Nigerian Newspapers
How a single article sparks big change
Behind ‘impact journalism’ are the people who write it, and what the readers do next
It’s happened to nearly all of us at some point. Whether leafing through our daily newspaper, or reading it online, one story just sort of ‘jumps out’. We might even cut it out, or share the link with a friend. But some ‘ordinary’ readers go further than that, and end up starting something much, much bigger.
What does a fair trade store in France, a charity ball in New York and a bank in Chile all have in common? A well-told, well-timed story. This is what happened when a businessman, a campaigning mom and a disenchanted banker all chanced across news articles that sparked something unexpected.
Coffee
Tristan Lecomte was getting bored at his desk-job at French multinational L’Oréal when his sister tore out a two-page spread for him from one of the newspapers sold by the homeless, Le Réverbère. It was about coffee, and something called fair trade, which Lecomte had never heard of. “At the time, I remember thinking it was kind of odd to mix ethics with business, and I buried the article in the bottom of a drawer,” he says.
That was back in 1998. Some months later, he quit his job to start his own business with his university mates: they tossed around the idea of fair trade, brainstormed how to apply it, and finally ended up founding the first fair trade store in France, Alter Eco. After a rocky start, the company now distributes products to major retail stores around the world, including the United States, Australia and Brazil, certifying respectable wages and working conditions for the producers of the goods.
Congo
A very different story is that of Jennifer Williams, from an affluent suburb in Westchester County, New York. A former banker turned mom, Williams sat down to catch up on the news one Sunday not long after she had had her second son. Opening the front page of the New York Times to a story about rape in the Congo, Williams was shocked: “Why had I never heard about women and children of the Democratic Republic of the Congo whose lives were being ripped apart by unimaginable violence?” she says.
She sent the article out to her group of power-mom friends, and shot off an email to the author, Africa correspondent Jeffrey Gettleman, for advice on what she could do to help. He got back to her and put her in touch with some key figures—such as playwright Eve Ensler and her foundation, V-Day, which was planning the construction of a special retreat center for rape victims in the Democratic Republic of Congo, called the City of Joy. Williams and her friends began to hatch plans for an up-scale benefit called Women of the Congo, inviting speakers like Gettleman and Ensler, but also actresses Whoopi Goldberg and Glenn Close. That first gala in 2008 became an annual event, and Williams and her friends have now managed to raise $ 250,000, or about one-third of the total funds needed for the construction and operation of the City of Joy hospital wing in Bukavu, which opened its doors in July 2012.
“It’s a massive undertaking, but I liked the challenge,” Williams says. Before getting involved with V-Day, she had never done anything like this before. “There are a million causes, but it feels great to know that I’ve made a difference in one,” she adds. “We read about an issue, we were touched by it, we wanted to do something. And we did. There’s no better feeling than that.”
Cooperative credit
Laurent Marbacher, like Williams, is also a former banker turned consultant. He went to work for Banque de France, the French national bank, fresh out of the country’s most prestigious business school. There, he began to have the creeping suspicion that banking could be done very differently than what he saw. “I remember a mother, who came with her baby,” he recalls nearly 30 years later. “She was clearly very poor, and she wanted to take out 50 francs but her bank account didn’t have that much. I just felt terrible: I had to say no. And she was clearly distressed.”
One day, Marbacher stumbled on an article about “tontines,” an informal cooperative banking system that was common in certain parts of rural Africa. This was back in the ‘80s, and the first time Marbacher had heard of micro-credit. “These days, you can’t open a development magazine without reading about it, but at the time it was rare,” he says.
The article blew his mind. He describes it as “an answer to the kind of powerlessness I had felt in my experience working for the national bank.” The idea continued to nag him, and when he moved to Chile some years later, he co-founded the country’s first micro-credit bank, Contigo. Since its start in 1989, it has granted 30,000 micro loans.
It all boils down to empowerment. Through a lucky combination of good timing, personal initiative and bold reporting, something was set into motion when Lecomte, Willams and Marbacher picked up their newspapers. Marbacher hits the nail on the head as he explains: “When you read the paper, the question is: do I feel more or less powerful afterwards as an individual? In this case, it was a kind of a breakthrough towards what was possible.”
Some journalists strive to have exactly this effect: one of them is Pulitzer-prize winning New York Times columnist Nick Kristof. “We’re in the lighting business,” he says of journalists. “And by and large our power comes from shining a spotlight on something that would otherwise be neglected.”
Kristof and his wife, Sheryl WuDunn set off on a global trip to report on the subject that they saw as being paramount to 21st century development: women. Their book, Half The Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide, met with critical acclaim, was turned into a 3-hour documentary and also spawned a Facebook game which has raised $ 321,400 in charitable donations since its launch this March.
