Get rid of political deadwoods, Dokpesi tells Nigerians
Nigeria’s
leadership is the deadweight slowing down the pace of development in
the country said Raymond Dokpesi, the chairman of Daar Communication
Plc at a breakfast meeting organised by the School of Media and
Communication, Pan-African University.
He said Nigerians,
being naturally passionate about their ambitions have all it takes to
be the best in any endeavour, “only if we get rid of these deadwoods in
the leadership [position].”
Mr. Dokpesi who
spoke on “the pains and gains of establishing a world class media
enterprise,” recounted the ordeals he had to contend with in the hands
of Nigerian leadership before his African Independent television could
attain its current status.
Broadcast commission is ruining private media
Mr. Dokpesi said
the policies of the Nigerian Broadcasting Commission is not only weird
when compared to global best practices but are designed to “kill
private media houses before they even start.” For example, the license
fee in 1994 was N750,000 but it is now in excess of N100m.
“In the US, two or three networks can collaborate to share a license but not in Nigeria,” he said.
He passionately
condemned the means of funding private and government-owned media
houses, describing it as a death sentence for private media houses.
As he explained,
private media houses are funded through advert subscriptions while
public media houses are funded through government’s subventions.
In essence, public media houses should air no advert since they are funded with taxpayers’ money.
“But in Nigeria,
NTA receives between fifteen to twenty billion naira annually from the
government and still collect adverts,” he said.
Here lies the death
sentence: advert rates on public media houses are at rock bottom low
forcing their private counterparts to adopt economically nonviable
advert rates and “if you try to increase your rate, NBC will say ‘no,
you can’t go beyond this price’.
So after a media
house has paid the huge license fee and bought equipment, it can only
run for about three years before it stars having financial problems,”
he said.
Annual return to the NBC is another death blow in the form of policy.
“They said Section
14 [of the NBC act] empowers the commission to collect 2.5 percent of
revenue of media houses annually, a levy that no public media house is
forced to remit,” he said.
A bereft regulator
Mr. Dokpesi
described Nigerian broadcast technology as half a century behind
current technologies, even though the country started broadcasting well
ahead of many other African countries.
“These people spend
their estacodes in hotels when they travel abroad instead of exposing
themselves to technological developments in the industry,” he said
while narrating how the NBC “arrogantly” turned down his proposal for a
pilot digital transmission. They asked if he really thought Nigerians
are as freaky about technology as he was.
“Ben Bruce, while
at NTA spent more than N60 billion buying analog transmitters – new
equipment but obsolete technology. And today, those equipment are
useless,” he said.
Support the media houses
Mr. Dokpesi pleaded
with Nigerians to support ambitious and credible media houses so they
do not die. “What we need is accurate and timely information about
ourselves and the opportunities around us. But most Nigerians know next
to nothing about their country not to talk of other African countries,”
he said.
He also has kind
words for Nigerian journalists, describing them as having made
tremendous sacrifice towards Nigeria’s development. And there is good
news for AIT’s officials as the chairman promised to pay all salary
arrears; however, that promise is tied to the payment of AIT’s
services, rendered to the federal government during the 2009 U20 World
Cup event.
“The money I could
have used for salaries had to be drafted to provide an international
broadcast control centre for the event because NTA, even after getting
N8.6 billion from the government, will not provide it,” he said.
Because of the
quality of the broadcast for the event, the event’s Vice Chairman has
been appointed as a permanent member of FIFA and AIT will be supporting
the forthcoming World Cup in South Africa with some of its equipment.
“Though Nigeria keeps getting the glory, AIT doesn’t and N8.6 billion went down the drain.”
“Ladies and gentlemen,” concluded Mr. Dokpesi who said he will
never contest an election in Nigeria, though he will forever be
interested in Nigerian politics, “it has been pains all along. I pray
that soon the gains will start coming in.”
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