FG MOVES TO END ANTI-COMPETITIVE TENDENCIES IN BUSINESS PRACTICE

The Federal Government’s plan to formulate a policy to checkmate monopoly, anti-competitive behaviour especially among business practices has been considered as cheery news by Nigerians.

In its draft copy of the National Competitive and Consumer Protection Policy, the Federal Government saddled the Competitive and Consumer Protection Authority, an independent body, with the responsibility for the implementation of the provisions of the proposed competition and consumer protection legislation.

Speaking at the occasion, Olusegun Aganga, Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment said the new policy would help address cartel-like organisations, anti-competitive tendencies, protect the investing public and consumers, and enable consumers to buy the goods and services they want at the best possible prices.

AGANGA

“Nigeria”, the minister said, ‘is one of the very few countries that did not have a robust legal and regulatory framework to govern consumer protection and competition.”

Kehinde Yusuf, 53, is one of the many Nigerians who have hailed the move. He cited practices of a Pay TV operator as one which needs urgent attention in that area. “I’m a DStv subscriber, and I have severally complained about being cut off two, sometimes three days before expiration of my subscription date”, Yusuf said. “But whenever I make this complaint nothing is done, so if Government wants to introduce that policy I think it would do well to address some of these issues”.    

Obinna Nwokennaya is a multiple subscriber. Nwokennaya subscribes to both DStv and Star Times. And in his reaction on the Pay TVs service delivery, he said “where a customer fails to pay subscription fee on or before due date, it takes DStv hours, if not days, to come back to transmission, but for Star Times, it is immediate, even after two weeks off air”.

Following the liberalization of broadcasting in the Nigerian market in 1992, Multichoice, a South Africa based company and owners of DStv and GOtv since 2006, has dominated the industry, and engaged in monopolistic practices especially on the exclusive acquisition of the broadcast rights to premium programs.

And sport is known as one of the key drivers of Pay TV subscriptions around the world. In this regard, Multichoice, a South Africa based company and owners of DStv and GOtv has dominated the scene. Multichoice airing of the English Premier League, EPL rights exclusive to DStv, while refusing the rights to other competitors, increased its market share in Nigeria.

Nigeria’s Cable television market, according to statistics, is put at two million, out of 29.5 million TV households. The statistics states that, ‘the current total active market is less than 3.1 million subscribers across all players in the Pay TV market in a population of over 160 million inhabitants, 65 percent of whom are under the age of 25, and low penetration of households.’  

Put more succinctly, Naspers, owners of Multichoice stated to have added a record 1.3 million Pay TV subscribers year-on-year for period ending March 31, 2014. While presenting its annual results in June 2014, the Pay TV operator said its Pay TV service under DStv and GOtv brands subscriber base now stands at more than 8 million - roughly 5 million of those in South Africa and the remaining 3 million in Sub Saharan Africa. The report also stated that GOtv, which offers DTT pay television services in 11 countries on the African continent, ended March with 817,000 customers, up from 377,000 a year earlier.

Multichoice’s sports content is one of its dominant factors. “Multichoice essentially decides how African, and indeed Nigerians consume sports media,” said a communication expert who craves anonymity. “They control the times of broadcasting, what sports are shown and how the viewers will even view the event, because they have the control. And the absence of anti-competitive laws contributes to the dominance”.

Sport has not failed to escape the scrutiny of competition authorities. In the Western world, through regulatory bodies, competition is promoted, and interests of consumers are guarded in relation communication matters. In the United Kingdom, Office of Communications (OFCOM), an independent regulator and competition authority responsibility covers content and infrastructure in the country’s communication sector. Under the Communications Act, 2003, its statutory duties are ‘to further the interests of citizens in relation to communication matters, and to further the interests of consumers in relevant markets, where appropriate, by promoting competition’.

In the UK where the sale of the EPL broadcast rights is regulated to avoid exploitative activities by a single broadcaster, it would be recalled that in March 2010 OFCOM imposed a ‘wholesale must-offer’ obligation, under which Sky, one of the country’s foremost Direct to Home Cable Television Service Provider, was compelled to make its two main sports channels (Sky Sports 1 and 2) available to other Pay TV retailers at regulated prices. Not only did OFCOM require the pay broadcaster to whole the two channels to other operators, but also fixed prices.

Even in Asia same is obtainable. Telecom Regulatory Authourity of India (TRAI), India’s regulatory body, also prohibits monopoly and anti-competitive behaviour. TRAI is primarily involved with issues of carriage and pricing. The Central Government in pursuance of its Cable Television Network (Regulation Amendment) Bill made it obligatory for every cable operator to transmit or retransmit the programme or channels of any other pay channel, thus eliminating the need of multiple set top boxes by any subscriber.

