The Role Of Radio In The Development Of Onitsha North Local Government

According to UN-HABITAT (2002:2), slums create the conditions for poor health and insecurity and are the most visible forms of poverty in the city. While there have been concerted efforts at the national, state, local and global levels to eradicate poverty, the efforts to effectively improve the lives of people living in slums have either been missing or less than desired. An assessment of the slum conditions in Onitsha and environs is therefore imperative for devising appropriate strategies for addressing poverty reduction and to achieve  sustainable urbanization in the planning area. Epileptic electricity supply has hampered industrial development, there are also bad roads as a result of erosion, etc.

From this history, radio is known as the channel for the broadcasting of marketing information especially in the development of the rural areas and is popular as a result of its wide reach to a heterogeneous audience. This channel remains by far, the most appropriate for a rural population that has an illiteracy rate of nearly 90%. As a starting point, development cannot occur without communication, many writings on rural development problems in  Nigeria  reflect a wide spread of opinion as to the origin of the problem. However, there seem to be a consensus that a combination of economic and political factors has contributed in no small measure to the problem, (Mboho 2005:151). Therefore rural development problems in Nigeria are multifarious, the classification of the problems is therefore much more complex than one can think. Available  statistics indicate that more than 80% of her population live in the rural area, yet most of her development efforts; providing basic facilities like electricity, roads, water supply to mention but a few are concentrated in the urban centre while the rural area remain outside the dynamics of modern development processes (Mboho, 2005 p.154).

To Mboho (2005:155) these problems are common to most African countries, they tend to be more acute in Nigeria where the British  colonial system failed to develop the rural areas. During the colonial era, development was restricted to urban centres which provided support for political  and economic interests of colonial power and their collaborators. Thus two powerful mutually impeding forces that can be identified as the roots of Nigeria’s rural underdevelopment are firstly, imperialism and neo-colonialism secondly, in the past, nationalist government had depended on the theory that with a high rate of urban development, modernization in rural area would be realized or at best be seen to occur. But in recent times, however, this paradigm has been known to be irrelevant because over the years, various government development plans and other polices have failed to justify this assumption. In order to have a  progressive transformation there is need for effective communication strategies so as to achieve a significant collective participation by the masses, for without this any long run economic or social planning will either be more much less effective than it could have been or it could even go in the wrong direction.

This brought about the mission of a progressive mass communication policy of 1990 during the regime of Gen Ibrahim Babangida, in the new global arena to help strengthen democratic practice, a healthy culture, and popular

participation in governance process. This vision underscores the central place of a communication policy that is vibrant, transparent and supportive of democratic and development goals (http://nigeriacommunityradio.org.September10,2011, page one). The characteristics of radio are as follows:

1. Pervasiveness.

2. Immediacy.

3. Economic medium.

4. Flexibility.

5. Presence.

6. Portability.

This brings about, information broadcast by radio as contained in a summary file that is processed by the market researchers. These  files indicate  the average prices of the principal food products in the locality, such as maize, rice (both local and imported), yams (tubers), garri, cassava, beans and other commodities and services, apart from food stuff. This information is generally broadcast on the day preceding, as well as on the market day of the locality in which the radio station is situated. In addition to broadcasting prices, the radio stations indicate the days on which the different markets are in operation.

The broadcasts are made in the dialects of the rural area in which the  radio station is situated. The radio in carrying out one of its duties,  in  developing the rural area, does what is called development communication. Quoting Edeani in Okorie (2006:95) development communication means the use of all forms of communication in reporting, publicizing and promoting development at all levels of the society .It implies communicating development messages to the audience of the mass media, for example the radio. It takes a form of transaction between the source and the receiver, in nature it is participatory and collaborative of which the expected result is behavioural change.