A former Minister of Education, Obiageli Ezekwesili, the Executive Director of the Media Rights Agenda, Edetaen Ojo, and ten journalists have been shortlisted for the 12th edition of the Wole Soyinka Award for Investigative Reporting
The ceremony organized by the Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism (WSCIJ) is scheduled to hold on the World Anti-Corruption Day, Saturday, 9 December 2017 in Lagos.
According to a press statement by the Coordinator of WSCIJ, Motunrayo Alaka, Ezekwesili was nominated for the Anti-Corruption Defender award in recognition of her untiring efforts to promote transparency and accountability as well as her unstinting commitment to the values of justice within and outside Nigeria.
Ojo will receive the Lifetime Award for Journalistic Excellence for “ his leadership of issues that enshrine freedom of expression, including his dogged trailblazing effort at ensuring the passage and implementation of the Freedom of Information Act in Nigeria.”
Journalists shortlisted for the award includes, Ebere Ndukwu of Ripples, Ayodele Adeniran of The Guardian, Kolawole Aliu of Leadership, Soyombo Olufisayo of The Cable and Ayodele Ojo of Daily Sun.
Others are Adekunle Yusuf of The Nation, Kemi Busari of Premium Times, Chinwe Agbeze of BusinessDay, Ujorha Tadaferua of Daily Trust and Mojeed Alabi of New Telegraph.
The categories for this year’s awards are in – print, online, television, radio, photo, and editorial cartoon and a special prize for food security and agriculture.
The winning stories were selected by a board of judges from a total of 166 entries received by the deadline of the call for application.
The 2016 winners of the award, Kunle Ajayi a photojournalist with Daily Independent, Mojeed Alabi a reporter with New Telegraph and Fisayo Soyombo, the former Editor of The Cable, recently returned from South Africa, where they participated in the Global Investigative Journalism Conference held in Johannesburg, South Africa.
WSCIJ is a non-governmental organisation with a vision to stimulate the emergence of a socially just community defined by the ethics of inclusion, transparency and accountability through the mechanism of investigative journalism.
Congratulations to the recipients of the awards. The Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism (WSCIJ) did a good job here in carefully selecting those who truly deserve the awards.