Opinions

Digital switch over: Crucifixion in place of applause

IN Nigeria today, one of the projects that deserved applause for the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari is the Digital Switch Over (DSO), a multi-billion Naira project principally conceived and designed to enable Nigerians to connect the world effortlessly. But the reverse is now the case due to a group of people with selfish motives moving clandestinely to crucify some professionals behind the historical success of the project. The project has not only further made more Nigerians to be abreast or more enlightened about government projects but also boosted their security awareness. Unlike in the past, when Nigerians particularly the less privileged had no option but to tune or subscribe to unaffordable multichannel television network providers, they can now tune to free television after purchasing a ubiquitous decoder for just a token and subscribe with only N1,500 per annum to watch over 30 channels including foreign programmes, dramas, latest news and sports. One of the brains behind the seamless digital communication success story is Pinnacle Communications. With the rare feat alone, Pinnacle Communications deserved a national award due to the professional expertise and doggedness the communication giant put into the project, thus making Nigeria to move a step further in digital communication.

The inauguration of the project from Jos to Abuja, Ilorin to Kaduna and other states of the federation was beamed live to the admiration of the concerned beneficiaries. Even before the DSO projects were completed, tested and confirmed to be working perfectly well and before final payments were made, a rarity to indigenous contractors, Pinnacle communications must have delivered the job. The signals are clear with very rich contents. One other major benefit of digital transition is that it offers greatly increased spectrum efficiency on the terrestrial television platform. With this, viewers across the country have been able to access many more and new television channels.As if that was not enough, new broadcasters have entered the market, thereby increasing competition and viewers choice. This has also enabled government to put in place the necessary regulations to ensure the availability of local content, media pluralism and viewer production. Similarly, the DSO has offered fresh opportunities for change of broadcast technology and equipment away from the analogue equipment that has become obsolete and difficult to maintain. Digital broadcasting has also provided choice of channels to consumers, high quality service, controlled pricing of pay channels and thus lowered billing to consumers. With the development, they now pay for what they wish to watch and also get internet video- on-demand and value added services through set-up-boxes.

The Ministrer of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed; the Director General, Nigeria Broadcasting Commission (NBC), Mallam Ishaq Moddibo Kawu, and other technical crew deserve commendation over the project because of their laudable roles at different stages of the project. But to the utter dismay of many beneficiaries of the project, some individuals and a group of beneficiaries of the project have opted to call a dog a bad name so as to hang it. They have started blackmailing and condemning it for personal interest against the larger Nigerians and even that of the Federal Government Must all things in Nigeria be politicised? Is it a must that all good things must come to you, your family, your friends or your associates? This is where the issue of the fifth columnists in government comes in. And the present unfolding scenario in the NBC, an agency under the supervision of the Federal Ministry of Information and Culture, is of great concern.

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One undisputable fact is that Pinnacle Communications Limited is the only private licensed signal distributor for the Federal Government approved implementation of the transition from Analogue to digital terrestrial television broadcasting in Nigeria, in accordance with the 2012 Government White Paper Section 11.2 (a) which approved that “more than one signal distributor be licensed in addition to NTA, the public licensed signal distributor.” The company described the N2.5 billion in dispute as a very modest request for it to continue its digital distribution of television signals to Nigeria homes.In his own position, the DG of NBC, Mallam Modibo Kawu, argued that the said payment had already been approved by former president Goodluck Jonathan before he left office in May 29, 2015. It was, however, reliably gathered that the said money in question was sourced from private investors and earmarked for the development of digital switch over. There was also another claim in some quarters that the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, whose ministry is in charge of the deal, was instrumental to the release of the N2.5 billion broadcast signals provider. One aspect that involved President Muhammadu Buhari in the project is that he asked the EFCC to release N10 billion to Kawu and the NBC in a letter dated September 29, 2016 via his Chief of Staff, Mallam Abba Kyari.

In the letter, President Buhari specifically told Kawu that the fund had been released strictly for digital switch over project and mandated him to provide update on its judicious use. With this development, the money in question was judiciously approved by the Presidency. All said and done, it appears that a hidden agenda is in the offing to cruxify some individuals. This has therefore brought to the fore the common saying that “whenever you are digging the hole for your enemy, don’t let it be too deep, because you might end up falling into the deep ditch.” It is confounding that while geniuses in advanced climes are being celebrated for coming into the world of their own and etching their footprints in the sands of time, the attitude here is the pull-him-down syndrome. And one is tempted to ask. For how long would this “bad belle” subsist? The time is ripe to appreciate those with “natural cherished possession” in our midst.