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WSIRA Trains
Journalists to Sharpen their
Investigative Reporting
Skills
The practice of Investigative journalism
received afurther boost recently when the Wole Soyinka Investigative
Reporting Award (WSIRA) on February 9 and 10, 2008 stepped up efforts at
sharpening journalists’ skill by retraining journalists. This time,
focus was on journalists’ proficiency at carrying out investigative
reporting. WSIRA is a media award established and named in honour of
Professor Wole Soyinka, the Nobel Literature Laureate and dedicated to
the recognition of excellent investigative reporting in West Africa.
The WSIRA training tagged ‘Capacity
Development Training On Investigative Reporting’ brought together about
45 journalists cutting across the print and broadcast media.
Resource persons who delivered papers at the
training included Dr. Doyin Mahmoud, Mass Communication lecturer at the
University of Ilorin; Dr. Phillip Ujomu, Philosophy lecturer at the
University of Ibadan; Professor Lai Osho, Mass Communication lecturer at
the Olabisi Onabanjo University; Mr. Kabiru Shehu, a special
investigator with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC);
Mr. Kingsley Uranta, financial journalism expert with the BBC World
Service in Nigeria; and Mr. Femi Aborishade, a lecturer and human rights
advocate;
Other resource persons were Mr. Dapo
Olorunyomi, foremost journalist and Chief of Staff to EFCC Executive
Chairman; Mrs. Ibim Semenitari, publisher of The Business Eye magazine;
Mr. Lanre Idowu, Editor-in-Chief of Media Review magazine; Mr. Sam
Omatseye, Chairman of The Nation newspaper Editorial Board; Mr. Lanre
Arogundade’ Co-ordinator of International Press Centre (IPC); and Mr.
Boye Ola, a lecturer of photography at the Nigerian Institute of
Journalism (NIJ), Ikeja.
Topics treated at the training programme
included “Basic Steps to Effective Investigation”, “Democracy,
Development and the Role of the Media”, “Understanding the Nigerian
Political Terrain”, “Principles of Ethical and Human Rights Journalism”,
“Covering or Covering Up Corruption: An Overview of the Role of the
Nigerian Media”, “Research Methodology for Investigative Reporting”,
“Introduction to Budget and Budget Analysis”, “Budget Tracking and
Strategic Reporting”, “Introduction to the Capital Market Operations”
and “Covering the Capital Market”.
Other topics covered were “Reporting for
Effective Parliamentary Oversight on Corruption”, “Style, Structure and
other Journalism Techniques”, “Philosophical Foundation of the
Development of Investigative Journalism”, “Use of Visual Materials in
Investigative Journalism” as well as “Effective Use of Modern
Internet-assisted Investigative Journalism”.
One of the sponsors the British High
Commission (BHC) was represented by the team of Mr. Jonathan Bacon, its
Political Officer; Ms. Laolu Borishade, Public Diplomacy Project
Officer; and Mr. David Atile, Public Affairs staff.
Mr. Steve Aborishade, Executive Director of
WSIRA in his opening address said the training was the first in a series
of trainings designed to enhance the investigative capacity of Nigerian
journalists under WSIRA’s media engagement strategy. He said that: “The
applications we received for this training was overwhelming. We were not
expecting such a huge response. At the last count, we received over 100
applications from Nigeria and from as far as Ghana and Cameroun.”
Dapo Olorunyomi delivered a lecture titled
“Defining Corruption: An Overview of its Impact on Growth, Development
and Economic Sectors”. In his paper, he divided corruption into two:
petty and grand corruptions. EFCC, he revealed goes after grand
corruption suspects while the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other
Related Offences Commission (ICPC) tackles petty corruption.
He said for a journalist to effectively
report corruption, he/she must have a good understanding of what
corruption is, what it entails and an overview of its impact adding
that: “Corruption straddles across all sectors of our society and
economy”. He said to fight corruption, the fighters must preach against
it, criminalise it, recover stolen funds, prosecute offenders, and
educate the populace.
Dapo emphasised that before the establishment of the EFCC, corrupt
public officers had a field day in Nigeria. He also revealed that: “Till
date, EFCC has prosecuted about 213 people for corruption related
offences even though conviction is probably a pin drop. Only six people
in this country own about 80 per cent of the media organisations working
today. It is the responsibility of all of us to see that the disruption
and destruction of every corruption network is achieved. More so, as
Nigerian leaders have exploited the situation in the past years to scoop
out of the country over 400 billion dollars.”
The workshop was sponsored by the British High Commission and Canadian
International Development Agency (CIDA).
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