Nigeria: NATIONAL ASSEMBLY URGED TO PASS INFORMATION BILL

> MEDIA IN NIGERIA #01-20 (22 JULY 2002)
>
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> MEDIA IN NIGERIA is a weekly publication on developments
> within and
> affecting the media/communication/freedom of expression
> sector in Nigeria.
>
> It is an initiative of the Institute for Media and Society
> (IMS), a non-profit,
> non-governmental organization based in Lagos, Nigeria.
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>
> NEWS
>
> MEDIA-GENERAL
> -NATIONAL ASSEMBLY URGED TO PASS FOI BILL
> -DELE GIWA: OPUTA REPLIES CRITICS
> -NAWOJ WARNED AGAINST HOLDING CONGRESS
>
> PRINT MEDIA
> -PUNCH RAISES ALARM OVER POLICE HARASSMENT
> -DAILY TIMES PETITIONS JUDICIAL COMMISSION OVER
> JUDGE’S BEHAVIOUR
>
> BROADCAST MEDIA
> -NBC TO COLLABORATE WITH VARSITIES ON STUDENTS’
> TRAINING
>
> INFOTECH
> -MICROSOFT SEEKS CO-OPERATION ON PIRACY
> -IILL’S $100M LOAN: LONGE, FIRST BANK TRADE TACKLES
> -NCC BEGINS PROCESS OF LICENCING SECOND CARRIER
> -REPS ACCUSE GSM OPERATORS OF FRAUD
>
> ADVERTISING
> -NPAN GIVES AGENCIES ULTIMATUM TO PAY N800M DEBT
>
>
> MEDIA-GENERAL
>
> NATIONAL ASSEMBLY URGED TO PASS FOI BILL
>
> The Nigerian parliament, the National Assembly, has been
> called upon to promote transparency and accountability in
> the country by urgently passing the Freedom of Information
> Bill currently before it.
>
> The call formed part of the resolutions of a recent workshop
> on 'Contentious Issues in the Review of the 1999
> Constitution' organised in Abuja by the
> Citizens' Forum for Constitutional Reform (CFCR), a
> network of civil society organisations.
>
> Participants at the workshop implored the law makers to
> approach their oversight functions with higher sense of
> responsibility, and to ensure that the National Women
> policy which provides that at least 30 percent of all
> positions should be occupied by either sex, is supported by
> law.
>
> The workshop identified the contentious issues in the
> review of the 1999 constitution to include Federalism,
> Affirmative Action, Political Parties/State Independent
> Electoral Commissions, Resource control, Religion, State
> Police, and National Conference. It appealed to the Federal
> Government to revisit the review of the constitution by
> appointing an Independent Commission and issuing a time
> table to guide the exercise.
>
>
> DELE GIWA: OPUTA REPLIES CRITICS
>
> The Chairman of the Human Rights Violations Investigation
> Commission (HRVIC), Justice Chukwudifu Oputa (Rtd), has
> said that he is not disturbed by comments of those who are
> imputing political motives to the recommendations of the
> commission, especially as they affect the murder of the
> late Editor-in-Chief of Newswatch magazine, Mr. Dele Giwa.
>
> “With my experience in life, I don’t think
> things like that bother me again… What is important
> is that an assignment was given to us by our country and we
> did it very well to the best of our knowledge, without fear
> or favour from any quarters,” Justice Oputa said in
> an interview with The Punch newspaper.
>
> Loyalists of former military president, General Ibrahim
> Babangida,s had sneered at the commission’s report,
> claiming that it was a hatchet job, targeted at combusting
> the presidential ambition of the former military leader.
>
> Oputa refused to comment on the politics of the report,
> contending that the matter was subjudice.
>
> Babangida and two of his erstwhile security chiefs, General
> Haliru Akilu (Rtd) and Colonel Kunle Togun (Rtd) had gone
> to court, seeking orders to stop the implementation of the
> commission’s report as it affects the murder of late
> Dele Giwa.
