By Ayomide Oriade
It’s a common trend in Nigeria for political parties to monopolise a media and deny the opposition any chance on such a media. But the Nigeria’s National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) has said it is ready to tackle the problem head-on as it will not hesitate to sanction media houses, especially radio stations that do not give opposition parties access to their channels.
Director-general of the commission Emeka Mba, who stated this at a NAN forum said: “It is a problem that has become a very serious issue and we are committed to making an example out of one or two radio stations.
“If you deny a group, especially during this election period, we will also deny you being on air. This is something that we’ve communicated very strongly to all the radio stations, especially in the states.
“I was telling someone this afternoon that I have seen a former state governor who came to the commission to complain that the current state executive was not allowing him access to radio and I showed him a report that when he was governor, he also did not allow the other people.
“In the practice of democracy, we need to learn; we need to adhere to civilised way of doing business. But to be honest, we are working towards making example out of one or two radio stations.”
