The two-day onboarding session of the 3rd cohort of the HumAngle Accountability fellowship, which commenced on July 14 came to an end yesterday. The fellowship, run with the support of the MacArthur Foundation, is part of a project to investigate security funding in Nigeria’s northeast.

On the final day of the in-person onboarding at the HumAngle Head Office in Abuja, the fellows were taken through some sessions by resource persons of the organization.

Taking them through the ethics and responsibilities of being HumAngle fellows, Khadijat Ibrahim, Head of HR at HumAngle, charged the fellows to be innovative and authentic in their reports. “There should be originality and creativity in your reports,” she said.

She added that fellows should ensure their reports are impactful. “Life is not about chasing money but how impactful have you (through your reports) been?” Adding to that, she urged the fellows to adhere to truth-telling in their reports. “As a journalist, your work should not be doubted, you should be as truthful as possible.”

Furthermore, she enjoined the fellows to ensure that their reports promote security and peacebuilding, and do not incite violence. “As much as you have to be truthful and factual, you should be sensitive with your choice of words.”

The head of the Extremism and Radicalization desk at HumAngle, Aliyu Dahiru Aliyu, gave the fellows an in-depth explanation of what fact-checking is and how the information they come across can be verified using different tools like Google Reverse Image, Invid, et cetera. According to him, “information needs to be checked and verified before putting it out to the world.” 

He went further to show the practical steps to take while verifying facts online. In his concluding statement, he stated that fellows should be mindful of catchy headlines which can be very misleading.

Isaac Oritogun, the fellowship coordinator, gave a lecture on community entry and engagement. He enjoined the fellows to first of all be observant of the community they would engage with and ensure their behaviours and mode of dressing is not alien to members of the community. “Be cautious, it doesn’t take anything from you to pay courtesy,” he said. Adding to that, he stated that while going for engagements like advocacies, fellows should ensure they go with a community mobilizer or fixer to ease their work in the communities.

Sharing their experiences, the fellows described the fellowship as adventurous, impactful, eye-opening, dream-come-true, transformative and a great opportunity to express themselves.