2022 was an eventful year with its challenges and success stories for us as an organisation. As we have started the 2023 race, we reflect on our activities for 2022 at the Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism (WSCIJ) and our achievements as we journey into the future.
2022 started with a strategy retreat for staff members of the Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism (WSCIJ). It was a strategy meeting to map out plans for new programmes while the status of ongoing multi-year projects were assessed. The Know Your Client (KYC) process heralded the commencement of the Collaborative Media Engagement for Development, Inclusivity and Accountability (CMEDIA). Proposed 26 media and media support organisations under the CMEDIA project submitted documents for status verification under the project designed to pay attention to the subnational level of government, the private sectors and underreported issues such as minority groups, women, youth, persons with disabilities, and people in the hinterlands who do not get enough coverage in the news.
In February, the Report Women! News and Newsroom Engagement supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation commenced with a two-day ideation session, as 11 resource persons converged in Lagos between 16 and 17 of February to improve upon the framework for the three-year project.
The Report Women! programme launched in 2014 was designed to address the dearth of news reports on issues of access and abuse affecting girls and women in Nigeria. Since inception it has raised champions for the cause of equality and engaged news media houses on the leadership of women in the news and newsrooms.
Also, the inception meeting for the Collaborative Media Engagement for Development, Inclusivity and Accountability (C-MEDIA) project with the 26 partners was held at Pearlwort Hotel and Suite, Ikeja, Lagos.
In celebration of the 2022 International Women’s Day held annually on 8 March, the Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism (WSCIJ) hosted a virtual meeting for journalists, women and girl-child advocates as well as representatives of agencies for the protection of women’s rights in Nigeria. In line with the 2022 theme, #BreakTheBias, stakeholders gave tips on how women reporters can break bias and overcome impostor syndrome in the newsroom.
Also, under the Report Women initiative, a call for an application information session with the Female Reporters Leadership Programme (FRLP) fellows was held on the 21st of March. Out of the 45 applications received between 21st and 30th of March, 11 fellows were engaged on story and leadership projects. Successful fellows were to champion the causes of girl-child and women through stories that will amplify their voices and leadership projects to empower women for leadership positions.
The Collaborative Media Engagement for Development Inclusivity and Accountability (CMEDIA) project continued with an onboarding meeting held in Lagos from 28 and 29 March with the 26 media and media support organisations, the partners. Under the project funded by the MacArthur Foundation, media partners have produced subnational stories around health care, education, Agriculture, Maritime, oil and gas, Infrastructure while others trained journalists.
Also, in March, the call for investigative story pitches under the Report Women! News and Newsroom Engagement was announced. This heralded the month of April.
The Civic Space Guard conference took place on Thursday, 28th April. The conference was an activity of the Civic Space Guard project implemented with support from MacArthur Foundation, Open Society Initiative for West Africa, Luminate Group and Ford Foundation. It was designed to fortify the position of the media as the protector of civic space. The project serves as a channel for conversations, support for reporters who defend the civic space, and engagement with stakeholders toward improving the robustness of the civic space.
Following a successful conference, the centre initiated a media monitoring exercise towards a report published under the Civic Space Guard project in October. WSCIJ monitored 33 news outlets to follow the trends in their coverage of civic space infractions and evaluate the role of the media in the defence of the civic space.
It was to ascertain incidents of civic space infractions by year, determine the occurrence of civic space infractions (by gender and place) and identify forms of civic space infractions (violent and non-violent).
To round off a busy month of May, WSCIJ held meetings to inaugurate the Report Women! Source Guide development team and the Report Women! House-to-House survey team. The meeting with the Report Women! House to House survey development team took place on Thursday, 12 May 2022. The team was commissioned to investigate and collate data on the gender parity ratio of men to women across the executive management teams and board members of 84 media organisations.
The source guide team were signed up to document list of female experts across strategic sectors to help the Nigerian media have easy reference to suitable female sources after their meeting on Thursday, 26 May 2022. It is an intentional drive to bridge the gap and promote women inclusion and those with disabilities as sources and experts in news.
It was a joyful June for 21 female reporters who were inducted as fellows of the Report Women! Female Reporters Leadership Programme (FRLP) of WSCIJ. The induction completed their participation in a series of training and mentorship which spanned over six months during which they produced impactful story and leadership projects focused on Sexual and Gender-Based Violence (SGBV) with support from the Open Society Foundation Africa (OSF Africa). Anita Eboigbe, Managing Editor with HumAngle; Titilope Fadare, Senior Reporter with Premium Times; Bassey Ikpang, Assistant News Manager with the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) Abuja, Kimberly Nwachukwu, Broadcaster with Nigeria Info FM, 95.1 Abuja; and Ann Godwin, River State Correspondent, The Guardian got special recognition for their outstanding leadership and story projects. The ceremony brought the number of fellows to 74 fellows since its inception of the fellowship in 2017.
