WITH the presence of the principal officers of the National Assembly, especially the Senate President, David Mark, the modification of the operational frameworks being canvassed by stakeholders in broadcasting may soon be realised.At the broadcast summit last Friday in Lagos, the need to turnaround the profession and make it relevant to socio-political and economic well being of Nigerians was greatly re-echoed.And one major step that will facilitate the new process is to tinker with the legal framework, especially of the regulatory agency, National Broadcasting Commission (NBC), which falls directly under the purview of the lawmakers.And the organisers of the summit, the Broadcasting Organisations of Nigeria (BON) is well aware of the significance of the legislature to the campaign hence the conscious effort to ensure that the summit received the blessing of the lawmakers.Apart from the Senate President, in attendance also were Senator Chris Anyanwu, Hon. Abike Dabiri and Chairman, Senator Committee on Information, Media and Public Affairs, Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe.Right at the venue of the summit held at Harbour Point, Victoria Island, Abike Dabiri tasked the organisers to package their demands in form of a bill and pass it across to the National assembly for consideration.Abike who stood in for the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Aminu Tambuwal, said that the Speaker was optimistic that the summit would not be another talk-show.For more than five hours, the kernel of discussion at the summit was how to improve upon the performance of broadcasters and take the industry to the next level.Chaired by the Senate President, Mr. David Mark, the forum was an assemblage of critical stakeholders that included broadcasters, broadcast managers and proprietors, lawmakers and regulators.The Group Managing Director of Daar Communications Plc, Mr. Tony Akiotu, while giving the vote of thanks at the end of the programme, underscored the frankness with which some of the challenges confronting the industry were marshaled.Comments from contributors were also on technical and professional deficiencies that have become order of the day.After the goodwill messages from the Minister of Information, lawmakers, who praised the media for doing a good job and must not be cowed by the insecurity in the land, the lead paper presenter, the immediate past Director General, Voice of Nigeria, Aremo Taiwo Alimi, gave a lecture on 'Broadcasting in Nigeria'Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow: Need for urgent repositioning of broadcasting for Nation building', which was also discussed by two other discussants.Thereafter, there was another paper by the Director General of the National Broadcasting Commission, Engr. Yomi Bolariwa on digitization, highlighting challenges and the benefits of the global trend.In his address, the Senate President, David Mark said that all efforts must be put in place to make the broadcast industry viable especially the private stations that are confronted with funding challenges because if not, democracy in Nigeria will be in danger.He said the broadcast stations must be disciplined and work with the National Broadcasting Commission to achieve the digitisation of the industry so that Nigeria will not be left behind.He implored the stations to improve their content if they must move, grow and compete with other stations in developed clime, promising that the National Assembly is ready to work with the broadcast industry.He called for a better collaboration with the government and the private media in funding, just as government must take steps to properly fund its broadcast stations.'For the private broadcast organizations, government should find a way to assist them because information dissemination is not restricted to government broadcasting organisations alone. The more we disseminate information, the better for this country.'Even if the programme is not well packaged, it is not to say that it has no effect. Government should find a way to balance it, though I know it is going to be difficult. I think what the seminar will do is the level to which government should fund their own media organisations. Can government funding of media organizations be enough to give out all the information that people need to know, the answer is no; but government has to find a way to balance.'And the private media, if you do not fund them properly, then they will be desperate to survive and when they become desperate, they can be hijacked by anybody,' he warned.The Minister of Information, Mr. Labaran Maku, who noted that the Nigerians now live in strange times as the number one enemy of the people-terrorism is threatening its democracy, commended the Nigerian media for its vibrancy and dynamism in promoting democracy and ideals of free society.Represented by the DG of National Broadcasting Commission, Yomi Bolariwa, the Minister said, 'the media more than before must live up to a bigger responsibility that of protecting our heard earned democracy and civil liberties.'Sympathising with the Nigerian Press over the wave of attack against media personnel and media houses, Maku said that when terrorism is aimed at the press where then is the people's freedom as a society because a free press is the bastion of a free society.'This is why we must all raise up to fight this scourge ' we cannot celebrate terrorists by giving generous portions of our news bulletin, that is what they want ' to create fear and intimidate the Nigerian society, a country well known as peace loving, warm and friendly. They want to cow us into submission; they want us to lose our humanity. We must deny them the publicity they crave. We must not provide them platform to spread fear.'In his paper, after giving a historical background of broadcasting in Nigeria, Aremo Taiwo