Combating Rural Poverty in Nigeria Through Community Broadcasting

Community broadcasting is no doubt a necessity for effective rural development in every typical rural set up. This stems from the fact that the mass media are a major contributor to every positive development in every society. The sorry state of rural communities in Nigeria has continually begged for an urgent and transforming attention. This is the case with poor rural people in Nigeria which forms the focus of this study. To this end, the paper strongly advocates massive introduction and efficient utilization of community broadcasting in combating rural poverty so as to effectively engender the much-desired development of the rural communities. The paper affirms that community broadcasting is the most suitable for the rural set up, and concludes that community broadcasting is a veritable tool for the promotion of communication and the creation of opportunities for programme participation. This paper further posits that community radio has brought positive impacts particularly in six the matic areas; agricultural transformation, promoting participatory democracy, lending voices to the voiceless, information/discussion forum on local issues, empowering unprivileged rural people, and contributing to good governance.