Abdulhaleem Ishaq Ringim Biography
Abdulhaleem Ishaq Ringim, a registered nurse with the Nigerian Nursing and Midwifery Council, was born on September 9, 1999. He is also a writer who has been published and won awards, a political and public affairs commentator, and a supporter of sustainable development and good governance.
Ringim served in a number of leadership roles while he was a student, including those of President of the Student Union Government of the School of Nursing at ABUTH Zaria, President of the ABUTH Student Nurses Association, President of the Kaduna State Students Union, School of Nursing, ABUTH, and Deputy Ameer of the National Association of Nigerian Student Nurses and Midwives Elections, Ebonyi Convention 2019.
Ringim joined the nonprofit youth-based organization Youth Progressive Front (YPF) as the Assistant Secretary for his Local Government Area Chapter due to his love of writing and voluntary work in the development field. Additionally, he worked as a writer and political analyst for the sociocultural monthly Arewa Elites’ monthly and was a founding member of the board of the online media outlet Concord Times.
Following graduation, Ringim spent a year in the public sector as the executive secretary of the Kaduna State Scholarship and Loans Board’s personal assistant. Additionally, he had a directorship at the Monitoring and Evaluation Directorate of the Youth Progressive Front until it ceased to exist.
Ringim is a remarkable, multi-award-winning young personality who has made a significant impact on Nigeria’s print and online news industry. He has continued to write on a variety of topics, including politics, economics, education, and security, and via his writing, he has had an impact on a number of governmental choices and policies. Applied Worldwide, Premium Times, The Cable, The World News, AllAfrica, DesertHerald Newspapers, Dateline Nigeria, Daily Nigerian, New Nigerian Newspaper, Economic Confidential, NewsDigest, Politics Digest, Sahelian Times, Arewa Agenda, Security Monitor, Daily Dispatch Newspaper, and Opinion Nigeria are a few of the publications he has written for. He has also contributed to other publications as well.
Ringim won the ‘Syndicated Writer of the Year’ award at the Campus Journalism Awards (CJA) in 2020, which were presented by Youths Digest and the Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Center (CISLAC). She was the award’s youngest recipient. He received the National “Campus Journalist of the Year” Award at the 2021 edition of the Campus Journalism Awards (CJA), making him the youngest person to ever win the top honor. In 2021, he earned the “Syndicated Writer of the Year” award for the second year in a row.
Beginning with the ‘Legacy Leadership Award’ given to Ringim by the Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital Student Nurses Association, Ringim’s exceptional leadership achievements have drawn countless accolades and awards.
At the third edition of the Royal African Young Leadership Forum (RAYLF) award ceremony, where he was inducted into the Royal Court of the Kingdom of Ife as a Member of the Royal Court (MRC), he was also one of the 100 outstanding young people honored with the Royal African Young Leadership Forum (RAYLF) Award of His Imperial Majesty, Ooni Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi, OJAJA II, Ooni of Ife.
Ringim beat out over 1900 competitors to place among the top 30 candidates that were under consideration for the TOYP award, and Junior Chamber International (JCI) Nigeria selected him for the 38th edition of the TOYP award in the Personal Improvement category.
Ringim is a fervent supporter of young involvement in politics and government. He likes to study, learn, reflect, analyze policies and political/socioeconomic events, and suggest alternative ideas. He currently works as an assistant in the Kaduna Capital Territory Authority’s Office of the Administrator/Commissioner and coordinates the Research and Documentation Unit of the recently created Kaduna Office of Resilience, which recently convinced Kaduna City to join the prestigious Making Cities Resilient 2030 (MCR 2030) initiative. He now maintains a first-class CGPA while pursuing a degree in Economics at Ahmadu Bello University Zaria’s distance learning center. He operates a blog under the domain ai-ringim.com.
Award-winning celebrity Abdulhaleem Ishaq Ringim, 22, most recently took home the title of Campus Journalist of the Year from Youths Digest, a pro-youth organization. Ishaq-Ringim, a first-year student of economics at Ahmadu Bello University (ABU) Zaria and a political and public affairs analyst, discusses his interest in this interview.
