The Cable
Lai Mohammed, minister of information and culture, is hoping to reintroduce the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) Act amendment bill through the executive bill route, TheCable understands.
The bill seeks to empower the commission with the power to regulate social media, internet broadcasting, fix tariffs for pay television services, among other functions.
According to insiders privy to the development, Mohammed’s first step towards the reintroduction of the amendment as an executive bill will be executed on Tuesday at a meeting in Benin, Edo state.
The meeting will be attended by officials of the ministry of information, the NBC and the National Information Development Agency (NITDA), among others.
TheCable understands that the meeting is a smokescreen to indicate that there was wide consultation of industry stakeholders before the presentation of the executive bill to the national assembly.
Insiders say the executive bill will be simultaneously presented to both chambers of the national assembly and an accelerated passage will be carried out.
PREVIOUS FAILED ATTEMPTS
On August 4 2020, the information minister had launched the sixth national broadcasting code in Lagos, despite industry-wide opposition.
Speaking during the launch, Mohammed had said the code was”signed, sealed and delivered”.
Industry stakeholders had branded the code as agenda-driven, noting that they were excluded from making inputs before it was finalised.
Jason Njoku, CEO of IrokoTV, described the code as “quasi-socialism” and a means of subsidising inefficiency in the industry.