Ranging from maternal mortality to sexual abuse to education, Half the Sky paints a rather dismal picture of the challenges still facing women today. But Kristof and WuDunn spare their readers from despair by also introducing them to individual women who are working towards a better life however they can. The book raises, and also genuinely tries to answer, the urgent question: what means do you have?
But doesn’t this mean that the roles of the humanitarian activist and the journalist get blurred? “There’s a very fine line that journalists have to walk here,” Kristof warns. “It’s great to aspire to change the world with your reporting, but you can’t cover every city council meeting as if it’s the moral equivalent of genocide.”
Magazine-journalist-turned-documentary-maker Claire Ward was inspired, as a student, by the New York Times’ “Fixes” column to take a closer look at how the non-profit sector works. But after putting together The Cola Road, her film about ColaLife, a project that is bringing basic medicines to rural populations in Zambia by piggy-backing on the vast Coca-Cola distribution network, she agrees with Kristof. “’Feel-good’ land is murky territory in the world of the supposedly objective,” says Ward. Nonetheless, she is convinced the film “could teach the general public a lot about what development and social entrepreneurship look like on the ground.”
What is now known as ‘impact journalism’ is therefore about bringing practical possibilities for change to wider attention. But it should obviously remain as free and rigorous as regular news reporting. “Part of journalism is outlining not just problems but also potential solutions. But we shouldn’t be partisans, and I’m wary of becoming too closely identified with any one approach or group,” Kristof says.
With the rise of shareable news, journalism is having more impact in the last few years. Often we become aware of this in negative ways, like the violent protests sometimes sparked by cartoons. But journalism’s potential to instigate positive change is just as great. A newspaper that recently tapped into this is The Times of India, which launched its Aman ki Asha (Hope for Peace) campaign in 2010. The idea was to kick-start cross-border cooperation, and it began with an arresting front page that said simply “Love Pakistan.” Not words you read often.
SIDEBAR
Other media outlets that are experimenting with impact journalism:
- After natural disasters like the tsunami in South-East Asia and Hurricane Katrina prompted many viewers to ask their channel for guidance on what they could do to help, CNN launched its Impact Your World campaign in 2007, which directs you to relevant initiatives after every story.
- Kindia Project at the French TV channel Canal + follows development projects in Kindia, Guinea partially funded by the channel over the course of four years.
- Cartooning For Peace, called into being in 2006 by Kofi Annan, then General Secretary of the UN, is an international network of political illustrators committed to spreading tolerance and understanding through drawings.
- Bamyan Media is tapping into the educational potential of unscripted television by producing reality TV shows about social entrepreneurs—recent locations were Afghanistan and Egypt.
Video Links
http://www.sparknews.com/fr/video/shining-hope-half-sky-movement
Journalist’s Contact Information:
Anna Polonyi: [email protected]
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Source: The Nation Newspaper
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•Deploy more personnel as army chief vows to wipe out terror group
•Security beefed up at N’Assembly
Deji Elumoye and Kingsley Nwezeh in Abuja
Abuja, Nigeria’s seat of power, is under a massive security cordon following threats of attacks by insurgents and the increasing wave of banditry in the contiguous states of Kaduna, Kogi, Nasarawa and Niger States, THISDAY’s investigation has revealed.
There has been a wave of kidnappings in the outskirts of the federal capital, notably Pegi, Tuganmaje and Kuje among others, which the police have battled in recent times.
The security situation in and around the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) was heightened by the pronouncement of the Niger State Governor, Mr. Sani Bello, that Boko Haram fighters who he said sacked 50 villages in the state and hoisted the terror group’s flag, were about two hours drive away from the FCT.
Security has also been beefed up at the National Assembly as operatives, yesterday, thoroughly screened every vehicle approaching the National Assembly complex in Abuja.
The deteriorating security situation nationwide prompted the National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Prince Uche Secondus, to warn that the 2023 general election may not hold, demanding the declaration of a state of emergency as well as the convocation of a national conference.
However, the Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Ibrahim Attahiru, yesterday restated the Nigerian Army’s determination to annihilate Boko Haram.
But the Governor of Katsina State, Hon. Bello Masari, cautioned against declaring a state of emergency, saying doing so isn’t the solution to combat the security challenges facing the country.
The security of the nation’s airports was also in focus yesterday as the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA) said there was no threat to them.
THISDAY’s investigations showed increased presence of troops, police, Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) personnel and intelligence operatives at the three strategic entrances to the city notably, Keffi, Zuba and Gwagwalada.
More checkpoints were also mounted around Gwagwalada and Keffi.
THISDAY also observed increased intelligence deployment at the entrance and the borders of FCT with contiguous states.
Beyond the borders, there were more deployments and police patrols inside the city and increased intelligence deployments as well.
Security sources told THISDAY: “There are deployments here and there but they are routine. Alertness is key to a secure environment.”
