NBC berates Adamawa broadcasters

Radio Gotel, owned by former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, and ABC, owned by the Adamawa state government, were, according to NBC’s monitoring reports, said to have gone overboard by airing programmes that had unsettled the airwaves in the state. The presenters of the programmes, “Inda Ba Kasa” on Radio Gotel and “Taba Kidi” on ABC, […]

Radio Gotel, owned by former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, and ABC, owned by the Adamawa state government, were, according to NBC’s monitoring reports, said to have gone overboard by airing programmes that had unsettled the airwaves in the state.

The presenters of the programmes, “Inda Ba Kasa” on Radio Gotel and “Taba Kidi” on ABC, were reported to have used the programmes to settle political scores, contrary to the Nigeria Broadcasting Code, the website of the NBC said.

The report added that the presenters allowed listeners who called in to the programmes to use abusive language against their political opponents as well as played music with unacceptable lyrics.

At a meeting with the executives of both radio stations, the Director General of the NBC, Engineer Yomi Bolarinwa, called on broadcasters to uphold professionalism, desist from allowing the politics of their proprietors to dictate the content of their broadcasts, and work with the interest of the nation at heart.

Bolarinwa also said it was unacceptable to allow people to go on air without control, adding that professional best practice was for every presenter to have a full script, or at least a guide to ensure that he or she did not go off track.

The general manager of Radio Gotel, Bashir Mustafa, and his ABC counterpart, Ayuba Tumba, defended their respective stations, explaining that the presenters, who they said were connected to powerful politicians, had found ways of circumventing the stations’ managements to derail.

Head of NBC’s Public Affairs, Awwalu Salihu, told Sunday Trust on telephone that the stations had not been sanctioned for the time being but that the commission would continue to monitor both and, in the event of further breaches, use punitive measures at its disposal against them.

“We have a number of sanctions we can employ against them if we observe further breaches of the Nigeria Broadcasting Code”, he said.