
By Cynthia Okere, Lagos
The Nigerian President Bola Tinubu has renewed the appointments of the Director-General of the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA), Abdulhamid Salihu Dembos, and the Managing Director of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), Ali Mohammed Ali, for another three years.
The renewed appointments will take effect from October 20, 2026, when the current three-year tenures of the two media executives expire. Tinubu first appointed Dembos and Ali to head NTA and NAN respectively on October 20, 2023.
The renewal was announced in a statement by the President’s Special Adviser on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, who said Tinubu urged both executives to justify the confidence reposed in them by remaining committed to the mandates of their organisations and the promotion of the administration’s Renewed Hope Agenda.
Dembos, who is from Yola, Adamawa State, has spent several years in broadcasting and previously served as National President of the Radio, Television, Theatre and Arts Workers Union (RATTAWU).
He joined NTA as an announcer at its Kaduna station after completing his National Youth Service in 1989 and later served in several senior positions, including General Manager of NTA Lokoja and NTA Kano. He retired in 2017 as Acting Zonal Director of the NTA Kaduna Network Centre and also served as Executive Director of Marketing.
Ali, meanwhile, is a veteran journalist and media manager with more than 30 years of experience in the industry.
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 Communication from Bayero University.
The appointments retain the current leadership of two of Nigeria’s major publicly owned media organisations for another three-year term, with NTA responsible for national television broadcasting and NAN serving as the country’s government-owned news agency.