In the Orbit of Kano: My PRNigeria Fellowship Story By Fatima Boyi Mahuta

In the Orbit of Kano: My PRNigeria Fellowship Story By Fatima Boyi Mahuta

I have come to believe that Kano now has a habit of calling me back. No matter how many times I pack my bags and say goodbye to the city, something always brings me right back.

This time, it was the PRNigeria Young Communication Fellowship. Coming from Katsina, Kano is always very busy for me. There was traffic everywhere, with tricycles weaving through and markets spilling onto the roads. By the time I finally reached the PRNigeria residence, I was completely worn out from the road. I signed in at the entrance and was led to the room I was going to share with my roommate.

As we unpacked and settled on Sunday evening, there was a mix of nervous energy and excitement about what the next two weeks would bring. We were ten fellows in total, and we were all ready for whatever lay ahead.

During the first week, there was no gentle warm-up at all. We were thrown straight into the deep end, starting with the core fundamentals of communication, news gathering, and reporting. We broke down public relations, crisis management, and event management, with a hands on experience later on in managing an event.

Right on the first day, before we could even catch our breath, we were asked to write an article on the kind of leaders we want. It’s a question that sounds simple until you sit down to answer it, and I spent more time on it than I’d like to admit.

Learning under Alhaji Yushau Shuaib and other facilitators was great. They balanced hard work with interactive games that broke the ice and made it all the more interesting. They spoke to us about the standards expected of those who set out to practice journalism and PR. We read Ahmed Balarabe Sa’id’s Aren’t We All PR People? and analyzed Fisayo Soyombo’s investigative work on the Libyan route.

We also covered solution-driven crisis reporting, developmental journalism, conflict-sensitive reporting, worked with data, learning open-source intelligence (OSINT) and how to track budgets. Towards the end of the week, we visited Fasaha Radio, CC Hub, and SolaceBase to see real newsrooms in action. By Friday, we had worked so hard that it felt like we had already been there for a month.

The second week pushed us even further into practical work. We had public speaking classes and reviewed Alhaji Yushau Shuaib’s book on the use of AI in crisis communication. We practiced using artificial intelligence tools for storytelling, with a focus on ethical usage. We also went through MNI vs. MNIPR, a memoir by Alhaji Yushau Shuaib. We learned more about misinformation, disinformation, fact-checking, solutions journalism, and strategic communication with different facilitators, all of whom were excellent in their delivery.

Looking back, time played a funny trick on us. When we were in the middle of all the heavy assignments, early mornings and late nights, two weeks felt so long. But when it was time to pack up and leave, it felt like we had arrived only a day before.

I still can’t decide which part of the fellowship I loved more. Was it the late nights, when we would sit together, talk, laugh, go over what we had learned, and share bits of our own lives? Or was it the hospitality? The food, accommodation, and the way we were looked after from the moment we arrived. Perhaps it’s both.

In the end, I left Kano with more than I came with: new knowledge, new people, and a clearer idea of the stories I want to tell. And if Kano has its way, which it usually does, I know I’ll definitely be back.

Fatima Boyi Mahuta, a PRNigeria Fellow writes from Katsina