BUK Alumnus Emerges Overall Winner of National Investigative Reporting Competition
An alumnus of Bayero University, Kano, Rabiu Musa, has been declared the overall winner of the maiden National Investigative Reporting Competition.
Mr. Rabiu, a graduate of Information and Media Studies, scored 75.0% to clinch the first position by doing an investigative story which exposed a multi-million naira abandoned project that was turned into a storage facility for onions in Kano state.
The competition themed; Journalists Against Corruption, was organised by the Centre for Information Technology and Development (CITAD), with support from MacArthur Foundation.
The overall winner was closely followed by Zarahraddeen Yakubu from Daily Trust, who emerged second with a 72.3% score, while Ismail Auwal from Sahelian Times came third with a 62.0% score.
Muhammad Auwal from Halal Reporters and Anibe Idajili from TheCable newspaper shared 4th position with 60.0% scores each.
Abubakar Muhammad Usman from Daily Trust who scored 53.3% came 5th, while Auta Polyear from News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) emerged 6th with a 56.0% score.
Edwin Philip from Breeze F.M, Lafia, Nasarawa state, came 7th by scoring 50.7%, Abulhafiz Abdullahi Aliyu from Jasawa Times came 8th position with 53% score while Hauwa Kabir Lawal from Daily Reality in Plateau state scored 36.3% to take the last position.
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It would be recalled that earlier this year, the Centre had called for applications from interested Journalists for the Journalists Against Corruption competition.
At the end of the application process, a total number of 20 Journalists from various media organisations were selected in Nigeria as champions, who received a two-day capacity-building training from 22nd to 25th May 2022 at Pali Suites Hotel, Bauchi state.
The 20 selected applicants submitted proposals to undergo various investigations, after which a review was conducted by a team of Judges where 10 Journalists successfully emerged as the recipient of the grant.
In an address, the Executive Director of the Centre, Engr. Y.Z Ya’u said, “the sub-grant is an encouragement to improve the capacity of journalists to investigate and report corrupt practices at the grassroots level through a competitive process as a way of holding public officials to account.”
Y.Z Ya’u revealed that “CITAD has for long been working with journalists to ensure transparency and accountability in the public sector and this particular grant is unique looking at the nature of the participants who are mostly young people with a passion to make changes in society.”
He further said that “Investigating corrupt practices both in public and private establishments will improve the quality of life, especially in the vulnerable communities that don’t have the voice to fight the menace of the system.”
By PRNigeria
