CISLAC,Transparency International in conjunction with Netherlands Foreign Affairs Ministry trains 23 Journalists on defense Anti-corruption reportage in Adamawa
From Umar Dankano,Yola.
The Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC) in conjunction with Transparency International Defence Project and Ministry of Foreign Affairs,Netherlands have organised a one day capacity building workshop for 23 journalists on Defence Anti-corruption reportage in Adamawa state.
Delivering his welcome remarks at the training in Yola Thursday,Executive Director of the Centre (CISLAC), Auwal Ibrahim Musa Rafsanjani said the media workshop is designed to enhance knowledge of practicing journalists on probable areas within the defence and security sector budgetary process and expenditure.
Represented by a board of trustees member of the Centre,Hajiya Hadizah Kangiwa,Rafsanjani pointed out that the training will exposed the participants a better understand of areas of possible corruption risk and to flag same evidence based civilian oversight in order to minimise corrupt practices in the defence and security architecture.
Rafsanjani stated that for effective investigative journalism to stride,practitioners must begin to question the actions and inactions of government and to demand accountability for budgetary allocations meant for defence and security.
He noted that it is time that the quest for reform in our defence and security institutions transcend from mere words to a all inclusive participation in the formulation and effective implementation of policies for the actualisation of the transformation that citizens desire in our defence and security sector.
He added that CISLAC and its partners will continue to push for greater accountability and integrity in our defence and security sector because it will require a multi-stakeholders engagement in line with the principles of democratic and participatory governance.
“We will not relent in advocating for an accountable defence and security expenditure,classification and declassification of information for public consumption,increased integrity for personnel and uninterrupted civilian oversight of the sector in line with International best practices.
“We look forward to a very robust commitments of actions that will change the narrative for the better as we urged all of you (participants) to make good use of the knowledge driven from the training”.Rafsanjani said.
Our correspondent reported that the training had two presentation sessions on An assessment of previous and current Defence and Security Budgets to monitor,Track and Identity Discrepancies and Extra Budgetary by Tolutope Agunloye.
While the second presentation on An analysis of the Government Defence Integrity Index (GDI) to identify areas of possible corruption risk within the Defence and Security sector by Salaudeen Hashim