Participants and the facilitators with the Daily Trust Foundation members at Nike Lake Resort, Enugu
By Tony Adibe
The Daily Trust Foundation (DTF) backed by the MacArthur Foundation has concluded a 3-day training workshop for journalists in Nigeria’s SouthEast zone, urging participants to make themselves more relevant and impactful by holding governments accountable through tracking and scrutinising their budgets.
A board member of the Daily Trust Foundation, Chief Isiaq Ajibola gave the advice while declaring open the training workshop for journalists drawn from the five southeast States – Abia, Anambra, Enugu, Ebonyi, and Imo.
The training, which was held at the Nike Lake Resort, Enugu was on “Budget Tracking And Investigation of Public Expenditure“. Its objective was to acquaint journalists with skills on the nitty-gritty of budget tracking and investigative journalism that would impact society positively.
NewsBitsng.com reports that the training workshop was organised by the DTF and supported by the famous MacArthur Foundation. Also, the DTF in collaboration with MacArthur Foundation, has over the years, trained more than 800 journalists in Nigeria’s six geo-political zones in different fields of journalism.
Chief Ajibola, who addressed the participants, mainly Online publishers, said that there was no better time to organise the training than now the state governments receive increased revenue allocations from the federation account, stressing that budget tracking would ensure accountability and transparency in government offices.
“I tell you, there’s no better time than now for journalists to track what these states are budgeting; then ensure accountability and transparency. We need to put governments on their toes in terms of budget tracking,” said Ajibola, who quickly added: “We need to do that all the time and it’s only when we do that we can entrench transparency and accountability in the system.”
He advised the participants to make judicious use of the opportunity offered by the training workshop. “We hope that after this 3-day intensive workshop, you will be better journalists and you will have better advantage than your colleagues who never passed through this learning process. You will be able to write stories that will have impact on society because when you don’t write stories that don’t have impact on society, it’s not enough!
“You must aspire to write stories that will change the negative ways governments do things or the way communities do things; and it’s only when you have done this, that you can become real journalists,” Ajibola said.
In a presentation, a facilitator and former Enugu State Commissioner for Budget and Planning, under Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, Dr. David Okelue Ugwunta, said that journalists have the duty of “keeping those in government on their toes,” adding that, “this is a good opportunity for you to understand the nitty-gritty of budget tracking so that when you are now tracking, you know what, in fact, you are tracking. I want to encourage you all.”
Dr. Ugwunta, who is also a lecturer at the Enugu State University of Science and Technology (ESUT), said that state budget was such a vital document without which no government could function effectively and efficiently.
He explained that the budget, once it was passed into law by the national assembly in the case of national Government or the state House of Assembly in the case of state government, it becomes law.
“It’s a very interesting area and most importantly, no government will spend money outside the budget. It’s something someone can go in for, when you spend outside the appropriation, and that is why the budget is called an Approriation Act. So, no matter what happens, you can’t spend money outside the budget,” said Ugwunta.
He further said: “If you (Governor or President) should spend money outside the budget, anything can come out of it. Journalists can begin to pursue the governor and say you have spent money that is not in the budget and before he knows it, it becomes a very big issue.”
He, however, emphasised that the actual document journalists should rely on while doing proper budget reporting, “is document from the Accountant General’s office; why it’s more reliable is because it has been audited.”
Ugwunta’s presentation focused on introduction to Subnational Government Budget: Key Concepts in Budgeting; Types of Budgets; Budgeting Process; Budget Cycle; Pitfalls in Budget Preparation, etc.
Another resource person, the Head of Research and Advisory, BudgIT, Lagos, Mr. Iniobong Usen took the participants on Introduction to Budget Tracking: Rationale, Principles and Examples; Tracking State Government Income and Expenditure; Understanding Nigeria’s Procurement Act, among others.
Usen described budget tracking as the “process of monitoring and reviewing the allocations, disbursement and utilization of public funds as outlined in the national, state or local government budgets.”
He said that the fight against corruption or the journey to development is not a tea party, urging journalists to always understand the “issue at stake for them to make any meaningful impact in the journalism that we practice.”
He said, “For journalists, your journalism doesn’t start when money was approved”, stressing that “you pick up the document (budget) and study it; put the governor’s manifestos, and juxtapose it with the actions.”
According to Usen, one of the advantages of budget tracking is that the process “promotes transparency, enhances accountability, and improves service delivery.
Yet, another resource person, a Data Analyst and Editor with British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) Africa, Damilola Ojetunde, spoke on Data Mining: Digital Access to State Budgets, Procurement Portals, and State Auditors-General Report; Introduction to Excel for Data Analysis and Interpretation; Budget Tracking: An Investigative Approach; Practical Session on Budget Analysis for Story Ideas – Group Work, etc.
Ojetunde described data journalism as a set of skills for searching, understanding, visualising and reporting digital sources in a time that basic skills of traditional journalism are not enough.
He said that journalists ought to use data to “question and investigate facts and figures stated by authorities; compare real figures with targets; find trends over time and ask the right questions about people and national development.”
Still, another facilitator/moderator, Dr. Theophilus Abbah of the Daily Trust Foundation, advised journalists to always put on “their thinking cap” in matters of budget tracking in order to remain relevant in the journalism sector.
“We don’t want journalists to be stenographers or copycats. We want journalists to eliminate journalism from stenographic jobs; we want journalists to dig deeper, do genuine reporting… write reports people will like to read. We want journalists to do interpretative reporting. We want journalists to learn new skills; introduce you to a new level of journalism,” Dr. Abbah told the participants. “It’s not even the academic learning that matters but putting into practice what you have been taught during this training on budget tracking,” he added.
He further told the participants to “do a bit of critical reporting” which they have to do from the point of knowledge, adding: “what gives you strength as a journalist is not the press statements from Government House Press Unit; what gives you strength is the document which you get from people on topical issues… How the budget was implemented is the type of Investigation you journalists can do. There’s need for journalists to ask questions on transparency and lack of accountability in the Budgeting.”
A participant, Nwakaego Ohaegbulam thanked the organisers of the program. “Thanks for the knowledge shared. It was a learning, unlearning and re-learning process for me. Thanks Daily Trust Foundation for this experience,” Ohaegbulam said.
Also, another participant, Nabob Ogbonna said: “Thank you Daily Trust Foundation for having introduced us to Budget Tracking And Investigation. The workshop was great. Thanks a million, DTF and MacArthur Foundation.”
In a vote of thanks, a participant and former Daily Trust Bureau Chief in Southeast zone, Tony Adibe said: “The participants are grateful to the Daily Trust Foundation and the MacArthur Foundation for giving us the rare opportunity to enrich our knowledge in Budget Tracking And Investigation of Public Expenditure.
“It’s now left for the participants to go home and put into practice what they have been taught by the facilitators so as to bring about the desired positive change in the Nigeria society; to bring about transparency and accountability in public offices. We’re told that since inception, the Daily Trust Foundation backed by the MacArthur Foundation, has trained over 800 journalists in different fields of journalism across Nigeria. This is apart from the about 406 medical students on DTF scholarship, and 50 prison inmates who regained their freedom through the DTF free legal services. Indeed, I must say that the participants appreciate the kind gestures from the two institutions – Daily Trust Foundation and MacArthur Foundation,” said Adibe of NewsBits Online.
Certificates of participation were issued to all the participants at the end of the 3-day training workshop which held from Monday 10th to Wednesday February 12, 2025.
