The Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC says it was with disbelief that it received
the news of the withdrawal of the licenses of 52 electronic media houses.
A statement signed by NLC President, Ayuba Wabba said,
the reason given by the National Broadcasting Commission, NBC was that the affected media houses failed to pay for license renewal.
In defence of the media, the democratic and economic rights of
Nigerians, the NLC called on the NBC to rescind the decision to withdraw
the operating licenses of the affected 53 media houses.
It urged that the media operating licence be
reviewed downwards, as information dissemination is a social service.
It added that it has received with some relief new reasoning from NBC to allow the affected media houses to continue to operate.
It says it is
commendable.
The NLC said while it understands that the NBC has a regulatory duty to ensure that
rules are kept, it believes that the action taken is a little
too drastic, dramatic, draconian, and debilitating, not only for the affected media houses but also for their staff and indeed millions of Nigerians who follow programmes from the affected media houses.
The NLC says the first instinct is to withdraw the operating license
by NBC is the idea that the affected media houses did not deliberately avoid paying for their operating licenses.
The Labour movement added that the most palpable reason for the failure of many of the media houses to pay for the renewal of their operating licenses could be easily found in the deteriorating
economic conditions in Nigeria, which it says is understandable, given the severe stress and strain that businesses in Nigeria have been subjected to, owing to the fallout of the Covid-19 lockdown in 2020, the
ongoing disruption in global and domestic energy supply, the
foreign exchange volatilities and the associated hyper-inflation.
The NLC adds that many media houses, just like most businesses in Nigeria, suffer the
double jeopardy of escalating business costs and plummeting
revenues, which is largely blamed on the sad state of affairs, due to the government’s mismanagement of the economy, which has ensured that a litre of
diesel is now at the borderline of N1000.
Also Read : NBC extends deadlines for revocation of broadcast licences
Labour says to compound the
the situation is the epileptic supply of electricity, with the national grid
collapsing intermittently for the umpteenth time in recent months, the soaring and scary rising energy costs which hit
electronic media houses, given that they must always be on air whether it makes economic sense or not.
It says there are salaries to pay,
maintenance services and sundry basic operating costs to keep the
media houses running and serving their listening and viewing public.
Labour asks that amidst these operational suffocations, how does NBC expect the media houses to generate the money to renew the operating licenses?
Adding that the action of NBC also smacks of insensitivity to the welfare of the staff of the media houses, whose operations are being shut down.
NLC says it is unthinkable that in the middle of a very traumatic economic reality, the government would be thinking of flinging many Nigerians into the unemployment market.
(Editor: Ifeanyi Mark)
