Nig. Media Spreads Hate to increase sales circulation at the expense of National Peace & Stability
Clearer understanding of what this “fulani radio station to herdsmen” was all about. Had a feeling it was being misrepresented in a way.
“The Fulani radio station was a license given by the NBC to the National Commission for Nomadic Education (NCNE) which is charged with the implementation of the Nomadic Education Programme (NEP).
The NEP is aimed at providing and widening access to quality basic education for nomads in Nigeria, boosting literacy and equipping them with skills and competences to enhance their well-being and participation in the nation-building process.
Even the NBC in a rebuttal noted that it was an education license. It was clear in their stories that not only the Fulani’s are nomad, the Ijaw are nomad also. You can see how the BBC projected the story: https://t.co/UOoeygq07O
but our own media believes in spreading hate just to increase sales circulation at the expense of national peace and stability.
The NCNE asked for the license as their strategy is combatting the farmer/herder crisis, so all these noise is being pushed to overheat the polity for no just cause!
As a matter of fact, it’s not only peculiar to Nigeria, as even the Massai who are known nomads and found in Kenya and Tanzania have something similar to this:” https://t.co/7OJyhNsWuj
So if I may ask, who is against the education of these nomads?
Note that this proposed station to nomads is not to “militant or armed-herdsmen”. Anyone propagating that is just being malicious and want to stoke ethnic tensions all over again.
The NBC released a press statement on this issue yesterday. I’ll be adding it to this thread because I’m yet to see it in the mainstream media.
PRESS STATEMENT ON THE STATUS OF THE
RADIO LICENSE GRANTED TO THE NATIONAL
COMMISSION FOR NOMADIC EDUCATION
May 25th, 2019
The National Broadcasting Commission has called on all broadcasting stations
to exercise restraint in the treatment of sensitive issues that could threaten
the unity and stability of Nigeria.
The Commission enjoined broadcasting stations to be professional, and take
guidance from the Nigeria Broadcasting Code, at all times, reminding all
broadcasters to be mindful of their social responsibility to promote the well-being and peaceful co-existence of the various groups in Nigeria in keeping
with the objectives of broadcasting in Nigeria.
The Commission is reacting to the media controversy over the license granted to the National Commission for Nomadic Education for the establishment of a radio station to operate on the AM band.
The National Commission for Nomadic Education duly applied for Broadcast license in furtherance of its objectives to develop and maintain nomadic education outreach programmes, including electronically mediated ones.
The letter of provisional approval dated September 28th, 2018, was issued to the National Commission for Nomadic Education. The duration of the license is from October 8th, 2018 to October 8th, 2023.
The station’s programmes, which shall be purely educational, are designed to cater for the interest of migrant fishermen, herders, hunters, farmers, and migrants.
Consequently, it is a misrepresentation for any person, or organization to imply that the licensed station was just for a particular group
The Commission wishes to state that similar educational broadcast licences were issued to institutions of higher learning and other Governmental institutions with comparable needs, such as the Armed Forces of Nigeria, The
Federal Road safety Commission, and related institutions.
Specifically, the Commission enjoins broadcasting stations to take special note of the following provisions of the Nigeria Broadcasting Code, which emphasize peace and national integration.
There is section 3.1.2, which requires that:
“Materials likely to encourage or incite to the Commission of a
crime or lead to public disorder shall not be broadcast.”
Similarly section 5.5.5 of the Code prescribes that:
“A station shall not broadcast divisive rhetoric that threatens
and compromises the indivisibility and indissolubility of Nigeria
as a sovereign state.”
While upholding professionalism and observing global best practices, stations
are further advised to treat potentially divisive issues with tact and sensitivity.
The Commission therefore reiterates that broadcast organizations are
expected to exercise freedom of expression as agents of society, not for any personal or sectional rights, privileges and needs of their own or of their proprietors, relatives, rights or supporters as highlighted in the Nigeria
Broadcasting Code.
Signed:
MANAGEMENT