Editorial
Coming Of Community Radio Stations
The world over, the media both electronics and print are charged with the onus of public education, information and entertainment. To this effect the media are known and ever addressed as the fouth estate of the realm yet the fulfillment of such dream is not realized particularly in the developing countries.
But one thing is clear, the dissemination of information especially government activities to the public has become crucial part of media duties which are sometimes difficult to perform mainly due to language barrier, poor communication system coupled with lack of modern equipment. Frankly speaking the grassroots are most neglected when we talk of non-availability of information on government activities. In the actual sense, information should be a-two-way traffic, coming from government to grassroots and visavis from grassroots to government.
Being aware of the need to bridge this gap, the federal government led by President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan empowered the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) to approve licences for the establishment of Community Radio Stations without recourse to the Presidency. The President who spoke through his Vice, Alhaji Namadi Sambo while declaring open the 8th bi-annual conference of Africa Broadcasters at Abuja maintained that the Federal Executive Council has already considered the approved guidelines for the proposal by the NBC for the licence of Community Radio Stations in the country.
Consequently, it is believed that this singular directive has gone a long way to clear the bottlenecks associated with government policies in the past which were hardly fulfilled. The yawnings of the grassroots who had been denied both assess to information and the use of native languages in their respective domains will become the thing of the past as soon as the stations come on stage.
This, to a large extent would buttress democracy in the country because democracy in its entirety makes for freedom of information and one meaningful area to achieve this, aim and objective is by allowing the respective communities to have information through the use of their native languages for effective communication.
The Tide commends President Jonathan and welcomes the idea with keen interest and believes that the establishment of community radio stations in the grassroot will facilitate the programmes and policies of government at the various levels. No doubt it will also signal the awareness of people to the programmes of government at the grassroots, we believe, this is coming at the right time as the nation progresses for the 2011 general elections mainly because our votes must count this time.
We also hope that time was over due for the country to have more community radio stations because even in the neighbouring country such as Benin Republic there are about 37 community radio stations yet Nigeria that claims the giant of Africa has not got up to that number if at all she has any.
The Tide is further delighted that the establishment of community radio stations will bring genuine investors to the rural areas because communication will be enhanced at the grassroots. However we pervently pray that the political class will not hijack this lofty project to enable the rural dwellers express their views freely. To this end, we urge the NBC to properly scrutinize and ensure that all those who apply to own a station are screened. By so ding the process of owning station would not be abused.
We are also sure that this project will create employment opportunities and serve as poverty alleviation in the rural areas. Again, proper guidelines should be spelt out by the NBC, authorities so that the radio stations could maintain good standards.
More importantly, government should roll out measures to control the operation of the proposed stations. We are as well asking that any station that violates the guidelines should be deregistered. This is one of the ways that the goal behind the proposed community radio stations could be achieved.
We recall that at the Information Summit, 1st – 3rd September, 2010 organised by the Rivers State Ministry of Information in Hotel Presidential, Port Harcourt some papers presented had called for establishment of community radio stations among others as a necessary way of enhancing democracy in the country.
Nonetheless we believe that the message has arrived.
The Tide therefore advise that no community should use the station to breed discord against her neighbour as such would be counter-productive. Welcome community Radio Stations in Nigeria.
There are moments in the life of a legislature when plain speaking becomes a public service. Senator Adams Oshiomhole provided such a moment on the floor of the Senate when he accused the Minister of Works, Senator David Umahi, of manifestly neglecting critical federal arteries in Edo and Delta States, and implored his colleagues to prevail on the Minister to adopt a more equitable and genuinely national approach to road infrastructure delivery. It was blunt, it was uncomfortable, and it was necessary.
The specifics of his complaint deserve restating. Drawing attention to the recent approval of some 20 new road projects despite the parlous state of existing ones, the former Edo State governor lamented that Nigerians cannot travel from Benin to Warri, Benin to Asaba, Benin to Auchi, or Auchi to Okene without encountering severe distress. He alleged a deliberate omission of these corridors from the national budget in the last three years, save for palliative interventions directed by President Bola Tinubu through tax credit arrangements. His question — “What have we done wrong?” — resonates far beyond the chambers of the National Assembly.
We lend our full and unequivocal support to that call. The Auchi-Benin Road, for instance, has been in a deplorable and near-impassable condition for several years, turning what should be a two-hour journey into an all-day ordeal of broken axles, extortionate fares, and despondent commuters. The media have, on multiple occasions, chronicled the suffering of motorists, traders, and students who ply that route. To describe it as a federal road today is to stretch the meaning of the term beyond recognition.
