NBC Denies Blacklisting Artiste’s Song

The National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) has denied media  reports that it issued  a statement  placing a ban on some songs by popular  Nigerian musicians.
The NBC Director, Idachaba Armstrong stated that the ban on five  Nigerian  songs  which  include: ‘Wo’ and  “Wavy level” by Damide, ‘Fall’ and ‘if Remix’ by Davido  and “Living things’ by 9ice  did not come  from the commission. According  to the cable, maintaining  that it is not the commission’s job to  ban songs as the  prerogative on whether  or not to play songs lies with broadcast  stations”, Mr. Armstrong said.
“First of all NBC is a commission not a corporation, nobody at NBC issued a statement to the effect. We can’t be issuing a statement on every album released in this country.
“The broadcaster has the responsibility to do the needful. NBC does not ban songs, we don’t have any business with the  artistes. It is left with NBC to tell stations to ensure the songs and videos are fit for broadcast before putting  them on air.
“The whole idea of offensive  vulgarlyrics  is the responsibility of broadcasters to ensure  they don’t  come  on air. They are supposed  to do what is called gate keeping and they should have  editorial  control over their  content, but broadcasters now carelessly  air songs without exercising that editorial discretion. They  abdicate that responsibility  and then expect us to star chasing them.”
Admitting  that the songs  are actually offensive and meant for clubs, Mr. Armstrong noted that broadcast  stations are lazy  and unprofessional their conduct and would be  fined if found to contradict any NBC law.
“I have  reliably gathered that some of those songs  are actually  offensive, regarding the lyrics,  some of these  songs are for clubs.
“These  stations  that should practice, self regulation are lazy  and unprofessional  in  their conduct. We  will impose  the necessary  sanctions on the stations if the stations contravene any of the broadcast  code, they would be fined.
“Once NBC picks it up, we call the  stations  to order and impose the necessary  fine first, we caution you,  then impose a fine  afterwards  which  can be between N50-N100k. But if they are recalcitrant,  it can rise to N500k”, he said.
Recall  that the   Federal Ministry of  Health had also recently said the video  to Olamide’s ‘wo’ violated the Tobacco Control  Act. The 28-year-old rapper, who is  signed to his own record  label,  YBNL, had  returned  to Ladi Lak in Bariga  where he  was raised  to shoot the video of his  latest single.
Twitting the information via its official handle, the Health Ministry claimed that the video which features ghetto scenes  where youths can be  smoking, encouraged  second hand  smoking.
In a communiqué, the  ministry noted that in accordance  with Section 9 of the  Nigeria Tobacco Control Act, offenders are liable  to a fine of  at least N50,000 and/or six  months  imprisonment once convicted.