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While the nation mourned the death of the First Lady, Mrs. Stella Obasanjo, and the demise of 117 passengers and crew of Bellview Airline's flight 210 on October 23, a discreet power show led to the closure of African Independent Television and its sister station, Ray Power 100.5 FM, Bolaji Adebiyi in this report examines the undercurrent of the closure and concludes that politics was at the heart of the matter.
While the nation mourned the death of the First Lady, Mrs. Stella Obasanjo, and the demise of 117 passengers and crew of Bellview Airline's flight 210 on October 23, a discreet power show led to the closure of African Independent Television and its sister station, Ray Power 100.5 FM, Bolaji Adebiyi in this report examines the undercurrent of the closure and concludes that politics was at the heart of the matter.
The last may not have been heard of the temporary closure of Daar Communications Limited's two broadcast stations, African Independent Television (AIT) and Ray power 100.5 FM. Last week, the chairman of the parent company, Chief Aleogho Raymond Dokpesi, threatened a court action against the broadcast regulatory agency, the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC), for what he called the illegal closure of his stations even if for a brief 14 hours. Daar's case was that it needed to clear its name and restore the integrity of its professionals that had been rubbished by the content of the NBC closure order. The commission in closing down the stations in the evening of October 23 had accused them of unprofessional conducts. Specifically, it said AIT was guilty of indecency by showing close-up shots of decapitated body parts of the victims of the ill-fated Bellview Aircraft that crashed at Lisa Village in Ifo Local Government Area of Ogun State.
Secondly, it said the announcement, on the location, that there could be no survivors when competent authorities had not fully assessed the situation, and when the families of the victims had not been informed, was a breach of international practice that was observed in all crisis situations. The NBC said it was particularly miffed by the fact that the stations breached these professional codes despite prior pleas by top public officials and well meaning Nigerians to handle the sad development with caution. According to the commission, the professional flaws fell within categories A and B breaches of the Nigeria Broadcasting Code, the consequence of which, particularly, category A, was temporary shut down of the offending station.
The commission was to be more specific about the basis of its action later when it cited section 5.6.4 of the Nigerian Broadcasting Code which states that "during crisis, presentation of morbid or graphic details, fatalities, injuries or exaggerated census of casualties are prohibited, so as to avoid panic escalation or reprisals."
For Daar's Dokpesi, these allegations, to the extent that they lacked merits, seriously impugned the integrity of his stations and that of his staff. As far as he was concerned the broadcast of the scene of the crash almost 16 hours after all relevant government agencies had failed to clear the air on the fate of the plane was to clear the uncertainty that the nation had been thrown into by the failings of the government agencies. For this, he said, he expected commendation, not condemnation.
Besides, he argued that the suggestion by his station from location that it was unlikely that there were survivors was nothing more than stating the obvious since the footages showed by AIT showed not only mangled human parts and wreckage of the plane but a crater beneath in which the remains of the plane was buried. In any case, he argued further, the broadcast was about three hours after the owner of the plane, Bellview Airlines, had released the manifest, signifying that it presumed that the passengers and crew might have died. He denied that anybody, including the NBC persuaded the stations not to broadcast the crash site. In the circumstances, therefore, Dokpesi believed that since Daar's account of the sequence of events leading to the closure differed markedly from the NBC's, it would be necessary to seek redress from an independent arbiter so that its reputation for good professional practices would be restored.
Since the exchange of fireworks between Daar Communications and the NBC, the public had waded in, and understandably, most comments had been in favour of the former. Most people who queued up behind Daar Communications did so essentially because of their belief that the action of NBC was an affront on freedom of expression and the right of the people to know. Many more people did so because of their distrust of government and its officials, whose actions they always view with great suspicion. In this case, many commentators felt strongly that the temporary closure was ill-conceived and a regrettable throw-back to the dark days of dictatorship. 'I believe that it was a set back," said Wole Olanipekun, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, and former president of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA).
The public suspicion of the closure was heightened more by the peremptory manner it was done without due process. This for many commentators, was most unacceptable. 'The days of arbitrary closure of media houses and detentions of journalists outside due process are over," said Tony Momoh, a lawyer and former Minister of Information. For the Chairman of the NBA, Ikeja, Mr. Adekunle Ojo, what happened simply did not add up. 'What I felt was that it was a share political game by the NBC, it must not be allowed to go away unchallenged," he said. Dokpesi and his Daar Communications agree with him and are taking steps towards that. But did NBC play politics with the closure?