This pattern of sidelining is not confined to Edo or Delta. Even here in Rivers State, the disposition of the Federal Ministry of Works has left much to be desired, particularly along the Eleme axis of the East-West Road. That road, which ought to be a flagship of federal presence in the Niger Delta, has remained in a wretched state for long. Those who use it daily — workers at the Eleme Petrochemical Complex, the two refineries, Onne Port, and the countless ancillary industries — can attest to its deterioration. Work has proceeded in fits and starts without the sustained urgency such a strategic road demands.
The Eleme stretch is not a mere intra-state byway. It is the gateway to the nation’s economic jugular. According to the Federal Ministry of Works and Housing’s 2023 Highway Condition Survey, only about 35 per cent of the country’s 36,000 kilometres of federal roads are rated as being in good or fair condition, with the remainder classified as poor or very poor. The East-West Road, conceived in the 1970s to bind the entire Niger Delta, remains unfinished in critical sections more than four decades after. If it had been treated as a priority, the perennial gridlock, carnage, and economic loss on the Eleme-Refinery junction would have long been consigned to history.
The irony is as painful as it is glaring. The Niger Delta remains the goose that lays the golden eggs. Data from the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative [NEITI 2023 Oil and Gas Audit] show that the region still accounts for over 78 per cent of Nigeria’s federally collected export earnings and about 65 per cent of total government revenue. The National Bureau of Statistics [NBS Foreign Trade Report Q4 2024] similarly confirms that crude oil continues to dominate export receipts. By every metric of equity and economic logic, a region that sustains the national purse deserves first-rate consideration in the allocation of infrastructure, not afterthoughts and tokenism.
Road infrastructure is not largesse to be dispensed by favour; it is the skeleton upon which commerce, cohesion, and citizenship hang. When contracts are concentrated in one geopolitical zone while other zones are left to contend with craters, it erodes trust in the federation itself. The World Bank’s Nigeria Development Update [June 2023] estimated that poor transport connectivity inflates the cost of moving goods by up to 40 per cent and costs the Nigerian economy an estimated $1.5 billion annually in lost man-hours and vehicle maintenance. If we profess to be one country, then equity must be the compass that guides key institutions before any project is executed. Development must spread round, not pool in one place as though other regions do not matter.
There is also a grave security dimension that can no longer be ignored. The deplorable condition of federal roads has become a veritable enabler of criminality. The NBS Crime Experience and Security Perception Survey reported over 2.5 million incidents of kidnapping-related occurrences nationally, with transport workers identifying bad road spots as prime ambush points. When vehicles are forced to crawl at 10 kilometres per hour through failed sections at Auchi, Sapele Road, or Eleme, they become sitting ducks for armed gangs. Fixing bad roads, therefore, is not merely about convenience; it is about safeguarding lives.
By his intervention, Senator Oshiomhole has hit the nail on the head and reminded Minister Umahi of a fundamental constitutional truth: public office is held in trust. The Ministry of Works is not a personal estate where contracts are awarded according to whim or political convenience. It is a national institution funded by the collective resources of Nigerians, including the oil and gas rents from the very communities whose roads are now neglected. The Minister must demonstrate balance, transparency, and a pan-Nigerian outlook in the distribution of projects that impact the daily existence of citizens. Selective neglect breeds suspicion, and suspicion is corrosive at a time when the nation is preaching unity, oneness, equity, and justice.
Consequently, the National Assembly must go beyond rhetoric and assert its oversight powers with vigour. Sections 88 and 89 of the 1999 Constitution [as amended] empower the legislature to investigate and expose any maladministration in the execution of federal projects. If an office holder is not acting rightly, it is the duty of the Senate and the House of Representatives to call him to order. Oversight must not be reduced to budget approval ceremonies; it must translate to field verification, public hearings, and insistence that the Federal Character principle, as enshrined in Section 14(3) of the Constitution, reflects in road awards.
Let the Auchi-Okene, Benin-Warri, Benin-Asaba, and Eleme East-West gangways be restored to motorable dignity. Let priority be given to completing existing, economically vital roads before embarking on new ones. If those who, through their resources, sustain the federation are sidelined in the distribution of tangible dividends, it tells poorly of our nationhood. Bad roads must be fixed, and they must be fixed now, with fairness as the guiding standard.
