I never called for BBNaija suspension – Lai Mohammed

Lai Mohammed, Nigeria’s Minister for Information and Culture, has denied allegations that he called for the suspension of reality TV show Big Brother Naija. According to Mohammed, he never made any move or contacted the Nigerian Broadcastinng Commision in an attempt to shut down BBNaija.

Rumour had it that the minister gave the order to NBC over coronavirus concerns. Following the reports, Nigerians criticised Lai Mohammed on social media for allegedly planning to have the BBNaija show shut down.

But, the minister, in a statement by his media aide debunked the media claim saying the “report was not credited to the minister”. He then described the report as “speculative”. Apparently, there was no memo to support the claim that he ordered the NBC to suspend the show on DSTV.

The statement reads, “We will not dignify speculative reports; if a minister issues a directive, it will not be issued verbally. There’s going to be a memo to that effect that he will send; anybody that is sure that the minister made that statement should provide a memo.

“Like I said earlier, we will not dignify speculative report; if you tune your satellite TV to channel 198, I am sure Big Brother Naija is still airing; contrary to the speculative report that the minister has ordered NBC to suspend the show.”

So what was the origin of this controversy?