THE Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, has said that the ongoing probe of the alleged digitization scandal by the Economic and Financial Crime Commission, EFCC will go on despite the successful launch of the pilot scheme of the project.
The Minister explained that the essence of the probe is to uncover the exact amount realized from the sale of the spectrum to the MTN and what the money was spent on.His words: “I think the EFCC will continue to investigate any issue they consider proper to investigate and we are not going to micro-manage what they do. The digitization project must go on irrespective of what irregularities have taken place in the past.
“We are not going to disrupt or discourage the anti-graft agency but will cooporate with them. But we know that we do not have a choice than to meet the deadline of June 2017. Apart from the huge economic benefits that could be reaped from this process, Nigeria will be left behind, if it does not meet the deadline.
“It will mean that all our broadcasts will not be protected from interference from other parts of the world.” According to him, “the EFCC has the constitutional right to investigate any suspected act of corruption but we as a ministry must remain focused and ensure that we do not miss the deadline for digitization and that was what informed our effort for the roll out last Saturday.
“As far as we are concerned, that is not our major pre-occupation. Let the EFCC investigate every wrong doing but as a ministry and as a government we have a duty to Nigeria and to the international Telecommunication Union as much as we also have a responsibility to the TV viewers and stakeholders.
On the economic benefits, the Minister said: “It is interesting to note that all ECOWAS countries are going to use the same standard of Set-Top boxes, which is going to create a huge economic opportunity for Nigeria. This is because those Set-Top boxes will be sold to TV viewers in the ECOWAS sub-region.”
Responding to questions on what is going to happen to Community Radio, Mohammed explained that “this phase of migration from analogue to digital broadcasting affects only Televisions. It has nothing to do with radio. Therefore the community radios will continue to function as they are.”
