By Linus Aleke, Abuja
A research, advocacy, accountability, and capacity-building group, under the aegis of the Centre for Media, Policy and Accountability (CMPA), has concluded an arrangement to scale up the capacity of Nigerian journalists in reporting the performance of anti-corruption agencies in the country.
The project code-named Nigeria Anti-Corruption Performance Public Reporting (NAPPR), is put together to hone the skills of journalists to understand all the dynamics in the anti-corruption ecosystem in Nigeria, with a view to always bring the public up to speed with the actual performance of government agencies charged with the statutory responsibilities of fighting graft in Nigeria.
Speaking at a One-Day Stakeholders Meeting, organized for Reporters on anti-corruption, on the Objective of anti-corruption performance public reporting, (2023 -2024) project, the Director, of Daily Trust Foundation, Dr Theophilus Abba, bemoaned the lack of depth in most corruption reports in Nigeria.
He advised anti-graft reporters to look beyond the PR stories from the anti-corruption agencies.
The former Sunday Editor of Daily Trust told the reporter to always cultivate intellectual philosophy upon which, their stories are weaved around.
He also charged the reporters to study and familiarize themselves with the legal framework governing the activities of anti-graft agencies in the country.
He also, explained that a remarkable difference exists between what constitutes cybercrime and money laundering, concluding that a knowledge of the two Acts will put a reporter in a position of authority while reporting.
Earlier in his remarks, the Coordinator, Advocacy and Training, NAPPR, Mallam Dahiru Idris, said, CMPA has lined up training Programmes for the journalists, with a view to bringing out the best in them.
He appealed to the media practitioners to partner with the centre, so as to properly inform the public.
Presenting the objective of the project, the Executive Director/Project Manager, Dr Suleiman A Suleiman, pointed out the knowledge gap in reporting the performance of anti-graft agencies in Nigeria.
He tasked reporters to always interrogate the number of convictions the anti-graft agencies are reeling out to the public.
He noted that the conviction of 50 Yahoo boys in a year by anti-graft agencies does not amount to substantive progress in the fight against corruption in the country.
He explained that the activities of yahoo boys fall within the realm of attempted fraud and not corruption as it where.
He told reporters to be more kind in tracking how many high-profile cases involving top political office holders, the anti-graft agencies have secured convictions on.
Director of Communication, Outreach and Advocacy, Dr Ibrahim Uba Yusuf, disclosed that NAPPR is a project funded by MacArthur Foundation and implemented by CMPA 2023-2024.
He concluded that the project will produce a harmonised reporting template for media and the ACA.
