Citing fears of a possible spread of COVID-19 among inmates, Lai Mohammed, minister of information and culture, has asked the Nigerian Broadcasting Commission (NBC) to take Big Brother Naija (BBN) off the air, TheCable reports.
The reality show, which entered its fifth season on July 20, is one of the most watched programmes on cable TV in Nigeria.
On Wednesday, Armstrong Idachaba, acting director-general of the NBC, told senior management members that he had been directed by the minister to shut down the show, TheCable learnt.
The commission was to use fears of spread of COVID-19 as the reason, citing directives from the presidential task force (PTF), insiders said.
Mohammed reportedly wanted the letter shutting down the show to come from the NBC because of the general opinion that he is bent on sending MultiChoice Ltd, producers of the show, out of Nigeria.
He is believed to have launched political moves against MultiChoice in order to pave the way for his main consultant to make a return to Pay TV after previously failing.
However, according to TheCable, insiders said that the NBC management was not well disposed to the move to shut down BBN, with some of them saying there was no basis for it.
A director is said to have reminded the meeting that NBC had already sought explanation from Multichoice on a possible violation of COVID-19 protocols with the airing of the show.
The letter was sent on July 1, before the show began.
MultiChoice replied with detailed explanations on measures taken in collaboration with the Lagos state government, whose agency, Lagos State Safety Commission, gave the green light for the show.
Also, MultiChoice said in the letter that housemates had been screened prior to the show and that the BBN House had been decontaminated and adapted to ensure sufficient physical distancing, in addition to eliminating the use of live audience.
All inmates went through a mandatory two-week isolation during which COVID-19 symptoms would have manifested if they had the disease.
Meanwhile, Idachaba, in his response to TheCable, simply said BBN will not be taken off air but did not provide any further information.
Can not see the reasons why schools should still be shut and BBN is going on…I really can’t see the benefit of this. And the government are not seeing to the resumption of the future leaders of Nigeria. Which kind of country is this now. This isn’t fair at all sincerely. Where sponsors of that program should contribute to how to fund for the safety of the children to resume back, they are busy wasting on some meaningless program and the government claims there’s still convid- 19 out there. Abegi