In 2009, two students of the Lagos State Polytechnic on industrial attachment entered for the main category of the Young Journalist Award, not the one for students and they won.
Below is the citation for Tosin Makinde and Nike Ashogbon (now Fagbemi ) joint winners of the Young Journalist of the Year Award 2009 organised by Media Career Development Network.
The Yorubas have a saying, which literarily translates to mean that when one is very sure of his or her charm, he will not hesitate to try it out publicly.
This probably explains why two students of the Lagos State Polytechnic, Ikorodu on attachment at The Nation Newspapers dared to compete for the main category of the Young Journalist Awards along with full-time young journalists for the 2009 Award.
Tosin Makinde, now an International Relations undergraduate at the Adekunle Ajasin University, Aknagba and Nike Ashogbon, back at LASPOTECH for her Higher National Diploma must have been very sure of the quality of their write-ups that they did not hesitate to try out their luck.
Though they do not share some things in common; Tosin is very tall, Nike is not. Tosin was born in 1983, Nike in 1988, they both have what the Deputy Editor of the Sunday Nation, Adewale Adeoye, a former winner of the CNN African Journalist of the Year Award category, described as “ determination, doggedness and commitment to the job”
Even as young as they are in the profession, Adeoye says they “think less of the risk, but the passion and love they have for the job is their driving force”
The stories that won the duo today’s award according to Adeoye “ have been self-sponsored without them asking for a refund for their humanitarian and advocacy visits/tour to several villages across the south-west region where they documented the first-hand revelation of the real state of poverty in three villages”
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Their three entries highly commended by the judging panel include Lost Paradise, based on a tour along with a group of which Tosin heads, The Voice, to five villages in Obafemi Owode local government in Ogun State, Seasonal Schools, based on visits to village schools in Ogun, Oyo and Lagos states and Return of the bridge culture.
Ladies and gentlemen, you will agree with me that with adventurous young journalists like Tosin and Nike, there is hope that the standard of media practice in this country can only get better.
It will interest you to know they have video recordings on their tours which are available online on their blog which is indicative of the emerging multi-media approach to journalism practice.
Tosin and Nike represent the future of journalism in Nigeria.
Ladies and gentlemen, join me in acknowledging the joint winners of the 2009 Nigeria Young Journalist of the Year award, Makinde Tosin and Adenike Morenikeji Ashogbon.
+ Makinde is now a missionary, while Nike is a brand strategist
They were very hard working and were lucky to meet a person who was ready to teach them ..What I noticed in them then was that they were ready to learn cum their humility.These two : readiness to lean and humility are helpful.