(Re-issued) The Director General of the National Broadcasting Commission, Mall. Is’haq Modibbo Kawu, has issued a final warning to AIT over its continued wilful disregard for regulation and persistent breaches of the Nigeria Broadcasting Code, and stated that further breach will be met with the very severe sanctions that the new, Sixth Edition of The Code has prescribed.
He stated this while presenting the Second Quarter Monitoring of Broadcast Stations Profile covering the period from April to June, 2019.
Mall. Kawu noted that shortly after the National and State Elections in the First Quarter of the year, monitoring reports indicated that though there was a drop in breaches related to hateful, abusive and inflammatory broadcast, which peaked during the elections, and for which as many as 45 stations were fined, the 2nd Quarter indicates that the trend has continued among certain stations, especially in political programmes. Therefore, 20 broadcast stations were fined in the 2nd Quarter, for breaching provisions of the Nigeria Broadcasting Code on Hate speech.
The Director General, however, noted that AIT has defied all action to ensure that the station complied with the Nigeria Broadcasting Code. “In the last few months, our monitoring reports indicate that AIT has continued to air programmes that dwell on the on-going case of the presidential elections, and issues relating to matters in law courts, without regards to the provisions of the Nigeria Broadcasting Code and extant laws.”
Specifically, on Monday 19th August, 2019 a documentary titled “Who is a Nigerian” was aired between 10:00pm to 10:47pm. It centered on how the former provinces of Northern Cameroun became a Nigerian enclave. Track ups were given to some respondents who made statements like “Atiku is indeed a Nigerian”. This came a day after the APC had asked the Presidential Election tribunal to strike out Atiku/PDP petition on the basis of Section 131(a) of the Nigerian Constitution, which mandates that a presidential candidate must be Nigerian by birth.
On Tuesday 20th August, 2019 between 10:00pm to 11:00pm, AIT aired another documentary titled “The Many Troubles of INEC: A Documentary on Mahmood Yakubu and the chequered Road to 2019”. This documentary contained an allegation that the 2019 Presidential Election was marred by a well-organised manipulation, violence and intimidations.
Then on Wednesday 21st August, 2019, from 10:00pm to 10:36pm, a similar documentary, “Who is a Nigerian” was also broadcast. References were made to how some communities, like Daura Emirate, were allegedly formerly part of Niger Republic, and have now become part of Nigeria. It queried what becomes of persons whose citizenship has been declared to be non-Nigerian. The program also appeared to promote the cause of the proscribed IPOB (Indigenous People of Biafra) saying their agitation is legitimate, under the United Nation Charter on Universal Declaration of Human and People’s Rights.
Similarly, on Saturday 24th August, 2019 the same documentary on INEC and the Agony of a Nation was fully aired and it made assertions that “manipulations” of 2019 Presidential Election, have not only disrupted democratic consolidation in Nigeria but have robbed the people of their fundamental right to make choices. The current INEC Chairman Prof. Yakubu Mahmood’s tenure was also described as the worst in the history of INEC.
Again, on Sunday 25th August, 2019 another documentary was aired with title “INEC and Qualification Requirements. The facts, The Issues” from 10:40pm to 10:56pm. The documentary called on the court, as the last hope of the common man, to correct an alleged dereliction of duty on the part of INEC in allowing an individual who is not eligible to contest an election to do so.
The station management was invited for a discussion at the NBC headquarters on 5th September, 2019, over their flagrant disregard of the Nigeria Broadcasting Code and consenting court settlement, between the regulator and licensee, from July, 2018. This was borne out of the station’s repeated airing of various offending documentaries, and a persistent pattern of discussing matters pending in court.
• The constant repetition of the broadcast meant that AIT was being deliberately mischievous since it blatantly refused to heed the observations and warnings of the regulatory institution.
• They also intentionally refused to tell the other side of this judgment.
• The clip portrayed security agencies as an apparatus of violence for the presidency
• The station also portrayed the judiciary, an independent arm of government, as a common tool being used by the executive.
• These actions of AIT are in contravention of Sections 1.3.4, 3.3.1a, 3.3.1b, 3.11.1, 3.11.2 and 5.1.2 of the Nigeria Broadcasting Code.
He said, “Given the issues involved and the blatant refusal to abide by the provisions of the NB Code and extant laws, I made the effort to reach the leaders of the Nigeria Press Organization (NPO), who had intervened between the NBC and DAAR Communications Plc, when we withdrew their license, in June, 2019.”
“We also want the Nigerian people to know that the National Broadcasting Commission has given AIT enough opportunity to walk the straight and narrow path of compliance with the Nigeria Broadcasting Code. It would unfortunately be the architect of its own fate, if it persists with the breaches of the instrument of regulation of the Nigerian broadcasting industry. And that is the Nigeria Broadcasting Code.”
