NOA DG Advocates Community Radio in all Local Councils

The  National Orientation Agency (NOA) has advocated the establishment of community radio in all the 774 local councils in Nigeria.

The Director General of NOA, Mr. Mike Omeri, made the call recently, when he received in audience the Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) Ambassador for Nigeria and former Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, Engineer Ebele Okeke who was on an advocacy visit to the agency in Abuja.
Omeri said the agency was increasingly acquiring and building more platforms for advocacy on development issues at all levels of society, down to the grassroot communities and neighbourhoods. He said a community radio platform will further enhance the mobilisation of citizens for development. Mr. Omeri said the essence of community radio was to get the people involved in fashioning out communication strategies, implementation and maintenance of community based projects.
He noted that NOA had employed its integrated platforms in sensitisation on the new multi-year tariff order for electricity and on-going assessments show that the approach was working effectively  hence  NOA would utilise the same strategy for WASH sensitisation and other future sensitisation efforts. Earlier, Engineer  Okeke lamented the low level of funding available for sanitation in Nigeria.
She observed that Nigeria still had a long way to go in achieving the millennium development goals on water, sanitation and hygiene; hence the need for better funding from government, donor agencies and the private sector in this regard. The WASH Ambassador canvassed the adoption of Good Dignity Practice (GDP) in hygiene by all including the government, pointing out that the idea that hygiene was only a personal issue not concerning government was a misconception.
She also condemned the prevailing situation where one toilet is used by about 300 students in schools as totally unacceptable as it does not allow for proper hygiene and sanitation practices. On the issue of provision of water, she observed that although Nigeria was blessed with abundant water resources, the missing link between the water resources and availability of potable, clean water to the vast majority of Nigerians was that of funding and awareness. This, she said, warranted the urgent need for the intervention of the National Orientation Agency, especially in the area of awareness creation on water issues.

Source:Pointblank News

COMMUNITY RADIO: NATIONAL SECURITY NOT TENABLE FOR DELAY

By BEN EGBUNA

More than 50 years after Nigeria’s independence, the attitude of self-denigration – we are not ready for this, we are not ripe for that -has remained with us, which is partly why development has been embarrassingly sluggish. Nigeria has been lethargic in adopting global technological, social, economic and other development models that are driving growth and development elsewhere, with our government officials always advancing self-defeating excuses – usually security concerns -for inaction.

Recall that many years after the world embraced the Global System of Mobile communication (GSM) telephony, Nigeria was reluctant to join the technological shift, preferring the analogue telephone system which was evidently not working but which was nevertheless a status symbol in the country. There was, even as at 2000, just about 450,000 lines in the country of over one hundred million people, and many of these lines were non-functional. The official argument, stated by the then minister of communications, against Nigeria joining the league of GSM technology countries was that the telephone was not a toy for Tom, Dick and Harry, meaning that it was a security risk to provide easy telephone access for the people.

The GSM was eventually introduced in Nigeria in 2001 making the country one of the last states in Africa to embrace the digital mobile telephone system. Mobile telephony has since transformed the social and economic sectors in Nigeria, revolutionising inter-personal communication and contributing tremendously to economic growth. Telecommunication has since 2001 assumed the status of fastest growing sector of the Nigerian economy.

Similar self-defeating justifications for non-performance also accounted for Nigeria being among the last countries to embrace media pluralism in the broadcast sector. In this instance it was again contended that Nigeria was note ripe for private participation in broadcasting; that private radio and television stations would endanger the security health of the country.

However, in 1992 government summoned the courage to take the bold and necessary step that has positively transformed the broadcast industry in Nigeria. Today there are no less than 350 television and radio stations in the country and the country’s security has in no way been breached or threatened as a result of their existence nearly two decades after. Abubakar Jijiwa, Chairman Broadcasting Organisations of Nigeria and Director-General of Voice of Nigeria says of broadcast deregulation: “it is clear it has strengthened democracy.”

Whatever security challenges the country has experienced before and after the emergence of private broadcasters have been mostly politics related. In fact, it is argued in some quarters that the existence of private radio and television stations has to some extent been a constraining factor for coup plotters.

Despite the liberalisation of broadcasting, interested groups in the country have for more than a decade now been asking for approval of licences for community radio but government has remained unconvinced about the nation’s capacity to operate community broadcasting without creating security complications regardless of its acknowledgement of the potential role community broadcasting can play in national development and in spite of the report of the Advisory Committee that was submitted to government in 2006.

In fact, sometime in March 2007, a memo by the Minister of Information for community broadcasting was rejected by the Federal Executive Council (FEC) because it was feared that the National Broadcasting Commission, charged with broadcast regulation, might not be able to effectively supervise the operation of community radio stations in the country. Nigeria was not ready for community broadcasting!

