Campus Reporter, CJID, Donate Resources to MAPOLY During 4-Day Campus Journalism Clinic

On Tuesday, 5 September, the Campus Reporter team of the Centre for Journalism Innovation and Development (CJID) donated some media publications to the Moshood Abiola Polytechnic (MAPOLY). 

These resources were received by Dr Adeoye Odedeji, the MAPOLY Rector, who welcomed the Campus Reporter team as they commenced a four-day training of 40 students of the institution. 

Alongside the Rector, other MAPOLY representatives were Dr. Lekan Togunwa, the Head of the Mass Communication department; Dr Bola Babalola, the Director of Students’ Affairs; Mr. Yemi Ajibola, the institution’s Public Relations Officer, among others.

Representing the CJID team were Tobi Oluwatola, the Executive Director of CJID, Busola Ajibola, the Deputy Director of the Journalism Program of CJID and Iretomiwa Dele-Yusuff, the Project Officer of the Campus Reporter project.

Campus Reporter is a learning platform for student journalists, built on the principles of evidence-based ethical reporting and youth engagement initiatives on campuses across West Africa. 

Since its inception in 2017, the project has trained over 3,500 students across 34 West African institutions; the MAPOLY campus journalism training is the project’s 35th. The training will be held from Tuesday, 5 September to Friday, 8 September. 

Dr. Odedeji, while addressing the training participants and facilitators at the institution’s Skill Acquisition Centre, expressed his delight and deep appreciation for CJID’s initiative. 

He underscored the unique opportunity the students were privileged to have, highlighting that he did not enjoy such an opportunity during his early years.

He encouraged the students to make the most of the training and seize every opportunity that unfolded during the training. 

Dr Odedeji noted that the Mass Communication department of the institution has produced important individuals across the country.

“Please maximise this opportunity, highlight the points, go through them, and make something out of it. We want you to be dependent and self-reliant”, he said. 

He also noted that the institution has plans to introduce hands-on skills like carpentry and plumbing to encourage the students to build up life skills. 

Ms Ajibola appreciated the Rector for accepting the initiative. She said, “We brought research products and materials to donate to the school library. There are two packages, one for the Mass Communication department and one for the library”. 

Some of the donated resources included Gender-Based Violence Reporting handbooks and training manuals on Press Freedom.

She further stressed that the Campus Reporter project employs a Training-Internship-Mentorship (TIM) framework to equip the next generation of journalists with the skills they need to thrive in the profession and ensure sustainable media. 

The participants of the four-day training will be taught by a faculty of journalists from Premium Times, BBC, CJID and Dubawa. Some sessions include Multimedia Journalism, Investigative Journalism, Fact-Checking, Data Journalism, and Solutions Journalism.