journalists-from-nigeria

"From my experience, I got to know that it is better to be jailed than to be put in detention. While in jail, you can have access to visitors but such would never happen if you are in detention. They will take you away in the night and you will not know where you are being taken to."

"Anywhere in the world where ethnicity has become an issue, it becomes destructive."

"Lagos is the most liberal state in this country."

"Journalism is adventurous and educative. It makes one to learn every day. Journalism gives exposure."

"Sports is an invaluable tool for societal development."

"When you grow up in a place where a woman's voice is not even valid, everything reinforces that idea that we're not good enough."

"I have since acknowledged that standing where I am today, access to quality medical care is indeed a privilege for there are many would-be mothers for whom timely access to medical care is a luxury indeed and pregnancy itself is death knell. It ought not to be this way."

"[My mother] is a lovely person, a beautiful soul, a really joyous heart and I am hoping that I will be like her. She set a bar. She showed me what it is like to live on a day to day basis."

"The gods go where we go,the palm fronds are props. We will call our gods with whatever is native to this planet, and they will answer. We know from experience that sometimes, they answer a little too well."

"If only Amadioha would bless us again. Bless us with the rainmaking gift of our fathers."

"...The current scientific consensus is that Arid’s desertification and the extinction of most of its lifeforms were likely due to a rare and destructive shift in its solar orbit, which triggered a series of dual solar hyper-flares."

"The abundance of organic matter is why the planet has so much fossil fuel deposits and a rich soil."

"Geological records show that millions of years ago, Arid was a green planet and there were only a few deserts in her solar overlap zone."

"Getting fresh palm fronds on this planet is rare, and even if we manage to find one, will the rain gods hear our chants at all, despite being light years away from home?"

"All we need is some water and this whole planet would be one big, beautiful garden."

"Binta fiddled with her fingers. ‘My husband, God rest his soul, was killed by some Christian boys he employed. They were people he called by their birth names and did business with. My sister’s husband and her son were hacked to death by their Christian neighbours because a woman urged them to.”"

"He always smiled at their jokes. But, that morning, he was not smiling. His face, made fierce by war paint, glistened with sweat and odium as he raised his machete and brought it down. Bright, red blood, warm and sticky, splashed across Faiza’s face and dotted, in a fine spray, the shell-pink nightdress that her father had bought her."

"The Nigerian press won its own freedom without relying on the courts or enjoying their cooperation. Our freedom has been won at very high cost. We value it and fight to keep it every day."

"What I saw in the days of incarceration is a long story but to me what is important are the positive things that came out of it...I now appreciate life more fully. I have learned the true meaning of freedom. I value it and will fight for it both for myself and others."

"We in the independent press who have borne the brunt of the onslaught are in a state of physical and financial exhaustion. Repression has caused us to retreat into stone-age operations so that publishing now amounts to miracle-working."

"The information support of IFEX has really helped press freedom NGOs around the world to lift advocacy work to new heights so that there was pressure everywhere Abacha’s government reared its head...Without the work of groups like CCPJ, the tyrannical grip on Nigeria would have been tighter. The widespread negative publicity and the groundswell of consciousness it raised neutralized the millions of dollars they spent laundering the image of a sick regime."

"The Nigerian press, the human rights groups and the few vocal individuals and politicians have been alone in the war on the home-front and they have been clobbered by the massive force of repression. While they remain willing to fight on, they need the power of the people behind them for the battle they fight is for the true emancipation of the people. A man who cannot speak out, cannot express his opinion in his own land is not free. Freedom, total freedom should be the goal of every Nigerian now."

"Senator Anyanwu has no moral justification to run down Governor Rochas Okorocha, whose achievements in less than eight years have surpassed the achievements of all those who had governed the State before him put together”."

"Boko Haram is a curse to humanity and all Nigerians at all levels should reject it in its entirety, knowing fully well that it is an issue that does not affect only the Chibok girls but affects the entire Nigerians."

"The fact that this bad precedent has been repeated by a government that espouses respect for human rights is dangerous. What it implies is a deepening belief among the military that journalists can write a coup."

