Meet 2025 AMDF Journalist Of The Year 1st Runner- up (Online Category) NANJI NANDANG

Citation: Nanji Nandang holds a B.Sc. in Mass Communication from Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, and a Diploma in TV Journalism.
She is an investigative journalist responsible for reporting and writing original and consequential investigative stories for the International Centre for Investigative Reporting (ICIR).
Nanji has served as Correspondent for various media organisations and as a Fellow of African Women in Media, Minority Africa, and Communities in Limbo.
She was also a producer and former anchor of the weekly radio show Silenced Voices, which focused on amplifying the voices of survivors of gender-based violence and was featured on Voice of America and Al-Jazeera in 2021.
What makes Nanji Nandang proudly surface today is her story titled “These Women Are Claiming Their Rights to Own Land.”
The story is about a group of women in Plateau State challenging cultural barriers that restrict women’s access to land ownership, rental, and negotiation.
The reporter was prompted by the pathetic situation of a 28-year-old woman whose life took a devastating turn when her husband died, leaving her with five children and pregnant with the sixth.
His passing resulted in the loss of both her home and farmland due to cultural restrictions.
However, her life changed when she met 19 other women facing similar struggles and formed a farmers’ cooperative, collectively engaging in farming services for others who compensated them with produce or money.
Through relentless efforts, they submitted a grant application to the Netherlands’ Ministry for Foreign Affairs through an organisation, Voice Global, and won two grants.
The support enabled the group to demand civic participation, access resources, social services, and employment opportunities.
The women were trained and empowered by the NGO to advocate for their rights to own land, which not only gave them a voice but also the power to resist cultural norms that limited them.
Today, women are no longer second-class citizens, as they now have the right to own land and have secured a female representative on the traditional council of the area.
The women’s cooperative, boasting over 50 members, has continued to transform lives, including those of the widow’s children, who were trained, graduated, and are thriving in their respective careers.
Nandang, from the foregoing, this comprehensive piece is not only educative but also serves as an eye-opener, especially for women in similar situations.
You are therefore acknowledged as the 1st Runner-Up in the 2025 AMDF Journalist of the Year Contest (Online Category). Congratulations.