CJID’s Campus Reporters Selected For African Liberty Writing Fellowship

Phillip Anjorin, Precious Ewuji and Faith Omoniyi have emerged as part of the latest cohort for the African Students for Liberty 2022/2023 Writing Fellowship.

The fellowship is designed to empower young Africans who are passionate about presenting their opinions on academia, media, and policy-making-related careers in the continent.

The African Liberty Writing Fellowship was established to train young individuals in writing pieces on the freedom and peace of Africans while exposing their work to an international audience.

In the fellowship, which will run for 12 months, the fellows will produce op-eds to represent the voice of young Africans pushing for maximum peace and freedom in the continent.

Out of about 1,500 Africans who applied for the 2022 cohort, 60 people were selected for a 5-week online course on opinion writing with assessments for the first round which saw 30 make the final list. 

Speaking with Campus Reporter, Anjorin who is currently the Vice President (Editorial) of the NUCJ AAUA Chapter, explained that the 5-week training was challenging but interesting.

“The training lasted for 5 weeks. Funnily, each week was clashing with one journalistic activity or another for me. When we got to week 4, I nearly wanted to forfeit it because I was on the field as an election observer for the Ekiti guber poll. After getting to my hotel from the INEC office that night, I got to work immediately just to catch up with the deadline,” Anjorin recounted. 

Omoniyi, the Creative Designer of UCJ FUOYE, said that the 5-week training was very demanding and tedious. 

“What made it hard was that we were to summarise our first 4-weeks assessments in 150 words each. You must be careful of the editing so you don’t lose important keywords. The last week of the training was also tough, as we were told to pick publications and write our opinion pieces on them. I’m glad I made it through,” Omoniyi added. 

Ewuji, UCJ FUOYE’s General Secretary, revealed that she got the mail very late and had already lost hope of participating in the 5-week training. She, however, said she was able to meet up with her colleagues even after the first week’s assessment. 

“I am also excited about what I’ll be doing during the fellowship — writing good analysis in the policy, liberty, and academic sector. Of course, I look forward to publishing my work on international platforms too with editorial support,” she concluded.

Anjorin agreed that the training was a good foundation for him to boost his skills as an op-ed writer and he is excited about the journey ahead. 

He said “One big takeaway from the training is the knowledge I got from the facilitators. The videos and recommended articles are insightful. Going forward, the training is a good foundation for me to influence public thoughts through op-eds and it’s a challenge I’m excited to face.”

Other members selected for the Writing Fellowship are Chiamaka Adinnu, Kene Obiezu, Arinze Nwafor, Ahmad Adedimeji Amobi, David Adetula, Claire Mom, Moses Wekesa Wanjala, Linda Ngari, Mahmoud Elmakkawe, Muyiwa Adekojede, Michael Ifenaike, Oluwatobi Ojo, Benedict Ouma M and Adebola Arojojoye.

The rest are Stephen Kafeero, Etariemi Koboju, Barkhad Hassan, Olakunle Mohammed, Ridhwan Adetutu, Abdullahi, Isiaka Ubaji, Abimbola Emmanuel, Oluwabukola Adimula, Tinashe Sithole, Ruth Ketty Kisuza, Polycarp Ondieki, and Zoe Mebude-Steves.