The Dakar-based West Africa Democracy Radio project is fraught with teething problems that have forced over a dozen staff to resign in the last three months three of them in July alone. The station, set up in 2005, is currently off air and staff have not been paid for two months and some of them have had their homes in Dakar disconnected from the national electricity grid. Correspondents have been asked to stop sending in reports because the station is fraught with problems.
According to an email to the Board of Directors dated 18 July 2012 and signed by nine senior staff members the station has been off air for over a week “due to power cut by the national electricity provider in Senegal (SENELEC) because of unpaid bills”.
Staff who spoke to Politico say some of them have been threatened with eviction by their landlords owing to the non-payment of their rent. They say their utility services have been disconnected while the start of the Muslim month of fasting has meant hardship for them and consequently morale has been badly bruised.
Inside sources say the WADR Board has not met in 18 months. They say there is dissatisfaction over the conduct of the board. A source at the OSI in New York intimated Politico that the Board and the Station Manager have proved ineffective and must resign before any serious intervention can be made.
The West Africa Democracy Radio (WADR) which was established by the Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA), is a trans-territorial radio station set up to facilitate the exchange of development information between and among countries of West Africa, including Mauritania, Chad and Cameroon. In the station's first phase, it targeted mainly the Mano River Union (MRU) countries of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. But these latest developments seem to make this project, which was accompanied by huge expectation and optimism look like tinkering on the brink of abyss.
