Nigeria needs patriotic journalists to correct society’s ills

Ini Billie, Uyo

Daily Trust Foundation Board (DTF) member, Dr Muhammad Yakubu has said that Nigeria requires patriotic journalists to correct the ills in the society.

Yakubu said this in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State capital during a 3-day Broadcast Investigation Training for Journalists in South-South.

Yakubu urged journalists to practice their profession driven by patriotism, nationalism, transparency, and accountability.

According to him, DTF’s Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) arm of Media Trust Group, owners of Daily Trust, Trust TV, Digital Trust, Trust Radio, Aminiya, and other specialised publications, organised the training in realisation that investigation in the broadcast media was under-reported than in the print media.

He noted that the training was necessary as journalists must learn new skills to carry out their responsibilities and hold the government accountable to the people, as an ignorant reporter would not be able to hold the government accountable.

“It is the vision of the Foundation that broadcast journalists would do more investigative reporting in the interest of the growth of Nigeria. We believe that all journalists here, at this workshop, are interested in change in Nigeria.

“There can be no change except ills in the society are exposed. We must do the kind of journalism driven by values of patriotism, nationalism, transparency and accountability.

“Professionals who have imbibed these values cannot look away where there are wrongdoings in the society. In a nutshell, the country needs many more investigative reporters committed to change than we have at the moment.

“Bringing you to Uyo to help sharpen your skills in broadcast investigation is our way of motivating you to do more,” he stated.

Commissioner of Information, Akwa Ibom State, Mr Ini Ememobong, commended Daily Trust Foundation for consistently bringing its training and other programmes to the state.

Ememobong who said investing in training meant investing in the future applauded DTF for training journalists in other media organisations despite being their competitors and urged participants to domesticate what they have learnt.

“When we invest in training, we invest in the future. The egalitarian nature of the Daily Trust Foundation must be noted. You could still have gotten this funding and made it an in-house training with Daily Trust, but you are now training your competitors.

“That is the beautiful part of it, you are training people without the fear that they will use the knowledge you have facilitated them to get to outdo you in the market.

“That is where the issue of advertorial collaboration comes in because, at the vendors’ hands, all your titles are competitors, but when we come into the democratisation processes of our country, the entire press becomes one family, and that is where the collaboration is,” he stated.

Facilitators during the training include Mr Fidelis Mbah, who has done investigative reports for the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), Aljazeera, China Global Television Network (CGTN) investigative reporter; Mr Isine Ibanga, winner, Cable News Network (CNN) and the Wole Soyinka Investigative Reporting awards; Programme Director, DTF, Dr Theophilus Abbah; and Oto-Abasi Tom, Executive Director, Tito Television Studios.

Already, the Daily Trust Foundation with support from the MacArthur Foundation has trained over 700 journalists across Nigeria and has been actively involved in training journalists since 2017 in media and journalism, especially investigative reporting.