President Bola Tinubu has renewed the appointments of two key figures in Nigeria’s state-owned media sector, extending their terms for another three years.
The Director-General of the Nigerian Television Authority, Abdulhamid Salihu Dembos, and the Managing Director of the News Agency of Nigeria, Ali Mohammed Ali, will each serve a second term beginning October 20, 2026. Their initial appointments were made on October 20, 2023.
The decision was announced in a State House press release signed by Bayo Onanuga, the president’s Special Adviser on Information and Strategy. Tinubu described the renewals as a deliberate vote of confidence, urging both executives to align their work with his administration’s Renewed Hope Agenda.
Leadership expectations and past performance
Tinubu stressed that the reappointments were based on performance rather than routine. He asked Dembos and Ali to continue delivering on their organizations’ mandates to justify the trust placed in them.
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Dembos, a native of Yola, Adamawa State, joined the NTA as an announcer at the Kaduna Station after his National Youth Service in 1989. He rose through the ranks to serve as General Manager at NTA Lokoja and NTA Kano before retiring in 2017 as Acting Zonal Director of the NTA Kaduna Network Centre. He served as a former National President of the Radio, Television, Theatre and Art Workers Union and returned to the NTA as Executive Director of Marketing before his first appointment as Director-General in October 2023.
His time in office has faced challenges. In September 2025, Tinubu recalled him to complete his first three-year tenure after he was briefly removed from the position during a management shake-up at NTA. The broadcaster has been undergoing efforts to address longstanding operational challenges, including inadequate funding, infrastructure gaps, declining advertising revenue, and competition from other media platforms.
Ali is a veteran journalist and media manager with over 30 years of experience. He 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 Kano.
Broader pattern in government appointments
The renewals follow a recent trend in Tinubu’s administration. In March 2026, he renewed the tenure of Ahmed Abubakar Audi as Commandant-General of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) for another five years. Audi was initially appointed to the position in 2021.
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These decisions reflect a preference for continuity in leadership, particularly in agencies where institutional knowledge is valued. For NTA, the broadcaster has been working on digitisation, though progress has faced challenges.
The Federal Government had previously committed to the digitisation of NTA in October 2023. The broadcaster continues to face operational challenges, including funding constraints and changing media habits.
Dembos and Ali now have three more years to prove their leadership can deliver results. Their reappointments signal confidence but also place responsibility on them to adapt to a tough media environment.
Their second terms will begin in October, marking six years leading two of Nigeria’s most prominent state-run media institutions.