It no longer news that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has reversed leadership appointments that had recently been announced at the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA), reinstating Salihu Abdullahi Dembos as the Director-General and Ayo Adewuyi as the Executive Director of News. Tinubu’s decision to reverse the appointments of Rotimi Richard Pedro as DG, Stella Din Jacob as Executive Director of News, Karimah Bello as Executive Director of Marketing and Sophia Essahmed as Managing Director of NTA Enterprises, had just been announced earlier, were made on Tuesday by presidential spokesperson Bayo Onanuga and has been one of the most discussed decisions by the administration in recent weeks, generating extensive debate on governance, decision-making and institutional stability in the federal government.
The leadership shake up at the NTA was announced in late August after convinced a presidential aide with a background in the broadcasting industry had convinced Tinubu that the NTA was under-performing and losing relevance with its Nigerian audience, including not doing its job of well promoting government programmes. The announcement of sweeping changes at the top of the broadcaster, with the sitting Director-General Dembos over a year left still in his statutory tenure.
What made the development more controversial was that the Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, the NTA direct overseeing minister, was not consulted or even advised prior to the announcements. At the time, Idris was leading a three-day federal government citizens’ engagement tour in Enugu and Ebonyi States, south-eastern Nigeria. Ironically, he was also on that trip with Dembos and the NTA’s other senior executives, all of whom had just found out through the media that they’d lost their jobs. It was an embarrassing situation for the minister to be in, and while he was not responsible for the president’s decision, critics were asking how any major changes could occur to a significant parastatal under Idris’ ministry without his input.
After returning to Abuja, Idris sought an audience with President Tinubu to confront the issue. A presidency source said that Idris indicated to the president that he was deeply concerned about the way things had been done and requested the president’s permission to investigate what had happened with the reshuffle. Following his investigation, he was quoted as saying that many of the allegations about incompetence, declining audience share, and poor performance at the NTA were, in fact, not true at all. According to Idris, the allegations were basically contrived by interest groups wanting to take over the NTA, by exploiting internal rivalries and lobbying externally to get to the president.
Following the minister’s report, President Tinubu instructed that the appointments be reversed with immediate effect and Igor Dembos and Mohammmed Adewuyi were directed to be reinstated to the end of their tenure. In a statement, which is quoted in a lot of online news sources and in various newspapers, presidential aide Bayo Onanuga emphasised that the president held a strong belief in continuity and respect for tenure in public institutions. Dembos will remain as Director-General until 2026 after being appointed in October 2023. Adewuyi, who was appointed in 2024, will take over as Executive Director of News until his mandate expires in 2027.
The reverse in decision-making has sparked broader discussion about the overarching governance model of the current administration, with political observers highlighting the fact that this is not the first time the presidency has done a high-level appointment. There have been similar about-faces in recent months at other agencies, including regulatory commissions and parastatals, including in instances that were not necessarily about an appointment and often occurred in response to hopefully public backlash or public outcry of dissent. Critics contend that this indicates an unmatched tendency of aides, and interest groups, to tell a president what he or she should believe based on subtle actions by a government entity and, to decisions that are not consistent with internal conviction. Other analysts caution that these types of patterns, if left unattended, have the potential to undermine public confidence in government institutions, wreak havoc on staff morale, and create a culture of uncertainty within a government agency responsible for implementing national policy.
For the NTA itself the reinstatement can be both a relief and a challenge. On the one hand, with Dembos and Adewuyi returning, the agency is guaranteed leadership continuity which allows the organization to get on with an agenda of existing projects and reforms without the possibility of complete management upheaval. On the other hand, the organization still faces significant hurdles laying claim to relevance in Nigeria’s innovation-saturated media ecosystem. Once a flagship broadcaster in Africa, the NTA is now consistently losing television viewership to private television stations, digital platforms, and online media. Programming is heavily criticized for being stale and overtly government-centric, appealing little to the young adults consuming news and entertainment through streaming services and social media.
Stakeholders claim the leadership debacle must not detract from the realm of imagining the NTA’s place in a digital landscape. Experts in the industry simply said that for the broadcaster to be competitive, it must modernize content, embrace smart technologies, and move towards audience engagement in new spaces. Others reiterated the need for independent editorial, alluding to a time when public confidence was at risk of diminishing because of a view of being a mouthpiece more than a true national broadcaster. Whether or not Dembos will be able to create some of this context success will be critical in informing whether the institution is seen as credible going forward.
The episode also raises larger issue pertaining to government oversight and institutional autonomy within Nigeria’s public sector. While the presidency’s decision to un-do the appointments shows responsiveness and willingness to backtrack, it also demonstrates risk from hurried decision making that is influenced by narrow interests. Industry observers say this episode will serve as a call to action for the White House to be develop stronger means of internal consultation, vet appointments in advance, as respect the supervisory; nothing in the law states that public servants default under their government officials.
While the dust settles, eyes will be on how reinstated NTA management performs over the next term. Observers will be looking to see whether Dembos and his management team will simply stabilize the broadcaster, and also provide a new vision for modernization, audience participation, and credible public service broadcasting. For President Tinubu, the episode reminds him that managing an administration requires both assertive leadership and due process. How he maintains that balance when making future appointments will matter a great deal in informing whether the public believes Guanrilla eficlency of his administration.
At its core the NTA reappointment illustrates both the complexity of managing a complicated federal bureaucracy and the turbulence of media governance in Nigeria. It serves as a reminder that in the battle for story, shape, and public trust, even the smallest miscalculation in a leadership decision concerning a national broadcaster can cause political upheaval.