By Edward Nnachi,
Ebonyi State, Southeast-Nigeria
The NNNGOs Journalism Fellowship 2026 for a 10-month journey into the civic space to report human rights and strengthen the nation’s shrinking democratic ecosystem. The three Journalists namely Edward Nnachi of PUNCH Newspapers; Nkechi Macaulay of Radio Nigeria; and The Gazette News Nigeria’s Vangawa Bolgent represent the fellowship’s thematic areas of South-East, South-East and Northeast.
The Fellowship is an initiative of the Nigeria Network of NGOs aimed at raising awareness that the survival of Nigeria’s democratic and civic space depends on the quality, courage, and versatility of its journalism.
The organizers of the fellowship — the Nigeria Network of NGOs (NNNGOs) said after a thorough selection process, the three fellows were selected from a pool of 368 applications received for the first phase of the fellowship programme.
The fellowship, which is for a period of 10 months, will from March 2026 through December 2026, and will have the fellows immersed in professional mentorship, periodic capacity building, and data sharing, with post- fellowship activities following afterwards.
At a recent four-day training to herald the exercise, the Executive Director of the Nigeria Network of NGOs, Oyebisi Babatunde Oluseyi, said the fellowship was a clarion call to Nigerian journalists to strengthen the nation’s democracy and civic space through quality and versatile reportage.
“The fellowship bridges two worlds that have operated in parallel for too long, civic space and development impact, and equips journalists to report across both with equal rigour and equal editorial ambition.
“At the institutional level, we are stepping into a space that desperately needs a credible, locally-rooted convener. For decades, the relationship between Nigerian journalists and civil society organisations has been one of parallel existence rather than genuine partnership. Journalists report on NGOs when there is a scandal; NGOs engage journalists when they need coverage for a campaign. What neither side has done effectively is recognize that an attack on civic space is inherently an attack on press freedom, and vice versa.
“In concrete terms, it means the journalists are about to become some of the best-equipped journalists in Nigeria, not because of any single tool or technique, but because they will be operating at the intersection of civic space expertise, development data literacy, digital verification capability, multi-format production skill, and institutional safety infrastructure. That combination does not currently exist in any other fellowship programme in the country.
“Central to this fellowship is a simple but urgent conviction that the survival of Nigeria’s democratic space depends on the quality, courage, and versatility of its journalism. All over the world we are living through what evidence describes as an unprecedented contraction of civic freedoms. Laws that were sold to the public as tools for combating cybercrime particularly the Cybercrime Act — is now routinely deployed to detain journalists.
“At the same time the information environment continues to be polluted with deepfakes, bot networks, and coordinated smear campaigns against both civil society and development actors. Over 400 million Africans are now active on social media, and Nigeria ranks among the highest globally in daily hours spent consuming information on digital platforms. The battlefield for truth has shifted decisively online, and our journalists must be equipped to act and win on that terrain.
“So, the crux of this fellowship is to respond to that reality — not with a workshop that ends after four days, but with structured intervention that transforms how three exceptional mid-career journalists investigate, report, and tell stories. We are not training reporters to write one more article. We are building a cohort that can produce journalistic materials that humanize the impact of nonprofits and development interventions; opinion pieces that shape policy discourse; podcasts that give voice to communities the mainstream media overlooks; and data-driven development reports that make the invisible visible.
Commenting on the fellowship, this writer who — is one of the Fellows said it underscores the needed synergy between the NNNGOs, its partners and the media to continually strengthen the democratic and civic space in a country like ours.
“I feel honoured to have been selected by the NNNGOs to participate in this fellowship. It both represents and underscores the needed synergy to fortify and strengthen the democratic ecosystem in Nigeria,” he said.
On his part, the Editor of The Gazette News Nigeria, Vangawa Bolgent commended the NNNGOs and its partners for organizing an auspicious and timely Fellowship.
This kind of collaboration between the CSOs, and the media will deepen the ties between media entities, civil society organizations, and legal defenders (such as through joint initiatives with groups like Media Defence) to protect civic space, enhance freedom of expression, and support legal aid for journalists.
Edward Nnachi,
An Investigative and Development Journalist
@ PUNCH Newspapers, writes from the Southeast – Nigeria
nnachieddyugbor@gmail.com
08028535702