Coasting home, Nigeria’s National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) should play the regulatory role here. But the power to wield the big stick, and to who, is absent in its Act. “Ordinarily,” said a credible source in NBC “we should play a significant role here as a regulator. But in the NBC Act and Code as amended, its major regulatory approaches contained in the Code are licensing, sanctioning, arbitrating, and monitoring. It lacks the inclusion of sector specific provisions empowering it with the authority to investigate, regulate, control and prosecute anti-competitive behaviour”. 

No doubt this has called for need of the commission to review its Code: “in areas of market definition, vertical integration and downstream foreclosure, access to and exclusivity over premium content, which is potential for anti-competitive behaviour,” the NBC source added.

Onyekachi Ubani, immediate past Chairman, Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) Lagos Chapter does not think the Pay TV has been fair to Nigerians despite the fact that the Pay TV has exported the country’s entertainment industry outside the shores of the land. 

UBANI

“They are cheating Nollywood actors with little or nothing they pay in using their works, yet they defraud Nigerians with astronomical fees for subscription”, the human rights lawyer said. A Nollywood source, who craved anonymity didn’t mince words, “Multichoice buys a movie from us for N20,000, and they keep playing it years on end without giving us anything again”.

Festus Keyamo, human rights lawyer and DStv subscriber shares self- experience. “They are exploitative in their service delivery”, said Keyamo, who told our correspondent that he is a subscriber in three major cities of the country. 

KEYAMO

“That is why I continue to say they should adopt card technology, whereby I can remove my card when I’m not watching and use in another city, like paying for what I watch”. 

But the feasibility of that is not in sight. John Ugbe, Managing Director, Multichoice Nigeria Limited in a recent interview in commemoration of Multichoice’s 20 years celebration in the Nigerian market said, “You have to look at the industry. Not all industries can use card technology”, he said, giving an analogy. 

UGBE

“It is like going into a restaurant and you say look, let me just starting eating. If I have to leave, whatever I eat is what I pay. It is in order to serve you, that they create the menu that you can buy a plate of food at certain amount. Content, unfortunately, is not paid for in minutes”.

Despite its bouquet of channels, Multichoice was forced to cut down its price with its introduction of GOtv. Entrant of Star Times, a Chinese owned pay DTT rivaled Multichoice as a major challenger in Nigeria.  

JUSTIN (MIDDLE)

Star Times General Manager, Justin Zhang, in December 2013 stated that since it launched in July 2010, the company has recorded over 1.5 million customers. This statistics significantly proved the potential of low-cost Pay TV.

It is this desire for robust competitiveness that created a sigh of relief for consumers in the telecommunication sector. It would be recalled in years past that MTN charges per call was outrageous, until the introduction of Globacom, an indigenous telecommunication company came into the market and introduced per second billing before we understood the possibility of talking cheap. And it is expected that with the recent introduction of the Federal Government policy this will address and encourage competition in the domestic market as well as maximize consumer welfare.

LIKE LAGOS, LIKE OFFA!!!

Offa rerun: Protests rock Kwara over election result-PUNCH

Members of the All Progressives Party in Ilorin and Offa Local Government Area of Kwara State on Monday protested against the announcement on radio of the result of the rerun election held in Offa  LG on Saturday, in which the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Mr. Segun Olanipekun, was declared  the winner.

 According to the radio announcement and a statement from the Deputy Director, Kwara State Independent Electoral Commission, Mr. Dauda Nurudeen, the PDP’s Olanipekun  polled 35,937 votes against 20,161 reported votes scored by the APC candidate, Mr. Saheed Popoola....
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When I read this story, I laughed and remembered how the ACN did the same thing in Lagos after the 2011 LG poll. The PDP cry blue murder then but the all-powerful ACN shut them out. Retired Justice Fatal Adeyinka, Chairman LASIEC told the PDP to go to court and challenge the result he announced. The party did as directed and got two or three results upturned in its favour by the tribunal. But at the end of the day, the appeal court gave those places back to ACN!!!
I covered an area where the PDP out rightly won the poll. Attempt by the ruling ACN to rig that area was resisted by the people. The story and picture of already thumb-printed ballot papers of ACN inside ghana-must-go sacks and school bags caught with pro-ACNs were published. Still the LASIEC gave the victory to ACN. The returning officer refused to announce the result just like this one in offa had done..... The rest in history.

