Justina Asishana is a fellow of the Female Reporters Leadership Programme (FRLP) 2019 cohort.
Justina is a Dubawa Fact-Check Fellow, a 2019 ONE Champion and an ICFJ Safety Fellow.
She is an award-winning Data and Investigative Journalist who works for The Nation Newspaper in Nigeria as the Niger State Correspondent.
Although her main duty is being the Niger State correspondent, Justina explored her skills as an investigative and data journalist to tell stories of the voiceless and underrepresented in the country.
Justina reports from one of the crisis regions in Nigeria and has told uncommon and told stories about the crisis, the people and the way of life of the people.
Justina tries to look at various ways of telling gender-balanced, human interest and investigative stories using a solutions lens with an infusion of data in her reportage.
Justina has done several investigative reports. Justina is also the ICFJ 2018 and 2020 Safety Fellow, an Alumnus of the School of Media and Communication Pan-Atlantic University and a Fellow of the African Science Literacy Network.
Justina was the 2021 Africa Media Development Foundation (AMDF) Journalist of the Year, the IJNET Journalist of the Month in May 2021, she was the runner up of the Feature Writer of the Year and
Business Journalist of the Year in the 2021 Nigeria Media Merit Awards (NMMA). She held the first Niger Women in the Media Summit in the region.
Justina has been at the forefront of reporting insecurity and issues affecting Internally Displaced Persons and communities affected by the insecurity.
She has reported stories of mass abductions by
bandits, the challenges faced by the IDPs and other reports on security and, humanitarian crises.
Her investigative reports are usually a point of reference for Legislators and the government and as such, some of the issues reflected in the reports have been used as advocacy tools to get the change to the
affected people.
When asked about her life and career after the FRLP, she has this to say: “The Report Women experience was a starter and eye opener for me.
“I will say it birthed who I am currently in journalism practice. The mentoring, skills, and tools I learnt during the fellowship still serve as a guide to me to this day.
“It helped me kick-start my media initiative which is the Media Mentors Network. Life after the fellowship has been all good.
“The Network provided by the fellowship has been heaven sent as I can say I have a Network that I can run to any time for advice, suggestions and even help and the Network has proved to be resourceful.
“The Wole Soyinka Centre For Investigative Journalism (WSCIJ) has also opened some opportunities to undertake some investigations and also on some programmes conducted by the Media Mentors Network.
“Above all, life after the fellowship has been very eventful and has pushed me into undertaking things that I ordinarily would not undertake. I no longer shy away from responsibilities.”
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