By Muheeb Mashood
Campus journalists at Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto, have participated in the Dubawa Week, sponsored by the Centre for Journalism Innovation and Development (CJID).
Running from Monday, October 23 to Friday 27, the program brings together participants from various states across Nigeria to participate in intensive training from journalism experts before engaging in a Twitter Space event on Monday, October 23, and organizing school outreach activities.
Dubawa Week for Truth Project is a dedicated initiative, aimed at countering misinformation and promoting media literacy among students in tertiary institutions, and primary, and secondary schools.
Zariat Ayoade, a 300-level student of Literature-in-English, was fortunate to be among the shortlisted participants for the project. She organized a school outreach on Thursday, October 27, within the UDUS campus.
According to her, she mobilized and educated students from her department on media literacy and how to verify the authenticity of information before disseminating it to the public through various channels.
Zariat initially targeted Usmanu Danfodiyo Secondary School for her outreach. However, her plans had to be adjusted when the pupils were unavailable due to a midterm break and Continuous Assessment exercise (CA Test). With limited time at her disposal—selecting another secondary school would have been more formal and time-consuming. Thus she gathered UDUS students for her training.
Speaking about the success of her outreach, Zariat said, “I had my school outreach for Dubawa Week for Truth at UDUS Convocation Theatre with my coursemates on Thursday. The outreach was successful because we had an interactive session with training full of questions and answers.”
“I have always loved to engage in public speaking, so anytime I am opportune to speak to people, I derive self fulfillment in it, more like, I am living my dreams. This is what I want to do and I am doing it currently.”
Expressing her enthusiasm for the opportunity, she added, “The fact that we were given the privilege to go out and enlighten people is a big deal for me.”
Another participant in the project is Habeeb Olokooba, a 200-level Law student, who conducted his school outreach at Sokoto Comprehensive Secondary School.
He stressed that he was heartily received and appreciated by secondary school teachers and staff.
Expressing satisfaction with the program’s impact, he said, “I trained the secondary school pupils on how to fact-check claims and verify the genuineness of any news they come across.”
Speaking with The News Digest Press, Hussain Wahab, a participant and 400-level Law student, mentioned that the pupils of Asma’u Girls Islamic College, Sokoto, were pleased to be educated about media literacy and the dangers of fake news.
He expressed his pleasure in contributing to the creation of a more informed and responsible society through the project.
“It’s a pleasure to take part in achieving a sane and saintly society, devoid of confirmation bias and other forms of fake news through a project organised by Dubawa under CJID,” he said.