Friday, April 20, 2007

Special monitoring suggested for Nigeria's election April 21

Last Saturday (April 14) Nigerians elected their state lawmakers and governors. As a result, Radio Nigeria extended their usual schedule, as several DX'ers noted on different frequencies. Please see my log below for one frequency. It's a good possibility that with Nigeria'simportant presidential election taking place this Saturday (April 21),we may again see another extended schedule. There has been considerable controversy regarding the upcoming presidential election. There is a threatened boycott of the election by some of the opposition parties and just this past Monday the Supreme Court ruled that the Nigerian Vice President Atiku Abubakar can be a candidate in Saturdays election. Even with all this happening, an election commission spokesman insisted, as of April 19, that the vote would go ahead as planned on Saturday.

NIGERIA. 6090 kHz, Radio Nigeria - Kaduna (tentative), 0201-0241 UTC,April 15, non-stop repetitive African music (stringed instrument), with occasional singing and chanting. Never heard any announcements, so no chance to tell if the language might have been Haussa or to hear an ID. Of course this was heard under Gene Scott, but was fairly clear till lost about 0241 UTC. (Ron Howard-CA)