Femi Falana, human rights advocate and senior lawyer, will give the keynote speech at TheCable Colloquium which will discuss the vital link between investigative journalism and the demand for good governance.
The colloquium, scheduled for Wednesday, December 15, 2021, is organised by the Cable Newspaper Journalism Foundation (CNJF) — a partner organisation of TheCable newspaper — and supported by the MacArthur Foundation.
The senior lawyer will address an audience drawn from a spectrum of the citizenry: the media, academia, youth groups, civil society and general public.
His keynote will be deliberated upon by a panel consisting Ibim Semenitari, former Rivers state commissioner for information and former acting managing director of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC); VinMartin Obiora Ilo, executive director of Signature TV and producer of anti-corruption TV programme, Corruption Tori; and Aliyu Jauro, director-general of the National Environmental Standard and Regulations Enforcement Agency (NESREA).
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It will be moderated by Funke Treasure, the respected broadcast journalist who directed affairs at the inaugural TheCable Colloquium in March 2016.
Abiose Adams, the senior programme officer of CNJF, said the townhall-styled gathering is aimed at amplifying issues arising from the investigative reports published by TheCable in the past year.
“Through this event we also hope to enlighten the public and foster conversations and collaborations amongst the state actors, the media, civil society and the citizenry towards an accountable and transparent government,” she said.
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Key civil society organisations that have confirmed participation include Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP), Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism, Daily Trust Foundation, HEDA Resource Centre, ActionAid, Premium Times Centre for Investigative Journalism, and Progressive Impact Organization for Community Development.
CNJF, a not-for-profit organisation, uses the vehicle of journalism to advance transparency and accountability in government.
Through the support of MacArthur Foundation, CNJF builds the capacity of journalists, mentors graduate interns and supports them with grants to do investigative reporting, in partnership with TheCable.
In the past five years of implementing the grant, the CNJF has published over 200 investigative reports which have x-rayed government policies and programmes.
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Some of these led to remedial actions from the government for better service delivery to the people — specific examples include the investigation into the rot in the public education system that caused the deaths of Queen’s College students.
Another is the Bail for Sale report, which exposed police brutality and bribery at Nigerian correctional centres; the Chinese company which was shut down for polluting the environment of a village in the FCT; and the expose on the faking of COVID-19 test certificate.
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