Father John Gangwari in his book “The Origin of the Communication Media in Nigeria” gave a clear picture of how these public broadcasting institutions came about.

This scholar wrote rightly that radio broadcasting goes back to 1933, when the Empire of Broadcasting Servicewas established in Nigeria. It was a government propaganda instrument.

The Radio office in Lagos was expanded as Information Officein 1940. In 1951, it was renamed Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) and operated from Tugwell House Marina, Lagos, under the Post and Telegraph Department. In 1956, and “Ordinance to provide for the Establishment of a Corporation to be known as the Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation” was enacted. The Act specified that:"The corporation shall be a body corporation with perpetual succession and a common seal and shall have power to sue and be sued in its corporate name and to acquire, hold and dispose of moveable and immoveable property for the purpose of its functions under the ordinance."

The ordinance enumerated the function of the Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation as:(1) It shall be the duty of the Corporation to provide as a public service independent and impartial broadcasting services by means of wireless telegraph and by television for general reception within Nigeria; (2) If at any time the Governor General in Council so requires, it shall be the duty of the corporation to provide like services for general reception in countries and places outside Nigeria. Any service so provided shall be called ‘External Services’ and lastly (3) The Corporation shall ensure that the service which it provides when considered as whole, reflect the unity of Nigeria as a federation and at the same time give adequate expression of the culture, characteristics, affairs and opinions of the people of each region or part of the federation.

In 1977, the Nigeria Television Authority was established as an independent body separate from the Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation. The Television Authority in the opinuon of the scholar being cited was established by Military Decree (No. 24 of 1977) and was asked: "To erect, maintain and operate television transmitting and receiving stations; to plan co-ordinate the activities of the entire television network; to ensure an independent and impartial service which will operate in the national interest; to give adequate expression to culture, characteristics and affairs of the different parts of Nigeria."

I'm not aware that there has been any fundamental amendments to the laws setting up all the Federal government's funded media houses. These changes in the statutes to reflect contemporary demands of global best practices are imperative for any genuine level of credibility to be conferred on the broadcasting activities of these media institutions paid and maintained with tax payers money. As long as the Director General of these Federal Government’s funded media institutions are appointed by the President and can be fired by the President without recourse to parliamentary inputs it therefore follows that he who pays the piper would dictate the tune.

It's a pipe dream for Alhaji Lai Mohammed to expect miracle to happen that could raise the standards and fairness of these organisations as long as the regulatory body like the Nigerian Broadcasting Commission is also under the total control of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. The law setting up these media institutions should be amended to guarantee stability of tenures for the hierarchies by subjecting their removal and appointments to legislative scrutiny.

My challenge for Alhaji Lai Mohammed is that he should first spearhead an advocacy campaign within the executive council of the Federation so the Nigerian Government can sponsor executive bills before the National Assembly to amend the enabling laws setting up these broadcasting organisations to grant them independence in terms of editorial contents and operational independence.

*Emmanuel Onwubiko is Head of Human rights Writers association of Nigeria and blogs @ www.huriwa.blogspot.com, www.rightsassociationngr.com, www.huriwa.org.

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Articles by Emmanuel Onwubiko