"Your life journey will take you on many different paths but you will end up where you are supposed to in the end. Trust the process. Pray always and don’t lose your humanity or compromise who you are in a bid to get to the top."

"You and I, we have a role to play in that. We’re the ones who share the content. We’re the ones who share the stories online. In this day and age, we’re the publishers. And we have responsibilities. In my job as a journalist, I check and verify. I trust my gusts but I ask tough questions. Why is this person telling me this story? What do they have to gain by sharing this information? Do they have a hidden agenda? I really believe we must all begin to ask tougher questions of information we discover online. Research shows that some of us don’t even read beyond headlines but we share stories."

"What if we stop taking information that we discover as face value? What if we stop to think about the consequence of the information that we pass on and its potential to incite violence or hatred? What if we stop to think about the real-life consequences of the information that we share?"

"Every journalist has a story that defines them. For me, it’s one of the stories I would find very hard to let go as long as the girls are in Boko Haram captivity."

"The Chibok girls are a symbol; a symbol of the women; of all the girls that have been stolen by Boko Haram."

"Sitting in a developed country and complaining about Nigeria is not really going to make things happen. I have to be here do what I can, to help it develop, I feel my role is to highlight the story that needs to be told; shed light on things that needs to be exposed. These are things that drive me."

"Parents have their own timeline for your life. You must create and embrace yours and BE HAPPY with your choices."

"People share things innocently believing that it is true but that is how fake news is spread, through inattention and lack of verifying. Check that it is from a credible news source before sharing something online."

"My role is to say, there are problem here like everywhere in the world, we need to show a different tide, and we need to show people who are making impact, people who are making great things here."

"The sadness of an unhappy marriage and home seeps into your soul. It is crushing and turns you into a shell of who you are."

"We want to engage with the audience where they are, on mobile, on social, and also for those who are not connected online, on television. So it’s a multi-faceted, multi-platform approach using digital storytelling tools to tell African stories in a new way."

"We are a news network and we report the news as it happens. We must tell the stories we find."

"Practice your craft daily. Watch those you admire, follow their steps, and emulate them. But you must start. Create your own opportunities."

"Nigerian women rock! The can-do spirit and general tenacity in the face of adversity is something to be admired. From the market woman selling her wares to the women at the height of their careers, I am full of admiration of how Nigerian women manage to make things happen, sometimes with very little."

"I came to Nigeria determined to make the most of an amazing career opportunity in a place that is home in my heart. You have to roll with the punches."

"There’s something about this place that just grabs you and sucks you in. The energy is off the charts and I think that is what attracts people here."

"In the Uk, people wear jeans and top, sometimes, no make up, and off they go. But here, everybody pays attention to what you wear and how you look. Here, people take pride in how they dress. Here, it is dress how you want to be addressed but in the UK there is nothing like that."

"Even if you don’t feel like you belong, you have to keep going. Don’t let the feeling of insecurity hold you back."

"Some men have funny ideas of how you should act on a date."

"There’s no sliding scale of equality. We are all humans and deserve the same level of humanity."

"As a woman, you can’t limit yourself, the ages of limitations are definitely gone so, do it."

"Everything is about the mindset, I find. I choose to remain positive, even in the face of challenges. It’s not easy but it’s an attitude I find gets me through tough times."

"Do we have politics in Nigeria? Politics everywhere is based on party politics. I work with ideologists but we don’t have political ideologists in Nigeria. Those who find their way into power don’t have what it takes to run the country. I work with the greatest good for the greatest number but I don’t see that here."

"I am not dogmatic about anything. I go with the flow. I flow with the tide. And I accept what comes my way. My husband was chosen for me and I called him my ‘Angel Gabriel’. He was a marvelous man who saw the talent I didn’t see and encouraged me to blossom in the arts. He had played his part. If I was meant to marry after his demise another man would have come into my life. And if the man didn’t show up it meant that he wasn’t meant for me. That is how I live my life. My life has been ordered, orchestrated, and going smoothly. I have not lost anything, so I am blessed."

"I like people to remember me for being consistent, a woman of integrity and honour."