Community Radio is a unique and effective tool for enlisting citizens' participation in issues that concern them. It is a major vehicle for engaging the populace at the community level to ensure even spread of development through sharing of ideas and experiences that will add value to the lives of the citizens. This study examines the roles of "Eji-owuro", an early morning programme of Gerin FM radio station on community participation in governance and desired development among the residents of Ilorin Metropolis. It adopted a mixed method with questionnaires and a structured interview guide serving as the instruments of data collection. A total of 200 respondents were selected through multistage sampling. The findings revealed that about 94.0% of the respondents listen to Eji-owuro often while 90.0% of them admitted that the programme was of great benefit to them. Analysis of Relative Importance Index revealed that the respondents enjoy a high level of satisfaction listening to Eji-owuro on Gerin FM, 95.5. It also indicated that Ejiowuro availed members of the community the opportunity to comment on government activities and ventilate their needs, which are best expressed by them. The study recommended that governments, across Nigeria, should appoint desk officers to monitor Community Radio Stations for the purpose of needs assessment and policy formation.
Vol. 1, No 1, pp. 65-72.