Barely eight months into its operation as a niche newspaper, the Managing Editor of DevReporting, Christiana Alabi-Akande, has emerged the overall winner of the 2025 Female Reporters Leadership Programme (FRLP) of the Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism (WSCIJ).
Mrs Alabi-Akande beat 11 other fellows to emerge the winner based on her leadership programme initiative and a compelling story on the plight of sexually abused children in Lagos State, Nigeria’s commercial nerve centre.
Her two-part story entitled: “INVESTIGATION (I): In Nigeria’s ‘megacity,’ poverty, extortion deprive sexually abused children of justice,” and “INVESTIGATION (II): In Lagos, police extort families of sexually abused children in search of justice,” and her leadership programme initiative, which she tagged, “Network of Future-Ready Journalists on Campuses (NFJ), were adjudged the best by the judges.
READ ALSO: DevReporting managing editor selected for Wole Soyinka Centre’s Fellowship
The Manager of News and Current Affairs at Harmony FM, Rasheedat Iliyas, and a multimedia staff writer at TheCable newspaper, Jemilat Nasiru, emerged first and second runners-up, respectively.
While Mrs Iliyas reported on the plight of visually impaired female students denied access to secondary school education in Kwara State, her leadership project took her back to her alma mater, the University of Ilorin, where students of Mass Communication were trained and provided insights into how they can fit into the media industry upon graduation.
On her part, Mrs Nasiru convened a two-day virtual training for female undergraduate journalism students at the University of Ibadan to introduce core skills in news writing and digital content creation. Her investigative report is entitled, “INVESTIGATION: Five years after fatal Lagos explosion, encroachers bribe way back to ‘danger zone’”
According to the WSCIJ’s Executive Director, Motunrayo Alaka, the fellows, who, she said, are the sixth in the series, produced quality works and great initiatives that are targeted at securing a better future for journalism in Nigeria, and Africa by extension.
About FRLP
Introduced in 2017 as part of WSCIJ’s Report Women programme, the Female Reporters Leadership Programme (FRLP), according to Mrs Alaka, “aims to increase the quality and quantum of reports on women and girls while fostering leadership among female journalists.”
In its sixth edition, the organisers said the programme also aims to mobilise a network of female journalists who are oriented for leadership and a train-the-trainer approach to better appreciate mainstreaming gender issues in news reporting.
WSCIJ also added that the overall objective is to build female journalists’ capacities to emerge in the highest leadership roles in their media houses by equipping them with the required skills, finesse, and tools.
Supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the WSCIJ management said the fellowship and the broader Report Women! News and Newsroom Engagement are designed to engage the management and staff of news media organisations in Nigeria and across Africa to increase the representation of women in news coverage, newsroom leadership, and as sources of news.
This year’s fellows, according to WSCIJ, were drawn from a pool of 160 applicants and commenced their journey into the programme in April. They were mentored by four prominent Nigerian journalists- former Director of News at TVC News, Stella Din-Jacob; Managing Editor of PREMIUM TIMES, Idris Akinbajo; Publisher of Security News Alert, Juliana Francis, and the Executive Director/CEO of WSCIJ, Motunrayo Alaka.
Effecting change through journalism
Speaking at the award ceremony in Lagos on Wednesday, the Consul General of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Lagos, Michel Deelen, urged fellows to see journalism as a tool for change. He said fake news is increasingly used by those in power to suppress facts and deny the obvious truth.
READ ALSO: At DevReporting lecture, Olorunyomi urges stronger media watchdog role amid rising repression
“The journalists then have the job of bringing out the facts to inform and educate the people. It’s in the interest of some people to keep them hidden, but once you put them out there, things change. It might be one, two or three years, but things will change,” Mr Deelen said.
While noting the growing influence of artificial intelligence, he cautioned journalists against careless adoption of the technology. According to him, AI should be used with responsibility to preserve the credibility of the profession.
Experts urge competition with collaboration
Also speaking, a veteran broadcaster, Bimbo Oloyede, encouraged the fellows to embrace originality and collaboration rather than unhealthy rivalry.
“Stay in your lane – don’t be copy and paste people. The sky is wide and high, and there is no reason why anyone should try to be anybody else. Everyone in the world is different, and we’ve got special things to give to the world. Be who you are and remain true to who you are,” she advised.
She further stressed the need for continuous learning and mentorship. “Encourage each other – we live in a world of competition, but don’t compete to the extent that you do not collaborate. Encourage, help and praise each other. Take criticism as encouragement,” she added.
In his goodwill message, the Managing Editor of PREMIUM TIMES, Idris Akinbajo, emphasised the power of collaboration in investigative journalism.
“The people who are stealing Nigeria’s money are collaborating to steal, so it makes no sense for journalists who want to expose them not to collaborate,” Mr Akinbajo said.