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Cape Town – A Muslim group in Nigeria has called on the West-African country's government to ban the latest season of the Big Brother Naija reality show broadcast on DStv across Africa, describing the contestants as "immoral inmates" and saying "the satanic TV show" is a platform of "nudity, shamelessness and open promiscuity".
In an open letter on Friday to Nigeria's national assembly, the Muslim Rights Concern's (Muric) director, Ishaq Akintola calls for the 4th season of the reality show to be banned that is shown on MultiChoice's DStv and GOtv satellite pay-TV platform in Nigeria, as well as across sub-Sahara Africa, including South Africa.
BAN BB NAIJA NOW – MURIC https://t.co/NpmcfcEGm0
— Muslim Rights (@muslimrights) July 11, 2019
Within Nigeria, the group is known for its outrageous claims and often outlandish arguments. After its statement, other Nigerians, including Muslim viewers, quickly voiced their opinions saying they don't support Muric's statement.
As before, Big Brother Naija carries an 18 age restriction, with DStv and GOtv decoders that come with a parental PIN lock mechanism on the subscription television service.
In March 2017 a Nigerian doctor and DStv subscriber unsuccessfully tried to get a court interdict against MultiChoice and M-Net when he wanted the "obnoxious broadcast" on DStv to stop because his kids and family couldn't stop watching the "repugnant" reality show.
On Friday Muric in its statement said that: "We are being forcibly dragged to a world of nudity, shamelessness and open promiscuity. Inmates of Big Brother Naija kiss, romance, and engage in sex openly. Big Brother Naija is Bohemian, anti-social, crude and immoral," says Muric in its statement.
"This reality show is dragging our children into a life of moral debauchery. It is deleting the word 'shame' from their vocabulary. Big Brother Naija has alienated our youth from the elders. A yawning lacuna now exists between the young and the old. Irreversible social crisis looms."
"The daughters of Jezebel are here already. Unless the authorities move with the speed of lightning, human dignity in Nigeria is going, going, going! Do we not realise that for every single Big Brother Naija inmate who wins a big amount of money and a car, more than 50 million young people are misled?" said Ishaq Akintola.
"Already, the desperate quest for wealth, by all means, has gripped Nigerian youth like hay fever. It has railroaded them into Yahoo Yahoo, ritual killings and a museum mentality for the collection of female panties. Where exactly are we going?"
"This development calls for serious concern, and we are deeply concerned. Muric calls for an immediate and total ban on this satanic television show. We charge the ministry of information and culture to move swiftly against Big Brother Naija before moral debauchery becomes Nigeria's middle name."
"Nigerian youth must be protected from themselves, and the time to do so is now. We invite the national assembly to intervene immediately, and we appeal to traditional rulers to add their voices to this campaign.
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