>
>
> NAWOJ WARNED AGAINST HOLDING CONGRESS
>
> More than a month after it banned beats associations
> operating in the establishments of its affiliates, the
> Newspaper Proprietors Association of Nigeria (NPAN) has
> warned female journalists operating under the umbrella of
> National Association of Women Journalists (NAWOJ) against
> holding a congress slated for later in the year.
>
> Mr. Ray Ekpu, President of NPAN, who gave the warning in
> Port Harcourt, South-East Nigeria, said NAWOJ and similar
> beat associations operating as an arm of journalism
> industry remained banned.
>
> The NPAN president affirmed that the only body recognized
> by the Nigeria Press Council within the media industry
> remains the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ).
>
> “In other words, NAWOJ and all the others that are
> parading themselves as an organisation within the media
> industry are doing so without recognition, and they will be
> stopped,” Ekpu said.
>
> Despite the ban, it is common knowledge in the media
> circles that beat organizations still thrive in Nigeria.
>
>
> PRINT MEDIA
>
> PUNCH RAISES ALARM OVER POLICE HARASSMENT
>
> The management of Punch Newspapers has raised alarm over
> alleged intimidation and harassment of its staff by
> officers and men of the Nigeria Police.
>
> In an editorial in its edition of Tuesday July 16, 2002 The
> Punch said it was disturbed by “evidence that some
> members of the Nigeria Police Force may have identified
> Punch as the deadly foe of the police.”
>
> The newspaper noted that “almost daily, in the last
> few weeks, staff of the newspaper have been harassed,
> abused and threatened at various check points in the Lagos
> metropolis. The trend is so noticeable that it is now
> hazardous for staff of the company to produce their
> identity cards on demand by the police.”
>
> It attributed the police hostility to their grouse over the
> critical coverage of the recent police killings at
> checkpoints in Lagos. It, however, observed that no aspect
> of its report on the killings had been refuted by the
> police authorities.
>
> “What sections of the police probably resent about
> the paper is its commitment to publishing the facts as they
> are. But the police would be fighting the wrong enemy if
> they direct their aggression against Punch for dutifully
> holding up a true mirror to them,” the paper
> declared.
>
> In a related development, the Lagos State Council of the
> Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), has appealed to the
> State Police Commissioner, Mr. Young Arebamen, to stop the
> harassment and intimidation of journalists by policemen,
> especially those mounting roadblocks and those conducting
> “stop-and-search” operation in Lagos.
>
> The union, in an open letter to Arebamen, complained that
> policemen had made it their duty to harass journalists
> especially those carrying Punch identity cards.
>
>
>
> DAILY TIMES PETITIONS JUDICIAL COMMISSION
> OVER JUDGE’S BEHAVIOUR
>
> The Daily Times of Nigeria Plc. (DTN) has dragged a judge
> of the Kogi State High Court, Justice S.I. Leslie, to the
> National Judicial Commission over alleged professional
> misconduct in a Libel suit brought against the newspaper by
> the Kogi State Governor, Prince Abubakar Audu.
>
> In a petition sent to the Chief Justice of the Federation,
> Justice Mohammed Uwais, the Managing Director and Chief
> Executive of the DTN, Dr. Onukaba Adinoyi-Ojo, accused the
> judge of bias against the DTN, its managing director and
> the Sunday Times Editor, Mr. Tunde Ipinmisho.
>
> Adinoyi-Ojo alleged that following the suit instituted
> against the DTN after its publication of the purchase by
> Audu of some exotic houses in Europe and America, Justice
> Leslie, against the tradition of fair hearing, proceeded to
> grant the injunction without ensuring that the parties in
> the suit had been served.
>
> “In fact, we have been reliably informed that Justice
> Leslie was on a two-week casual leave to attend a course on
> pastoral work at Living Faith Church, Lokoja, when he
> signed the injunction in his house at 8 p.m,” the DTN
> alleged.
>
>
>
> BROADCAST MEDIA
>
> NBC TO COLLABORATE WITH VARSITIES ON STUDENTS’
> TRAINING
>
> The National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) is to work with
> all the Departments of Mass Communication in the
> nation’s universities to ensure quality manpower for
> the broadcast industry.
