
By SADIQ ABUBAKAR, Maiduguri –
The Allamin Foundation for Peace and Development, a Maiduguri-based NGO, organized a one-day training for media forum members on survivor-centered advocacy for transitional justice in Borno State.
The event took place at the Hajja Mangal Memorial Banquet Hall in Maiduguri on Saturday.
In her welcome address, the Founder and Executive Director of the Allamin Foundation, Hajiya Hamsatu Allamin, emphasized the importance of grooming journalists to understand the needs and challenges of survivors of conflicts.

She highlighted the objectives of the training, which included identifying areas of need, mobilizing support, and advocating for transitional justice and criminal justice for offenders.
Professor Abubakar Muazu, a University Don and Director of the Center for Good Governance at the University of Maiduguri (UNIMAID), facilitated the training.

He explained that the workshop aimed to equip working journalists with the skills to design and implement effective advocacy campaigns, focusing on the complexities of conflict reporting, media advocacy, criminology, transitional justice, human rights, and humanitarian and developmental
Professor Muazu emphasized the importance of media practitioners understanding survivor-centered approaches to transitional justice in conflict-affected areas.
He highlighted the need for media to shift focus from conflict to reconciliation and forgiveness, and to prioritize the voices and visibility of survivors. Muazu also stressed the importance of media coordination in building effective advocacy campaigns and identifying action plans for survivors-centered media advocacy.
The facilitator explained that media advocacy has been a long-standing tradition in the field, with various forms and dimensions, including journalism, ethical journalism, and solutions journalism.
He urged journalists to have a broad mind when reporting on survivors of conflict, considering the various categories of victims, such as those directly and indirectly affected, illegally detained, brutalized, traumatized, and raped.

Also, the Head of Department, Center for Peace and Conflict Studies, UNIMAID, Professor Nuhu Gapsiso elaborated on the media’s role, importance, principles of reporting, and challenges in reporting survivors-centered victims of conflict in transitional justice.
He emphasized the need for media to showcase relevance, ethical, and professional approaches, highlighting vulnerability, solutions, needs, and problems to mobilize support.
The workshop highlights included PowerPoint presentations, group work, questions and answers, and a group photograph.”