On a day that the Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC, called a roundtable on broadband with the various industry stakeholders, I couldn’t be there but was connected virtually through the same technology that was enjoying appreciable focus and some kind of understandable admiration because of its near infinite possibilities.  I had to demonstrate that the future of […]

In his speech to mark the 65th Independence Anniversary of our great nation, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu said: “We have experienced a significant surge in growth across every sector of our national life since Independence – in healthcare, infrastructure, financial services, manufacturing, telecommunications, information technology, aviation and defence, among others.” Let me pick out telecommunications and […]

Having met all the regulatory demands after shelling out $2bn for the purchase of Multichoice, Canal+, last week, made some strategic appointments by way of activating a mandatory takeover of the African pay-TV giant. The field of play is about to change or has it dramatically changed already? David Mignot will serve as Chief Executive Officer, […]

I have had the good fortune of working with Ernest Ndukwe, an engineer, at a very significant moment in my life when history was also being made for our dear nation, Nigeria. The country had been so starved of telecom development that it was assumed a miracle for any such thing to happen in our clime. […]

In a world where distances to jurisdictions can be measured with a flip of the button, happenings between pay-TV operator, MultiChoice and the government of Ghana was keenly followed in Nigeria. In a quirk coincidence, the broadcaster was also having a load of problems in Nigeria and quite a number of people patiently monitored the Ghanaian […]

Broadcasting has enjoyed some enormous coverage lately. Can you imagine that tweak or little speck of irony! The broadcast media itself enjoying the limelight in what may qualify as inversion of service delivery.  From nowhere, a state governor generated a needless controversy by reclining on his imperial powers to order the closure of one of the […]

The telecom sector once very predictable in performance and visibility, and even in functionality and relevance, has suddenly become a sector needing urgent attention, as it attracts responses and reactions of all shades. It is not a good place to be at all.  Mixed reactions will be too much of a beautiful phrase to describe an […]

The Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC, gets a Board at last. That is good news. There have been tons of materials written on the need for President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to set up a Board for the regulatory agency which has its functions cast in the Act of the Commission to initiate policies that can shape the […]

When the article, ‘Don’t let 9Mobile die’, was published in February 2022, the service provider had nearly 13 million lines. It was struggling for life and had so many people wishing it well. It had commitments it could hardly meet and some of us thought it was better for relevant stakeholders to work for its survival […]

There is a side of the politician that we don’t readily credit, to our own disadvantage. The average politician believes he is God and everything moves at his word. He looks at the ordinary fella with imperial arrogance and expects servile response to even his flatulence. He promotes arrogance and ignorance over knowledge. He takes his […]

The playing field for pay-TVbusiness is about to change, not in the way we expected or are canvassing at the moment, but in a much more significant way. Competition will be more intense and competitors over-awed. Operators will square up for what is about to come, and the regulator of the broadcast industry will be more agile now than ever before. It […]

Just when you think you have seen it all, something happens to convince you very strongly that all that journey is a circlical movement which has not taken you far from the point of departure at all. Like peddling away on a stationary bicycle at a fitness centre. Or expending so much energy and achieving very […]

I have my respect for people who consign things to intellectual discourse in order to earn deserved results. They democratise contributions and provide ideas to flagellate intransigent presentations, myopia and even subterraneously sponsored positions in order to present a truth that renews the society. The Centre for Media and Society, CEMESO, provided such an opportunity last […]

I wasn’t rooting for Chelsea to win the Club World Cup Quarter Final game against Palmeiras. Not me. It wasn’t just because my daughter supports every Brazilian team with the belief that Brazilian footballers are very good, using Neymar as an example, which carries some truth; but for other personal reasons.  Chelsea troubles Arsenal too much in […]

When we were children and worked in fresh farms with our parents, we didn’t understand the heroic story of the agama lizard and the tall palm tree somewhere in the farm. Once in a while, you were alerted to the base of the tree by the sound from the lizard which had just landed on its stomach […]