By Olabisi Sulaiman & Moryam Bakare The Adunni Foundation, a social impact organisation has unveiled the Basic Education Torchbearers Awards (BETA) to honour renowned and unsung heroes shaping the country’s basic education sector as part of activities to mark the 65th Independence anniversary of Nigeria. According to the founder of the Foundation, Motunrayo Famuyiwa-Alaka, a development advocate, the maiden edition of the awards seeks to honour individuals, schools, and institutions that have made outstanding contributions to basic education while advocating for reforms in Nigeria’s struggling education system. The former Nigerian Ambassador to the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organisation…
Author: Development Reporting
The Anti-Corruption Committee of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) has thrown its weight behind the decision of Nigeria’s Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi, to probe a property controversy in the United Kingdom involving a popular lawyer, Mike Ozekhome, among other Nigerians. The committee said the case raises several “improper critical issues that require investigations on the authenticity of the judgment that is widely in circulation.” It also called for scrutiny of the actions of legal practitioners on the role of the Supreme Court of Nigeria mentioned in the proceedings. Backstory In September, English property…
Come 14 October, the substantive Vice Chancellor of the Federal University, Oye Ekiti (FUOYE), Ekiti State, Southwest Nigeria, Abayomi Fasina, a professor of soil science, is set to return to office. The date will mark the end of the six-month leave granted him by the university’s governing council, led by a former Senator and Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Victor Ndoma-Egba. Following the circumstances that surrounded Mr Fasina’s exit and the rumoured opposition to his return, DevReporting spoke to many stakeholders, including the leadership of the various workers’ unions on the campus, to gauge the mood ahead of his planned…
By Sodiq Mojibola & Adedoyin Oguntade As Nigeria marks its 65th Independence anniversary, the Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism (WSCIJ) has called for greater protection of press freedom and the safety of journalists, warning that democracy cannot thrive without a free media. The call was made during a special X (formerly Twitter) Space hosted by the centre to commemorate Nigeria’s 65th Independence anniversary with the theme, “Nigeria @65: The Unfinished Business.” In her opening remarks, the Chief Executive Officer of WSCIJ, Motunrayo Alaka, noted that while Nigeria has made progress, press freedom remains fragile. “There is freedom of speech…
As predicted by DevReporting, the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has finally issued a strike notice to the Nigerian government, giving a 14-day ultimatum. As earlier reported by DevReporting, the leadership of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has declared that after 14 days from Monday, 29 September, and without any satisfactory resolution of its issues, a two-week warning strike will commence. If the issues are still not satisfactorily addressed within the two weeks, ASUU said, it will commence an indefinite strike action. The latest decision, contained in a notice personally signed by ASUU President, Chris Piwuna, a…
The first part of this investigation exposed the pain and losses suffered by families in some riverine Lagos communities due to the absence of functional health facilities. In this second part, Bilkis Abdulraheem, spotlights more riverine communities, interrogates budgetary issues, and presents expert insights on bridging healthcare gaps in rural Nigeria. A walk to Ikaare Just like Irede and Ibasa, Ikaare is another riverine community that lacks a health facility. The neighbouring community to Irede took the reporter approximately 20 20-minute walk from Irede to Ikaare. The Onimole of Ikaare, Abdullah Falana, a chief, in an interview, affirmed that the…
By Mohammed Taoheed As part of its efforts to reshape journalism practice on development issues, DevReporting- a niche media and cinematic platform focusing on development reporting, in partnership with Education As a Vaccine (EVA), is inviting journalists to submit compelling story pitches on poor education financing, limited citizen participation in education planning, and gender-blind policy implementation in Oyo State, Southwest Nigeria. With the support of Malala Fund, the initiative seeks to support selected applicants to produce investigative and in-depth reports on challenges facing the education sector in Oyo State. According to the Administration and Finance Manager of DevReporting, Omobayo Azeez,…
By Adedoyin Oguntade With just 73 women, constituting a paltry five per cent of the 1,462 lawmakers across both the national and state houses of assembly in Nigeria, the 9th edition of the Voice of Women Conference, which is scheduled to hold on 2 October in Abuja, the nation’s capital city, will spotlight the ongoing discussions on a bill seeking increased slots for women in the country’s politics. Apart from leading female voices, including Nigeria’s Minister of Women Affairs, Imaan Sulaiman-Ibrahim, and the former South Africa’s Deputy President, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, also expected at the conference are prominent Nigerian male politicians,…
By Mohammed Taoheed In fulfilment of her pledge to mobilise support for hospitals in providing care for patients, and particularly those suffering from cancer cases, the veteran broadcaster, Bimbo Oloyede, has donated assistive devices to two tertiary health facilities in Lagos state. Through her foundation, Lifeline Advocacy & Development Initiative (LADI), Mrs Oloyede handed over to the authorities of the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), Idi-Araba, and Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH), Ikeja, items worth millions of naira. In a statement issued by the organisation, a copy of which was made available to DevReporting, and signed by Mrs Oloyede,…
When local authorities fail to provide functional health facilities, the consequences are dire for communities, particularly for nursing mothers and children. In this investigation, Bilkis Abdulraheem, examines the state of healthcare delivery in three riverine communities in Lagos. Her findings reveal a pattern of neglect, unfulfilled government promises, and the startling case of a dispensary centre officially documented as existing but absent on the ground. The Ibrahim’s Experience Muibat Ibrahim’s two-and-a-half-year-old child had been stooling since midnight. She had tried several home remedies without success. Desperate and unable to wait until morning, she and her husband set out from their…