Accountability Lab Nigeria has selected ten accountapreneurs for the 2020 cohort of their accountability incubator program involved in a variety of fields from investigative journalism and advocacy filmmaking to developing community leaders and assessing the environmental impact of extractive industries.

Honey-Ann Ndubuisi is a lawyer turned filmmaker. She believes that film is a powerful tool for advocacy and has spent the last three years building her capacity in filmmaking. Her debut film “Numb” addresses the issue of child abuse. It was screened at various film festivals including African International Film Festival (AFRIFF), Eko International Film Festival and Abuja International Film Festival. She has produced other films including “Man On the Bridge”, a documentary on domestic violence supported by the United States Embassy and Premonition. She is also an alumnus of the Integrity Icon Film Fellowship during which she was a video editor. Through the incubator, she intends to develop a project that focuses on educating people on the health dangers of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) on through the use of documentaries.

Ajibola Mujidat Oladejo is a sustainability practitioner and women’s economic empowerment advocate. She is the team lead at The Sustainability Hub, an organization that provides social and environmental sustainability education and solutions to organizations, communities and schools. She has worked with different organizations and schools in the last two years, helping them to adopt environmentally smart and socially responsive practices. The Sustainability Hub is a social enterprise that provides environmental management and social inclusion education to schools and organisations to help them incorporate sustainability into their teaching methods and value chains respectively. This is done to develop students, schools, organisations and communities with the values and motivation to take action for sustainability in their personal and professional lives.

John Oluwafemi Olla is an information scientist (M.Sc. Information Science), trained at the University of Ibadan. Currently, he provides access to quality education in the rural communities of Nigeria and encourages young people to become active in civic issues. As a multi-talented Community Based Development Expert with proven experience and vast knowledge in areas of Educational Training, Capacity development, Teens’ Mentoring, Research, Analysis and Project Management. I have organized several trainings on Freedom of Information, Tracking, Advocacy and Evidence Gathering for youths in Oyo state. The initiative he wants to develop through the incubator investigates the documentation of EIA and how this non-compliance has affected the masses as well as violation of best practices as contained in the Environmental Impact Assessment Decree No. 86 1992 of Nigeria Law. The initiative seeks to educate and determine the extent of environmental effects of extractive activities on a host communities’ health and livelihoods. The project will be carried out in the Nigerian states of Oyo, Osun and Ondo.

Hassan Nurudeen is currently the Programs and Operations Manager for Raising New Voices, a non-profit that advocates for good, inclusive governance and promotes civic education among the youth in Nigeria. The New Voices Citizen fellowship is a citizens participatory program geared towards encouraging, educating and supporting citizens in the grassroots communities advocating for local community issues. Fellows are required to identify a community challenge or issue that they are passionate about and will be working to solve during their fellowship. Issues the organization’s fellows are currently working on include access to quality education, maternal health challenges in primary health care centers, child marriage, rural access to electricity, access to water infrastructure and basic facilities, among others. Their goal is to build a pool of citizens and community leaders with the skills to demand good governance through democratic channels and in the same vein achieve the dividends of democracy for their local communities.

Believe Obafaiye is a social innovator who works constantly to create and innovate for social good. Through the incubator, she is developing an initiative called Thewatchers NG that seeks to promote access to equitable, quality, low-cost education in low-income communities. The initiative will achieve this by using technology to provide access to low-cost equitable quality education, and establishing data-driven accountability and transparency in the education sector for citizen participation in policy development and project implementation. It monitors government spending on education, improves access to information for and by citizens.

Elfredah Kevin-Alerechi is a multimedia Investigative Freelance and a Data Science Journalist, reporting for Today95.1 FM, Port Harcourt and a columnist for Climate Reporters, a West African news site that publishes both in English and French. Through the incubator, she wants to continue investigating the need for the Government to provide quality healthcare services for all, especially those in rural communities, and hold health workers accountable. As a community reporter, she visits communities to find out their challenges and report in a way that brings government and non-profit organizations’ attention to these issues. She recently embarked on an investigation on illegal payment in public hospitals, fake pharmaceutical shops and the non-availability of health workers in rural health centres. “I know after the report in reputable media organizations it will surely have a great impact on the health sectors thereby reducing the suffering of people in the rural communities as well as holding the health workers accountable,” she says.

Wilson Atumeyi is an anti-corruption activist and a communication specialist with over 5 years of experience working across diverse sectors in the development space to achieve better life outcomes for marginalised and vulnerable communities. Wilson Atumeyi is the founder of WaterWide, an initiative that tracks government spending for water and sanitation and amplifies the voices of people living in rural communities in Nigeria. Poor access to water and sanitation are linked to the transmission of diseases such as cholera, diarrhoea, dysentery, hepatitis A, typhoid, and polio. Absent, inadequate, or inappropriately managed water and sanitation services expose individuals to preventable health risks. This is particularly the case in health care facilities where both patients and staff members are placed at additional risk of infection and disease when water, sanitation, and hygiene services are lacking. Globally, 15% of patients develop an infection during a hospital stay, with the proportion much greater in low-income countries. Through the incubator, Wilson intends to expand and develop the work of WaterWide.

Ismail Auwal is an anti-corruption advocate with a passion for building tranparent, accountable institutions. He was inspired to become an innovator due to his passion for technology, which he believes should be an enabler in fighting corruption. At the age of 25, he became the Anticorruption Thematic Area Co-lead in the Kano State Open Governance partnership (OGP). He plans to mobilize and work with Community members in curbing the menace of corruption. He is among the three winners of the 2020 edition of the SDG 16 innovation challenge in Nigeria organised by Accountability Lab. Through the incubator he plans to develop an initiative aimed at reducing the prevalence of malnutrition in Kano, the state with the highest rate of child malnutrition.

Emmanuel Kaboshio Bagudu is a multimedia Journalist currently residing in Abuja. Besides holding a Bachelor of Arts (BA. Hons.) in Theatre and Performing Arts from Ahmadu Bello University Zaria, Emmanuel has over the years engaged in different advocacy initiatives using the development communications strategy. Organisations such as the Premium Times, the British Broadcasting Corporation, The Nigerian Television Authority, and many civil society organisations have benefitted from his expertise. He is among the three winners of the 2020 edition of the SDG 16 innovation challenge in Nigeria organised by Accountability Lab. Through the incubator he intends to grow his initiative the Accountability Reporting Centre (ARC), an application software meant to enhance citizens participation in the conversation about the future of Nigeria as well as grant access to justice for the poor. ARC also acts a platform for exposing fake news and countering “brown envelope journalism” which has been used over the years to circumvent Accountability.

Arole Mariam Odunayo is a legal practitioner with two years of post-call experience. She is also the Director of Programme for the Pro bono Centre, an emerging public interest litigation initiative. The initiative provides pro bono  legal services to indigent, disadvantaged and marginalised residents of Lagos State, particularly victims of gender-based violence, child abuse and unfair dismissals. Through the incubator, she also intends to create an Accountable Endowment fund to cover the out of pocket expenses of pro bono lawyers  such as transport, cost of filling, fines and court costs.

KatieFuhs