Community Radio in Nigeria: Issues and Challenges

This paper traces the origin of radio broadcasting in Nigeria from the colonial era till date and analyzes the agitation for community radio from 2003, anchoring the discussion on the development media and democratic participant theories.  It notes that the country is in dire need of community radio owing to its legendary cultural diversity of over 250 ethnic groups. Unimpressively, however, the country is one of the few in Africa that have not implemented fully the African Charter that recognizes community radio as the third tier in broadcasting. The government still controls much of the airwaves but has not demonstrated enough courage to make community radio operational going by the existing fuzzy legal, regulatory and administrative frameworks. The authors recommend that license fee waiver, low import duty on equipment and transparency in the allocation of frequencies, among others, are required to make community radio a reality in Nigeria.