In an effort to further incorporate investigative journalism across newsrooms, Daily Trust Foundation, the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) arm of Media Trust Limited, the publishers of Daily Trust Newspaper has engaged journalists in a workshop on budget tracking and investigating public expenditure.
Supported by MacArthur Foundation, the 3-day training sought to build the capacity of journalists in the Northwestern region of Nigeria and drew journalists from the print, broadcast and online media.
Bilya Bala, the chairman of Daily Trust Foundation while flagging off the training said it was organized as part of the organization’s corporate social responsibility and is being executed in line with the foundation’s conviction that journalists cannot do good reporting except they are exposed to refresher workshops, especially in emerging areas of journalism.
‘’Budget tracking is very crucial in our drive to hold government accountable to the people and focus on transparency in governance in Nigeria. Our experience over the years has been that journalists have probed projects by the federal government, dragging ministers and heads of parastatals on the floor, accusing them of corruption, waste, mismanagement, wrong-doing and even conflict of interest.
‘’A lot of resources are channelled from Abuja to states and local governments; the second and third tier of government which collect taxes and sundry revenues, for which they rarely give account to the people. This happens because journalists have failed to carry out their constitutional role of holding those in government accountable to the people. This training is meant to equip you with the capacity to change this trend.’’ He said.
Facilitators in the capacity-building workshop included Professor Isa Dandago a former commissioner for finance in Kano, Dr Atiku Samuel of the International Budget Office, Charles Mba of Dataphyte as well as Dr Theophilus Abbah, an award-winning investigative journalist.
Meanwhile, the Kano state commissioner of information Muhammad Garba who spoke through the director of information Inuwa Yakasai noted that the workshop was timely, considering the precarious situation into which the country has been plunged to, where things seem to be kaput.
He said ‘’The ever-deteriorating security situation, nose-diving economy, shameful pervading corruption at all levels and very poor and decaying infrastructure, just to mention a few, are in all honesty synonymous with our country. Today, the Media Trust is loudly and boldly saying ‘we care’ by organizing and holding this workshop for our patriotic and hardworking journalists.
‘’To me, it is a very bold statement that says ‘we love this country and we are going to salvage it through investigative journalism, that is by investigating, reporting and exposing wrongdoings, criminality and corruption for public interest and national development. I sincerely salute you for this very commendable effort.”
