In the midst of the furore surrounding the ban on Twitter and other moves to regulate social media, President Muhammadu Buhari has sacked Armstrong Idachaba as the Director-General of the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC).
Mr Idachaba was appointed acting Director-General of the commission replacing Modibbo Kawu who was suspended for alleged financial impropriety in February 2020.
However, on Friday, the ministry of information and culture announced the appointment of Balarabe Shehu Ilelah, a broadcaster, as the Director-General of the NBC.
The Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, announced the appointment in a statement issued in Abuja on Friday.
He said Mr Ilelah’s appointment is for a tenure of five years in the first instance.
He was, however, silent on the reasons the president did not consider Mr Idachaba for the position in a substantive capacity.
The announcement comes amid the moves of the regulatory body to censor social media and the reportage of broadcast media organisations.
The government had earlier banned the operations of Twitter in the country and threatened to prosecute citizens who still use the social media platform despite the ban.
The Nigerian government, through the NBC, ordered radio and television stations to deactivate their Twitter accounts.
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