President Muhammadu Buhari has appointed Balarabe Shehu Ilelah, a veteran broadcaster as the new Director-General of the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC). He replaced Armstrong Idachaba.
The Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, announced the appointment in a statement on Friday.
He said 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 had also ordered radio and television stations to deactivate their Twitter accounts.
