NCDMB says verify first after Sahara Reporters’ “so-called exclusive report”
The Board has praised its record when it comes to strict adherence to due process leading to achieving remarkable milestones such as ranking top for three consecutive times in the Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council (PEBEC) Compliance Report focusing on the Ease of Doing Business, Transparency and Accountability among Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs) of government in Nigeria.
As the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) makes further incredible strides in its building capacity mandate, spotlights from several angles of a spectrum are beaming on it, therefore the revelation by an online publication Sahara Reporters alleging in a Tuesday article that the agency led by Executive Secretary Engr. Felix Omatsola Ogbe had wrongfully spent funds, which is all part of being in the referenced spotlight.
The main idea or question in the article wanted to stress that approval for all these monies that were reportedly spent went through the Federal Executive Council headed by the President of Nigeria, Bola Tinubu, so how come what was spent had failed to match the value of a job that needed getting done?
Sahara Reporters’ headline two days before the now unfolding Valentine’s Day celebration partly reads that NCDMB Boss Ogbe Spends ₦7Billion On Consultancy, Over ₦580Million On 5-Day London Training, Logistics, Allowances. The executive secretary denied this in a rebuttal yesterday by the Board’s Corporate Communications Department.
Instead of writing a report riddled with falsehoods, gross inaccuracies and baseless inferences, NCDMB says in a press statement, media houses and indeed the general public ought to always verify their sources of information before rushing to publish the ‘’so-called exclusive report.’’
According to the statement, such an initiative goes hand-in-hand with the dictates and [time-held] journalism practice of hearing the other side.
Live in this instance, that is not what the communications department thought had happened because they claim not to have received any inquiry from a Sahara Reporters agent about their discovery.
Part of the focal point of the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board’s reply to Sahara Reporters’ was that the undue sensationalism was a hatchet job meant to distract but Engr. Ogbe’s team says it won’t be deterred come whatever.
At the ninth Sub-Saharan Africa International Petroleum Exhibition and Conference (SAIPEC), held at the Eko Convention Centre, Lagos, from 10 to 13 February 2025, the executive secretary delivered a paper citing how Africa’s smashing local content could help birth that $3trillion economy everyone wants.
Ayodelé is a Lagos-based journalist and the Content and Editorial Coordinator at Meiza. All around the megacity, I am steering diverse lifestyle magazine audiences with ingenious hacks and insights that spur fast, informed decisions in their busy lives.
