The broadcast and the telecommunications industries are going through terrible patches in the hands of those who are supposed to be keepers of the temple. At separate fora last week appointees of government spoke about the sectors in a manifest display of how very ignorant they are about the sectors they should be superintending. Separately they sowed hope, they sowed fear and they also sowed vapor; however, they are in very clear deficit of hope but have fear and vapor in abundant supply.
Advertisement
The role of the Minister in any deregulated sector, like broadcasting and telecommunications, is to curate policies that can impact on the health of the sector. There is no provision for direct intervention or for pushing directives like a fellow maintaining lordship over his family, that is, for those who exercise almightiness over their homes and believe the sun sets at their command. But the Nigerian situation is not normal and one would not expect what happens in other climes to play out here without showmanship. In deregulated economies the government recedes to the background but here in Nigeria the government sabotages the system, garnishing laws that will empower it to do evil. Or where the law does not exist, the Minister takes it by force.