Truth be told, Nigerian senators are not pro-masses. Senate President Ahmad Lawan does not care a hoot about the poor and using MultiChoice in his strawman argument is cynical.
By Ikechukwu Amaechi
The simmering rift between the Senate and pay-tv service provider, MultiChoice Nigeria, is both unnecessary and diversionary.
It is akin to a man whose house is on fire but who is busy giving rats a chase of their lives. At best, it is misplaced priority. But it could be something worse – very petty ego war.
It is unfortunate that the country’s highest legislative body is engrossed in political shadowboxing, fighting an imaginary enemy by pretending to deal with a problem. But Nigerians are not deceived. Huffing and puffing over alleged penchant of MultiChoice to rip-off Nigerians is a clever-by-half attempt to avoid dealing with the most important problems facing the country.
The feud started when MultiChoice hiked the prices of its different bouquets in March due to unfriendly economic climate.
Senators were not amused and when Senator Abba Moro came up with a motion aimed at sanctioning MultiChoice, it carried the day.
Moro bemoaned the hike in subscription fee for DStv compact plus by 9.8 per cent from N10,925 to N12,000, and DStv premium from N16, 200 to N18,400 indicating a 13.6 per cent hike.
Piqued, he accused MultiChoice of “willfully and perpetually increasing the cost of its bundles because there is no regulation whatsoever in the area of fixing rates.”
An offended Moro went on the floor of the Senate to vent his spleen by moving a motion titled, “Nigerians dumbfounded, outraged over pay-tv tariff hikes, demand for pay-per-view subscription model.”
The lawmaker noted with righteous indignation what he called the uproar among the populace over tariff hikes, price increases by pay-tv service providers on their bouquets.
No doubt, Senate President Ahmad Lawan and other senators were persuaded by the pay-per-view subscription model argument.
But Moro’s motion coming barely 48 hours after terrorists attacked an Abuja-Kaduna train, killing, maiming and abducting a yet to be ascertained number of Nigerians, thus taking insecurity to a new low, raised the issue of priority. How could MultiChoice hiking tariffs marginally be a priority for the Senate in the circumstance?
The flipside of that argument is that there are also some Nigerians who will argue, just like Moro, that governance issues cannot be halted ad-infinitum because of the menace of terrorists.
Fair enough. But the way the Senate is carrying on smacks of vendetta, raising the all-important question of why MultiChoice, a private business concern offering luxury, non-essential service, is the only one its prices must be controlled.
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Senator Moro expressed concern that thousands of pay-tv subscribers in Nigeria have bitterly reacted to the development on different social media platforms, ranging from deep shock to pure outrage with many asking the Nigerian government to checkmate the activities of pay-tv service providers in Nigeria especially in the area of fixing prices.
He added that among the bitter complaints of Nigerian subscribers against pay-tv services is the poor network service experienced as a result of bad weather/epileptic electricity supply, which sometimes makes a whole month subscription wasteful without the subscriber watching anything before the expiration.
The question is, what is the Senate doing to reverse the ugly epileptic electricity supply? Isn’t that the responsibility of government?
Moro said Nigerians are demanding that, rather than paying fixed rates for packages monthly, pay-tv service providers should introduce a subscription model which allows subscribers pay per-view to enable them match their TV consumption to subscription as it is the case with electricity metering and mobile telephony.
The Senate, in its resolution, urged the Federal Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy, and the Nigerian Communications Commission to direct all pay-tv providers to introduce a pay-per-view model of subscription as against the month to month prepaid model presently in place.
After hearing Moro’s motion, Senate President Ahmad Lawan constituted a seven-man adhoc committee, chaired by no less a person than the Deputy Whip, Senator Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi, with other high-profile senators, including Sulaiman Abdu Kwari, Oluremi Tinubu, Yusuf A. Yusuf, Lekan Mustapha, Chukwuka Utazi, Akon Eyakenyi as members.
But here is the snag! The Senate directed all pay-tv service providers in the country to immediately review their bouquet prices downwards in tandem with the prevailing reality of economic situation in Nigeria.
