TheCable

As you read this material AFRICAST 2023 is running in Lagos. It began yesterday after a most underserved but ignoble hiatus which remains a manifest display of inertia to scholarship by some people in the broadcast regulatory Commission.

Africast is the intellectual creation of the Commission aimed at harmonising the understanding of the various stakeholders of the sector in order to create an industry that caters for their taste and also serves the interest of society. It is good news that the event has returned to the international circuit of the broadcast calendar.

But something more fundamental supervened last week as the final details of the programme were being put together. Mr Charles Ebuebu was announced as the new Director General in place of Mallam Balarabe Illelah whose period at the NBC was a most uninspiring interregnum. You know, like a pause in the history of the organisation, nothing really happened, except a most repugnant degradation. So, like most of the heads of parastatals in the Muhammadu Buhari administration, Illelah leaves with no cheers.

But that is the fate of those who work in government. A flight can end midway, giving opportunity to new hands to introduce new ideas while the old lieutenants simply go home with the expectation that history will be fair to them. From Africast 2023, Ebuebu will start to pen his own history even as Illelah will already begin to rue the missed opportunity to write an inspiring story for posterity.

The theme of the programme is; Broadcast Content: Synergy, Finance and Market. Around this theme are so many sub themes which include: Succeeding in OTT screaming Business – The SWEET TV Franchise, Producing Quality “Home-Grown”With Universal appeal – Ways to success, The convergence of Media and Data: What Does A Win Look like?, The Dynamics of Making And Distributing A Daily News Podcast For Africa – An Evaluation, Satellite Platform – Using It To Deliver Content Everywhere – Cost Effectively!, Accelerating Universal Delivery Of Fully Digital Broadcasting Services To All Nigerians and Examining The Drivers, Dynamics And Opportunities offered In a Fully Converged, Digital Ecosystem, among others. A stellar cast of industry personalities, industry practitioners, equipment manufacturers and vendors within and outside the country, have ben assembled to shine the light of understanding on these various issues.

It actually looks quite tantalising to have the opportunity to listen to all these personalities. Since broadcasting was deregulated in 1992, so much has changed. Content production has moved from analogue to digital, Transmission has been terrestrial, then satellite and ultimately digital broadcasting which Nigeria has not been able to green light.

Within the period, Nollywood has gained global ascendancy while the popular variant of Nigerian music export, Afrobeat, has taken the world by storm and now even winning Grammys by way of marking a crowning acceptance by the global community.
It is fitting to observe here that these growth trajectories in entertainment and technology will put enough concerns on the plate for experts and industry practitioners to sort and be able to situate broadcasting as a veritable platform to harmonise all of them and deliver something refreshing for the industry and its customers.

At the centre of the Africast programme is Charles Ebuebu, who I will want to describe as one of the luckiest political appointees today. In less than two weeks in office, he has been offered the international platform which Africast provides, to market himself and make a direct pitch with the expectation that he is able to deliver something from the guts. It is Ebuebu’s responsibility to carry the worries of the industry on his shoulders for the next five years and he needs the wisdom of the biblical Solomon to achieve a delicate balance between the industry, the people and government.

The regulatory Commission which Ebuebu comes into has been in tatters, especially under the Muhammadu Buhari Administration. Leadership has not been stable because of the meddlesomeness of government. The Commission has a chain of litigations around its neck as a result of poor regulatory decisions and a badly coupled Code – Nigeria Broadcasting Code. The Digital Switchover (DSO) has been on ice so that its failure can remain fresh and very stubborn. Most regrettably, staff morale is down to nearly point zero. The NBC workers used to be a very rambunctious bunch. But Illelah destroyed all that, turning the workers against each other while demonstrating a most superficial understanding of broadcast regulation.

It is Ebuebu’s concern to address all that, which is why Africast 2023 presents an opportunity for a pitch. If I had the opportunity to write that speech, I would know what to do. It would have been an opportunity to address a plethora of fears, And they are indeed many.

The story of the deregulated broadcast industry is nothing new to the new Director General. As they say in my part of the world, broadcasting is where he has cut his legal teeth. He has been head of Legal at Continental Broadcast Service, broadcasters of TVC. He has also worked with some organisations that had serious business relationships with NBC.

In picking Ebuebu for the NBC job, this administration has only addressed a provision of the National Broadcasting Commission Act which says that “The Drector-General shall be a person with wide knowledge and experience in broadcasting.”
Ebuebu is an industry person. There is no doubt about that.

He has a history; that everybody knows. But he has been given a transcendental opportunity to transit from working for an individual to working for a nation. It is expected that he will bring his legal training to the bargain and purge himself of previous relationships and be able to deliver on a job that is not only very sensitive but has often been the flash point between the government and industry.

Industry regulation in Nigeria has suffered a punishing relapse. You only need to look at the telecommunications and the banking industries under the previous administration and be guided appropriately.

What will Ebuebu do differently? Will legacy relationships free him to make a positive and immediate impact at the regulatory Commission which needs a messiah right now? Let me tell a little story which is not an answer to the foregoing question. Heading towards the final moments of the Buhari administration, the NBC had placed a fine on TVC as it did to some other organisations. Former minister, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, flew into a rage. Why would you place a fine on TVC? Lai was working for the federal government but could not stomach anything that could jeopardise his relationship with his former boss.

I do not envy Charles Ebuebu who has been given a very challenging job to do. He has a choice. Either to do a damn good job for the nation or suffer the entrapment of legacy relationships which could throw him in the dustbin of history, like some of his predecessors in office.

There are too many sordid controversies in the broadcast industry at the moment. My expectation is that the DG should provide the leadership that can lay them to rest one after the other. Like a guy walking on eggshells, Ebuebu should tread with caution in order to save the regulator and the industry from further damage.