MY TAKE:

I am neither a PDP nor ACN (now APC) apologist. But I am a supporter of fairness and justice in all circumstances. Just as i blamed and condemned the then ACN for stealing the mandate of the people in Lagos State then, I hereby condemn the PDP in Kwara state for the same offence.

Having said that, what goes round....! I think the APC (ACN) is been paid back in its own coin. If the party thinks it can bully others in its areas of influence and control it should not forget that in other places, it will get brutalised and badly too!!!

In as much as i sympathise with the people of Offa Local Government Area in Kwara State, I make bold to say that the APC (ACN) prepared the foundation for what happened on saturday, far back in Lagos in 2011.

Nevertheless, 'what is bad, is bad.' We should all kick against recurrence of this flagrant usurpation of our mandate by desperate, non-performing and lazy politicians.
This case must not go un-addressed.

EGYPT: THE COST OF SILENCE

PRESIDENT MOHAMMAD MORSI OF EGYPT

Keeping silent in the face of tyranny and injustice is the hallmark of cowardice. When those who are expected to stand up for truth when it matters most decide to maintain silence or feign indifference, then, the entire humanity is in trouble. In this kind of atmosphere, the tyrants-individuals and nations-will trampled mercilessly and with impunity upon the rights of the masses. They will not stop at that. They will turn their lives into expendable commodities at will.

The above aptly explains the scenario now as events continue to unfold in Egypt after the infamous U.S-backed and Gulf monarchs-endorsed ouster of the country’s first freely elected democratic President on July 3, 2013.

Personally, I never expected anything short of what the self-acclaimed champion of democracy and human right, United States, is currently exhibiting. It is no surprise at all. The country has proved over the years that its democratic postures are only a façade to deceive the world. It has different standards for different countries base on its usually selfish and ego-tending interests. No need to expound more on this. 

The world knows where the U.S stands on the issue of Egypt’s coup, which it after all, sponsored.

Other allies of the U.S on their parts have been shouting in deafening silence in their condemnation of the coup. Like their America counterpart, they have not come out categorically to describe the charade as a coup. They continue to urge for a return to democratic path without calling for the reinstatement of the ousted President.

Except Turkey, Tunisia, Sudan, Nigeria and few other respectable countries that spoke loudly and continue to reject the coup, all others have maintained silence.

It is worthy of note the silence of the powers-that-be and the indifference of the Gulf Monarchs is undoubtedly laying a precedent, a dangerous one for that matter. Their actions is now a license for other potential coup plotters to come on stage especially in a continent like ours that has a rich history of undemocratic take-over of power. 

It will not be any surprising if the military in Greece, Bulgaria and other European states where citizens are protesting austerity measures introduced by their governments to improve battered economies, sack the governments. It will also not be unjustifiable for such military to kill and harass citizens who dare challenge them. Yes, this is because, a precedence has been laid in Egypt and justified by the United States of America as ‘expression of people’s will.’

PROTEST IN SUPPORT OF PRESIDENT MORSI

Let me state that those who refuse to speak up now may regret not doing so in not too distant future. What has happened in Egypt is a clear case of injustice. Attempt to call it another name, as being done by the U.S, is tantamount to standing the truth on it head.

One thing I know is that the cradle of civilisation will bounce back and when it does, it is only those who stood by it genuinely now that will stand tall among the true leaders of mankind.

IKUFORIJI’S IMMINENT DATE WITH PRISON

Adeyemi Ikuforiji: Will he fulfil his date with the Nigerian Prison soon?

In less than 48 hours, if the Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Adeyemi Ikuforiji, fails to meet the bail conditions set by Justice Ibrahim Buba of the Federal High Court, Lagos, he may end up having a historic date with the ‘revered’ Nigerian Prison.

Ikuforiji is being tried alongside his personal assistant, Oyebode Atoyebi, for an alleged money laundering to the tune of N700 million.

The former trial judge, Justice Okechukwu Okeke (now retired), had earlier granted him bail on self recognition but Justice Buba, who newly took over the case, imposed a fresh N1bn bail on each of the them on Monday.

It was even learnt that Justice Buba had initially imposed N5bn bail with two sureties in like sum but it took the intervention of counsel for the accused persons Tayo Oyetibo (SAN) and Tunde Akinrimisi for him to reduce the bail sum to N1bn for each of the accused.

It would be recalled that an NGO, Kick Against Corruption, had petitioned the EFCC, alleging that Ikuforiji misappropriated the N7billion belonging to the house.

Ikuforiji denied the allegation.