Also in June, a call for applications for investigative story pitches on subnational issues from journalists was put out under the CMEDIA project. On the 15th of June, an onboarding meeting was held between mentors and successful mentees under the Report Women! Female Reporters Leadership Programme (FRLP). The eleven successful fellows were engaged to champion girl-child and women-focused stories and leadership projects to empower women.
The 14th edition of the Wole Soyinka Centre Media Lecture Series took centre stage. The virtual event was held on Wednesday 13 July 2022. Themed ‘Can democracy work without a strong sub-national media?’, the lecture resource persons and speakers called on the media to focus on reporting issues at sub-national levels of government for democracy to work in Nigeria. This year’s edition commemorated the 88th birthday of Wole Soyinka, the grand patron of WSCIJ and Africa’s first Nobel Laureate in Literature. The date also marked the public launch of the CMEDIA project which started in January 2022.
August started with the second phase of the Source Guide validation workshop and the Survey Development validation workshop initiated by WSCIJ. The meeting held between 1 and 3 August 2022 had Anita Eboigbe, Managing Editor, HumAngle; Juliana Francis, Journalist, New Telegraph; Chido Onumah, Coordinator, African Centre for Media and Information Literacy; Sharon Ijasan, Senior Correspondence, Television Continental; Semiu Okanlawon, Founder and publisher NPO Reports; Faith Yahaya, Journalist, The Nation Newspaper; Lekan Otunfodurin, Executive Director, Media Career Development Network; Ajibola Amzat, Managing Editor, International Centre for Investigative Reporting; Iyabo Lawal, Head Education desk, Guardian Newspaper; Amina Alhassan, Deputy Editor, Daily Trust Newspaper and some members of WSCIJ staff in attendance. The website will be a documentation of female experts across strategic sectors to help the Nigerian media have easy reference to suitable female sources.
The Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism (WSCIJ) on Tuesday 9 August 2022 received a team from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation at its office in Lagos. The team comprising Ingrid Kopp, technical assistant; Katja Schiller Nwator, Lead, Policy and Advocacy, Gender, Health, and Agriculture; and Fatima Alkali, Senior Communications Officer was led by Alex Jakana, Programme Officer, Global Media Partnership.
August was all about the CMEDIA project funded by the MacArthur Foundation. WSCIJ held a pitch meeting with 15 reporters shortlisted for the individual story project under the project on Thursday, 11 August 2022. The event was a curtain raiser for the six-weeks mentorship and story executions activity. The stories centre around health, infrastructure, agriculture, climate-change, human trafficking, transport, land acquisition and road at state and local government levels have all been published by the selected reporters.
It was also significant for selected reporters from HumAngle, the International Centre for Investigative Reporting (ICIR), TheCable, and NPO Reports as they converged on Lagos on 29 August 2022 for a workshop to empower reporters to do investigative reporting on subnational issues, aiding transparency and accountability at that level. The training culminated in these reporters being assigned mentors and commissioned to do grassroots focused stories.
Also, Motunrayo Alaka, Executive Director/CEO, WSCIJ visited Sabi Dina- Second Secretary at the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Nigeria to build on the centre’s existing relationship.
Motunrayo Alaka, Executive Director/CEO, WSCIJ, was part of the 95 global speakers at the 2022 International Press Institute (IPI) organised conference themed ‘Journalism on the frontline of democracy’ held from 8 to 10 September 2022 at Columbia University, New York. At the event, she advocated for the continuous training of media practitioners for the long-term survival of the profession. As a panellist, she discussed ‘Collaboration in the time of crisis’ alongside Michael Hudson, Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist; and Ottavia Spaggiari, freelance investigative journalist and writer-fellow at Alicia Patterson Foundation, the session was moderated by Ron Nixon, Global Investigations Editor, Associated Press.
To contribute its quota to tackling Sexual and Gender-Based Violence (SGBV), the centre conducted a media monitoring exercise as part of the 2021 Report Women! Female Reporters Leadership Programme (FRLP) activities. The report which ensued from the effort is titled ‘Missing data, missing justice’. It tracked the delivery of justice for survivors and victims of SGBV as reported in the media. It is hoped that it will stimulate conversations and actions among relevant stakeholders to improve the criminal justice framework and address the gaps observed in media reportage.
