By Nnamdi Odumody

The World Economic Forum recently established six Global Fourth Industrial Revolution councils which will fashion out governance frameworks for emerging technologies. With a focus on artificial intelligence, autonomous mobility, blockchain, drones, internet of things and precision medicine, the global councils are a convergence point for more than 200 leaders from the government, private sector, civil society and academia from around the world.

• Enable cross-country exchange of policy and regulatory experience, including through case studies;

• Identify and take action to address gaps in public policy or corporate governance through multistakeholder cooperation;

• Shape a common understanding of “best” or “good” policy practice as a means of enabling better policy coordination within and among countries;

• Provide strategic guidance to the Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution Network regarding the governance projects and pilots it undertakes.

The Councils members will work together to develop policy guidance and address ‘’governance issues’’ for emerging technologies. According to Richard Samans, Managing Director and Head of Policy and Institutional Impact at the World Economic Forum, companies and governments are not moving fast enough to anticipate social expectations in the Fourth Industrial Revolution, and that this bottom up, societally focused approach can help to build and maintain public trust in the technologies while strengthening evidence, upon which policy decisions are made by governments and companies.

The Global Fourth Industrial Revolution Councils will enable cross country exchange of policy and regulatory experience including through case studies, identify and take action to address gaps in public policy or corporate governance through multi-stakeholder cooperation, shape a common understanding of best or good policy practice as a means of enabling better policy coordination within and among countries, and provide strategic guidance to the Centre For The Fourth Industrial Revolution Network, regarding the governance projects and pilots it undertakes.

The Councils Chairs includes leaders from the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Dana Farber, European Commission, Microsoft, Uber, World Bank, etc.

In a perfect internet market, marginal cost is zero for digital products. In other words, the cost of producing to serve an additional user will be zero. This is possible because distribution cost and transaction cost – two components of marginal cost – will disappear. This has a huge implication on the trajectory of digital firms: because distribution within internet is unbounded and unconstrained [limited gatekeepers], the friction for distribution tends towards zero, opening huge opportunities for new business models.

Under this circumstance, two things happen:

1. There is limited value in owning digital products if you can stream the same content. The low marginal cost makes streaming more cost-effective over time, especially when you consider more product choices stream triggers for you. Yes, you can stream more contents over just buying and owning rights.
2. There is limited value in outright purchase of digital products when you can do subscription for the same reason as noted in #1 above.

These factors are the reasons why owning music is no more a smart choice: streaming pays better. Apple iTunes had to go for its era is fading for Apple streaming business to take over. The future belongs to streaming as that cost will keep dropping per value compared with buying and owning music. Simply, if marginal cost drops, users win, and asking them to own the digital product is offering a non-optimal choice to them.

So is owning music becoming a thing of the past?

Last week, Nigeria’s Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) barred Oando CEO, Wale Tinubu, from the company. On Sunday, it noted that it would change the entire management with an interim management team to oversee the affairs of Oando. Mr Mutiu Olaniyi Adio Sunmonu will run the show at the moment.

“Further to our press release on Oando Plc, dated May 31, 2019, the commission hereby informs the public of the constitution of an interim management team headed by Mr Mutiu Olaniyi Adio Sunmonu CON, to oversee the affairs of Oando Plc, and conduct an Extraordinary General Meeting on or before July 1, 2019 to appoint new directors to the board of the company, who would subsequently select a management team for Oando Plc,” SEC said in a statement.

Oando had gone to court to challenge the SEC original decision of pushing the CEO out. But it seems that is not coming as expected – some directors are already resigning.

“Oando PLC hereby notifies the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), its valued shareholders, key stakeholders and the public of the resignations of its Non-Executive Directors, Chief Sena Anthony and Mr. Oghogho Akpata from the Board of Directors of Oando PLC, with effect from June 3, 2019,” Oando said, in the SEC disclosure.

The losers in this game are the small investors in Oando – those invisible teachers, traders and retirees. Another Africa’s promising empire goes out of track – very unfortunate. From my small records, I am yet to see any Nigerian non-bank company that recovered after government changes entire management with a new one. But here, government is doing the best it can – but I do not see any happy hour at the end. This is what I expect –a new management takes over, discovers something new, and AMCON (the bad asset management entity) nationalizes!

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I am truly saddened that in 2019 that Nigeria is still in the business of suspending TV and radio licenses. I do not watch AIT or listen to Ray Power to know what they broadcast therein. Personally, it is always painful whenever I read of suspension of transmission. As an undergraduate student in Federal University of Technology Owerri (FUTO), I was Director of Research when we built a campus radio station which transmitted and served only the university community.

An opposition presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, Thursday condemned the closure of AIT and Ray Power FM, two of the country’s largest private broadcasters.

The National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) suspended the broadcast licences for both AIT and Ray Power FM on Thursday afternoon, citing a frequent breach of the broadcasting code.

The NBC, which regulates radio and television stations, said the AIT’s conduct had become “a bad example of how a professional broadcast outfit should not be run.”

The agency’s head, Modibbo Kawu, said AIT had been warned several times about breaches of broadcasting regulations but did not flinch.

The AIT and Ray Power FM, both owned by Raymond Dokpesi’s Daar Communications, strongly denied all allegations of wrongdoing, saying the Buhari administration was out to victimise them over of their perceived allegiance to the opposition.

Our Director of Social engineered a wonderful program schedule that even the Vice Chancellor liked to tune it. I recalled my Head of Department negotiating how we could host him live. Then, one afternoon, the VC said that dictator Sani Abacha had sent signals that we must be off-air. Yes, we could use the harmless radio station to take over Nigeria. Just like that – everything folded!

Government, if you have problem with AIT and Ray Power, find better ways than this draconian suspension. It is very offensive to imagine that in our democracy that we are still at that level.

Sure – this does not mean that people should be broadcasting harmful content.

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Our primitive and crude mentality have gone on full display once again, strange land run by funny creatures.

Just go through the reasons cited by NBC for the ridiculous suspension, they are as laughable as they come. You now begin to wonder if Nigeria has become another North Korea, where virtually every news that gets to the public is only what the government wants to hear. Everyday our supposed educated class keep giving us more reasons to question the institutions that certified them fit for purpose, to even give them paper certificates. At least they managed to include non payment of license fee as one of the reasons…

At our stage of development, we do not really need angry or mean men near power, because we still lack the strong institutions that could keep them in check. If you criticise a president here it’s because you are either corrupt or unpatriotic, I do not see how any country can rise above sea level with such crude mentality.

I understand that our headmasters who shout about democracy have no clue on what it entails, so they are always trigger-happy, hypersensitive or hyperactive. So much to do in our educational sector.

Maybe WashPost, MSNBC and CNN should be shutdown, because they are ‘nasty’ to Trump!