Recently, the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) held its 5th Annual Lecture in Abuja; IBRAHIM RAMALAN was there.
NBC’s annual lecture is designed to bring together stakeholders within and outside the broadcasting industry for meaningful, mutually beneficial intellectual interaction.
As a broadcast regulatory agency, the NBC organises the lecture to further raise consciousness and encourage broadcasters to be more responsible and responsive to the trends and development in the industry.
Pioneered in 2015, the lecture has carved a culture of consistency for itself, just as the theme of all the lectures had tried to encapsulate the country’s broadcast trend, challenges and the way forward.
It could, therefore, be recalled that the maiden edition of the annual lecture took place in 2015 hosted a renowned international broadcast administrator, Mr Shola Taylor who spoke on the ‘New Media Convergence and the Future of Broadcasting: Greedy Telco, Naive Broadcasters And The Scramble For Spectrum’ theme.
During the 2nd Annual Lecture in 2016, which was the year Modibbo-Kawu took over the affairs of the NBC as DG, the commission invited a former chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Attahiru Jega, who spoke on ‘Broadcasting and the Challenge of the New Nigeria’ theme.
In 2017, which was the year that the commission marked its 25th Anniversary, the Sultan of Sokoto, Mohammad Sa’ad Abubakar was there to speak on ‘Cosmopolitanism: Nigeria’s Ethnic Politics and the Communication of Hate’.
Last year, in 2018, a political scientist, scholar and veteran international diplomat, Prof. Ibrahim Gambari, delivered his keynote address on ‘Broadcasting and Nigeria’s Ethno-Cultural Divide: Bridging the Gap’.
This year’s Guest Lecturer was a Professor of History, at the Nigeria Defence Academy (NDA), Kaduna, Prof. Ahmed Adam, who spoke to the theme of the lecture, ‘Contemporary Challenges of the Nigerian State: Need for Constructive Broadcasting’.
This year’s edition focused on the need to collectively make concerted efforts towards ensuring peaceful coexistence amongst the divergent interest groups in Nigeria, using the instrumentality of the broadcast media.
The event was attended by top aides of the President Muhammadu Buhari, special assistants to the president in the vice president’s office, the special assistant to the President on social Media and the representative of the National Security Adviser. Media professionals, academics and representatives of civil society organisations were also in attendance.
The Keynote speaker, Prof. Ahmed, emphasized that broadcast media have enormous power and influence on the people that it has become part of their everyday life, hence its indispensable role in society.
“Some people prefer to listen to the radio or watch television before laying their hands on anything. Just imagine how you will feel when you wake up, tune the radio or television but could not get hold of any.
“How would you know the happenings within, outside and inside your environment without the broadcast media?
“It is, therefore, right to say that in any democracy, the broadcast media plays an indispensable role in creating, moulding and reflecting public opinion,” he stated.
According to them, the broadcast media must also promote gender equality among women, through media programmes, organizing seminars and conferences.
Prof. Ahmed noted that the broadcast media, through its watchdog role, foster good relation between the government and the people.
He, however, lamented that some Media outfits in the country allowed themselves to be, “co-opted into serving selfish political reason & seeking politico-material patronage & sometimes, under the influence & tailor- guiding of owners or their cohorts.”
The scholar added that, “it is right to say that in any democracy, the broadcast media plays an indispensable role in creating, moulding and reflecting public opinion.
“The broadcast media has come to be regarded as one of the foundational structures of democracy, leading Thomas Jefferson (former US President) to declare that, ‘… were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without broadcast media or broadcast media without a government, I should not hesitate for a moment to prefer the latter.’,” the keynote speaker noted.
After the keynote speech, the lecture graduated to a panel discussion with veteran broadcasters and security experts who emphasised that broadcast media, as the watchdog of society, are responsible to the people and can also help in the elimination of social vices confronting humanity, society and assist in building national cohesiveness and integrity.
Earlier in his remarks, the Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, commended the NBC for consistently hosting the annual lectures, adding that this year’s lecture was apt considering that Nigeria recently held its general election.
The minister, represented by the Director, Public Communication and National Orientation, Priscilla Ihuoma, said the theme of this year’s lecture was apt, considering the fundamental issues that the Nigerian state is facing and the place of the broadcasting media in helping to address them.
He said” “Apart from the traditional role of educating, informing and entertaining the populace, the broadcast industry in Nigeria has also played a pivotal role in sustaining the tenets of our democracy.”
Mohammed also commended the broadcast industry over the role they played in shaping the opinions of the electorates in voting candidates of their choice.
He, however, called on the broadcast media to constructively make use of the social media contents with great sense of patriotism for peace and unity in Nigeria.
He reiterated the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration for the respect it had given the media and still continues to work with them as partners in progress.
He lamented over the contents that circulate within the social media which are mostly unverifiable find their ways into the mainstream media, in the form of fake news.
He said: “In recent times, our information space has been flooded with content that test the unity and peace of the country.
The minister also noted the efforts of President Muhammadu Buhari for approving wide-ranging reforms, including the licensing of online radio and television stations in an effort to make the broadcast industry robust.
Also speaking, the board chairman of the NBC, Ikra Aliyu-Bilbis said the Commission was focusing on a number of initiatives in order to bring broadcasting in Nigeria at par with the rest of the world.
He said: “In line with its regulatory function, the NBC since 1993 has in collaboration with stakeholders produced a Code for the practice of broadcasting in Nigeria.
“The document which is reviewed regularly to match the dynamic nature of the industry contains the ground-rules for Nigerian broadcasting.
“It also enumerates engineering and safety standards, as well as penalties for violations in line with universal best practices.
“The enforcement of the Code has substantially sanitized the industry by eliminating arbitrariness in the operations of the electronic.”
Aliyu-Bilbis also revealed the commission’s plan to build “a befitting structure to house the Commission’s headquarter in Abuja.
He said: “the structure will be fitted with state-of-the-art monitoring facilities to enable a proper monitoring of the broadcast airwaves in the country.”
Earlier in his welcome address, the DG, NBC, Is’haq Modibbo-Kawu said “the commission painstakingly examines the contemporary currents of socio-political developments in the country, as well as their reflections in the programming and news content of Nigerian broadcasters, to determine the themes of our Annual Lecture series.”
“The background to our thinking in that respect is located in the Nigeria Broadcasting Code. The 6th Edition of The Code as released to the Nigerian broadcasting industry in July, 2019,” he added.
Quoting the social objective of the Code, Mr Kawu said the Nigerian broadcasting is to “provide a functional level of enlightenment for the Nigerian populace and is also requested to promote the acquisition or pursuit of knowledge.
“It expects that broadcasting shall promote values and norms, which foster the well-being and cooperation of the various segments of the Nigerian society.”
He further stated that the political objective of the broadcasting code was to “contribute to the development of national unity and participatory democracy and promote social justice based on the responsibilities and rights of the individuals in the society”.
He noted that the commission was working to meet up the requirements of the populace that the industry serves, with an effort to address the challenges of underdevelopment and nation building.
He therefore, urged broadcasting industries to extract maximum mileage from today’s lecture as well as the accompanying interrogations, in order to deepen our sense of responsibility to our country, as well as enrich the content of our broadcasts.
