Mass resignation hits BBC Hausa

Story from Saleh INUWA, Kano

At least nine journalists with the BBC Hausa Service in Nigeria have resigned in the last one month in what is described as “unprecedented” in the history of the international media outlet.

Daily Trust learned that the affected staff members comprised two senior digital journalists, three social media journalists – two of whom are senior reporters – a senior bilingual reporter for Hausa/English Africa, a multimedia reporter and two video journalists.

It was gathered that while five of the journalists left last December; the four others resigned on Monday to join the newly established Africa section of Turkish Radio and Television (TRT) in Istanbul.

“This is unprecedented in the history of BBC Hausa. Nine journalists of BBC Hausa have joined soon-to-be-launched TRT Hausa after the Turkish government decided to establish TRT Africa: Hausa, Swahili, French and English for Africa,” a source at the BBC confided in our correspondent.

The source said Nasidi Adamu Yahaya, who resigned as a senior digital journalist, would head the Hausa service at TRT, with other senior journalists, Halima Umar Saleh and Ishaq Khalid as his deputies.

Asked what led to the mass resignation, one of the journalists, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said they were primarily motivated by the Turkish media’s resolve to tell positive stories in Africa.

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