It was also learnt that security agencies were involved in frenzied meetings throughout yesterday.
The meetings, coordinated by the office of the Chief of Defence Staff under the new joint operational strategy of the armed forces, were aimed at coordinating a joint response to possible threats of attack to the FCT.
“I understand the security teams have been meeting for some days now and if you look around you, you will notice that there are increasing patrols and numbers of security personnel. The threats are not been taken lightly,” a source said.
National Assembly workers, lawmakers and visitors also had a harrowing experience accessing the legislative complex due to heightened security in the area.
Security operatives thoroughly screened every vehicle approaching the National Assembly complex in Abuja, impeding both human and vehicular traffic.
The Sergeant-at-arm of the National Assembly and other security agencies supervised the operations, leading to huge traffic build-up inside the complex.
Legislative staff, visitors and lawmakers were seen patiently waiting for their cars to be searched so that they could go ahead with the business of the day.
Some staff and visitors at some point got tired of waiting and were seen alighting from their cars to trek from the gate to the complex.
Meanwhile, the ONSA has said there is no threat to the nation’s airports.
A statement by the Head of Strategic Communication, Mr. Zachari Usman, said the reports of threats to the airports were an internal correspondence of security threat assessment misconstrued as security threat to the airports.
PDP Demands State of Emergency
In a related development, the PDP National Chairman, Prince Uche Secondus, yesterday demanded the declaration of a state of emergency, warning that the 2023 general election might not hold if the federal government failed to tackle insecurity.
He called on the federal government to summon a national conference to address the spike in insecurity.
Secondus added that the national caucus of the party will meet today to discuss the state of the nation.
Addressing members of the National Executive Committee (NEC) in Abuja, Secondus said: “We are worried Abuja is not even safe. It is no longer politics. We got alert of plots to bomb and burn down our airports.
“We urge the federal government to declare a national state of emergency in security. There is the need to call a national conference to discuss the insecurity in the country.
“There may not be any election in 2023 in Nigeria due to insecurity. This government must listen to the people. The Buhari government should call a national confab to discuss security and state of the nation. It is no longer politics. This time we are not playing politics. Let’s keep politics aside and move the nation forward.”
He said the country had been grounded, regretting that there had been no matching response from the federal government.
Secondus said in the past, terrorism in the North was confined to the North-east, but with the report of Boko Haram occupying villages in Niger State, terrorism had spread to the North-central
“Herdsmen are also menacing in the West; gunmen causing havoc in the East; and the militants in the South; all killing, looting, raping, maiming and burning down homes. The situation is bad; Nigerians all over are living in fear,” he said.
The Senate Minority Leader, Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe, said the problem of Nigeria was outside of the PDP headquarters, while pledging the support of the Senate to the declaration of state of emergency in security.
Abaribe said he deliberately decided not to speak on the floor of the Senate but to allow the APC senators to speak so as to avoid being accused of giving a partisan colouration to the issue of insecurity.
He stated that only electoral reforms would give victory to the opposition party in the 2023 general election and ensure a democratic defeat of the APC-led federal government.
Also, the Minority Leader of the House of Representatives, Hon. Ndudi Elumelu, commended the NEC and the PDP leadership for their collective efforts at resolving the House leadership crisis.
The NEC meeting adopted the position of Secondus, calling on the federal government to convoke a national conference to discuss the state of insecurity in the country, according to a communiqué read by the National Publicity Secretary, Mr. Kola Ologbondiyan.
Army Chief Vows to Wipe Out Boko Haram
The army yesterday reiterated its commitment to wipe out Boko Haram.
Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Lt. Gen. Ibrahim Attahiru, told reporters in Maiduguri, Borno State that Boko Haram had been defeated in many encounters and would continue to be defeated until it’s annihilated from Nigeria.
“We will take on Boko Haram decisively, and we are committed to the focus of the operations, which is the total annihilation of Boko Haram from Nigeria,” he said.
The COAS, who was visiting the headquarters of Operation Lafiya Dole in Maiduguri for the fifth time since his appointment four months ago, said the visit was to boost the morale of the troops, reassure them and listen to any issues affecting them.
Earlier, the Theatre Commander of Operation Lafiya Dole, Maj. Gen. Farouq Yahaya, lauded the visit, which he said had continued to boost the morale of the troops.
“We are honoured, we are grateful, we are encouraged by those visits. You provided us guidance, logistics and other things we required. We are most grateful for those visits,” Yahaya said.
State of Emergency Won’t Solve Security Challenges, Says Masari
Katsina State Governor, Hon. Aminu Masari, has, however, said declaration of a state of emergency won’t solve the security challenges facing the nation.
Masari, who spoke yesterday with journalists after meeting with the Chief of Staff to the President, Prof. Ibrahim Gambari at the State House, Abuja stated that he was against the recent call by the House of Representatives for the declaration of a state of emergency in the security sector as it would not solve the problem.
