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Obasanjo’s
Eight Years as President were the Worst Era for Private Broadcasting -
Chief Aleogho Dokpesi
Chief Aleogho Raymond Dokpesi, Chairman of Daar Communications Ltd,
owners and operators of Raypower FM radios and Africa Independent
Television (AIT) has revealed that the Obasanjo years as President of
the Federal Republic of Nigeria constituted the worst era so far for the
nation’s private broadcasters and the broadcast industry. He said his
eight years reign as the nation’s first citizens were worst than those
of military dictatorship for the industry adding that he believes “every
Nigerian can attest to the fact that the eight woeful years of Obasanjo
were very, very painful years.
He made these and other revelations in an interview with a private
paper, Daily Independent newspaper
According to Chief Dokpesi, President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua’s coming into
the saddle of leadership has reduced tension and made the environment
now more conducive for private broadcasting in Nigeria to operate. He
said that President Yar’Adua, unlike Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, does not
breathe down an individual but works according to the rule of law and
national interest adding that Ex-President Obasanjo wanted to cut short
the lifespan of Daar Communication Ltd because its subsidiaries,
Raypower FM and AIT created a platform for Obasanjo’s perceived enemies
like Umar Ghali Na’abba and Chuba Okadigbo to express their [opposing]
views, to talk to the nation.
Chief Dokpesi said Obasanjo once confronted him with these facts and
actually did not wanted his perceived enemies to be granted a voice in
the stations. But he said he could not be dictating what the
professional journalists were doing in order to satisfy one person.
He said military dictators in Nigeria did not do anything to stifle
private broadcasting, in fact Gen. Ibrahim Babangida, and ex-military
head of State deregulated the broadcast sector, allowing for private
participation, whereas the era of Obasanjo from 1999-2007 became the
worst years in the history of private broadcasting in the country. He
added: “These were the years Chief Olusegun Obasanjo killed the spirit
of all private investors in broadcasting.” He explained that there was
no single private broadcaster granted licence during the Babangida or
Abacha years that Obasanjo did not try to frustrate saying that those
who got licences during Obasanjo’s tenure were members of the PDP adding
that the ex-president allocated six broadcast licences to himself alone.
The media mogul, who has scored a lot of firsts in Nigeria’s broadcast
history said while he pumped a lot of money into the publicly funded
stations: the Nigeria Television Authority (NTA) and the Federal Radio
Corporation of Nigeria (FRCN) in order to push his totalitarian agenda,
he tried to stagnate the progress of private stations. He added that he
believes that Obasanjo gave as much as N200 billion to the NTA and
between N50 and N60 billion to the FRCN during his eight years reign
because he could dictate their operations while he tried to muzzle
private stations.
He said Daar Communications was able to get the licences it recently got
from President Yar’Adua, not because he went through a short cut but
that with national interest in his mind, President Yar’Adua allowed the
application for the licences to go through the due process with issues
at stake passing through the scrutiny of all relevant government
departments and security agencies like the office of the Attorney
General of the Federation, the Ministry of Information, the National
Broadcasting Commission and the security agencies which all made inputs
and agreed that granting the licence was in the interest of the nation
that national interest should overrule every other consideration
especially since the broadcast sector has been deregulated.
He asserted that Obsanjo was against the nation’s broadcasters
transiting to digital technology saying that when he (Chief Dokpesi)
came up with the idea that Nigeria’s stations start digitalizing early,
it was the same Chief Obasanjo who forbade Daar communications from
digitsalising in 2005, ten years before the globally agreed date (2015)
for full digitalization.
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