The Broadcasting Organisations of Nigeria (BON) is calling on the government to halt the sale of the spectrum primarily allocated to broadcast organisations to telecom operators. This is due to the devastating effects the sale will have on the future development of television and radio in the country.
This call was made by the organization through a communiqué issued at the end of its General Assembly and Annual General Meeting (AGM), held at Transcorp Hotel Abuja, and anticipated consequences it will have on the general public.
The communiqué chairman, Ahaziah Abubakar Suleiman emphasised that the organisation was of the views that if the sale is allowed it will limit television broadcast in Nigeria permanently on Standard Definition (SD), while other countries are already advancing to High Definition (HD) and Ultra High Definition (UHD).
The organization agreed to use the platform of its members to call the attention of the Government and the general public to the looming problems that will likely take the television out of the reach of the middle and lower class.
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“The Assembly called on the National Assembly to wade into the matter of purported sale of the spectrum primarily allocated to broadcasting in Nigeria and warned that the decision to co-habit broadcasting with telecom has not been taken by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU).
“The Assembly calls on the Federal Government to consider broadcast media houses in its planned financial assistance to small and medium businesses because of the accumulated effects running the stations during the Covid-19 pandemic in the national interests without any revenue for almost 12 months”, the statement added.
BON also called on individual media practitioners and broadcast media houses to ensure upholding of professionalism in the discharge of their sacred duties.
The General Assembly, while analysing the renewed hope agenda of the current administration, noted the desire of the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to reposition the nation’s economy, and equally called him and his team to adopt methods that will restore the value of the nation’s currency and the quick completion of turn around maintenance refineries to bring down the cost of petroleum products in the country.
