Ukah, Asonzeh. "Managing Miracles: Law, Authority, and the Regulation of Religious Broadcasting in Nigeria". In New Media and Religious Transformations in Africa, edited by Rosalind Hackett, et al. 245-265, Bloomington: University of Indiana Press, 2015.

Ukah, Asonzeh. "Managing Miracles: Law, Authority, and the Regulation of Religious Broadcasting in Nigeria". In New Media and Religious Transformations in Africa, edited by Rosalind Hackett, et al. 245-265, Bloomington: University of Indiana Press, 2015.

• From 1 April 2004, the National Broadcasting Commission of Nigeria [NBC] began to prohibit the display of 'unverified' miracles on television, responding to a spate of fraud by huckster Pentecostal Churches using fake miracles on television to deceive Nigerians into giving them money (245-246).
• Although the action was supported by a major Pentecostal organization, its role as religious police raised many questions, especially considering the lack of official guidelines on how the NBC would differentiate between 'fake' and 'genuine' miracles (246).
• The involvement of a government agency in regulating the behavior of religious denominations on television for the sake of the public goods says much about the deep role of religion on public life in Nigeria, the powerful media presence of many religious denominations, and the influence of the Nigerian media (246).
• Radio and television were originally introduced into Nigeria in the 1930s and 1950s, respectfully, and used to disseminate colonial propaganda. Television remained primarily a propaganda tool until the 1990s, when the relationship of government and media was enshrined in the 1999 Constitution, making the government responsible for protecting media freedom and the public interest (247).
• Media has undergone tremendous diversification since the repeal of state control in 1992. When television and radio were liberalized only 30 stations existed, all concentrated in urban areas and state run, whereas almost 400 stations were active by 2011 (249).
• This diversification of media, and the introduction of market mechanisms encouraging competition between stations, has not been entirely positive, with most respondents reporting a severe drop in the quality of programming after government control ended (249).
• Many institutional and workplace habits from the authoritarian era of Nigerian governance remain in place in television and radio, with the NBC and major stations still being staffed with loyalists and recruitment still functioning along the basis of patronage and nepotism (248).
• The 1992 law which established the NBC made specific provisions that religious organizations and political parties should be prevented from operating radio or television stations. Both types of organization were thought to be too divisive, and political parties in particular might use the NBC to punish opposition stations and promote their own stations (249).
• Although TV stations dedicated to religious programming are outlawed, stations are allowed and encouraged to run religious programming, as long as it does not exceed 10% of total content. Public TV stations have the responsibility to give at least 90 minutes of airtime every week to all religious groups, distributed fairly, without charge (251).
• Religious programming is specifically disallowed from engaging in behavior seen as misleading, exploitative, or derogatory of other faiths. Since definitions for key terms are not provided, the policing of appropriate religious conduct is left to the Nigerian state (251-252).
• Although all Christian and Muslim sects have a concept of miracles as a part of their faith, Pentecostal Christianity is unique for the ubiquity of miracles in daily worship. Prior to the 1992 media code and the NBC's ban on miracles, Pentecostal priests performed 'miracles' on live television to great personal profit (253).
• The Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) is the largest public broadcaster in the country, and the largest in Africa, with a daily viewership exceeding 100 million. It possessed a media monopoly under 1979, when the government allowed other stations to be registered. During liberalization in the 1990s, the quality of programming severely declined, as Pentecostal churches and other wealthy religious groups bought nearly all the airtime from the cash-strapped network (254-255).
• The NTA essentially operated without regard to NBC regulations on religious content, allowing groups with the most cash to dominate programming. This means that religious groups do not receive equitable airtime, and religious content often makes up more than 10% of total programming (255, 257).
• Christians, and especially Pentecostal groups, are illegally over-represented on TV in the south, while Muslim programming almost entirely excluded Christian programs in the north. NTA station managers make large amounts of many from this arrangement, despite its illegality (255-256).
• Station managers refuse to give religious groups programming free of charge, in fact the entire reason that religious programming is so dominant is that religious groups are willing to pay large sums of money for airtime. What ostensibly non-for-profit programs on the air have their content 'suggested' by major sponsors (256-257).
• The religious content of NTA programs has changed since the enforcement of religious codes by the NBC, as NTA stations actively attempt to either reshape programs in compliance with regulation or obscure their actual content. Most stations have tried to replace religious sponsors with major corporations wishing to promote products (257).
• The NTA is almost never punished for its violations of the NBC code, even when major violations are uncovered in the press. When two Christians were murdered after NTA Kaduna broadcast a sermon by a radical sheikh who called for jihad against young Christians in the state, the station still do not receive any punishment (257-258, 261).
• An actually enforcement of the religious code, including the prohibition on unverified miracles, by the NBC would benefit the public good in Nigeria by protecting against out-right fraud by entrepreneurial Pentecostal groups, preventing the use of religious broadcasting to cement political power, and foster a more tolerant society (259, 261).
• The author also argues that proper enforcement of the NBC code would make Nigeria into a secular state, as opposed to its present position of being anti-atheist and demanding compliance with either a Christian or Muslim moral code, depending on whether one is in the north or the south (259-260).