Alimi commented on the declining performance of the broadcasting industry, maintaining that the totality of the content of broadcasting especially Nigerian produced programmes have not been better than what they were thirty years ago.Broadcasting today, Alimi insisted, 'contains materials that undermine morality, family values and national interest.'He canvassed self-regulation, re-structuring and repositioning 'because the nation requires a broadcasting system that will enrich the airwaves and serve the needs of the people today and tomorrow.Arguing that broadcast organisations have been slacking in its responsibility as too much attention is paid to commercialization and self-interest at the detriment of credible content, he recommended a review of NBC Act with a view to make it an independent regulatory organ for broadcasting in the country.Specifically, Alimi advocated the removal, from the NBC Act, the clause that mandates payment of two and half per cent of the turnover of radio and television stations as levy to the NBC, alleging that, these stations already pay taxes and licence fees.He also suggested the radio and television sets license fees should be collected by the federal and state government-owned stations through internal revenue service in conjunction with the NBC rather than local governments.According to Alimi, the industry has lost its professional order in everything it does, noting that this is why Nigerian stations cannot compete with other stations in other climes.He said that stations must collaborate to cut cost, suggesting that broadcast stations in Lagos should assemble its transmitter in one common location.The founding Chairman of the Nigeria Election Debates Group reiterated, 'for the overwhelming majority of the citizens of Nigeria to be wallowing in poverty and in crime, is a clear indication that broadcasting has failed to care for Nigerians.'To communicate with the rural people, where the majority of Nigerians are, he raised the issue of community radio system noting that it accelerates development and this is an ideal time for it in Nigeria.He listed scarcity of funding, shortage of broadcast engineering skills and a frightening dearth of trained and experienced professional broadcasters as three challenges confronting broadcasting in Nigeria.'The truth is, for programming to have quality, it requires experience, commitment, creativity and courage. Therefore, broadcasting must invest in research, training, re-training, capacity building and new broadcast technology.'Television and radio stations must equally begin now, to develop and produce programmes for creative expression. We need innovation in programme transmission including news.'We also need documentaries and features to sensitise leadership that will jolt society from complacency to new initiatives. So far broadcasting today is not evolving its own ideas that could influence good governance in Nigeria,' Alimi said.The President of the Advertisers Association of Nigeria (ADVAN), Mr. Kola Oyeyemi, when asked if the advertisers could help in developing good content for the stations since the general notion is that contents are now sub-standard, said that it is possible though it must be beneficial and give appropriate value to the fund invested before the advertiser will be willing to commit itself to such deals.'The broadcast stations are meant to produce the content for us to buy into but the reality right now is that because it is not happening the way it should happen, advertisers are investing in content, more or less like helping the broadcasters to do their job. 'When we get to point where we break it down into, what are the commercial stations, community and then public/government service stations. For the public service stations, it is not the business of advertisers to help it develop content, because it is performing a social service.'The ones that are commercial, it is a matter of the advertiser sitting down with these stations' owners to discuss how do we grow your revenue base and how do you deliver value to us, because ultimately it is a game of value. When you deliver value to me, and I am willing to pay but then if you do not have what it takes to deliver value to me, then am I willing to partner with you to reach some commercial agreement.'The Chairman of APCON, Mr. Lolu Akinwunmi, pledged that APCON would continue to support BON to ensure that quality and commercial values are delivered to the Nigerian audience.One of the discussants, Dr. Tom Adaba, highlighted some of the developments in the broadcast industry in Nigeria, spotlighting how the live coverage of the tenure elongation under Obasanjo truncated the third term agenda.To provide better funding for stations, he also called for collaboration among broadcast stations to cut cost while the NBC should be collecting the radio and television license fees with the aim to share the proceeds among the operators, public and private.He also harped on the need for training and re-training of staff to ensure that broadcasters are abreast with the fast paced technological developments in the profession.In his opening remarks, BON Chairman, Mallam Abubakar Boboyi Jijiwa, said that the summit became paramount because of the need to provide a veritable forum for all stakeholders to appraise the issues that are germane to the continued survival of the Broadcast Industry in the country.He noted that the survival of the broadcast industry is important because it is also essential to the economic growth, development and sustenance of peace and security in Nigeria.'It is obvious that there is no way we can move forward without government action on a number of challenges before us and such government action will also impact on the Mass Media Policy on Broadcasting in Nigeria,' Jijiwa stated.
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