As Nigerians rise against the amendments being proposed to the NPC and NBC Acts, it has emerged that the sponsor of the two draconian bills, Olusegun Odebunmi, has neither media knowledge nor industry experience.
Odebunmi has never gone to any journalism school or practiced as a media person, according to his profile sighted by Vanguard.
The profile indicates that Odebunmi, who is popularly known as Bunvic, studied Secretarial Administration at the Federal Polytechnic, Ede, Osun State and came out with an Ordinary Diploma before enrolling at the University of Ado-Ekiti for a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Education.
He had his primary education at Baptist Day School, Oko, Oyo State, between 1974 and 1980 after which he enrolled at Baptist Secondary Grammar School, Oko, Oyo State, where he passed his West African School Certificate Examinations.
Before delving into politics, Odebunmi, who was born to the family of Pa & Late Madam Odebunmi of Olokose’s Compound, Isale Ejigbo in Oko, Surulere Local Government, Oyo State, was into distribution and marketing of petroleum products and farming.
He first won election into the House of Representatives in 2011 and was re-elected in 2015, 2019 and has continued to wax strong in the political affairs of his state, turning his attention rather curiously from his secretarial administration and teaching to the regulation of the Nigerian media, an area he has zero experience or competence in.
Odebunmi served as three-time chairman of Surulere Local Government, Oyo State, Commissioner, Oyo State Local Government Service Commission.
At other times, he had served as the Treasurer, Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, IPMAN, Ibadan Depot and as Treasurer, of the Association of Local Governments of Nigeria, ALGON, Secretary of Petroleum Dealers and Marketers Association, Ogbomoso Branch, Patron, Christian Association Of Nigeria, CAN.
Bunvic is responsible for the series of amendments sought to change the NPO and NBC bills, which media operatives and editors have slammed as being anti-media and meant to stifle them.
A peep into the bills showed that the sponsors surrendered the little independence being enjoyed at the moment to the government, which he wants to decide what constitutes ‘the truth’ in newspaper publication and punish those who deviate from the norm set by the Act.
Similarly, Odebunmi wants the government to exert stricter control on the broadcast industry by making the President and the Information Minister the determinants of who is appointed into the board of the NBC to ensure more efficiency, something the Nigerian Guild of Editors, describes as capable of killing the industry.
