Nigeria’s National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) has warned broadcasters that it intends to sanction those that owe it money.
Speaking at the NBC Summit held in Enugu recently, NBC director general Is’haq Modibo Kawu said broadcast stations across the country were in debt to the commission to the tune of N4.2bn (US$11.6m).
According to Kawu, this debt mostly stems from broadcasters that have refused to renew their licences with the commission but remain on air.
As a result, the NBC is ready to close down any station that is indebted to the commission or contravening the broadcast code by being involved in partisanship.
NBC recently shut down the Ekiti State Broadcasting Service, stating that it was involved in an unauthorised announcement of the Ekiti election results despite several warnings to avoid such acts, constituing a breach of the broadcasting code.
The University of Ilorin is to set up its own community television station.
Vice chauncellor Professor Sulyman Abdulkareem announced the plan at the 10th anniversary celebrations for the institution’s radio station and the launching of the book UNILORIN 89.3 FM @ 10 – a Decade of Broadcasting Excellence
Abdulkareem said the move would be unprecedented in the history of community broadcasting in Nigeria and was possible as a result of the success of the radio station.
“We can again be a trailblazer in campus television broadcasting, thereby adding extra value to the social, cultural and educational experiences of our students and that of the people in communities around us,” he said.
Adding that the radio station had met the objectives for which it was established, Abdulkareem acknowledged that it had also helped in the training of students across various departments at the university.
“I must say, proudly, that the steadfastness, purposefulness and professionalism with which our campus radio set pace in campus radio broadcasting is worthy of celebration today,” he said. “It has produced new talents through the opportunities it has been consistently providing for students to learn, in practical terms, radio broadcasting.”
Ishaq Modibo-Kawu, director general of the National Broadcasting Commission, who was also at the event, noted that broadcasting had vital roles to play in assisting in the achievement of sustainable development programmes.
He recalled that when the first television service in Africa was established in 1959 the vision of Chief Obafemi Awolowo was to use it as an avenue for assisting the free education programme in the region.
“It was a very important victory for all of us in broadcasting that Nigeria opened up the aperture of campus broadcasting, first from the University of Lagos and, subsequently, all over Nigeria,” he said.
“If we understand that concept in the context defined by the United Nations system, or as domesticated within our own realities, our national struggle against underdevelopment must be apprehended within the framework of the effort to attain sustainable development.”
The radio station was set up on August 13, 2009 and trains and prepares students for careers in the media as well as for community development purposes.