…Cites marginalisation by MDAs
Aminu Imam
Chairman of Liberty TV/Radio and Chairman, Board of Trustees (BoT) of the Northern Broadcast Media Owners Association (NBMOA), Alhaji (Dr.) Ahmed Tijjani Ramalan, has appealed to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to intervene over what he described as the deliberate marginalisation of northern privately-owned radio and television stations in the Nigeria Revenue Service (NRS) ongoing nationwide tax awareness campaign.
Ramalan accused the NRS of failing to patronise private radio stations and television channels under the association’s umbrella despite repeated proposals for their inclusion despite a series of proposals submitted by the association and referrals made by the Minister of State for Defence, Bello Matawalle.
The nationwide campaign, themed: ‘Tax Awareness for National Growth: Reform, Compliance and Shared Prosperity’, is expected to run across all 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT); however, NBMOA members say they have been consistently excluded from its rollout. The association described what it called ‘marginalization’ by the Federal Government’s Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) in Abuja.
In his appeal, Ramalan urged President Tinubu to ensure fairness, equity and inclusiveness in the engagement of broadcast media organisations for the campaign, stressing that northern media houses should not be sidelined in national public enlightenment initiatives.
He called on President Tinubu to intervene directly, warning that continued exclusion of Northern private broadcasters undermines the campaign’s stated goal of nationwide reach and shared prosperity, and denies the region’s media houses a fair share of federal patronage.
The NBMOA has yet to receive an official response from the NRS or the Presidency at the time of filing this report.
