Former spokesperson for Atiku Abubakar during the 2019 presidential campaign, Segun Showunmi, has called for renewed enforcement of professionalism and ethical standards within Nigeria’s broadcast industry.

In a post shared on X (formerly Twitter) on Tuesday night, titled “Enough Is Enough: When Broadcasters Become the Story,” Showunmi decried what he described as a rising culture of provocation and partisanship among some television hosts.

“When television anchors abandon professionalism for provocation, it becomes the duty of the station’s management to call them to order. But when that failure becomes routine, the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) must step in,” he wrote.

Showunmi urged the Ministry of Information and the NBC to act decisively, warning that the right to free expression should not translate into “freedom to abuse.”

“The supervising Ministry of Information must not remain a bystander while citizens invited in good faith are subjected to insult, rudeness, partisan aggression, and empty intellectual showmanship,” he said.

He further stated, “Freedom of expression is not freedom to abuse. Regulation is not repression; it is the defence of sanity and national interest. The time has come to draw the line.”

The political commentator argued that while excesses may be overlooked in online spaces, licensed broadcasters must uphold higher standards. “What can be excused from a citizen’s podcast we cannot and must not tolerate from a licensed national broadcaster,” he wrote, adding that “the madness must stop.”

In what appeared to be a direct criticism of Arise Television and one of its anchors, Rufai Oseni, Showunmi accused them of “crossing too many lines” and acting like “self-appointed prosecutors and judges under the guise of journalism.”

However, rights activist Mahdi Shehu swiftly responded, accusing Showunmi of hypocrisy and defending censorship.

“When they appoint you DG of NBC, you can shut down Arise if you like,” Shehu wrote on X. “When sellouts sell all they have and the proceeds are shrinking, they will seek to look for another opportunity to restock. Such is the sad commentary of the recanting Segun. Good riddance to a stupid, stinking rubbish.”

The debate follows a tense on-air exchange earlier on Tuesday between Minister of Works, Dave Umahi, and Arise TV anchor Rufai Oseni over questions regarding the Lagos–Calabar Coastal Highway project’s cost and funding, which reignited discussions about journalistic ethics and decorum in broadcast interviews.