Of course this conclusion by the FEC did not take into consideration the fact that the NBC, which says it recognises community radio “as a key agent of democratisation for social, cultural and economic development,” had since 2006 fashioned a regulatory framework for community broadcasting. In Chapter Nine of the fourth edition of the Nigeria Broadcasting Code, (2006) the NBC had specified the guidelines for the funding and operation, suitability of application as well as the language of broadcast on community radio stations.

The Nigeria Broadcasting Code provides that “A community broadcasting service shall be owned and controlled by the community through a trusteeship or a foundation with a board of trustee.” And a community, according to the Code, “shall be a group of people residing in a particular geographical location or sharing a strong interest which the community desires to develop through broadcasting,” such as local, not-for-profit organisation, educational institution, cultural association, co-operative society and partnership of associations. The Code makes it clear that licence will not be granted to religious organisations, political parties, individuals and corporate bodies other than not-for-profit organisations.

 

Yomi Bolarinwa had told Digicast that “The power of the transmitter of a community station only allows less than one kilometre radius coverage. It means that in a place like Abuja, one particular frequency can be replicated among four, five, six communities without interference. We need to work seriously on that before we go so we don’t make the kind of mistakes some other countries made. But the important thing is that whenever we start it, no individual will take a community licence; each community will have a board of trustees that is registered at the Corporate Affairs Commission. And that BOT must be representative of all the groups within that community. There must be regular quarterly meetings to determine programmes that go on air in the station. It is not the job of one person. There must be a committee that will do that and which will be actively supervised by NBC. That’s the only way.”

The guidelines and regulatory framework already put in place by the NBC for the operation of community radio appear, however, not convincing enough for government to approve the operation of this third tier of broadcasting in the country. But the Nigerian Community Radio Coalition is not giving up yet on its demand for approval of licences for community radio. Riding on the back of the African Charter on Broadcasting, which advocates a clear recognition of the difference between decentralised public broadcasting and community broadcasting, the coalition is mounting increased pressure on government to uphold the cardinal principle of the African Charter, nine years after it was adopted in Namibia. In June 2010 the coalition held a one-day policy dialogue on Community Radio Development in Abuja at which participants discussed the state, environment and development of community radio in Nigeria with a view to accelerating the process of licensing and developing community radio in the country.

 

Minister of Information and Communications, Labaran Maku, addressing the opening of the policy dialogue, assured the gathering that community radio would soon become a reality in the country. “Already in Nigeria,” he said, “the number of applications for private radio licenses that we have received through the National Broadcasting Commission is an indication that in the next few years, we can’t stop the development of community radio stations.”

Maku observed that developments in the information technology sector across the world had made national security a very lame argument against community radio “because information technology in the world has reached a level where you can’t prevent your citizens from accessing information globally. ...So it is better we offer them their own means of communication. In that way, it will be much more possible to have the national security we are talking about.”

 

BON Chairman, Jijiwa, says going by the contributions deregulation has made towards strengthening democracy in Nigeria, the use of national security as an argument to stall the operation of community radio in Nigeria is untenable, and cautions against giving in to a non-existent fear. “I am not happy,” he says “that community broadcasting is not in operation in Nigeria. In countries like Niger, Mali, Burkina Faso, Uganda and Cameroon, community radio is ubiquitous. Those countries have not burnt to ashes. Why are we afraid? Let’s not succumb to fear of the unknown. With regulations and strict enforcement, we can deal with these fears rather than allow them to stall development.” True, a faint heart never won a fair lady.

The broadcast regulator, however, believes there are very good reasons to thread softly. “We have seen state radio stations go at each other when their states have differences,” Bolarinwa submits. “We have seen communities go to war in this country. When people say it is only in Nigeria that there is no community radio, they forget how many communities there are in, say Ghana; how big are the communities there? They forget our recent past; we know what we went through during the Bakassi crisis between two state stations. We have seen conflicts between communities and you can well imagine what would have happened if they had community radio stations not properly structured. We will get there but people should allow a firm, well structured organisation and set of rules on ground before we go into it.”

Indeed, Nigeria is the only country in West Africa that is yet to operate community radio. And it is this softly-softly approach being recommended by the NBC that perhaps informed the decision by the regulator to grant a licence in 2002 to the University of Lagos to operate Campus radio.  

It was generally believed that the campus radio was to serve as a test run for community radio in the country. Unilag FM, until 2007 remained the only campus radio; now there have been at least 24 other campus radio licences granted since then.

The NBC regards campus radio stations as community broadcasting. This will be hard to dispute going by the definition of community in the broadcasting code. And so from the stand point of the NBC, community broadcasting is already operational in Nigeria through Campus Radio. If UNILAG FM was licensed, as was initially thought, to test-run community radio in the country, it will be logical to conclude that by approving as many as 24 additional campus radio licences, government was satisfied with the UNILAG experiment.

