Daily Trust Foundation, in partnership with MacArthur Foundation, has begun the training of journalists on budget tracking to enhance public awareness and prudence in governance in Nigeria.
Alhaji Bilya Bala, Chairman, Daily Trust Foundation, while declaring the 3-day training open on Wednesday in Kano, explained that it was a vital part of the Foundation’s objectives for journalists’ capacity.
According to him, the training focuses on Budget Tracking and Investigating Public Expenditure by journalists in Nigeria.
” It is our conviction that journalists cannot do good reporting, except they are exposed to refresher workshops, especially in emerging areas of journalism.
” Unfortunately, in the last few years, we have encountered journalists who confessed that they had not attended trainings in over a decade, since graduation from university.
” It is shocking, but it is the reality in our newsrooms. Our Foundation is poised to change this trend, and that is why we initiated the programme and selected journalists from various media platforms.
” Not only Daily Trust is to benefit from this workshop, we desire to train journalists at the grassroots, because journalism is now more local than ever before, in this age of news aggregation and digital media ” Bala said.
He described budget tracking as very crucial in Nigeria’s drive to hold government accountable to the people and focusing on transparency in governance in Nigeria.
Bilya noted that experience over the years had shown that journalists had probed projects executed by the Federal Government, and dragged ministers and heads of parastatals to the floor.
He added that the probed officials were accused of corruption, waste, mismanagement, and conflict of interest, among others.
Bilya expressed dismay that the public allowed government officials at state and local levels, to escape after lots of resources channeled to them were being misappropriated.
He said that government collected taxes and sundry revenues but rarely gave account to the people.
The chairman lamented that government officials built personal estates, petrol stations, private universities, while the people languished in ill-health, poverty and penury.
He urged Journalists to live up to the expectations of checkmating government and identify with the people’s plights.
Earlier, Kano State Commissioner for Information, Mr Muhammad Garba, represented by the Director of Information, Alhaji Inuwa Yakasai, underscored the importance of budget and the right implemention on governance.
Garba pledged government’s support and cooperation, to enhance journalists activities, especially on budget tracking and ensuring maximum impacts of projects to the citizens.
Prof. Isa Dandago, a former Kano State Commissioner for Finance and lecturer at Bayero University Kano, challenged journalists to possess enhanced skills to report budget formulation, implemention and tracking for societal development.
He stressed that the poor engagement of journalists had resulted in neglecting their responsibilities on societal development by not checkmating government excesses.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that participants were drawn from Katsina, Zamfara, Sokoto, Kebbi, Kaduna, Jigawa and Kano states. (NAN)
