By Tunde Oguntola And Sunday Isuwa, Abuja

The National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) has extended the revocation of operational licenses of 52 broadcast stations across the country over indebtedness to the regulatory commission.

The director-general of NBC, Malam Balarabe Shehu Ilelah, while briefing journalists in Abuja said the stations owed the commission N2.6 billion from 2015 to 2021.

However, the NBC in a statement signed by llelah yesterday said the commission had extended the deadline to Wednesday, August 24 following appeals from affected stations.

He said all affected broadcast stations that fail to defray their debts on or before August 23, 2022 should shut down by midnight on August 24, 2022.

The statement said the extension was due to appeals by the affected broadcast stations, relevant stakeholders, public spirited individuals and organisations.

Meanwhile, the Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC) has slammed the NBC for the revocation in the first place.

According to CISLAC, in the wake of the need for citizen education towards the 2023 general elections, a time when Nigerians are relying on the Media for public enlightenment and mobilisation, the revocation of the licenses of over 50 media houses may have been completely mistimed by the NBC.

A statement issued by the CISLAC’s executive director, Awwal Musa Rafsanjani, said in this critical time, the NBC as an agency of government, run by tax-payers money should prioritise citizens’ need and quest for consumption of concrete news over revenue generation through sales of licenses and frequencies.

“The in.nt danger in this untimely clampdown is the potential to escalate reliance on social media and some unscrupulous outlets as news .s among a great number of citizens. This presents the risk of increased consumption of fake news towards the 2023 elections and would furthermore contribute to unnecessarily heating up of the polity against citizens’ yearning for peaceful elections.

“The news media industry serves a critical democratic function. They do this by informing audiences, facilitating debate and performing critical oversight. They are mostly privately owned businesses that need to maintain a certain profit level to continue to be in business. Like every other business in other sectors, the news media industry is also faced with the impact of COVID-19 and is currently grappling with issues of dwindling revenues. One would expect that the NBC would factor some of these economic realities into its decision making.

While we do not encourage the failure of the affected media houses to renew their licenses, we strongly recommend for a dialogue with the NBC towards a review of the costs of license and frequency in Nigeria as it remains one of the highest in the ECOWAS subregion. Parties should dialogue to review the rates in line with realities. Shutting down over 50 media houses in an electioneering period does not only deplete the efficiency of the media to perform its democratic functions, but is also detrimental to the quality of news that citizens can consume,” the statement said.

According to CISLAC, t. will be loss of jobs for thousands of Nigerians which will further create more social problems in Nigeria as a result of license revocation.

“The overall posture of the government of the day has also not been encouraging, especially towards press freedom. Though the NBC has given reasons for the revocation on failure of the media houses to renew licenses, the timing suggests a furtherance of government’s attempts to gag the media and suppress press freedom in Nigeria. The issuance of threats to sanction media houses like Trust TV and the BBC in recent times for conducting investigative journalism and reporting such represents a lack of civility on the part of political appointees in Nigeria. Civil society will not fold its arm to watch reckless political appointees ridicule and derail the hard-earned gains of democracy in Nigeria. It is t.fore important that the government prioritizes appointments of technocrats to manage the affairs of critical sectors rather than appointing political party faithful who only have political allegiance.

“While we encourage a dialogue for review of the renewal costs in Nigeria and encourage the media houses to renew their licenses, we denounce very strongly any politically motivated attempt to whittle down the critical influence of the media in Nigeria. We oppose completely the brazen threat of sanctions to local and foreign media houses who are carrying out their legitimate functions. We condemn every action that contradicts freedom of the press in Nigeria.

“We urge the NBC to prioritize citizens’ need for quality and concrete news .s towards the 2023 elections as a crucial step to minimize the spread of fake news which have been seen to be capable of disrupting peaceful coexistence and peaceful conduct of elections by reviewing its decision through dialogue with the news media industry,” the statement added.

Similarly, the Radio, Television, Theatre and Arts Workers Union of Nigeria (RATTAWU) has called on the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) to reverse the decision.

NBC Revokes Licenses Of AIT, Silverbird TV, 50 Others

According to RATTAWU, information is the oxygen of democracy, and this has stood the test of time and in all climes, t.fore, Nigeria cannot be an exception.

A statement issued by the general secretary of RATTAWU, Comrade Akpausoh Akpausoh, said they had no option but to caution the NBC that while the commission has the unreserved constitutional right to revoke the licenses of radio and television stations that have not done the needful, the prevailing climate makes such an action untimely and with grave consequences.

“This is because most of these stations are yet to recover from the Covid-19 shock. It would be recalled that during the lock-down, these stations did brave services of sustaining broadcasting. RATTAWU also made a case that the broadcast stations be given special Covid-19 palliative, considering the laudable role they .ed.

“Just after the upliftment of Covid-19 lock-down, the Nigerian state got stuck in the unexplained muddy waters of hike in the price of diesel, on which most stations rely to run their programmes in the near absence of power supply from the Power Holding Companies. This is an issue that is, at best, embarrassing to the nation.

“From the foregoing, it is needless to say that the broadcast environment is not healthy and friendly. T.fore, decisions that affect the broadcast environment should be taken with sapiential guidance and consideration,” RATTAWU said.

In a related development, the management of Bayelsa State Broadcasting Corporation (Radio Bayelsa) has said it had almost cleared its outstanding license renewal fees before the NBC announced the revocation of its license.

The general manager of Radio Bayelsa, christened Glory FM, Mr Terrence Ekise, said yesterday that the station had paid over N13m out of the N17m debt.

He said the station was surprised that despite the ongoing efforts at clearing the backlog of N17m, the station was listed among those affected.

Ekise said: “We have been working and making progress with the NBC under the tenure of the previous DG, but when the new DG came, he did not want to listen to anything, and our commissioner was so disappointed in the NBC’s posture.

“At a time during the COVID-19 lockdown, t. was a grace period and we had a series of negotiations and reconciliation of what we have paid so far and we showed good faith to offset the remaining N4m, but they still listed us.”

He said the Bayelsa government was paying greater attention to the station with the rebuilding of its office complex and ordered a new transmitter as well as studio equipment.

He said while the station was awaiting the arrival of the new transmitter, the installation of new studio equipment at the newly built office complex was ongoing.