Following tongue lashing from an enraged public, the commission's Director-General, Dr. Silas Yisa, had a few hours after lifting the closure order insisted that the NBC's action was according to law. "Contrary to some imputations in the public domain, NBC actually contacted AIT and pointed out the need to abide by the code in their otherwise commendable breakthrough. It was the persistent refusal to comply with the relevant sections of the Code that necessitated the action of NBC,'' he said, adding that the broadcast was in clear breach of section 5.6.4 of the code. Furthermore, Yisa pointed out that section 10.3.1 of the code prohibits the "broadcasting of information immediately leading or likely to lead to a breakdown of law and order."
But Yisa might not have told the whole truth of the matter. At the time the closure was contemplated, he was not in the country. He was said to be in London tendering to his failing health. He was said to have been contacted on phone by a top government official who told him to choose between his job and closing down the two stations within a few hours. This was on Sunday afternoon after the AIT relayed events at the crash site. The development baffled Yisa, who had monitored the AIT report in London and reportedly called Dokpesi to congratulate him for being a worthy holder of his license. Now, contrary to his positive professional assessment of the coverage of the tragedy by the AIT, he was being asked to penalize the station and its sister, Ray Power 100.5 FM. By the time Yisa got back to Dokpesi to relate the turn of event to him, the Daar Communications chairman was said to have advised him to choose his job while he would explore other means to save his license.
Before the encounter with Yisa, Dokpesi had had a telephone encounter with a woman, who by her job at the Aso Rock Villa had become very powerful in recent times. The AIT had in breaking the news of the death of the First Lady, Mrs. Stella Obasanjo, said she died on the theatre table while she was being operated upon in Spain. This was at a time when The Villa was not yet clear about what to tell Nigerians on what led to the death of the President's wife. So, as it were, the AIT had embarrassed the President with its forwardness and the powerful woman thought this was unbecoming of a television station with such a powerful network.
The other problem was the relay from the crash site which gave gory details of the fate of the missing plane. This too was at a time when some authorities were spinning the story of the crash, by giving false hope to the public that the plane might still be somewhere safe with all its passengers and crew alive. The AIT report burst all that. And so between the top government official and the powerful woman, the fate of AIT and its sister station, Ray Power 100.5 FM, was being discussed to the hearing of one of the governors of the South-south states at the Villa. The governor promptly called Dokpesi on phone and asked him to speak to the woman. She reportedly spoke with the furry of a wounded lion, 'AIT has been most uncooperative in this matter. You have behaved most irresponsibly, and I do not think you deserve to hold your license." Dokpesi's effort to calm her down failed and the result was the temporary closure that followed almost immediately.
The officials' claim that the AIT behaved irresponsible by not acceding to 'entreaties from the regulators and senior government officials" might have referred to the conversation between Daar Communications' General Manager, Operations, Mr. Tony Akiotu, and the Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mr. Frank Nweke Jnr., on Sunday October 23 afternoon. After the AIT discovered the crash site, Akiotu established contact with the minister and the Director-General of the State Security Services, Col. Kayode Are rtd., who advised him to be cautious. It was this discussion that the authorities referred to as the stations' disregard for constituted authority. But the position in Daar Communications was that the two government officials negotiated with the wrong person as Akiotu was not in any position to commit the company to anything. The appropriate official in the absence of Dokpesi was Ladi Lawal, the executive director in charge of operations, and Akiotu's boss. In any case, Akiotu reported back to neither Dokpesi nor Lawal. Viewed against this background, Yisa's claim that suggested that it acted independently, could, therefore, be regarded as a political statement, which might have been aimed at masking the real motif of the closure.
Paradoxically, it was President Olusegun Obasanjo whose interest the government officials wanted to protect that was so embarrassed by the closure that he had to order the immediate reopening of the two stations to the admiration of many Nigerians who hitherto saw him as a hard man. 'We are grateful to the President for this act of justice," Dokpesi told THISDAY last week, but insisted that the action of the NBC must be challenged in the interest of democracy. He said freedom of expression and the press was so essential to the entrenchment of democracy that every act of government that tried to undermine it must be challenged. His contention was that unless acts like this was challenged, government officials might have the notion that they were above the law, when in fact, they were supposed to be committed to the protection of the due process.