>
> NBC’s Director General, Malam Danladi Bako, said in
> the latest edition of the commission’s in-house
> journal, that the research and planning department of the
> commission has been mobilized to liaise with such
> institutions in the country with a view to achieving its
> vision for the production of quality mass communication
> graduates.
>
> Bako said the training programme would encompass the rules
> and codes of broadcasting, to familiarize the students with
> what they would be confronted with in real practice.
>
>
>
> INFOTECH
>
> MICROSOFT SEEKS COOPERATION ON PIRACY
>
> The private sector has been called upon to assist the
> government to combat the scourge to piracy in Nigeria.
>
> Microsoft’s Marketing and Anti-Piracy Manager in
> Nigeria, Meekam Mgbenwelu, who made the call, disclosed
> that Nigeria has the highest piracy rate of 71 percent in
> West Africa.
>
> “This shows that seven out of every ten personal
> computers in use are running pirated software”, he
> added.
>
> He noted that intellectual property (IP) rights in the
> country have been relegated to the background, adding that
> Nigeria may be hindered from enjoying the gains of the
> information age if piracy is not tackled.
>
> According to him, “software piracy blights the
> economic landscape, crippling opportunities for the viable
> take off of the country’s software industry and sends
> a negative message to potential foreign investors,
> particularly those interested in information
> technology,” he said.
>
>
> IILL’s $100m LOAN: LONGE, FIRST BANK TRADE TACKLES
>
> With the Federal High Court in Lagos fixing July 31, for
> hearing in the suit brought against First Bank Nigeria Plc
> by its former Managing Director, Mr. Bernard Longe, the
> battle line is drawn between the two parties.
>
> Longe who was in the employ of First Bank for 33 years is
> contesting his June 13 dismissal for allegedly unilaterally
> disbursing $111.7 million to the promoters of Investors
> International (London) Limited (IILL) in their bid to
> acquire 51 percent equity share of the Nigeria
> Telecommunications Limited, contrary to corporate financial
> regulations.
>
> The former Chief Executive, through his lawyer, Chief
> Rotimi Williams (SAN), is seeking among others, an order
> that the bank’s board of directors erred in
> dismissing him, a reversal of the decision as well as
> compensation to the tune of N136,614,584.
>
> Longe, in a newspaper adversarial last week denied that he
> acted alone in granting the loan to IILL, alleging that his
> removal was a conspiracy.
>
> But the Bank insists that Longe stands guilty of non-full
> disclosure on the credit to IILL.
>
> He was said to have failed to ensure full protection for
> the bank on the transaction in which he was accused to have
> overshot the bank’s lending.
>
> First bank, had last year granted IILL $111.7 million to
> enable it pay a mandatory deposit of 10 percent for 51
> percent stake of NITEL.
>
> First Bank’s management have obtained the services of
> Chief Richard Akinjide, SAN, former Attoney General and
> Minister of Justice and Dr. Hameed Kusamota, to represent
> it in the case before the Federal High Court, Lagos.
>
>
> NCC BEGINS PROCESS OF LICENCING SECOND CARRIER
>
> The Nigerian Communications Commission on July 18, 2002
> began the process of receiving applications from
> prospective operators of the Second National Operator
> (SNO).
>
> By the timetable contained in the “Information
> Memorandum and Application Instruments”, successful
> applicants at this stage will, on July 30, 2002 proceed to
> the financial stage, after payment of the stipulated
> deposit.
>
> Announcement of the three highest bidders is expected to be
> made on August 9, 2002 while the successful bidder has
> until Friday, August 30, 2002 to effect payment of the
> requisite license fee.
>
> The SNO license is made up of a National Carrier License,
> an International Gateway License and Digital Mobile
> License.
>
>
> REPS ACCUSE GSM OPERATORS OF FRAUD
>
> The leading operators of the Global System of Mobile
> telecommunications (GSM) in Nigeria, Econet Wireless and
> MTN, have been accused of defrauding subscribers to the
> tune of N12 billion.
