Community Radio Coalition Demands For Licenses

Community Radio Coalition Demands For Licenses
Qasim Akinreti, Abuja

The National Coalition of Community Radio in Nigeria, NCCRN, has demanded for immediate action on the Presidential directive on the issuance of Community Radio Licences to groups that have applied for it.

Rising from a two day National conference in Abuja, the coalition said that nine months after President Goodluck Jonathan's pronouncement of the devolution of power to the National Broadcasting Commission, NBC to issue Community Radio Licenses, the directive has not been supported by concrete action from the Presidency.

This development, the Community Radio group reasoned, could jeopardise the enthusiasm and fuel general believe that government is not ready to assist in given the disadvantage groups-women and children in the rural communities in Nigeria a unique opportunity - “given voice to the voiceless”.

Globally, community radio is now recognised as a development medium, which gives participation to all for a pursuit of even development and sustainable growth of any society.

Regrettably, Nigeria remains the only country in West Africa where community radio is nonexistent. The political parties in the country have given any indication of how they intend to give voice to the people through the mechanism of establishing community radio in Nigeria.

Resolutions

In their resolution, the conference called on the National Broadcasting Commission to make public, the guidelines for licensing community radio stations as approved by the federal executive council and announced by President Goodluck Jonathan.

For the Community radio coalition, the communiqué charged them to increase the sensitisation and mobilisation of its activities in their various communities ahead of the issuance of a community radio license to prepare them for the challenges ahead.

It urged the communities to ensure that the processes of applying for license, its establishment and operations are not hijack by politicians, or interest groups for selfish purposes. It noted that there was need for the communities across all interest groups take full responsibilities for the establishment of a truely owned Community Radio station.

It advised that the communities should rather draw inspiration from the experiences of other communities across the world that have succeeded in establishing community radios to the aspirations of their people.

In the areas of technical support and funding, the communiqué advised various communities to seek for capacity building grants from international agencies.

The two day national conference was supported by the UNDP Democratic Governance Project; under the basket donor fund from EC,DFID, and CIDA.

Williams