NIGERIA-MEDIA: Underground Radio Takes on the Military

By Toye Olori Reprint | | Print |

Toye Olori

LAGOS, Jun 17 1996 (IPS) - It’s hardly likely that the Nigerian government officials frequently heard on state-run radio here will get much time on ‘Radio Democratic International Nigeria’ (RDIN) or that they will want to.

RDIN was started last week by Nigerian pro-democracy activists living in exile and is believed to be operating from abroad. According to a man who identified himself as its operations director, it is determined to mobilise Nigerians and the international community around the need for a democratic government in Nigeria.

“Our aim is to provide an alternative medium to counter the propaganda mounted by the government on national stations,” he added.

In an apparent bid to compete with the state broadcast media, the RDIN transmits from 7.00 to 7.30 a.m. and from 4.00 to 6.00 p.m. local time, which is when the government-run ‘Radio Nigeria’ airs its main newscasts.

Programmes are in English, but the station has promised to broadcast in Yoruba, Igbo and Hausa, the three major languages spoken by the some 100 million Nigerians. Reports from several cities in Nigeria show that RDIN, which transmits on shortwave, is being received clearly by radio listeners.

So far, government officials have said nothing about the emergence of RDIN, the second radio station to have gatecrashed the airwaves here in less than a year.

“We have not listened to the station but even if it exists there is little the Nigeria Broadcasting Commission (NBC) can do,” a state official told IPS. “We do not have the wherewithal to monitor or control its operation.”

Segun Odukomaya, a social scientist and head of the Department of Mass Communication at the University of Lagos, agrees that Nigeria is ill-prepared to monitor or control pirate radios.

Odukomaya, who said he had not listened to RDIN, told IPS “the NBC should be the monitoring and control body but I doubt if it has the facilities to do that.”

“When citizens go out to set up such pirate stations, it shows all is not well back home and this will have a telling effect on the country,” he added.

When in October, a similar station, “Radio Freedom Frequency (RFF)” began transmitting anti-government programmes on FM (frequency modulation) for 30 minutes daily in the Lagos area, Information Minister Walter Ofonagoro warned that it would be tracked down and its operators arrested.

Thus far, the authorities have not discovered the location of RFF.

Some optimists here see the coming on stream of a second pro- democracy radio station which, moreover, reaches a wider audience, as a significant blow to the military regime.

“This is a new dimension in efforts to bring down the Gen. Sani Abacha-led military government. If the pressure is kept on, the military might have no choice than to go,” a female commentator, who requested anonymity, told IPS.

The emergence of RDIN coincided with the third anniversary of the presidential election held on Jun. 12, 1993, whose annulment by the military started a political crisis that has continued until today.

Businessman Moshood Abiola, believed to have won the election, was arrested and charged for treason after declaring himself president on the first anniversary of the poll. He is still being detained by the Abacha regime as are a number of opposition and pro-democracy activists.

“All the military government is doing is to chase after pro- democracy groups and use our limited resources to fight a propaganda war abroad instead of making its citizens comfortable at home,” the female commentator said.

Kayode Fayemi, Director of Communications of the opposition National Liberation Council (NLC), a pro-democracy group based in the United States, had heralded the coming of RDIN in early May. He said then that it would seek to transmit the truth and expose the illegality of Nigeria’s military regime.

RDIN went on the air on Tuesday Jun. 11. By the next morning, it had relayed a recorded speech credited to Anthony Enahoro, leader of the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO), calling for sanctions against Nigeria and the withholding of proceeds of oil sales abroad to get the military out of power.

“The fear that economic sanctions will hurt the ordinary man does not arise as the common man has never enjoyed the fruits of Nigeria’s oil,” said the NADECO leader, who lives in exile in London.

Following the execution of nine minority rights activists in November last, the Commonwealth suspended Nigeria while the European Union and the United States imposed limited sanctions, including an embargo on the sale of weapons and military hardware to the West African nation and the non-issuance of visas to persons directly related to its military regime.

But many here believe oil sanctions are the only sure way to force the military out of power, since they have been the main beneficiaries of oil incomes, which account for more that 90 percent of Nigeria’s export earnings.

Other Nigerian exiles who have spoken on RDIN include Tokunbo Afikuyomi, one-time personal assistant to ex-Foreign Minister Baba Gana Kingibe. He hinted that Nigerians abroad might form a government in exile.