Following recent controversial intimate scenes involving housemates on Big Brother Naija (BBNaija) season 10, an activist and lawyer, Maduabuchi Idam, has petitioned the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC), calling for the immediate regulation or outright ban of the reality show.
In a letter addressed to the Director General of NBC and shared on his Facebook page, Idam titled the petition: “Urgent need to ban or regulate the content of the television programme described as ‘Big Brother Naija’ for obscene, indecent, and profane content, under the NBC Act 1999.”
He argued that the programme’s content violates the NBC Act and exposes the public to real-time explicit and pornographic material across television and social media platforms.
While acknowledging that BBNaija is rated 18+, the lawyer expressed concern that its content is still accessible to unintended audiences, including children, which he believed contributes to a breakdown in moral values.
“Other television and social media audiences, rather than the BBNaija target audiences, accidentally stumble on the show’s contents, which leads to moral wreckage and insensibility in Nigerian societies,” he stated.
Idam is demanding that NBC take decisive action within 30 days, either by banning the show or enforcing strict content regulations.
“The regulation of the ‘Big Brother Naija’ program, which neither offers educative, artistic, scientific, nor literary value, has become necessary to preserve and salvage the wreckage of our dear society,” the lawyer posited.
He further urged the commission to limit BBNaija’s broadcast to highly restricted channels tailored exclusively for its adult audience.
“The NBC is by this letter urged to within thirty (30) days, regulate the ‘Big Brother Naija’ program by permitting it only to be aired on highly restricted channels, reversed for its target audience and also prohibiting the sharing or dissemination of the explicit contents by the host company, on social media,” the petition concluded.