IT was my strong determination this week to write in defence of the Tinubu administration that it couldn’t be behind the large scale disconnection of mobile lines as a sure channel of ensuring that those planning demonstrations over hardship in our nation on  August 1, 2024, fail in the process as they will be unable to […]

IT WAS pretty cool last week when the Broadcasting Organisation of Nigeria, BON, made a plea for the survival of the National Broadcasting Commission, NBC, as it called on the government to adequately fund the organisation to enable it to do its job successfully. The NBC is the regulator of the broadcast industry. Usually the relationship […]

THERE are very good vibes coming from the Ministry of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy. They give a good feel to the ears and even more catchy for the eyes. At a press meet which looked more like a well-worked roadshow to promote a new Bill currently with the National Assembly, titled: ‘National Digital Economy and […]

I HAVE a friend with an acerbic tongue and a caustic pen that cuts straight to the bone. Although much more reputed as a sports journalist, his cosmopolitan knowledge about just everything around him can be humbling. His writings can make anybody feel uncomfortable, especially if you belong to the band of those who stand truth […]

I AM happy for Nollywood. Those who know the history of the industry will admit that Nollywood is enjoying some bubble at this time, like a guy on an imaginary trip on a gossamer. But this is real. All of a sudden the days of yore, of little beginnings, look so anachronistic, some kind of fables […]

OUR material on this page last week titled: “Between NCC and NMC, good news in small packets”, has elicited a little dig from a very close friend who observed we almost created the impression that the telecoms industry is witnessing an El dorado.  No, we pointed out we have only written in support of the relationship […]

ALL of a sudden, the little information on the NCC website, that equipment manufacturer and vendor, Nokia, has agreed with the Ministry of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, and the Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC, to train some Nigerians on its 4G and 5G equipment, means so much to me now. There was a signed Memorandum of […]

I LOVE the deregulated sector where the operators are free to apply their business ingenuity to gain market advantage knowing that there are rules of engagement to promote robust competition. Rules of engagement abhor the shifting of goal posts which is our forte in this part of the world. We like cutting corners to demonstrate our […]

I am looking at two pictures of the Information and National Orientation Minister, Muhammad Idris. One is ebullient with smiles breaking all over his face as he  assured the Independent Broadcasters Association of Nigeria (IBAN) members who visited him that the Tinubu administration would avail a single digit loan to help stabilise and grow the broadcast industry.  […]

In the evening of May 29, 2023, I found myself paying tributes to Dr Raymond Aleogho Dokpesi. “They didn’t know you and they never will,” I wrote.  The broadcast czar and unrepentant exponent had just undergone a most unexpected apotheosis and emotion was very thick in the air. He had completed his final episode of life which […]

MY friend wasn’t happy with me last week. How can you be writing technology and you allow these operators to run away with my money? But how would I be clairvoyant to know your little fights with the operators?  My friend loves gizmos and is hooked on any organisation that promises good data bundles. So he […]

THERE is always something new to talk about in this part of the world. If it is not fuel queues which remain stubborn irrespective of the removal of subsidy about eleven months ago, it’s about the increase of tariff on electricity, a product that is hardly available in the market or even the soaring cost of […]

CLICHES often find expression in some happenings in this nation. The more things change the more they remain the same. That was the position of French writer, John Baptiste Alphonse Karr in 1849. His words are very much alive in Nigeria today with uncanny accuracy.  The big news last week from Kaduna State, which was nasty […]

There has been a swirl of news around Multichoice lately. On one hand, Canal+, the Vivendi owned French pay TV giant, has made a hefty $2.9bn offer to buy the South African headquartered Multichoice, which has operations across Africa. Big money at play, you may want to say. On the other hand, Multichoice Nigeria, which is […]

THE story, last week, that Arise News Channel is live in 54 countries in Africa, including South Africa and nine other Southern African countries on the platform of Multichoice, sent a ball of excitement down my system and, at once, elicited the kind of euphoria and patriotic fervency I feel when a Nigerian is doing something […]