WikkiTimes, a Bauchi-based online news platform has trained over 30 journalists and bloggers across different media organisations on data capturing, investigative reporting, and the use of open source intelligence methods on grassroots accountability reporting.
The Founder and Publisher of WikkiTimes and the convener of the training, Haruna Mohammed Salisu, in his opening remarks, said “it became necessary to empower grassroots journalists with contemporary reportorial skills to be able to bring unreported and under-reported issues at subnational levels to the knowledge of those in positions of authority as well as the populace to make a breakthrough in altering the common dogma narrative of underdevelopment at the grassroots levels.”
“We believe that the mainstream media have deserted local communities; it is our duty to fill that gap and the only way we would properly unearth corruption and hold power to account is when we have the commensurate expertise and skills”, he said.
During the training, participants were exposed to the rudiments of investigative and data journalism as well as the use of Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) methods of investigation to unearth corruption and hold power to account at the grassroots levels.
The training also culminated in a formal partnership and collaboration between WikkiTimes and the selected bloggers.
A participant, Eniola Abioye, who is a blogger said the training put her on her toes to commit herself to reporting stories that will uncover the hidden facts for public consumption.
“I gained a lot, I now know how to trace money misappropriated by some people while others are suffering as well as how to be an objective journalist by making balanced stories”. She said.
In his remark, the Chairman, Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) Bauchi State Council, Comrade Umar Sa’id, commended WikkiTimes for its routine training of journalists to equip them with data gathering tactics, which according to him is indispensable in the current trend of the profession.
The two-day training that took place in Gombe was held under the Collaborative Media Engagement for Development, Inclusivity and Accountability (CMEDIA) Project, an initiative of the Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism (WSCIJ), funded by the MacArthur Foundation. The Collaborative Media Engagement is aimed to strengthen media independence and presence, especially at state and local government levels and the private sector, in a bid to improve public awareness and the ecosystem for transparency, accountability and good governance.
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