The Kano State Hisbah Board, which is tasked with the duty of enforcing Sharia law in Kano State, has written a letter to a radio station in state, 96.9 Cool FM, for using the term ‘Black Friday’.
Black Friday is an informal name for the Friday following Thanksgiving Day in the United States, which is celebrated on the fourth Thursday of November. The term is used worldwide to mean a day for promotional sales where goods are sold at discounted prices.
However, in a letter signed by Principal Executive Officer II, Abubakar Ali, on behalf of the Commander-General, Hisbah stated that Friday is regarded as a holy day in Islam and tagging it as ‘black’ is derogatory and would not be condoned.
The incident, which happened on Thursday, has sparked reactions as Nigerians wondered why National Broadcasting Commission, NBC, is yet to react to what was referred as illegal sanction.
The NBC Act stipulates that the commission is the only organisation that has the powers to prescribe a code for broadcasters and sanction them. In addition, NBC has recently been known to impose fines on errant radio stations.
As at the time of filing this report, the NBC was yet to make any comment on the letter addressed to the radio station by Shariah police organisation, Hisbah.
According to a report in Punch Newspaper, the spokesman for NBC, Antia Ekanem, said he was on leave when he was contacted for comment.
“Please I am on leave and I cannot make any comment,” he said.
The paper alleged that all attempts to speak with the Director-General of the NBC, Prof. Armstrong Idachaba, proved abortive as he neither responded to repeated calls nor a text message on Friday.
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