>
> The Ad hoc committee of the House of Representatives, the
> lower arm of the Nigerian parliament, investigating the
> operations of the GSM companies, said the sum represented
> the losses incurred by subscribers on account of the GSM
> operators’ billing system.
>
> The committee led by Hon. Tony Anyanwu, in its report to
> the House, claimed that its computation of the cost to
> Nigerians of the average time loss per user, based on the
> pre-paid services of both MTN and Econet, showed that
> subscribers lose a third of the call-time guaranteed by
> their respective refill cards due to the arbitrantress of
> the billing system.
>
> “Consequently, for every refill card purchased, the
> subscribers lose on the average the sum of N500 in the case
> of MTN and N333 to Econet. It said when these base figures
> are applied to the declared profits by MTN recently, the
> firm would be seen to have defrauded its Nigerian
> subscribers of about N6 billion.
>
> The committee advised the Minister of Communications and
> the Nigeria Communications Commission to design the best
> possible means for the GSM firms to ensure a refund of the
> fraudulently obtained N12 billion to subscribers, while all
> incentives to them be withheld until their tariffs are
> slashed to N10 per minute.
>
> Reacting to the report, Afam Edozie who is in charge of
> MTN’s marketing operations said the move to regulate
> prices for GSM services was against free market enterprise,
> adding that “it does not make business sense.”
>
> Stressing the promise of a free market environment at the
> beginning, Edozie said, “it is very important that
> when we set rules in an industry we have to stick to the
> rules.”
>
> Similarly, Mr. Titi Omo-Etu, the Chief Executive of
> Cyberchuul, cautioned the House against the use of
> executive fiat to force down GSM tariffs, as it could be
> counter productive.
>
> He said that rather than using legislative might to enforce
> GSM tariff review, the House of Representatives should
> monitor the activities of the executive arm of government
> with a view to ensuring the provision of infrastructure
> needed for the smooth operations of the telecom sector.
>
> Meanwhile, the NCC has promised to set up an arbitration
> panel to protect GSM subscribers in the country.
>
> NCC’s Chief Executive, Mr. Ernest Ndukwe said the
> panel will look into complaints by consumers and give
> redress to complaints while guilty operators would be
> fined.
>
>
>
> ADVERTISING
>
> NPAN GIVES AGENCIES ULTIMATUM TO PAY N800m DEBT
>
> Advertising agencies indebted to members of the Newspapers
> Proprietors Association of Nigeria (NPAN) have been given
> two weeks to settle their debt.
>
> The ultimatum, which expires at the end of July 2002, was
> the high point of the National Executive Council (NEC)
> meeting of the association held in Port Harcourt,
> South-East Nigeria.
>
> Total indebtedness of the agencies to the print media is
> put at about N800 million. “Our rough estimates is
> that the print media is owed about N800 million by the
> advertisement agencies. A lot of the debts have remained
> unpaid for a long time, and the agencies have been riddling
> the media on this stage and we thought it was time to take
> firm action to recover our money”, Mr. Ray Ekpu,
> president of NPAN said.
>
> He said the ultimatum was merely to reiterate a position
> earlier adopted at a media summit in Abuja, some months
> ago.
>
>
> LETTERS
>
> (We begin, this week, to publish the feedback we have been
> receiving from our readers).
>
> MIN, A REMARKABLE ACHIEVEMENT
>
> The issues you report in MEDIA IN NIGERIA are judiciously
> chosen and the reports themselves quite illuminating.
> Overall, a remarkable achievement.
> Keep up the good work.
>
> -Prof. Olatunji Dare
> Bradley University, USA
>
>
> CUTTING OFF CORRUPTION
>
> I enjoyed the MEDIA IN NIGERIA edition of 01 July 2002,
> especially its news analysis titled “Journalism in
> Danger”.
> I believe that the gangrene of corruption needs to be
> totally cut off from Nigerian journalism if our democracy
> must survive.
>
> -Dr. Tunde Babawale
> Dept. of Political Science
> University of Lagos, Nigeria.
> -----ENDS----
>
>
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