PARTNER CONTENT/PETROLEUM PEOPLE
The Premium Times Centre for Investigative Journalism (PTCIJ), through its Natural Resources and Extractives Programme (NAREP), has selected nine journalists across Nigeria for its flagship NAREP Oil and Gas Media Fellowship.
This fellowship aims to advance natural resource journalism in Nigeria. It is designed to train and build journalists that can effectively report and analyse the oil and gas sector by equipping them with the tools and resources they need.
Following the organisation’s call, PTCIJ received 1,429 applications from journalists and non-journalists across the country. Out of these, seventeen journalists were shortlisted and nine of them have been finally selected from across eight media organisations following interviews by an internal selection committee.
The selected journalists underwent a three-day intensive training which introduced them to the oil and gas sector. The training started on the 2nd of March and ended on the 4th of March, 2021.
The participants were trained by experts on a range of issues including but not limited 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, review of the underrecovery 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.
The fellows will be engaged for a total of three months during which they will work with mentors and will be required to provide at least two stories per month.
| “Oil and gas sector operations in Nigeria have traditionally been opaque with little or no transparency on the part of the government”, says Akintunde Babatunde , Manager of NAREP. “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 explains.
“Through the NAREP fellowship, PTCIJ plans to combine the tools of data aggregation, civic technology and investigative journalism to advance transparency and accountability in the extractive sector.” About NAREP NAREP aims to strengthen the capacity of media and civil society to demand transparency and accountability in the extractive sector by enhancing media and civil society collaboration in the reporting of activities in the industry. It seeks to highlight issues, and help set the agenda for the government in designing strategies for revenue diversification by looking beyond oil. The training was supported by Natural Resource Charter. |
