Chairman of the Board of the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC), Alhaji Ikra Aliyu Bilbis, has described the amendment of the 6th Edition of National Broadcasting Code as an illegality perpetrated by the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, and acting Director-General of the Commission, Professor Armstrong Idachaba.
Addressing a press conference in Abuja on Thursday,Alhaji Bilbis said the Minister went beyond schedule of his legal responsibility by amending the code in a manner that threatens to destroy investments and lead to loss of jobs.
According to him, previous Information Ministers never interfered with the review of the code, saying that the NBC Act empowers the Commission to regulate industry practice standards, not the Information Minister.
Mr. Bilbis said he received over 50 position papers for the sixth amendment of the code but none of them was used.
“Following the 2019 national elections, some members of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) made observations to the Honourable Minister of Information at a FEC meeting about the divisive broadcasts engaged in by some broadcast media before, during and after the elections and the need to strengthen the operations of the NBC to avert such future occurrence.
“This noble observation of Mr. President was unfortunately misunderstood by the Hon. Minister of Information.
“Instead of studying and following the law, relevant rules and regulations, and direct the appropriate authorities as stipulated by the law to act on, he erroneously embarked on the review alone.
As a board, we have received and taken our time to compile the responses of numerous stakeholders which include our Nobel laureate, activists, legal practitioners, broadcasters, investors, BON, Content Creators, Copyright experts, and professional organizations. Most of them have adduced reasonable reasons against the proposed amendment.
READ ALSO: Why We Are Charging N5m For Hate Speech- Lai Mohammed
“The NBC was set up by law and there is an Act that guides its operations. The Honourable Minister therefore cannot usurp the powers of the board as clearly stated in the act. Any such action by the Honourable Minister is illegal.
“The board of the NBC wishes to make it quite clear that as long as it is in place, the only NB Code that we recognize and which we shall work within the setting of operating policies and standards for the NBC is the 6th edition of the NB Code which was launched in 2019 in Kano,” he said.
