By Kemo Cham
A community radio station in Tongo in the eastern Kenema District has been shut down amidst disagreement over its ownership.
The radio station which is located in the Lower Bambara Chiefdom, serves as a relay station for the Eastern Radio network, whose management has been accused by the community people of failing to honor an agreement to relinquish the ownership to them. The station was shut down on Wednesday 16 October, after a meeting convened to address protracted disagreement between the community people and the radio’s management almost ended in violence, local authorities and police told Politico.
Eastern Radio comprises a network of community radio stations located in the three districts that make up the eastern region of Sierra Leone – Kailahun, Kenema and Kono.
The Eastern Radio Tongo was established about 10 years ago. The community people said it was established on the understanding that after three years they would take over ownership.
Ahmed G. Kallon, General Manger of the Eastern Radio network and head of the parent radio station in Kenema, said the establishment of the Tongo station was inspired by their desire to make information available to the people of Tongo who had been unable to link to the station based in Kenema Town due to geographical limitations.
“We realized the difficulties the people of Lower Bambara and its surrounding communities were facing to get information and have their public notices aired over radio as signals of the regional radio in Kenema and its branch in Kono could not reach a larger part of those areas, so we decided to help them out,” Kallon said. But he denied that they ever promised to hand over its ownership as the community people are demanding.
According to sources, while the community people provided the land, the Eastern Radio management provided the equipment. In addition to the land, the community people also facilitated the supply of electricity. All this was done in 2009.
“They promised us that after three years they will train us the local people and hand over the radio to the community. But it is 10 years now and nothing like that has happened,” said James Balima-Samba, who is deputy manager of the station.
Samba is one of the local volunteers and natives of the chiefdom who were trained on the operation of the station. According to him, the verbal agreement was that they were to take over from the management installed by the Eastern Radio network.
Samba said among other grievances, the chiefdom people also feel disrespected by the general management over its handling of a recent crisis involving the shutting down of the station by the National Telecommunications Commission (NATCOM).
Eastern Radio was one of about a dozen stations shutdown by the regulator over non-payment of licensing. For Eastern Radio, the move affected both its parent station and the Tongo branch.
The chiefdom authorities said despite being in charge of the station, the Eastern Radio management tasked the community people to raise money to pay the debt to redeem its operating license. They said while they were working on that, suddenly the station came back on air. It turned out that the Eastern Radio management raised money to make part-payment to NATCOM. But the community people said reopening of the station without informing them amounted to disrespect for the local authority. That incident was what rekindled their demand for the Eastern Radio management to fulfill it a promise of handing them the radio.
Chiefdom Speaker, Amara Gando, told Politico that if they are expected to pay for the running of the station, it’s only fair that they have control over it.
But Kallon said the problem is with the community people’s understanding of their idea of ownership. He said some members of the community wanted to have full control to be able to make unhindered decisions.
“The ownership of community radio is different from other ownerships. Eastern Radio is for everybody in the region, regardless of where you are born. It doesn’t mean if it is in your region you have to have exclusive control over it. It belongs to all of us,” he said.
Kallon went on to say that he understood that the community people wanted the Eastern Radio to vacate the place so that they would install new equipment they have acquired recently.
Tongo, also known as Tongoma, is a small but popular diamond mining town which is also the second largest town in the district, after Kenema Town. The two main towns are about 30 miles apart. The radio station covers an estimated population of over 100, 000 people comprising two constituencies.
One of those constituencies – 114 - used to be represented in Parliament by Francis Amara Konuwa, who was part of the negotiations leading to the establishment of the radio station.
Hon. Konuwa told Politico that he wasn’t aware of the current issue, but he said there was no time when they ever discussed that ownership of the radio station would be transferred to the community people.
Mr Konowa represented Constituency 114 between 2007 and 2018. He said he helped in constructing the building housing the station and took part in negotiation for the 24-hour power supply to the facility. Konowa also said he provided the Air Conditioning system for the station and helped construct a ‘Barry’ there. He stressed that he was never part of any discussion where any promise was made to hand over ownership of the radio to the community.
“I can say authoritatively that I was the engine behind the radio. Everything was just a gentleman’s agreement and we are happy that we had the radio,” he said.
He added: “The light (power) and building belongs to the community. But the radio belongs to Eastern Radio Management.”
© 2019 Politico Online