According to him, declaring a state of emergency will not achieve the desired effect as the security structure and personnel to be used to execute the emergency are already overstretched in a bid to safeguard lives and property.
Sourced From: THISDAYLIVE
Tribune Online
Nigeria records 55 new COVID-19 infections, total now 165,110
The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) has recorded 62 new cases of COVID-19, bringing the total number of infections in the country to 165,110. The NCDC disclosed this on its official Twitter handle on Friday. “55 new cases of #COVID19Nigeria; Lagos-21, Yobe-19, Ogun-6, Akwa Ibom-3, Kaduna-2, Plateau-2, FCT-1, Rivers-1.” YOU SHOULD NOT MISS THESE HEADLINES FROM NIGERIAN TRIBUNE COVID-19: Nigeria Recorded […]
Nigeria records 55 new COVID-19 infections, total now 165,110
Tribune Online
Sourced From: Tribune Online
By Olasunkanmi Akoni
The people of the South East region have been urged to explore the power of negotiation and mutual settlement in the face of ongoing killings and security challenges in the zone because the east can not afford another war at present.
Stakeholders from the South-East geo-political zone made the remark on Thursday, at the unveiling of the book, “Igbo, 50 years after Biafra,” written by Special Adviser to Lagos State Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu on Drainage Services, Joe Igbokwe, held at Ikeja G.R.A.
Speaking at the unveiling of the book, the chairman of the occasion, Mr. Cutis Adigba,
urged the people of the South-East to learn to build bridges across the country, so that they can realise their ambition of producing the next president of Nigeria.
Adigba urged leaders from the zone to discourage the move and agitation by some youths in the South East to go to war and secede out of Nigeria.
Also read: Banditry: Disregard viral video, Niger State gov’t urges residents
He said that Igbo have always found it difficult to rule Nigeria because they refused to build bridges across the six geo-political zones that made up Nigeria.
While describing the agitation as uncalled for, Adigba noted that after two decades that Nigeria returned to civil rule, the Igbo has predominantly identified with only one political party.
He maintained that remaining in one party can not advance the cause of the people of South East and cannot make them realise their objective of producing an Igbo man as president.
He maintained that the publisher of the book, Igbokwe played politics outside his state, so that the Igbo race can be integrated with one another race.
Adigba said the failure of the Igbo to reintegrate with other ethnic nationalities politically was responsible for the retrogression of the race in Nigerian politics.
Igbokwe, also addressing guests on the occasion, maintained that the Igbo are not advancing politically because they refused to be integrated into National politics, lamenting that, despite their success in business, they are not successful in playing politics at the national level.
Corroborating Dimgba, Igbokwe noted that there was the need for the Igbo people to stand up and build bridges so that their objective of producing the next president of Nigeria could be realised.
According to him: “I have decided to raise my voice, I hope my people will hear me while trying to quell the effect of the war, our people are spoiling for another war, mayhem is being unleashed in Igbo land, and there is palpable fear.
“Those who could speak have lost their voice, mindful of the consequences of their actions, I am calling on all Igbo leaders to speak up because all actions carry consequences, consequences of the silence will be too dastardly to sustain.
“Those silently supporting the wild wind should be careful or else they hand over to their children,” he said.
Igbokwe urged those spoiling for war to jettison their plan and embrace dialogue, urging them to learn from the South West region that despite the challenges faced after the annulment of the June 12, 1993, election, they did not go to war, and the region had the opportunity of producing two of her sons for presidential position in 1999.
“You have to build bridges to become president of Nigeria, but it is unfortunate the Igbo are burning bridges.”
Speaking at the event, Chief Uche Dimgba who is the coordinator of Igbo in All Progressives Congress, APC in Lagos, described Igbokwe as “a Frank, fearless and reliable leader, who based his views on issues and stand by his opinions, and we the Igbo have confidence in him and believe he can lead us aright.”
“He is a leader we Igbo believe in and we will follow him. If he can serve all the governors produced in Lagos State since 1999, he is a better man to follow because he possesses all the experience that can be of benefit to Igbo both at home and in the diaspora.”
The post Attacks on S’East: We must explore all options of negotiation — Stakeholders urge Igbo appeared first on Vanguard News.
Sourced From: Vanguard News
The government said that no worker should stay back beyond 6:00 p.m. within premises of buildings undergoing construction.
The post Insecurity: Lagos bans occupation of abandoned buildings appeared first on Premium Times Nigeria.
Sourced From: Premium Times Nigeria
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Nigeria records 55 new COVID-19 infections, total now 165,110
Military, Police Ring Abuja to Forestall Boko Haram Attack
UFC: Usman gets N584m after beating Masvidal
Insecurity: Lagos bans occupation of abandoned buildings
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