Obviously it is still not convinced about the maturity and competence of the other communities identified in the Nigeria Broadcasting Code to operate community radio stations. But the approval of campus radio has not satisfied the yearnings of campus radio agitators. Maku’s statement to the Nigerian Community Radio Coalition that “the Federal Ministry of Information and Communications under the present leadership is a convert and we will continue to support this cause until we have our own community radio,” has not provided solace either.

The coalition has welcomed the “born again” rhetoric of the ministry of information, which is not new considering that during the Obasanjo Administration, the ministry presented a memo for approval of community radio to the FEC but it fell through. The coalition is asking for action. They want community radio stations to start operating in the country asap because, as the saying goes, hope deferred makes the heart sick. In the communiqué on the dialogue in Abuja, they urged the President “to delegate powers to the National Broadcasting Commission to issue community radio licences,” and the NBC “to step up its efforts to actualise community radio stations” in view of the urgency to actualise community radio stations in Nigeria. Perhaps the way to bring this about will be to grant a few licences, say one in each of the six geo-political zones of the country, on experimental basis

It is obvious, however, that for this to happen, government will first have to purge itself of its obsessive concern for security, its curious perception of Nigeria as extra delicate and fragile, and its people as volatile and incapable of engaging in the simplest of ventures without putting the country on the boil, even when experience in the past five decades disproves this.

And need we remind the government that action is the proper fruit of knowledge.

Ben Egbuna Is the Publisher/Editor in Chief of Digicast Magazine

Insecurity hinders take-off of community radio-NBC DG

The National Broadcasting Commission has attributed the security challenges in Nigeria to the delay in establishing community radio.

The NBC explained that it was awaiting the approval of the government before it could start to issue broadcast licences to interested individuals and organisations.

Speaking at the inauguration of a new Digital Terrestrial Television service known as GOTV in Port Harcourt on Saturday, the NBC Director-General, Mr. Yemi Bolarinwa, said licences would only be granted to qualified persons and organisations.

Represented by the NBC’s Director of Broadcast Policy and Research, Mr. Tom Chatta, the NBC DG observed that some Nigerians were avoiding television subscription as a result of the economic recession

Explaining that community radio in Nigeria would be managed differently from what was obtained in other African countries when established, Bolarinwa said waiting for government’s approval before issuing licences was necessary because of its security implications.

Bolarinwa noted that the government needed to be sure that the brand of broadcasting would not pose any security threat to the country before approving the issuance of licences.

He said, “The NBC is not unaware of the several applications before us from those interested in establishing community radio. We are awaiting the approval of the federal government before we can start issuing licences because it has some security implications.”

Source: The Punch

Promoting nation-building efforts via community radio

By most accounts, the radio is believed to be the most effective means of communication in Africa.

Available statistics reveal that more than 70 per cent of Africans rely primarily on the radio for their information and entertainment.

Historically, radio broadcasting in Nigeria dates back to 1932 when the industry served the interests of the then colonial administration.

However, with the establishment of the Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) in 1957, the industry became an independent institution designed to be a non-partisan means of communication.

Regrettably, however, such aspiration has turned out to be a hallucination, some observers say.

However, in the late 1970s when the industry was somewhat liberalised, the federal and state governments as well as any other body or person authorised by the President are authorised to own, operate or establish a wireless broadcast station in the country by the virtue of Section 36, Sub-section 2 of the 1979 Constitution.

In 1992, the administration of former military President Ibrahim Babangida further liberalised the industry to give room for the advent of private broadcasting.

The onset of private broadcasting, perhaps, explains the decision of the World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters (AMARC), in partnership with the Institute for Media and Society (IMS-Nigeria), to initiate the community radio project in Nigeria.

The project tagged: ''Building Community Radio in Nigeria" was launched in 2003.

Industry experts describe community radio as a locally operated radio station that provides various services and information to its audience.

Some of the community radio's programmes are local news, weather reports, sports news and public forums, as well as religious, educational and community programmes, which are not usually handled by commercial radio stations owned by regional or national media outfits.

The community radio is also a non-profit venture that relies primarily on grants and donations for funding and its workforce usually comprise volunteers and other non-professionals.

Technically, a community radio station is operated on the lower end of the FM dial -- between 87.5 and 91.9 -- and it has lower signal strength than the larger commercial stations.

One of the fundamental goals of AMARC is to use radio as a means of promoting the people's right, at the grassroots level, to communicate and contribute to development via the principles of solidarity and international cooperation.

Across Africa, AMARC has more than 200 affiliates and about 160 members of the association in Africa are radio stations and community radio federations.

A school of thought, however, posits that the community radio project is a two-way process: the exchange of views from various sources and the adaptation of media for use by communities.

Others believe that the community radio project presents a platform for communities to participate in the communication process as planners, producers and performers.

