Nigeria in ICU, Needs Emergency Response – MacArthur Foundation

Nigeria has been described as a state in urgent need of a true patriot, sufficiently angry about the state of the nation and ready to fix the issues of insurgency, terrorism and corruption bedevilling the country.

The Deputy Director of MacArthur Foundation, Africa office, Dayo Olaide, stated this on Monday at the three days of Investigative and Data Journalism training on Open Contract Reporting Project (OCRP) workshops for journalists in the North Central and South-East zones at Ibeto Hotel, Abuja.

For him, a nation like Nigeria needs a change-maker who has a burning zeal and desire to change the situation going in the country.
Dayo Olaide therefore, charged the journalist to take the training seriously and use the knowledge learnt to change and fix Nigeria.

Speaking on the aim of the training, Dayo Aiyetan, Executive Director, International Centre for Investigative Reporting, ICIR, said the project is aimed at building capacity, providing mentoring and financial support for journalists to work with the ICIR to undertake investigative and data-driven reports on budget and procurement processes at all levels of government.

He urged all participants to take the training seriously and make use of it effectively.
At the training, journalists were trained in investigative journalism, data journalism, tracking procurement fraud, fact-checking of stories, multimedia reporting, solution journalism, amongst others.

The International Centre for Investigative Reporting (ICIR) had in March called for applications from suitable and qualified journalists for the third phase of its Open Contract Reporting Project (OCRP). 

The OCPR is an accountability reporting project of the Centre that seeks to promote fiscal transparency and accountability in the budget and procurement processes in Nigeria.
The current OCRP programme is a three-year project funded by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.