The importance of radio in human endeavour cannot be overmphasised. Thus, the United Nations general assembly set every February 13, as a World Radio Day; the day to celebrate the significance of radio and its contribution towards societal development.
Without doubt, radio has made and still making a remarkable contribution in almost every spheres of human endeavor, prior to the advent of radio, people receives information via traditional means but to the smaller group of people or community. One of the interesting part in radio, it is use to disseminate information to the lager and heterogeneous audience through waves and signals.
The portability of radio makes it to be more usable among individuals to an extent where by phone industry realized its significance and install mobile radio application in cell phones. People tune to radio station using cell phones and listen to program of their choice. Radio change, shapes and mould ones opinion on a certain event or the other.
According to an erudite scholar of Mass Communication, University of Maiduguri, Prof Israel Wilson Udomisor, described radio as the most listen and cheapest medium of communication that attracts both literate and illiterate people, its bridge the existing gap between those that attend school and those that are not.
However, radio serve as means through with governed are getting connected with the government especially people living in the rural areas; government uses radio to make people aware of its development through the aid of journalists.
Radio, the champion of all, no society can prosper without radio today, it’s been in the people’s blood to do one thing or the other.
In a country like ours (Nigeria) radio has done more good in bringing people closer to government, settlement of dispute, enhancing unity in diversity, sensitizing people on health issues, among others.
A lot of criminalities are done by different people in different ways, such as the issue of armed bandits, Boko Haram insurgents, kidnappers, rapists, among others that people are not aware of until through radio; through radio people get to be aware of such information and distance themselves to such places where said to be harm by the activities of the demons.
In the same vein, Nigerian is suffering with maternal and child morbidity for quite number of times which as a result Nigeria ranked the first in the world suffering with the maternal and child mortality.
Radio plays a vital role in this aspect toward producing health programs that will make people to be aware of issues that lead maternal and child mortality, and by doing the case has reduce to the minimal point.
Most of our societies would have left behind in terms of infrastructure sharing without radio because it’s only through radio that people voice out their problems and call for government intervention.
Finally, radio is very important that one need to have time listening throughput a day because of the contribution it’s making in our life. Therefore, I urge people to possess the spirit of listening radio. Radio is changing world to a greater level where by people keep getting connected with one another irrespective of towns, religion, ethnicity, and political affiliation.
Muktar Adamu,
Mass Communication Department,
University of Maiduguri