They also argue that the community radio is a means of expression of the community, rather than for the community.

Interestingly, many African countries have employed the services of the community radio to promote peace-building efforts and conflict resolution.

For instance, a study carried out on four community radio stations in Sierra Leone and Liberia revealed that the radio stations had greatly assisted in fostering peace-building and conflict resolution in the post-war era of the two countries.

The study, which had its focus on areas that were still struggling to achieve meaningful development in a post-conflict setting, was designed to assess the relationships existing between drivers of development and community radio stations.

It found that the community radios appreciably promoted development in their respective communities via partnerships with local and international non-governmental organisations (NGOs).

The study partly entailed an analysis of the radio stations' programmes and their impact on local development processes, while an impact-assessment survey of the audience and focus groups was used to evaluate audience perceptions and uses of local radio.

The stations were also assessed to estimate their intrinsic worth as independent development agents in ongoing peace-building activities.

The report categorised community radio into two major groups. The first is the radio's support for development programmes' implementation, leading to improved efficacy, broader reach, accountability and community feedback.

The second group entails the regular broadcast of education and public awareness issues, which could propel positive changes in the people's attitudes and behaviours.

The study found that community radio stations had positive and purposeful relationships with local governments and civil society organisations.

On the whole, the study found that community radio stations played a central role in disseminating information which could promote development and improve development outcomes via a lot of partnerships.

The report said that community radio stations had positively contributed to the peace-building efforts in the rural communities of Sierra Leone and Liberia in the post-war era.

It noted that the community radio stations in the two countries were active participants in efforts to curb potential violent crises.

The study noted that the community radio stations gave communication access to people, who hitherto had no access to other means of communication, adding that they also facilitated peaceful election processes in the two countries.

Such advantages, perhaps, informed the decision of some state and local governments as well as some individuals in Nigeria to key into the community radio project and acquire radio licences.

One of the state governments that adopted the community radio programme is the Bauchi State Government, which has established 10 community radio stations.

Gov. Isa Yuguda, who recently inaugurated one of the community radio stations at Kafin-Madaki, Ganjuwa Local Government Area, pledged that the remaining nine stations would be completed and inaugurated before the end of the year.

He said that the radio stations were established to improve the relationship between the government and the rural dwellers, adding that the stations would also promote effective communication with the people.

Saying that community radio broadcasting had been existing in many parts of the world, Yuguda said that the radio stations were designed to disseminate information on weather, agriculture, politics and other socio-economic issues, particularly to those living in the rural areas.

He said with the growing recognition of the efficacy of the community radio as a tool of mobilising the rural dwellers for nation-building efforts would further promote the fulfilment of the country's democracy.

The governor urged rural dwellers to avail themselves of the opportunities provided by community radio stations to improve agricultural techniques, embrace good health habits and Western education.

Also speaking, Alhaji Mohammed Damina, the Commissioner for Information, commended Yuguda for the community radio initiative, saying that the project was one of the best government's programmes for the rural communities.

Damina particularly urged the people of the area to promote their cultural values through the radio station, which was also designed to promote the people's unity.

Many observers have been commending Yuguda for his foresight in embarking on the community radio project.

Alhaji Mohammed Abdullahi, the National President of the Nigerian Institute of Public Relations (NIPR), lauded the governor for the community radio project which, he noted, would also promote good governance.

Abdullahi, who is also the Managing Director of Bauchi Radio Corporation (BRC), noted that the 10 community radio stations established in the state would help in bridging the communication gap existing between the government and the rural dwellers.

The NIPR president, nonetheless, advised the new radio stations to be non-partisan in their programming.

``The radio stations are not established to propagate political conflicts, ethnic rivalry and religious bigotry.

``The stations must strive to be non-partisan. All the segments of the community, irrespective of their religious or ethnic affiliations, as well as their social, political and other leanings, should have unrestricted access to them.

``The linguistic plurality of the state should be respected and accommodated in the programme content of the radios, which should be used to enhance cultural values.

``However, since these community radio stations are to serve the various communities where the stations are located; there is a compelling need to promote their sustainability. ``The communities, governments, the NGOs, cooperative societies and individuals must be genuine stakeholders in the project,'' Abdullahi said.

Sharing similar sentiments, Alhaji Sanusi Mohammed, a social commentator, proposed that the communities in which the radio stations were located should be encouraged to fund the stations' operations and activities through voluntary contributions.

Mohammed said that the community radio project would enable communities to tell their stories in their own ways and share experiences, while they should become active creators and contributors.

Observers, nonetheless, stress the need for the government and the communities in which the radio stations are located to make effective use of the stations as a platform for educating the people on issues relating to health, sanitation, environment, education and security, among others.

After all, knowledge is the key to human survival and advancement as well as the panacea to virtually all the people's problems, they add.

Culled From Business Day