NBC Ban: This Is What Really Happened

The public had been led to believe that the National Brodcasting Corporation (NBC) has placed a ban on a

number of songs including Olamide’s Wo!  The ban was believed to have been placed on the basis that the songs, particularly Wo!, carried contents that are unfit for public circulation.

However, one of the key officers of the NBC has come out to say that the commission had nothing to do with the ban. In a recent interview with TheCable, NBC Director of broadcast monitoring, Idachaba Armstrong distanced the commission from the ban.

In his words, “Nobody at NBC issued a statement to the effect. We can’t be issuing a statement on every album released in his country. The broadcaster has the responsibility to do the needful”.

He further said that “NBC does not ban songs, we don’t have any business with the artistes. It is left for NBC to tell stations to ensure the songs and videos are fit for broadcast before putting them on air.”

He went on to talk about the responsibility of broadcast stations in deciding which song is fit for broadcast and which one is unfit.

He said, “The whole idea of offensive vulgar lyrics. It 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,” he added.

From these statements, it appears that Olamide’s Wo! and Wavy Level, Davido’s Fall and If Remix alongside 9ice’s Living things were never banned by NBC but their fitness for airplay is subject to the editorial discretion of broadcasters.