In the last few weeks, the National Assembly, especially the House of Representatives, has been a beehive of activities. The ad hoc committee probing fuel subsidy fraud has kept many Nigerians glued to their TV stations with the proceedings being beamed live. Also, ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) have been going to the House, clutching stacks of files to defend their budget proposals for 2012.
It is an annual ritual done in fulfillment of constitutional requirements which vests oversight function in the National Assembly. Part of that function is that the National Assembly should pass an appropriation bill (which becomes an Act once the president signs it into law) every year to give legitimacy to the expenditure for each fiscal year. That is why MDAs must go to defend their expenditure request after the president’s presentation of a budget proposal to the National Assembly.
Recently, it was the turn of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) to defend its budget for 2012. Coming after the nationwide strike that took place between January 9 and 16, the commission’s coming must have raised some excitement. The strike had been called to protest the removal of subsidy on petrol and the consequent increase in the pump price of petrol initially from N65 a litre to N141 (before it was reduced to N97) by the government. For the first time in the history of nationwide strikes, social media played more than a passing role in mobilising Nigerians and in creating awareness on what the issues were. Nigerians in their millions used the platforms provided by facebook, twitter, blackberry messenger, etc to argue for and against the policy of deregulation of the downstream sector of the petroleum industry.
At some point, it seemed that the opposition was wining the “cyber war” and there were rumours that the National Communications Commission (NCC) had directed mobile telecommunication operators to shut down BlackBerry services in some parts of the country notably Lagos, Abuja and Kaduna. It turned out to be a mere rumour and the rest, as they say, is history. But what it brought to the fore is the influence which social media has come to wield in public policy and in the political environment. In fact, President Goodluck Jonathan is said to have appointed a special adviser on New Media in the person of Reno Amakiri. The mention of NCC in connection with effort by government to control the situation at the time is a measure of the giant stride the agency has made in recent times and the central role it has come to play in the life of Nigerians.
The growth in the influence of social media is directly proportional to the effort of NCC in deepening internet penetration in the country resulting from massive growth in mobile telephony in the country. From having just about 400,000 telephone lines in 2001 when GSM was launched, Nigeria now boasts of more than 95 million telephone lines, making her the country with the fastest growth in telecoms in the world. Even in the effort to deregulate the downstream sector of the oil industry and in the power sector, the poster template the government is using for the campaign is the NCC model. For the agency to fulfill its mandate it has to be properly funded.
It is in this regard that the needless controversy that has trailed the organisation’s budget proposal for 2012 can be put in context. The appearance of the NCC management before the House of Representatives Committee on Communication eventually raised dust of a different kind. On February 8, some newspapers came up with a story titled “Reps query NCC’s N75 million budget for toilet doors and keys.” In the story published by five newspapers on the appearance of the NCC management before the House of Representatives to defend its budget, the commission was said to have demanded N75 million to fix and repair toilets and doors in its offices.
Part of the money, according to the reports, is a request for N30 million for furniture. It was reported that the House of Representatives Committee on Communication queried Eugene Juwah, executive vice chairman of NCC, on why the commission would put forward such a demand when N25 million was approved for the same purpose in the 2011 budget. The reports also accused the NCC of duplication with respect to the request for project vehicles at a cost of N89 million and quality of service vehicles for which the commission is asking for N72 million.
The reports implied that project vehicles and quality of service vehicles mean the same thing. However, what raises curiosity about the reports of the NCC budget defence is that the stories published on February 8 were written with same headline, same contents, and same words supposedly by five different reporters working in five different media houses. This drew the ire of NCC which responded in a statement issued by its head of media and public affairs, Reuben Muoka. The commission said the tone of the reports was contrary to the atmosphere of understanding that pervaded the budget defence by the NCC at the House of Representatives. Muoka said: “The sum of N75 million under reference was for major works which were fully evaluated by the Commission before the budget submission.
They include repainting of the external walls of the Commission’s headquarters building, repairs and repainting of the steel roof structures. This is in addition to a major face-lift of the reception areas, waiting room, two-wing canteen facilities with several equipment, provision of directional signs in the 9-storey edifice of the commission, in addition to replacement of old and unbefitting toilet doors and locks. The NCC said there was no duplication in its demand for vehicles in its budget proposal. According to Muoka, the information provided in the budget details was explicit.
“Project vehicles are operational vehicles for compliance monitoring and surveillance exercises in Port Harcourt, Kano, and Lagos zones covering all the cities in the respective geopolitical zones while monitoring vehicles are special purpose-built vehicles with equipment for drive tests designed for quality of service monitoring as they enable set-up tests with minimal vibration and shocks while in motion,” he said in the statement. He said there was also no query by the House Committee on Communication on the provision of N30million in the budget for procurement of furniture at the NCC headquarters and four zonal offices in Lagos, Port Harcourt, Enugu, and Ibadan.
He added that the N10million provision for air conditioners at the headquarters building is for the phased replacement of some air conditioners which have served out their useful life as procurement of new ones is more cost effective than the high cost of maintaining the old ones. In a veiled allusion that the reports were a product of mischief, Muoka noted that “minute details of each item on the budget proposal for 2012 were available during the budget session at the House of Representatives for any credible report by the media which wished to report the facts. The Nigerian Communications Commission is a responsible organisation and does not engage in frivolous budgeting as all works and services are carefully evaluated before the budgets are sent to the National Assembly.”
From the point of commonsense, it is not possible for two reporters, let alone five, to write same story using same words, headline and from the same angle. Indeed, the reports raise questions bordering on the fine ethics of the journalism profession. It may well mean that NCC has fifth columnists in its ranks or external enemies who have an axe to grind with the commission.
