The management of the Foundation for Investigative Journalism and Social Justice (FIJ) has announced the appointment of Damilola Faith Ayeni as the Editor of the platform.

Ayeni becomes the pioneer Editor of FIJ, fully filling a role that has, in practice, been vacant in the first one year of the organisation.

A member of the founding staff of the FIJ in November 2020, Ayeni rose from the position of Reporter to Acting News and Feature Editor to News and Feature Editor within one year. He became Acting Editor in December.

‘Fisayo Soyombo, Founder and Editor-in-Chief of FIJ, described Ayeni as a very intelligent journalist and smart investigator with a great mastery of the English Language and an incredible eye for spotting fake news.

“Ayeni’s growth within the first year of joining FIJ has been particularly impressive,” Soyombo said. 

“I have worked with a number of younger journalists in my 16 years in the industry, and Ayeni ranks among the very best of them. He has an enormously promising career ahead of him, and FIJ is keen to be part of it. We’re a young organisation and he’s a young journalist; we’re hoping this relationship matures deep into the future.”

The 28-year-old holds a Bachelor of Agriculture in Forest Resources and Wildlife Management from Ekiti State University, Ado-Ekiti. He is a 2021 finalist of the Thomson Foundation Young Journalist category of the UK Foreign Press Association Awards.

Commenting on his appointment, Ayeni said: “I am thankful to the management and board of FIJ for trusting me to spearhead such an ambitious project. I’m aware this is a huge responsibility, and I am going to commit my all to this assignment.”

Soyombo said FIJ would continue to relentlessly pursue its mission of uncovering the truth by bypassing officialdom and neutralizing propaganda, and making it accessible to the public in a way that eases and influences their everyday decision making.

“Our aim remains the freedom of our audience from the shackles of vested interests and propagandists who have mastered the art of information manipulation to the detriment of public interest,” he said.

“Through our works, we will continue to free the powerless from their oppressors, assist the helpless to get justice and hold the government to account. This will be our way of strengthening democracy and advancing the society.”

FIJ opened operations in November 2020 and began publishing in January 2021, after receiving development support from the Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA).

In late 2021, it received institutional support from OSIWA, and also partnered with the Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD) on its Strengthening the Delivery of Peace and Security in Nigeria (SDPS) project with the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO), a department of the Government of the United Kingdom.