The Dean of Management Sciences,Veritas University, Abuja, and former acting Director General of the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC), Prof. Armstrong Idachaba, has advised for a return to the simple, honest, sincere, transparent objective of the Digital Switch Over.
He gave the advice while delivering a lecture on ‘The Digitization of ‘Broadcasting in Nigeria, Policy and Implementation, Benefit for Broadcasters’, at the Independent Broadcasting Association of Nigeria (IBAN) 2024 Annual General Meeting in Lagos on Wednesday.
According to him, a return to the old DSO will provide digital access to the poor and indigent through provision of free Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) signals to the people, supported by the governments.
He said that although so far, over N53bn has been committed by the government on the DSO, with over N3bn accrued as DAF, there is still no “transparency in how the DSO fund has been managed.”
“Without doubt I am very familiar with the issues-in fact when Alhaji Ramalan called me to participate at this conference, he told me Prof , you are speaking on the title of that your Book. Reminding me that I had actually reflected on these issues in the year 2017, that’s 7 years ago.
“It is indeed worrisome that some of the value driven aspirations and dreams of the DSO are yet to be actualized-owing to my mind on a myriad of issues-mostly lack of focus, self-centeredness, corruption, greed and regulatory interference even regulatory capture.
“Consequence of this is that the project has suffered several draw backs, negative perception, lack od integrity and low results. Many stakeholders have been shortchanged, and left in the lurch. It is my earnest desire and prayer that we ignite the valuable potentials of the DSO to the benefit of Nigerians first and we stakeholders.
“Therefore, we must return to the simple, honest, sincere, transparent objective of the DSO- provide digital access to the poor and indigent through provision of free DTT signals to the people , supported by the governments,”
“This will in turn create a DTT audience of aver 40 Million homes- with diverse pluralistic content and options for Nigerian’s,” he said.
He added that the move will lead perhaps to the biggest television content and advert market in Africa.
He advised that the NBC and Digiteam must be left alone to drive this process devoid of regulatory capture, personal commercial interests and interference.
“Digiteam needs rejig and an audit of its importance, going forward,” he said, adding that the process must be inclusive-investments and contracts must be settled.
“The two signal distributors must merge to form one entity -there is DTT foot prints already by the pay TV companies- they must have business collaboration facilitated by the regulator-patriotically.
“STBMS must also unite and create a common purpose vehicle- dispose their ware housed boxes and transform to broadcast equipment manufacturers,” he said, adding that all the processes can be achieved in six months “if we are committed to moving forward.”