Joy Ngozi Ezeilo, professor of law and former United Nations Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons on Wednesday 21 September 2022 chaired the report’s public presentation. The event had Abiola Akiyode-Afolabi, lawyer and Executive Director of Women Advocate Research and Documentation Centre, as the reviewer, and the likes of Paul Adeyeye, Programme Coordinator, OSF-Africa; Toun Okewale Sonaiya, Executive Director, Women Radio; Bimbo Oloyede, veteran broadcaster; Lekan Otufodunrin, Executive Director, Media Career Development Network; Phil Nneji, Chairperson, International Federation of Women Lawyers, Lagos chapter; Chido Onumah, Coordinator, African Centre for Media and Information Literacy; and other stakeholders who are committed to the defence of human and women rights in attendance.
The call for applications for the 17th Wole Soyinka Award for Investigative Reporting (WSAIR) opened on 4th October 2022. Also, the 2021 Wole Soyinka Award for Investigative Reporting (WSAIR) winners also known as Soyinka Laureates embarked on a study tour to South Africa between 31 October – 4 November 2022 as part of their win at the 16th WSAIR edition. They connected with journalists from over 40 countries across the world at the African Investigative Journalism Conference (AIJC) in Johannesburg, South Africa from 31 October to 2 November 2022. The study tour is a component of the Civic Space Guard project initiated by WSCIJ with support from the MacArthur Foundation, Ford Foundation, Open Society Foundation- Africa, Luminate and Shehu Musa Yar’Adua Foundation.
November started with centre conducting a House-to-House visitation to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) Lagos Operations to train their reporters on investigative reporting and stress the importance of a dedicated investigative journalism desk focused on sub-national reporting under the CMEDIA project. A total of 46 reporters and some management staff of NAN attended the one-day training.
The House-to-House activity is a capacity development platform created by WSCIJ to equip reporters with knowledge and capacity on various issues as they affect the media. Since its inception in 2015, 636 reporters across 14 media organisations in Nigeria, some of which are – The Nation Newspaper, Television Continental, New Telegraph Newspaper, Guardian Newspaper, The News Magazine, Leadership Newspaper, Daily Trust Newspaper, TheCable, BusinessDay Newspaper, Premium times, Voice of Nigeria (VON), Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria (FRCN), and the Abuja offices of News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), Leadership Newspaper, Daily Trust Newspaper and Premium Times.
Also in November, the 6 month-long media monitoring report under the Civic Space Guard project was publicly presented. In attendance were journalists, human rights activists, lawyers, security agencies, ministries, departments, civil society organisations and other stakeholders operating within the civic space.
The report titled ‘Hushed voices and the media’s defence of the civic space’ confirmed that state actors, especially officers of the Nigerian Police Force (NPF) often infringe on the civil liberties of Nigerians and journalists are the most targeted of such attacks.
The exercise also sought to classify civic space infractions perpetrators (state and non-state actors), ascertain the victims/survivors of civic space infractions, determine the venues of civic space infractions and examine media reportage of civic space infractions (by genre).
It also mirrored the Nigerian civic as reported in the media.
A two-day Amplify In-depth Media (AIM) Conference and Awards was spearheaded by the Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism (WSCIJ) alongside 17 other partners of the Media and Journalism cohort. It was held in Lagos between Thursday 8 and Friday 9 December in Lagos and online.
The AIM conference around ‘In-depth media and democratic governance’ had in attendance, Anas Anas, undercover reporter and founder of Tiger Eye Foundation; Idris Akinbajo, Managing Editor of Premium Times; Haruna Mohammed – Co-publisher of WikkiTimes; Adedeji Adekunle – Program Director at Nigeria Media Innovation Program (NAMIP); Oluwadara Ajala, programme manager at NAMIP; Abigail Ogwezzy-Ndisika, Professor, Department of Mass Communication, University of Lagos; Lanre Arogundade – Executive Director, International Press Centre (IPC); Kemi Busari – Editor, Dubawa; Vivian Chime – Reporter, TheCable; Abdulkareem Mojeed – Reporter, Premium Times; Tobore Ovuorie – Freelance Investigative Journalist and many more as resource persons.
13 journalists were recognised at the 17th Wole Soyinka Award for Investigative Reporting (WSAIR) presentation event for their works out of over 200 entries received across Nigeria in the print, television, radio, cartoon and online categories. Also at the event, honourary awards were conferred on Abiola Akiyode-Afolabi, Executive Director, Women Advocates Research and Documentation Centre (WARDC) and Stella Din-Jacob, Director of News at TVC News. Taiwo Hassan Adebayo of Premium Times won the online category and made the celebrated list of the WSCIJ-Nigerian Investigative Reporter of the Year.
Special appreciation goes to The MacArthur Foundation, Shehu Musa Yar’ Adua Foundation, Open Society Foundation- Africa, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation as we look forward to a glorious and eventful 2023. Come along with us on yet another voyage.
