When listeners in northern Nigeria tuned into Voice of America last month, they found music playing in place of their regular broadcast — a telltale sign, historically, that soldiers had seized telecoms offices, and even the government.
“Was there a coup in the US?” Babangida Jibrin, a VOA journalist, recalled one worried listener asking, as he and colleagues fielded unending calls after the US-funded station abruptly went off air on Friday.
The dismantling of VOA by President Donald Trump’s administration has left a particular dent in northern Nigeria, where a now-shuttered Hausa-language service that Jibrin worked for served tens of millions in Africa’s most populous country.
The radio broadcasts to Hausa speakers across rural Ghana, Cameroon and Niger, where print media is sparse and internet service spotty — was a key resource for those not fluent in official languages like English or French.
“People are now cut off from news, especially international news,” said Moussa Jaharou, from southern Niger, among the many VOA Hausa listeners living in poor areas prone to conflict and jihadist violence who now find themselves further isolated.
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