By Najibullahi ADAMU, Abuja
Neptune Prime, a publication subsidiary of Neptune Network Nigeria Ltd in collaboration with Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism has organised a two-day training for over 20 of its correspondents from the various states of Northeastern Nigeria and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja alongside others from select newspaper houses on how best to report humanitarian issues concerning the north east.
Declaring the workshop open Thursday in Abuja, the Editor-in-Chief and Chief Executive Officer (EIC/CEO) of Neptune Prime, Dr Hassan Gimba, explained that the participants were selected from different newspapers including Leadership, Daily Trust, PR Nigeria and Neptune Prime.
According to him, the purpose of the workshop was to enlighten the journalists on the need to highlight the plight of the north east region which was ravaged by crises in order to attract attention and trigger development of the area.
He charged the participants to start writing analyses and investigative reports on the numerous challenges bedevilling the region and the plight of the people of the zone with a view to achieving the goal of the training.
Also speaking, a facilitator at the training and media consultant, Mr Livingstone Aminu Yusuf, asserted that the north eastern region is at the lowest ebb of every development index in the country.
He said as a result of that, there is a necessity to highlight the problems bedevilling the zone by journalists through their reportage.
The media consultant urged the participants to particularly focus their reportage on the marginalization of minority groups in the region, unfair treatment of women, girls, people with disability as well as lunch campaigns against social vices and insurgency.
“A program like north east special feature is to be adopted that will focus on highlighting the progress of people from the region. This platform will also bring public enlightenment and orientation to encourage advocacy for peace, discourage insurgency and general community participation”, he said.