Isn’t that funny? If they do, how will they survive the harsh economic situation in the country? Private businesses are unlike public servants, particularly federal lawmakers who get paid handsomely no matter the economic situation, most times for doing nothing, literally, and adding no value to the system.
It is the harsh economic situation that necessitated the hike in the first place. That is the only way businesses can survive and MultiChoice is not alone. There is hardly any business that has not increased the prices of its products. Even government businesses are doing same.
Lawan, while announcing the composition of the ad-hoc committee, tasked the members to carry out a comprehensive investigation into how other countries are billed by pay-tv service providers.
That should be no rocket science. But curiously, it took almost two weeks for Lawan to transit from composition to inauguration of the ad-hoc committee. The panel was composed on March 30. Its inauguration only took place on Tuesday April 12. Why the long wait? Was there an attempt to cut a deal, failing which the Senate President came out smoking?
Between the two dates, Dr. Ezrel Tabiowo, media aide to the Senate President wrote a long piece, “Tariff hike: Senate’s pro-people efforts and the probe of MultiChoice,” in which he took umbrage at anyone who dared question the propriety of Senate’s action.
Then, when Lawan inaugurated the ad-hoc committee on Tuesday, he was rather belligerent and bellicose.
“No operator should take us for granted. We mean business. We want you to be here. Nigeria will always provide the climate for you to do your businesses but don’t abuse the laws of our country,” he bellowed.
“Our consumers here are people who are innocent and we are prepared to protect them.
“Meanwhile, stay action. No increase. And that is to say don’t dare our country. No increase in tariffs.”
Truth be told, Nigerian senators are not pro-masses. Lawan does not care a hoot about the poor man on the street and using MultiChoice in his strawman argument is cynical.
Threats such as ‘don’t dare Nigeria’ are actually puerile. It smacks of a bully mentality.
To be sure, this is not actually a defence of MultiChoice. The company is big enough to defend itself but Nigerian public officers must stop living a lie in order to look good before the masses they have long sent to socio-economic and political Golgotha.
For instance, can it really be said that MultiChoice hiked prices without recourse to the economy? The answer is an emphatic no.
In fact, if anything, the price hike is a response to the dictates of the very hostile economic environment that the government in which Lawan is the third-in-command has bequeathed to us.
How do you stop any company from hiking tariff when parastatals are at the fore-front of the malaise? Under the watch of the National Assembly, electricity tariff has gone beyond the capacity of the ordinary Nigerian. The price of diesel has multiplied ten-fold. Petrol is hard to come by. The price of aviation fuel has hit the roof.
Does Lawan know that some companies, including banks are reducing their hours of operation because they can no longer afford to buy diesel that will take them for long? And if they must work those long hours, the cost must be transferred to someone. Inflation has hit the roof. Exchange rate is almost N600 to a $1.
So, what are the senators talking about?
The National Assembly almost always comes out to shout about MultiChoice price hike and attempts to order it to adopt the pay-per-view (PPV) billing model. But who said that PPV is cheaper? It may be ignorance at play.
Truth be told, it is wrong-headed macro-economic policies that are causing the volatility in the market. And it will continue as long as the ugly situation subsists. Haranguing MultiChioce solves no problem.
If Lawan and his co-travellers want to ameliorate the sufferings of the masses, they know where to look at. Pay-TV is a luxury and not an essential commodity per se. People can afford not to subscribe or go for the cheaper bouquets.
Multichoice increased its prices in March on the grounds of increased operational costs and inflation in Nigeria. Truth is that if it does not do it today, it will tomorrow as long as nothing changes in the economy for good.
If that is not a reaction to the economic situation of the country, as Senator Moro claimed, I don’t know what else is.
MultiChoice as a business is not insulated from the economic situation in the country whether it is runaway inflation, escalating prices of consumer goods or even the cost of doing business itself.
The way to tackle the problem is not to muscle companies into price fixing. That will be tantamount to resorting to the Soviet-era price control mechanism in a supposedly free market economy. It is counter-productive.
Lawan and his colleagues should stop playing to the gallery. Nigeria’s economic malaise requires hard thinking. Arm-twisting MultiChoice is a no-brainer.
