The Federal Government on Wednesday asked the House of Representatives to include inter­net broadcasting under the con­trol of the Nigerian Broadcasting Commission (NBC).

The request was contained in the submission by the Minister of In­formation and Culture, Lai Mo­hammed, at the public hearing into a bill to amend the Nigerian Broadcasting Commission Act organised by the House Committees on Information, National Orientation, Ethics and Values. ­

The minister said all online and internet broad­casting entities should be included in section 2 (c) of the bill.

Mohammed, who seemed very comfortable with the present powers of the NBC, said he came with mainly two items of concerns: to prevent the NBC from being made to remit to Treasury Single Account (TSA), and to se­cure the control over Inter­net broadcasting and on­line media in the proposed amendment.

He said very soon, the NBC would join league of agencies of government that do not depend on Fed­eral Government for sala­ries and other projects, in view of their revenue gen­erating capacity.

His submission did not go down well with other stakeholders, who already felt that the commission was not independent, but was used as a political tool to witch-hunt those op­posed to government.

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