How I did the award-winning story on the homeless people at River Niger – Wakili

How did you feel winning the maiden NUJ award of Journalist of the Year? I felt honoured and elated, almost indescribably. In fact, since I won the award, I have received more than 100 congratulatory messages from different people. I was thrilled by the eagerness with which reporters sought to interview me immediately after I […]

How did you feel winning the maiden NUJ award of Journalist of the Year?

I felt honoured and elated, almost indescribably. In fact, since I won the award, I have received more than 100 congratulatory messages from different people. I was thrilled by the eagerness with which reporters sought to interview me immediately after I received the award. I give God the glory. Also, I am indebted to Media Trust Limited, publishers of Trust newspapers, for giving me the opportunity to develop my career.  This award is not for me alone. I see it as an honour done the management and the entire staff of Media Trust.

 

Did you ever expect to win such an award when you started your journalism career?

That wasn’t my expectation, but I never foreclosed the possibility of winning an award. The day the story was published, one of the media aides to Governor Ibrahim Idris of Kogi State predicted to me that it was an award-winning story.  About a month later, I won the Media Trust’s Editor-in-Chief award of the Feature Story of the month with the story. Last Tuesday, the same story brought this maiden NUJ award of Journalist of the Year.

 

How did you come about the story idea of the homeless under the Niger bridge in Lokoja?

I stumbled on the story! Sometime in March this year, Media Trust Limited invited its outstation correspondents for a workshop in Abuja. On my way there, the vehicle conveying me and other passengers developed a fault on the Niger River bridge at Jamata village, about 20 kilometres from Lokoja metropolis. I heard a baby cry under the bridge. I was curious to know what was going on there. My co-passengers and the driver asked what my concern was about the matter, but I was unyielding. Beneath the bridge, I discovered that human beings were residing there. I was fascinated by what I saw there and I decided to make a story out of it.

What were some of the things that struck you while doing the story?

The fact that these human beings residing under the bridge suffer such neglect and deprivation, especially in a democratic nation like ours, caught my attention. One woman proclaimed she gave birth to her child there. Some of them said they also make their living from there. There were basket weavers, farmers and fishermen among them. Most strikingly, they were able to live together despite their different ethnic backgrounds.

How did you do the story?

I interviewed and snapped the Niger Bridge inhabitants. They claimed to be victims of the general problem of homelessness staring millions of poverty-stricken Nigerians in the face. I also sought the views of environmentalists, psychologists, the state government and other stakeholders on the situation. I told our Features Editor, Mr. Tadaferua Ujorha, that I had a story to write. Not only did he permit me to go ahead, but he also guided me on how to go about it. He emphasized what he called “a powerful narration with clear and sharp pictures”. Rather than discourage you from doing a story, he will guide and instruct you on how to do it.

What was the response of the people and the Kogi State government when the story was published?

Many people were optimistic that the story will draw government’s attention to the plight of the common man more than ever before. The Majority Leader of the state House of Assembly, Barrister Adamu Muhammed, said he enjoyed reading the story. For the media aides of the governor, it was simply “an interesting human-interest story”. One of the commissioners in the state said he suspected I was sponsored to do the story to discredit the government. “Instead of reporting areas where our administration has done well, you are looking for our loopholes. Do you know I could report you to your MD?”, he had threatened. But the same commissioner too has congratulated me on the award.

Kogi State is seen as a backward state where there are no stories to write. How do you get your stories?

I believe there are stories everywhere. No one can exhaust the stories in Kogi State. I don’t wait for news to break. That the state is backward, as some have proclaimed, is a story itself. Some factors must have been responsible for its purported backwardness. I monitor the effects of government’s programmes and activities on the people of the state. I pay attention to the people. On a daily basis, I go to newspaper stands to observe people’s reactions to issues affecting them in the state. More often than not, I generate my own story ideas.  I learnt this from the three editors of the Sunday Trust where I have worked for three-and-a-half years. They are Mallams Ahmed Shekarau, Habeeb Pindiga and Theophilus Abbah. They will tell you journalism is all about thinking. Before you go to the editorial meeting every Tuesday, you must be prepared to give them story ideas. You dare not tell them you have no story idea.

What is the next big story you want to do?

I look forward to doing any other stories that would make a tremendous impact on the common man in the society.