PLSI Public Audit Media Fellowship Program 2023 For Young Nigerian Journalists

PLSI through its MacArthur Foundation funded project to strengthen public audit practices and accountability at the state level in Nigeria is implementing a Public Audit Media Fellowship to assist independent media actors to use audit data to investigate, report and expose corruption at subnational level in Nigeria. This media fellowship will identify and train 10 journalists (two each) from five geopolitical zones of Nigeria (aside North Central), on how to use public audit information combined with creative communication and data-driven storytelling skills to investigate, report, and expose corruption at subnational level in Nigeria. The media fellowship is focused on one state in each geo-political zones being considered, and the specific states include: South East – Anambra State, South South – Delta State, South West – Ekiti State, North West – Kaduna State and North East – Yobe State. The Fellowship will run for four weeks (six days in the first three weeks (virtual) and two days in the fourth week (physical) in Abuja, Nigeria). Fellows will be onboarded in October 2023. Selected fellows would be supported to analyze annual audit reports of state governments and track public spendings with potential for corruption and investigate such spendings with a view to exposing tendencies or reporting acts of corruption for possible sanction by relevant authorities. The 10 investigative stories developed from the media fellowship will be published via the medium by which the fellows work on.