Two Tribune journalists, seven others selected for PTCIJ’s oil, gas fellowship

Two Nigerian Tribune journalists, Adetola Bademosi, Justice Nwafor and seven others from different media houses across the country have been selected for the Premium Times Centre for Investigative Journalism (PTCIJ) Natural Resources and Extractives Programme (NAREP) Oil and Gas Media Fellowship.

The organisation said out of the 1,429 applications it received from journalists and non-journalists across the country, 17 journalists were shortlisted from which nine participants were finally selected from across eight media organisations following interviews by an internal selection committee.

Selected journalists underwent a three-day intensive training between March 2 and 4, 2021 which introduced them to the oil and gas sector.

The participants were trained by experts on a range of issues including to revenue management and distribution in the oil and gas sector, the impact of the management of oil and gas on the quality of life of Nigerians, laws and regulations in the oil and gas sector.

Other areas touched are review of the under-recovery regime, use of the freedom of information act, data presentation and analysis, making sense of the figures in reporting the oil and gas sector among others.

After this training, the fellows will be engaged for a total of three months during which they will work with mentors and be required to provide at least two stories per month.

Manager of the Natural Resources and Extractive Programme (NAREP), Akintunde Babatunde, on his part said the oil and gas sector operations in Nigeria have traditionally been opaque with little or no transparency on the part of the government.

“This lack of openness has led to zero accountability, mismanagement of funds, revenue leakages and above all, the inability of the government to meet its financial obligation and to raise the quality of life of Nigerians,” he said.

“To respond to these challenges of access to information in the oil and gas sector, the Premium Times Centre for Investigative Journalism is organising this flagship NAREP oil and gas media fellowship,” he added.

He explained that the organization, through the fellowship, plans to combine the tools of data aggregation, civic technology and investigative journalism to advance transparency and accountability in the extractive sector.

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