NBC: FG seeks amendment to code, wants local content

The Federal Government is seeking to amend the Nigeria Broadcasting Commission’s (NBC’s) Code to compel brands to sponsor Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL) and other local legacies.

Lai Mohammed, Minister of Information and Culture made this known while clarifying an earlier statement credited to him on the amendment to the Code to discourage production of Nigerian movies and music abroad.

The minister said: “We will amend the NBC code to ensure that our Premier League improves. We will make sure that in the Code, if you spend one million dollars to support a foreign football club like Manchester United in Nigeria, you will not be allowed to air that programme unless you spend 30 per cent of that money to promote Nigeria’s league.”

He said,“Some beverage companies in Nigeria support Manchester United (Man U), Arsenal and others; and spend about six million dollars a year on such initiative.

“I then asked the question, how much of their products are being consumed over there? I was also told that a particular brand of Nigeria Beer is supporting several premier league teams to the tune of seven million dollars a year.”

According to him,“We can imagine if they give us just 30 per cent of that, we will fix our stadia. I know they are going to attack me on this, but I am not made a minister to sustain the economy of other countries.’’

Mohammed said the government could no longer tolerate the situation where people continue to develop the economy of other parts of the world from the sweat of Nigerians at the expense of the Nigerian economy.

Commenting on an earlier statement credited to him on the amendment to NBC Code to discourage the production of Nigerian movies and music abroad, the minister said: “At that meeting, I said that I will work to amend the NBC code to ensure that if a product is designated a Nigerian product, it must be produced in Nigeria. I didn’t say that henceforth, all music and films will be produced in Nigeria.”

He added,“All I said was that if a programme is designated as a Nigerian content programme, we will amend the code to ensure that it is produced in Nigeria.”

According to him, if the law says that a programme shall have 60 per cent Nigerian content, the producer could not go ahead to shoot such outside the country for Nigerian viewers.

“Of course, they will come and say that you do not have infrastructure and that is why they went outside to shoot. I asked if it is not the same programme you went to shoot outside Nigeria because we have epileptic power that you will bring back to show to us in Nigeria?” he queried.

Tony Nwakaegho