President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has renewed the tenures of the heads of two major federal media organisations, retaining the Managing Director of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), Ali Muhammed Ali, and the Director-General of the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA), Abdulhamid Salihu Dembos, for another three years.
The decision marks a departure from the administration’s recent pattern of replacing outgoing heads of federal institutions with new appointees, and comes at a time when the composition of federal appointments has continued to attract public attention, particularly over regional representation.
The renewal, however, is an extension of the existing appointments rather than a new round of recruitment.
The Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, announced the decision on Sunday, saying the renewed tenures of both executives would commence on October 20, 2026. Tinubu initially appointed Ali and Dembos to head NAN and NTA respectively on October 20, 2023.
The two executives therefore retain their positions as the administration prepares to enter the final year of its current four-year term. Their continued leadership also means that both NAN and NTA will maintain institutional continuity at the top as the government continues to rely heavily on its media organisations for public information and the projection of its policies.
Dembos, from Yola, Adamawa State, is a career broadcaster who began his NTA career as an announcer at the Kaduna station in 1989, following his National Youth Service.
He subsequently served as General Manager of NTA Lokoja and NTA Kano and later became Acting Zonal Director of the NTA Kaduna Network Centre. He retired from the organisation in 2017 and subsequently served as its Executive Director of Marketing.
He was also a former National President of the Radio, Television, Theatre and Art Workers Union (RATTAWU).
Ali, a veteran journalist and media manager with more than three decades of experience, was among the eight chief executives appointed by Tinubu in October 2023 to lead agencies and parastatals under the then Federal Ministry of Information and National Orientation.
His appointment placed him at the helm of NAN, the federal government’s news-gathering and news-distribution agency.
Ali holds a first degree in English from Bayero University, Kano, a graduate degree in International Affairs from Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, and a Postgraduate Diploma in Mass Communications from Bayero University.
The Presidency has highlighted his interest in media evolution, digital content development and reaching an increasingly diverse audience through alternative news platforms.
The renewal of their appointments is significant because Tinubu’s original October 2023 appointments represented a broad restructuring of the leadership of federal information-sector institutions.
At the time, the President appointed new heads for eight agencies, including NTA, NAN, the National Orientation Agency, Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria, National Broadcasting Commission, Voice of Nigeria, Advertising Regulatory Council of Nigeria and Nigerian Press Council.
In renewing the two appointments, the Presidency did not announce a change in the leadership of either organisation. Instead, Onanuga said the President had urged the executives to justify the confidence reposed in them by remaining committed to the mandates of their respective organisations and to the promotion of the administration’s Renewed Hope Agenda.
The development consequently places the emphasis on performance and continuity at two of the federal government’s most prominent media institutions, while also offering a notable exception to the increasingly scrutinised practice of replacing outgoing political and administrative appointees at the expiration of their tenures.
