Shifting The Dial In The Mediocrity Laden NIGCOMSAT-1R: What Peter Obi And Nduka Obaigbena Can Do
The Oasis Reporters
October 19, 2022
By Greg Abolo
@gregabolo
@Theoasisreport1
It was University of the Witwatersrand’s Vice Chancellor, Zeblon Vilakazi who said that “we live in a world characterised by inequality, poverty, economic volatility, globalisation, climate change and ambiguity… and we have to navigate socioeconomic and political instability, power and water cuts, homelessness, unethical governance and mediocre or no service delivery” for us to forge ahead to progress”.
In this disruptive new age that we live in where old things, old thinking must give way, Peter Obi has to do something about the good things left to the citizens which we must take back, for the good of all citizens.
The moment former president Olusegun Obasanjo was sprung out from the prison his jailer, General Sani Abacha had put him, within one year, he had moved from prison to the Palace as Nigeria’s second republic democratic president.
His thoughts were large and good. He built on the legacies of Ibrahim Babangida who introduced privately owned television and radio stations into the media space.
Obasanjo also moved to introduce GSM freely, to upturn what Abacha had planned to turn into a family business enterprise. There was a free and unfettered bidding process for GSM. Under him, we had MTN of South Africa here, Econet of Zimbabwe, Mtel (a branch of Nigeria’s Nitel) and later, Globacom. All these in their various capacities have turned things around technologically for us in terms of telephony, telemedicine, banking, security and you just name it.
Before we could finish thanking Obasanjo, he also introduced Satellite technology to the Nigerian media space.
It was so exciting for him to introduce and launch NIGCOMSAT for the good of Nigeria. We felt so proud when a colossus of an African leader like Paul Kagame of Rwanda came to inspect Nigeria’s satellite station offices with the hope of doing business with the world through us.
No one understood why Kagame did not come back. Instead, his country did something else entirely.
Then our satellite failed. Under Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, this was relaunched by the Chinese due to the agreement on a guaranteed functioning.
Thanks to Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, the new Satellite, NIGCOMSAT-1R had a new component added to it – Commercial Satellite broadcasting. To Nigerians especially in northern Nigeria, this was an excitement. Many Nigerians in the north were already used to a Free-to -Air Satellite broadcasting that was even very cheap to acquire and install. If you had a dish and a receiver then, you could receive free television signals of stations from Nilesat, belonging to the Egyptian government. It started with over 500 stations of many popular television stations across the world like CNN, BBC, F-24, DW TV from Germany, SABC from South Africa, many movies channels, sports channels etc, all freely received.
Some people could turn their dishes and receive television channels from Spain, which had Hispasat. There were also hundreds of free television channels. People also subscribed for free satellites from Europe, the Americas, India, Russia etc. Just name it.
But we Nigerians would love to have our own made stations available to us. Luckily we have quality television stations that can compete on the international stage in quality programming, like Channels TV, AriseTV, AIT, IATV, Liberty TV, TVC etc. Just name it!
One would have thought that NIGCOMSAT-1R would bring them to us freely. In anticipation of that, I joined a group of Nigerians who quickly installed NIGCOMSAT-1R satellite dish at home. I’ve been using it since former president Jonathan left office, an edifice he handed over to President Muhammadu Buhari.
I still watch NIGCOMSAT-1R but with the gnashing of teeth. Almost all of Nigeria’s best television stations avoid NIGCOMSAT-1R like a smelly dead rat.
How come you have to go to other Foreign based satellites before you can watch quality Nigerian stations?
It’s a shame that NIGCOMSAT-1R attracts not quality Nigerian stations neither does it attract even West African stations and I think this is a huge shame.
Many Nigerian media start-ups have tried to find a satellite platform to subscribe to, yet our own satellite station is never available for use.
Well, we did a background check by first looking the station up on the internet by searching for NIGCOMSAT-1R.
Yes, we found it.
We even took their advertised numbers, and since 2020, their phone lines have never been answered. No email to their address ever gets answered.
We also sent three different persons thrice at three different times to go to their offices in 2020 for enquiries on how to pay, where to pay and how to hook us up to the satellite to enable us commence satellite television broadcasting, yet no one was available to answer questions.
Is that how to run a satellite business ?
Who are the business people that this government employed and put to work there that feel Nigerians must be frustrated with our own Commonwealth for goodness sake ?
We hereby call on a personality like Peter Obi and Nduka Obaigbena who owns Arise TV to make a sweet remark on Twitter. Those professional gate keepers of our Commonwealth that Obasanjo and Jonathan left for us may wake up and do the right thing.
We need to watch our stations on NIGCOMSAT-1R, this political campaign season. If we keep quiet, they may kill the satellite before this regime retires in May 2023.
But all over Southern Nigeria, whoever wanted to watch quality television programs would have to compulsorily subscribe to DSTV, owned by a South African Company, at the payment of fees of about 10,000 naira or thereabouts, every month.
It’s a shame.
By Greg Abolo
gregabolo@gmail.com