What is your career path?
I’m a native of Kaduna State, Zaria. My grandfather’s name, Ringim, is essentially a patronymic derived from his name; he is from Zaria and spent the majority of his life there. My mother and father were also born there.
I attended the School of Nursing at Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital in Zaria, where I was a vocal member of the student union. I also volunteered for a number of civic organizations while I was a student there. After graduating, I worked for a year as the executive secretary of the Kaduna State Scholarship and Loans Board’s personal assistant. I am currently a freshman at Ahmadu Bello University, where I am enrolled in the university’s distance learning program to study economics. I am a young politician and a supporter of growth, too.
You recently became the overall winner of the Campus Journalism Awards (CJA2021), are you excited?
To be honest, it was a thrilling sensation. I was so overwhelmed that I didn’t know how to respond, so I instantly prayed Sujudush Shukur (a prostration of thanks to Allah Almighty), which allowed me to relax. As someone who does not have a history in journalism, I was also taken aback by the caliber and exceptional character of the entries that were submitted, particularly by journalism students from throughout the nation.
The method used to choose the Campus Journalist of the Year Award winner is the aspect of CJA that most intrigues me. All candidates are typically given instructions the night before the award presentation to prepare an essay on a specific topic and submit it by the following morning. “The Role of Media in Troubling Times” served as the subject this year. After turning in their articles, the finalists gather for a workshop in the morning where they must defend their work in front of a panel of renowned journalists. The journalists will then grade the presentations and choose the grand prize winner.
However, the CJA this year had a unique twist. The winner was not chosen at the workshop but rather at the location of the award ceremony, where a shortlist of five finalists was made. Each of the five was then required to rebut their articles in front of the entire audience at the award ceremony as well as a new panel during a subsequent presentation that lasted one minute and thirty seconds. Alhamdulillah, I won the competition after the new panel judged the presentations. I find this process to be quite fascinating!
What was it you wrote about?
My entry is titled “My Naija Experience” and is a widely circulated opinion piece. During a time when toxic regionalism and ethnic jingoism were fueling an increase in nasty and divisive speech in the national dialogue. I felt the urge to write an article that focused on and aimed to have Nigerians think on specific life situations that reflected our profound “Nigerianess” and I enjoined everyone to join me in sharing what I named “Our Naija Experiences” in order to calm the political situation.
As a result, it changed into a campaign that inspired individuals to reflect deeply on their life and search for detribalized times. individuals people remembered those occasions. And for many, those instances symbolized their happiest memories to date as well as proof that Nigeria may benefit us all.
My interests should stay the same, to answer your second question. I’ll keep writing articles about politics, security, the economy, education, and occasionally even health.
What challenge do most young campus journalists face?
The difficulty, in my opinion, is mainly time management and the conundrum of striking a balance between academics and journalism. Even though I don’t consider myself a core college journalist because I primarily analyze political and public issues, I think having a solid grasp of and adherence to time management skills would be quite beneficial in that regard. Resistance, occasionally even from the administration of their schools, is a problem that campus journalists must deal with. However, even in the face of such difficulties, maintaining a strong adherence to the ethics and principles of excellent and impartial journalism would always serve the aim of protecting you as a campus journalist.
What advice do you have for campus journalists who would want to practice in the mainstream media?
So, my recommendation is for all campus journalists, regardless of the type of campus journalism they engage in, to always uphold the values of objectivity, consistency, excellence, and ethics. Since what is worthwhile is worthwhile when done well, we should all work to establish a superb reputation.
How do you combine study with writing as a campus journalist?
I don’t perform the more time- and energy-consuming core journalism because I am a political and public affairs analyst. I exclusively publish opinion pieces. And because I believe writing to be a part of myself, it seems simple and less difficult to me. It has no impact on my academic performance in any way. Like I said before, it’s all about simple time management, and I believe I’ve been able to put that into effect very well.