By Ahmed Rufa’i, Dutse

Jigawa state chapter of the Nigerian Association of Women Journalists ( NAWOJ) has elected new executive members to lead the association for the next three years.

The election came after the expiration of the term of the former executive as Hauwa Ibrahim Ladan of Freedom Radio was reelected for the second time.

Speaking during the inauguration of the new executive, the National Vice chairperson inchange of Northwest Comrade Halima Musa commended the peaceful conduct of the election.

“The election I supervised today in Jigawa state followed due process as all the candidates satisfied the creteria laid down by NAWOJ constitution and that of Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ)”

She appealed to the new leadership to carry all union members along, cooperate with state government, NUJ, as well as Partnering with the general public in championing the interest of women and the general public, for peace and progress of the society ”

In his speech at the occasion the chairman Nigeria Union of Journalists ( NUJ) Jigawa state council Comrade Muhammad Garba Bulangu said, the election was a product of sacrifice and upholding of the principle of Justice, fairness and democratic tenants.

“So many things happened in the process of this election, but all is now a history, “There are so many lessons to be learned, impunity has no space in our Union, democracy and justice will continue to prevailed against all odds ” the Chairman stated

Speaking during the election, the chairman credentials Committee said they were religiously guided by the constitution, and all the processes followed for the election were documented for future reference.

Other new elected executive members included Fadila Baffa Abdulkadir as Vice Chairperson, Zainab Baba Aliyu Santali secretary, Nafisa Hassan Abdullahi Assistant Secretary, Halima Yusuf treasurer, Safiya Inuwa Musa Financial Secretary and Zainab J. Chiroma as Auditor of the Association..

***Blames Tinubu for not holding FEC meetings

Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar’s Special Assistant on Public Communications, Phrank Shaibu, has taken a swipe at the BBC over its fact-check report that indicated that there was no evidence to show that President Bola Tinubu’s Chicago State University certificate was forged.

In a statement on Wednesday, Shaibu described the report as a hatchet job, adding that the outcry from the generality of Nigerians over the revelations was enough evidence to show that the BBC played to the gallery.

Atiku’s aide said the BBC’s move was not unexpected as it was in line with a previous statement he had issued wherein he had revealed that the Tinubu administration was set to unleash its full propaganda programme.

He said, “Sometime last week, when the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) issued a final warning to Arise News TV, we pointed out that the Tinubu administration was on the verge of launching a full blown propaganda and also intimidating ‘uncooperative’ media houses into discrediting and downplaying the CSU scandal. Sadly, we never imagined that it would be the BBC that would become the willing tool.

“It is unconscionable, appalling and preposterous that in this current information age, a foreign medium of repute could try to bamboozle Nigerians with a jaundiced report when the details are clear for everyone to see. “Thank God young Nigerians have begun filing complaints against the hack writers who decided to soil their names for a bowl of porridge.

“We are not ignorant of the machinations of the BBC and its bias towards the current government. It is unfortunate that the BBC is not upholding the same standards as they would uphold in the UK where a Prime Minister was forced out of office for hosting a party during COVID-19.
“In 2009, columnist Mehdi Hasan wrote in the New Statesman that the BBC was biased ‘towards power and privilege, tradition and orthodoxy.’

“It is no wonder that in the last one year, the only news medium that was given exclusive access to interview Tinubu was the BBC. It is sickening that the BBC has decided to surrender its platform to a man who was accused of illegal drug trafficking in the United States.

“In the so-called fact-check report, the BBC decided to bury in the last paragraphs the fact that Tinubu claimed to have attended Government College, Lagos in 1970 when the school was established in 1974. Why didn’t these so-called fact-checkers reflect it on their headline?

“What is the essence of the report when it failed to uncover the most critical questions? If this report was aimed at fact-checking, it should have mentioned the year the certificate was obtained by Tinubu from the CSU and if the one he submitted to INEC is the same one he received from CSU.

“Tinubu said at Chatham House that he had received a replacement from CSU when the school said in unambiguous terms that he had not done so. What was the date he applied for his INEC replacement certificate from CSU, and when was it it issued to him?

