Dear Reader,

Today makes it exactly one year since you first read the Foundation for Investigative Journalism (FIJ) and Social Justice. We can imagine what you’re about to say: time flies! Yes, time has flown right by and it’s one year already.

In the one-minute video with which we announced ourselves to you, we made a few promises: journalism beyond press releases; truth beyond officialdom; unbiased and impartial reporting; journalism driven by personal integrity and faith in the profession. We said we would be unmoved by pecuniary interests, that we would be the people’s advocate, the voice of anyone on the right side of the law. We said social justice was our obsession, the truth our watchword, and true journalism our calling. We promised: no half-truths, no propaganda. We have continued to strive to abide by the promises.

We know there is a lot more we could have done. But as a self-aware team, we recognise the impact of our work and it has been one hell of a ride! In one year, 59 of our stories have been impactful in that they directly or secondarily led to change, such as freedom from unjust police detention or extortion, freedom from oppression, recovery of lost funds to unauthorised banking transactions, recovery of investment scam funds, or help for the needy. This amounts to an estimate of five impactful stories per month!

We have also covered some big stories, as you will find here. We have published some riveting investigations, for which we have received national (Wole Soyinka Awards for Investigative Reporting) and international (Thomson Foundation Young Journalist Award) recognition.

All these we have done while operating on a shoestring budget that has tested our integrity to the limits — tests from which we have emerged unscathed, thanks to our first funders who backed us when this was all an idea on paper (more on these exemplary humans in the future), our very supportive board members and our committed staff.

In a world where the truth is abhorred, you can imagine that the work we do comes with significant risk. This was evident in late 2021 when our board members, colleagues, including non-editorial staff, and I received unwarranted invitations from the Force Headquarters, only for me to be detained when I turned myself in. More recently, a yet-to-be-unidentified person opened a Facebook account “dedicated to making Fisayo Soyomi [sic] pay for his act of wickedness”, threatening to harm my family and loved ones, and promising I would “cry over them”.

Threats like the above will not deter us; we believe they come with the terrain. For that reason, we intend to do more next year. The past year has been our ‘Year of Stabilisation’, one where we fought tooth and nail to cement our place in the Nigerian media space. The new one is our ‘Year of Consolidation’; we will rev up our social-justice reporting, no doubt, but our investigative reporting is what you should look forward to in the next 12 months. It is the very least we owe you for reading our stories and supporting our work!