The Director-General of the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC), Charles Ebuebu, has cautioned broadcasters in Kano against political programming capable of inciting unrest.
Besides, Ebuebu challenged broadcasting stations to ensure responsiveness and a high level of professionalism while adhering strictly to ethical conduct.
The NBC boss gave the stern caution on Thursday during an engagement forum with broadcast practitioners and managers of radio and television houses in Kano.
Ebuebu, represented by the Coordinating Director at NBC, Susan Obi, expressed concern over rising incidents of inciting impulses emanating from political talk shows and their destructive tendencies.
NBC, according to the NBC boss, has, in recent times, observed gross violations and breaches of the code and insisted that the commission would not hesitate to mete out necessary sanctions.
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He said the implications of these dangerous trends, if not restrained, are capable of inflicting disintegration in the fabric of society and distorting good governance.
“Arising from some of the reports we received from the Kano State office of NBC, we deem it fit at this appropriate time to have a conversation with broadcasters in Kano on the need for responsible broadcasting.
“We have monitored and noticed dangerous trends in the broadcasting ecosystem in Kano, especially in political programs, and we thought it is high time we draw a line of caution regarding adherence to the ethics of broadcasting in the state.
“Regulation is about maintaining peace and making sure our airwaves are free. We have the responsibility to ensure that politics is not heated, and airwaves should continue to propagate ideas and not be misused,” Ebuebu noted.
Reacting to the development, the Commissioner for Information and Internal Affairs in Kano, Ambassador Ibrahim Waiya, accused opposition parties of using the advantage of the Federal Government to heat the political atmosphere in Kano.
Waiya lamented the rain of abusive and derogatory comments by local political commentators allegedly being sponsored by the opposition against the Kano State Government. The commissioner, however, regretted that the failure of security agencies to curtail the abnormalities in the media is worsening the ugly trend.
