The current administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is increasingly gaining notoriety for intolerance and human rights violations. On April 9, 2025, the government-owned National Broadcasting Commission (NBC), known for its knee-jerk clampdowns on government critics, issued a directive forbidding the broadcast of a song, “Tell Your Papa,” recently released by afrobeat musician Eedris Abdulkareem.
The NBC cited powers it claimed to derive from Section 3.1.8 of the National Broadcasting Code, which supposedly gives it authority to issue bans on certain content. However, the section cited by NBC no longer exists, with the only similar provision now found under Section 3.0.2.7. This section of the Code reads: “A programme or musical content classified as ‘Not To Be Broadcast’ (NTBB) shall not be broadcast.” This appears, however, to be an arbitrary power—inserted into the Code without any clear legal backing or justification.
In the song, Eedris chronicles the current sufferings in the country and is heard telling the President’s son, Seyi Tinubu, to tell his father about the fast-deteriorating living conditions. The song highlights galloping inflation, rising crime, and worsening insecurity. According to Eedris, “country hard.” He accuses the President of implementing anti-people policies, with food prices, data costs, and school fees escalating. Eedris disputes Seyi’s recent claim that his father is the best President Nigeria has ever had. In his words: “Your papa no be the best President.” The song ends by advising Seyi to tell his father to take urgent remedial action.
The government’s response—banning the song from broadcast on radio and television stations nationwide—further demonstrates the Tinubu administration’s increasing intolerance of criticism since assuming power merely two years ago.
Only recently, a National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) member based in Lagos, Ushie Rita Uguamaye, was summoned by the NYSC for sanction over her social media posts lamenting the cost of living in the country. The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Temitope Ajayi, criticized Ushie’s comments, likening them to a “capital offence” under NYSC regulations.
Using the now-discredited Cybercrimes Act, the government appears intent on silencing critical voices, rather than addressing citizens’ genuine concerns about governance. Protests against government policies are frequently clamped down on. The planned peaceful protest by the Take It Back Movement in March was forcibly broken up in Port Harcourt, Abuja, and Lagos.
Human rights advocates are increasingly alarmed by Nigeria’s descent into intolerance and authoritarianism under the civilian regime of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.