All parties involved have been urged by the National Broadcasting Commission to stop utilizing children’s images in political advertising.
Balarabe Ilelah, the director general of NBC, made the announcement in Abuja during a gathering of stakeholders.
Ilelah, according to the News Agency of Nigeria, criticized politicians who use children in their political commercials and broadcasters that air them in violation of Section 7.7.1(d) of the code. In order to develop a comprehensive policy direction, he asked them to evaluate broadcasters’ performance in the area of children’s programming objectively.
He also expressed concern on how children’s local contents had not been receiving the required attention by sponsors, producers and the broadcasters.
He said, “Instead of developing local content, some broadcasters still rely on foreign children’s content, particularly cartoons which often are laced with themes of violence and immorality. “NBC is deeply concerned about how some provisions under Chapter Four of the NBC code are being ignored or deliberately violated by broadcast outfits.
“Let me refer you to Section 4.2.2 (k) which requires broadcasters to devote at least 10 per cent of their total airtime to children programmes.