The National Broadcasting Commission NBC is the regulatory body of all broadcast stations in Nigeria, saddled with control, monitoring and discipline of any erring stations.
The breach and sanctions in the broadcast regulations code is backed by an act of the National Assembly, which made it a law and legal or any decisions taken by the regulatory body , the NBC on any erring stations in the country.
But , for obvious reasons of lawlessness, breach of the law of constituted authority, sheer negligence to heat up the polity and create needless crises particularly before ,during and after electioneering campaigns, politicians and their cohorts took advantage of the other side of the law to inflict damages in any form against the Nigerian state using the broadcast stations.
But , as a commission under the leadership of a well grounded journalist with local and international practices and exposure, Balarabe Shehu llela, it is unheard of even in developing and developed countries that laws guiding the operations of broadcasting stations are been overlooked at will.
Therefore, even in the animal kingdom, there is an existence of a law, and as animals in form of human beings, the existence of such an age long regulations was not only to contain the excessive use of these broadcast stations, which cannot be overemphasized.
It was obvious that the NBC played a leading roles towards the success of the last general elections held in February and March 2023 before, during and after the elections, through awareness, sensitization, sanctions and monitoring of broadcast medium on the need to keep abreast to the broadcast code and avoid sensational stories.
Even though, there is the existence of freedom of information act that guaranteed freedom of speech, it cannot be absolute, going by the environment in which we are, with the gladiators and stakeholders who does not want to play the games according to the rules.
The position of the law is been protected by the NBC to avoid any unforseen circumstances, except otherwise, and except the position of the law is fully exploited, the regulatory body still reserved the rights and temerity to sanction any erring broadcasting stations that negated the provisions of the broadcast code.
In a democratic society, it is not out of place to test the workability of the law guiding the operations of an organisation, therefore, the idea of going to court to usurp the mandates of NBC was not out of place, but it must pass through the full process of the law, hence the decision of the broadcasting regulator to Appeal the judgment of the lower court.
To avoid prejudicial statements, and as long as the case is on Appeal, the regulatory body is obliged to continue to carry out it's statutory functions pending the determination of the suit both at the Appeal and Supreme court as the highest court of the land.
As long as the operators has the right to demand for legal interpretation on the operations of the regulator, the regulator also had every opportunity to ventilate for proper interpretation of it's statutory functions.
But , whether we like it or not, laws are made for the people to obey and not to flout, therefore it will not be out of place for the NBC management to seek for legal interpretation of the impending case.
The courts are not unaware of national interest, security and peaceful coexistence which will from the crux of their decision without prejudice, so the ball is in the court of the legal arm of the country as the custodian of the law to allow democracy to thrive.
The decision of the commission to continue to render it's statutory functions under the management of Alhaji Balarabe Shehu llela will not be out of place, not only to protect the broadcast code, but maintain law and order in the broadcast industry.
Yusuf Writes from Abuja and can be reached on [email protected].
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