Let Kano be please: An open letter to Afam Osigwe

I have reservations about your comment regarding the recent stakeholder engagement and its outcome between the Kano state ministry of information on one part, and proprietors/managements of broadcast stations on the other in the state, and hence this personal response.

It appears to me and to many right thinking residents of Kano city that your view point on the consensus to sanitise some aspects of broadcast contents in the state are not only unpopular but misinformed, with due respect to your esteemed office. True, the Nigeria Broadcasting Commission (NBC) is the federal regulator of the broadcast industry in Nigeria but it is not realistic and indeed impossible to ignore or outlaw other mechanisms such as self regulation, and stake holder consensus arising from consultative engagements in federated entities, Nigeria inclusive.

As a monitor of the Nigerian media scene, and a voracious consumer of media products, i see this initiative in the realm of media reform, which is badly needed everywhere across Nigeria and therefore highly welcomed. I also assume that engagements between the office of the honourable attorney general/minister of justice of the federation on one hand, and judicial institutions are a standard practice to promote harmony and understanding in the legal profession and not necessarily to gag the latter by the former.

Once upon a time, there used to be a National Advisory Council on Information (NACI) – a round-table forum on which the information minister interacted with professional groups media owners such as Newspaper Proprietors Association of Nigeria (NPAN), Broadcasting Organisations of Nigeria (BON), Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) and Nigeria Guild of Editors (NGE). Others included Nigeria Institute of Public Relations (NIPR), Advertising Practitioners Council of Nigeria (APCON), and the Nigeria Press Council (NPC). I remember with nostalgia how our associations would admit to the excesses of their members or point to government abuses of the media, all under an atmosphere of mutual respect, conviviality, and above all the conviction that we were all working in Nigeria’s best national interest. For this and other initiatives, the memory of Prince Tony Momoh as the most productive information minister in Nigeria’s recent history still lingers.

Back to Kano, Sir. I live in kano nowadays and therefore more conversant with goings-on here, including Kano’s peculiarities and particularity. However, I am neither an agent of the Kano administration, nor was I privy to this policy before it became public. What I have always known however, is that some forces somewhere could resort to self help as a response to the near anarchy especially in political and entertainment programmes of broadcast stations in the state which your client, the NBC, has grossly failed to address. As responsible citizens, we will not allow the city to be set on fire through misguided and unprofessional contents of broadcast stations under the guise of freedom of expression.

As required of the ethical principles of the various players in the media industry, broadcast journalism is suppose to be sensitive to the social values, sentiments and sensibilities of the society it seeks to mirror and serve. Perhaps you will agree with me that where the media consciously or otherwise promote division, disharmony, violence, slander and generally undermine peaceful coexistence in favour of financial considerations it is the equivalent of holding a people to ransom and the exercise of power without responsibility. Without hesitation therefore, I personally salute the bold media reform initiatives spare headed in kano by exhibiting uncommon sense of responsibility in confronting a monster which lillylivered politicians have failed to cage.

As I write, Kano citizens are eulogizing the policy across the more than thirty broadcast stations all of them operating in the state capital. The kano state council of the Nigeria Union of Journalists, the vanguard of the journalism profession has just added its supportive voice to the initiative, leaving yours as a minority voice without support from any quarters. Obviously, the NBC as a federal regulator has been napping for so long hence the state of chaos in Nigerian broadcast industry. For example, the NBC does not consider it a matter of national priority to outlaw pornography from the social media or compel a well known television station to air news and advertisement of Islamic nature because of the intolerance of its fanatical proprietor.

The excesses and abuses of untrained practitioners have continuous to soar due to inadequate monitoring and lack of strict enforcement of the Nigerian broadcasting code by the NBC.

And contrary to your assertion, nothing in the MoU in the bilateral arrangement under reference contravenes any provisions of either chapter two or chapter four of the 1999 constitution (as amended). Please note that the establishment of the NBC is an act of the national assembly and not a constitutional provision itself. Its mandate of enforcing the Nigerian broadcasting code was the outcome of an MoU by stakeholder institutions and reviewable from time to time. You are in the best position to know that unlike the American constitution which expressly forbids the American Congress from making any law capable of abridging the freedom of expression and the press, you are clearly in favour of federal regulation in this case to the detriment of sub-national interventions no matter how in good faith! This is unhelpful and a case of unnecessary intimidation.

Mr President, I know for a fact that you are not resident in kano and therefore not in the position to gauge the intensity of the hate speeches that dominate mainly political and other programmes of private radio stations in Kano. Neither are you reacting to any complaint by the NBA, Kano branch regarding this subject matter. It is safe therefore to assume you are either giraffing into a territory that you least know about or are holding a fat brief of an incorrigible sponsor that does not give a damn to the cherish values of peace and harmony, non-violence, respect for religion, decency, justice and fairness of our people.

Now that the issues have been clarified for you, it will only be gentlemanly to apologise to the good people of Kano who deserve accurate, balance and fair information from the media of information and culture on daily basis instead of bombardment with war-like propaganda and hate speech in the name of freedom of expression and the media.

Zorro, former national president, Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), writes from Kano.