‘Counting Incidents Alone Does Not Make Communities Safer’: Journalists Must Rethink Public Safety Reporting In Nigeria
The Oasis Reporters
February 3, 2026
By Paul Cletus Bello, Abuja
For years, almost on a daily basis, Nigerians have woken up to the same kind of news headlines: how many were killed, where violence erupted, and which community was attacked next. The numbers change, the locations shift, but the story structure remains stubbornly familiar.
At a two-day capacity-building workshop held in Abuja from January 27–28, 2026, journalists were challenged to confront a hard truth: counting incidents alone does not make communities safer.
The training, organized by the Centre for Journalism, Innovation and Development (CJID) under its People-Centred Public Safety Project, brought together journalists reporting on conflict, insecurity, and governance from the Federal Capital Territory, Benue, and Bayelsa States.
Supported by the Open Society Foundations (OSF), the programme urged reporters to move beyond episodic coverage toward journalism that examines systems, accountability, and human impact.
SHIFTING THE LENS FROM EVENTS TO SYSTEMS
Speaking at the workshop, Akintunde Babatunde, Executive Director of CJID, said the goal of the training was not simply to improve writing skills of journalists but to fundamentally rethink how public safety is framed in Nigeria’s media.
“Dominant security narratives often obscure systemic failures, dehumanise victims, and fail to influence the policies that shape safety outcomes at the community level,” he noted.
The training asked participants to interrogate what happens before, during, and after violent incidents.
Who received early warnings?
How quickly did institutions respond?
What gaps allowed preventable harm to escalate?
These questions, facilitators argued, are often missing from breaking news coverage, yet they sit at the heart of Nigeria’s public safety crisis.
COMMUNITY POLICING AND THE GAPS IN PRACTICE
A major focus of the sessions was community policing, as provided for in the Nigeria Police Act of 2020. Journalists examined the law’s promise alongside the reality on the ground.
Through historical analysis, participants traced the colonial roots of policing in Nigeria and how its elite orientation continues to shape public trust, response times, and accountability. Persistent challenges such as underfunding, weak training, and limited oversight were linked to the rise of informal and community-driven safety mechanisms across the country.
Rather than treating these mechanisms as footnotes or curiosities, journalists were encouraged to investigate them seriously. Why do communities resort to self-help? What institutional failures push citizens to protect themselves? And what risks arise when the state is absent?
BEYOND FEAR-BASED REPORTING
Facilitators repeatedly cautioned against the use of borrowed language, sensational framing, and stereotypes that amplify fear without adding clarity. Participants were urged to ground their reporting in lived realities, historical context, and verified data, rather than relying on official statements or viral narratives alone.
Emerging patterns of violence were also unpacked. These included geographic diffusion, repeated attacks driven by delayed state response, retaliation cycles, and security vacuums. Many of these trends, facilitators noted, are invisible in headline-driven coverage that treats each incident as isolated.
At the same time, journalists were reminded that public safety reporting does not mean denying violence. It means telling the full story. One that includes harm, resilience, and the everyday decisions communities make to survive.
JOURNALISM THAT INFLUENCES POLICY, NOT JUST PUBLIC EMOTION
One of the most practical sessions of the training was the Story Lab, Ideation, and Pitch, where participants were guided to develop investigations rooted in evidence, ethics, and accountability.
Rather than asking “what happened,” journalists were encouraged to ask “what failed?”
What systems broke down?
Which institutions did not act?
Who bears responsibility when early warnings go unanswered?
The emphasis was clear: journalism should not stop at public sympathy. It should shape public records, inform budgets, influence laws, and force institutional reflection.
Participants were introduced to tools for tracking response timelines, interrogating official mandates, analyzing conflict data, and centering civilian voices without exploitation. The goal was reporting that policymakers cannot easily dismiss.
RECLAIMING JOURNALISM’S PUBLIC SAFETY ROLE
As the workshop concluded, a recurring message lingered in the room: public safety is not only about guns, uniforms, or emergency sirens. It is about trust, response, preparedness, and accountability.
By the end of the two days, participants left with clearer frameworks to interrogate security failures, identify patterns behind violence, and elevate community-defined notions of safety. More importantly, they left with a renewed sense of responsibility.
In a country where insecurity has become routine news, CJID’s message was firm: journalism must resist routine storytelling.
WHY THIS MATTERS NOW
Nigeria’s public safety challenges are complex, but silence, shortcuts, and surface-level reporting make them worse. When journalism focuses only on death tolls, it risks normalising loss and absolving systems of scrutiny.
This training represents a deliberate effort to change that trajectory.
The call is not for louder headlines, but for deeper reporting.
Not faster updates, but better questions.
Not fear-driven narratives, but people-centred accountability journalism.
As communities continue to demand safety, dignity, and responsive governance, the role of journalists has never been more critical.
And as this workshop made clear, the future of public safety reporting in Nigeria may depend less on how quickly stories are published, and more on how courageously they are investigated.
