Showunmi Urges NBC to Sanction Unprofessional Broadcasters, Slams Arise TV Anchor
Former spokesperson for Atiku Abubakar’s 2019 presidential campaign, Segun Showunmi, has urged the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) and the Ministry of Information to enforce stricter professional and ethical standards across Nigeria’s broadcast media.
In a statement posted Tuesday night on X under the headline “ENOUGH IS ENOUGH: WHEN BROADCASTERS BECOME THE STORY,” Showunmi condemned what he described as a rising culture of provocation and partisanship among television hosts.
“When television anchors abandon professionalism for provocation, it becomes the duty of the station’s management to call them to order. But when that failure becomes routine, the National Broadcasting Commission must step in,” he wrote.
Showunmi cautioned that freedom of expression should not be misused as a license to insult or intimidate invited guests on national television.
“The supervising Ministry of Information must not remain a bystander while citizens invited in good faith are subjected to insult, rudeness, partisan aggression, and empty intellectual showmanship,” he said. “Let it be clear: freedom of expression is not freedom to abuse. Regulation is not repression; it is the defence of sanity and national interest. The time has come to draw the line.”
The politician maintained that while some level of excess could be tolerated from private online commentators, such behavior was unacceptable from licensed national broadcasters.
“What can be excused from a citizen’s podcast we cannot and must not tolerate from a licensed national broadcaster,” he added. “The madness must stop. #ARISEtv and its anchor, #ruffydfire (Rufai Oseni), have crossed too many lines.
They cannot continue to constitute themselves into self-appointed prosecutors, judges, and enemies of the state under the guise of journalism. There is a difference between questioning power and attacking the very idea of order.”
His post sparked backlash from human rights activist Mahdi Shehu, who accused Showunmi of hypocrisy and advocating censorship.
“When they appoint you the DG of NBC, you can shut down Arise if you like. Or even now you can approach Tinubu to shut down Arise, Premium Times, Sahara Reporters, etc., so that evil will triumph over falsehood for a short while,” Shehu wrote in response.
“When sellouts sell all they have and the proceeds are shrinking, they will seek to look for another opportunity to restock and replenish. Such is the sad commentary of the recanting Segun. Good riddance to a stupid, stinking rubbish.”
Showunmi’s remarks followed a heated exchange earlier that day between Minister of Works, Dave Umahi, and Arise TV anchor Rufai Oseni during a live interview on the Lagos–Calabar Coastal Highway project.
The discussion turned tense when Oseni pressed the minister on the project’s cost and funding details.