Ever since the case was taken to court, there had been frequent adjournments without any headway. The development made many to conclude that the trial will go the way of others. So, the twist now will likely renew the hope that Ikuforiji’s case may after all be a jinx of most corruption trials in the country.

When the N1 billion bail condition was announced, what came to my mind was how the speaker of the House of Assembly that claims to be living above common standard will be able to get the huge sum. A colleague quickly pointed out that if the speaker meets the bail condition within the time frame given by the court, the EFCC must query further the source of the money and even the sureties!

The corruption case against Ikuforiji is like a cancerous lump that will not heal. It has really cast a huge shadow on the integrity of the Lagos State House of Assembly. At a point, some called for the speaker to resign. But he will not and his party, the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) will not hear anything of that.

His colleagues will also not discuss the issue even in the media. In an 

interview two years ago, a member of the house, Mubashir Obasa claimed there was no truth in the allegation and that was why the house had not given it any consideration. Again, the entire members held a world press conference to establish the innocence of the speaker. A mention of the case within the vicinity of the Assembly is a taboo! Whereas, a deep feel of the ambiance in the complex show a kind of division among the lawmakers on one hand and the general assembly staff on the other.

Sometimes last year, the news was rife that the EFCC was going to arrest the speaker in the assembly complex if his bid to quash the warrant of arrest issued on him by the court was not successful. The speaker rather than preside over the house sitting, he tactically asked his deputy to do so.

In the course of the day’s proceedings in the house, no mention was made of Ikuforiji’s where about. When I contacted his media aide, Rotimi Adebayo, to know his where about, he simply accused those who did not like Tinubu (former governor of Lagos State) of being behind the speaker’s travail.

Since the trial began, the Lagos Assembly has been having frequent adjournments and unnecessary recesses whenever the case came up in court. Although the house claimed this is normal, the generality of Lagosians and indeed Nigerians feel it is abnormal.

But now that a date has been fixed for the speaker to take an apartment in prison, will the house ask him to step down?

Events in the next few hours will determine.

The EFCC had, in September, invited Ikuforiji to its Abuja office, where he was questioned over allegation of misappropriating the sum of ₦7 billion belonging to the Assembly.

Just N2m Can Save Mikdad’s Life!

 

Mikdad: Begging for your urgent assistance!

The parents of two years old Jimoh Miqdad Akanbi have appealed to well-meaning Nigerians to come to the aid of their son who has been diagnosed with a large septa defect (whole in the heart).

Mikdad’s father, a bricklayer, said he had to make the appeal after all efforts to raise the over two million naira required for the surgical operation in India yielded no result.

According to him, he had written several letters of appeal to notable personalities in Lagos State including the Speaker of the State Assembly, Rt. Hon. Adeyemi Ikuforiji, wife of the State Governor, Emmanuela Abimbola Fashola and others with no response so far.

Little Mikdad was first taken to the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, LASUTH, in December 2012 for recurrent chest infection which necessitated frequent admissions.

After series of tests and medical examination, he was found to be having a large inlet ventricular septa defect with moderate pulmonary hypertension.

Mr Jimoh, who has been running from pillar to post seeking financial assistance for his child, said doctors at LASUTH had advised him on the need for urgent surgical closure of the defect in order to save the life of Mikdad. But as minutes tick and days pass, the needed sum is yet to be realised. The boy is currently placed on anti-failure drugs for survival!

Dr B.A Animashaun, a paediatrics cardiologist at the hospital notified Mrs Fashola about Mikdad’s condition through a letter dated February 19, 2013.

In the letter, Dr Animashaun noted that Mikdad ‘has a congenital heart disease (Large ventricular septa defect L-R shunt with flow related mild pulmonary stenosis). He requires surgical intervention.’

However, no response has been given up till now. Mikdad’s father said he personally wrote another letter to the speaker informing him of his child’s condition and also seeking financial assistance. Nothing, he said, came out of that effort as well.

‘My son’s condition is deteriorating every day. I humbly seek your financial assistance because as a bricklayer I do not have the financial capability to foot the bill and other expenses,’ Mr Jimoh appealed in a chat with our correspondent.

The case of little Mikdad draws tears from even a stone-hearted individual as his condition continues to deteriorate on a daily basis. 

All he requests from Nigerians is the life line of N2m for the surgery.

You may assist by dropping something for Mikdad’s survival at GTBank Plc. Account name: Jimoh Mikdad Akanbi. 

Account no: 0125778504 or LASUTH RADIOLOGY-II 1770560238.

The father can be contacted on 07043042750.