Nigeria: Building community radio

COMMUNIQUE OF THE SEMINAR ON BUILDING COMMUNITY RADIO
BROADCASTING IN NIGERIA, HELD AT ZARANDA HOTEL,
BAUCHI, FROM THE 27TH - 29TH JANUARY 2004.

We, the participants in the Seminar on Building
Community Radio Broadcasting in Nigeria, held in
Bauchi, north-east Nigeria, wish to recognize and
appreciate the positive and historic role of Panos
Institute West Africa (PIWA), World Association of
Community Radio Broadcasters - Africa Region (AMARC -
Africa) and Institute for Media and Society (IMS)
Nigeria, in organizing the three-day programme.
The seminar has sensitized us to the relevance and
urgency of the emergence of community radio in
Nigeria, and demonstrated the roles of community
broadcasting in the democratic process, which include:

(a) broadening of the democratic space

(b) promoting and entrenching an enduring democratic
culture of peace, tolerance, transparency and
accountability

(c) ensuring grassroots empowerment through increase
in the level of political consciousness

(d) providing a platform that guarantees increased
popular participation in governance by the people.

CONVINCED of the urgent necessity for the government
and other stakeholders to provide an enabling
environment for community radio broadcasting in the
country, we recommend as follows:

To Government:

(1) The relevant sections of the 1999 Constitution of
the Federal Republic of Nigeria, the National Mass
Communication Policy of 1990, the National
Broadcasting Commission Act No 38 0f 1992 (as amended)
and other relevant legislations should be
transparently reviewed and in consultation with
community radio broadcasting stakeholders to
accommodate the globally accepted democratic
principles of broadcasting and to categorically and
explicitly recognize the three distinct tiers of
broadcasting, namely: public, private (commercial) and
community.

(2) The Nigeria Broadcasting Code and other related
regulatory instruments should recognize the specific
training needs of community radio operators,
especially in the management, programming and
technical areas

(3) Relevant legislations should be reviewed to
empower the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) as
the sole collector of broadcast set (TV, Radio) taxes,
60% of which should be ploughed back to the industry
for its sustenance and the remaining 40% retained by
the commission for its operations.

To Civil Society:

(4) Civil Society Organizations should design and
implement an aggressive advocacy campaign programme in
their communities and at local, state and national
levels in order to generate widespread understanding
and support for community broadcasting across the
country
(5) A network of Civil Society Organizations (CSOs)
should be formed to provide a common platform for the
articulation of stakeholders' interest on community
radio broadcasting.

To All Community Radio Stakeholders:

(6) To ensure the sustainability of community radio
broadcasting, its technology should be simple and
affordable, its ownership communal, its personnel
internally and externally generated and its financial
resources supported by contributions from civil
society organizations, governments, donor agencies,
businesses, and individuals from within and outside
the community.

Dated in Bauchi, Nigeria, this 29th day of January
2004.