“The investigation was clearly carried out with a predetermined goal, which was to clear Tinubu. But let us ask the BBC if they would employ anyone who has had a case of drug trafficking in the US before and if he had three dates of birth in his official records as well as two different genders as well as attending a secondary school before it was established.”

Shaibu called on the BBC and other fact-checkers to be more circumspect, adding that their job was too sensitive to entertain errors.

“On November 28, 2022, Africa Check, one of the highly funded fact check organisations, claimed that the report by the opposition that Tinubu had lied that he attended Government College, Lagos was false.

“After Atiku Abubakar, through his daring court case, decided to blow open the lid, it turned out that the opposition was right all along. Till date, Africa Check has also not apologised for misleading the public. This is the new reality that we face. Who will fact-check the fact-checkers?”

Atiku’s aide advised media organisations to invest more in investigative journalism.

“If the BBC had invested in proper investigative journalism, it would have been the one uncovering some of Tinubu’s scandals instead of relying on Atiku for information on Tinubu’s certificates,” Shaibu said.

In the meantime, Shaibu has lambasted President Tinubu for holding just one cabinet meeting since taking office 135 days ago.

He said it was ironic that Tinubu, who has the largest cabinet in Nigeria’s history, had decided not to meet with them.

Atiku’s aide said, “Tinubu is obviously not ready for governance. After appointing 48 ministers – the highest in history – he has decided not to be meeting with them. This contravenes Section 148(2) of the 1999 Constitution, which expressly provides that the President shall hold regular meetings with the Vice President and ministers for the purposes of determining domestic and foreign policies of the government.

“It is bad enough that a man who claimed he would hit the ground running from day one took over 60 days to name all his ministers and took 84 days to inaugurate them. Even now, he has held only one cabinet meeting since the inauguration of the cabinet. For a man who has been gallivanting all over the place purportedly in search of foreign investors, it is laughable that he cannot even meet with his own team at home. Meanwhile, concerned Nigerians are asking #WhereIsTinubu?

“The reason is simple, though. His administration has brought nothing but untold hardship to Nigerians, including inflation, a very weak currency, and insecurity. He and his appointees are clueless. Hence, they have nothing to discuss.”

By Friday Idachaba, Lokoja.

STALLION Times Media Group has organised training for 39 Media professionals in Kogi on Multi-Media Newsroom practices” as part of efforts to enhance their investigative reporting capacity and sustainability.

Malam Isiyaku Ahmed, Publisher and Chief Executive Officer of Stallion Times declared the one-day “Multimedia Newsroom Training” on Thursday in Lokoja.

He said training was part of the implementation of the three-year Participatory Governance and Media Literacy project tagged “Get Involved, Dialogue and Improve Project (G-DRIP)” in Kano and Kogi states.

He said that the objectives of the training workshop include among others making journalists to understand the multimedia newsroom design and workflow as well as acquainting them with the roadmap of a story in a multimedia newsroom.

It is also aimed at getting the media professionals to appreciate the use of technology to deliver investigative reports in a blend of text, static images, animation, video and audio clips.

The project, according to him, is being executed in collaboration with the Wole Soyinka Center for Investigative Journalism under the Collaborative Media Project (Collaborating for Media Independence and Government Accountability), funded by the MacArthur Foundation.

“In this initiative, we are looking to amongst other things, build the capacity of media practitioners on investigative reporting, journalism ethics, safety, media literacy, independence, and sustainability.

“News organizations have moved to multimedia, using multi-platforms to tell stories.

“Reporters and editors needed to be empowered and with the necessary skills that would make them tell stories in social spaces, which now accommodate a large audience.

“We at Stallion Times recognize the importance of embracing and using new technologies and platforms to effectively convey stories that resonate with the audience in the digital age.

“This workshop, therefore, is designed to introduce the concept of multimedia newsroom storytelling that caters to all sorts of audiences and platforms.

“It will help journalists appreciate the use of technology to deliver investigative reports in a blend of text, static images, animation, video, and audio clips”, he said.

The training workshop featured among others, Multimedia Awareness; Concept and Effective Use of Multimedia as well as Essential Skills, Tools for Multimedia Journalism delivered by Isiyaku Ahmed and Stephen Salawu.