Your Excellencies, Gentlemen of the Press, Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen. As we commence this part of the evening’s proceedings, we have to remember that the profession of journalism, which we are here to celebrate, takes its toll in ways that are indirect as well as direct.
Your Excellencies, Gentlemen of the Press, Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen. As we commence this part of the evening’s proceedings, we have to remember that the profession of journalism, which we are here to celebrate, takes its toll in ways that are indirect as well as direct.
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The Nigerian media lost some of its distinguished members in the year since we last gathered to reward excellence in investigative journalism, but of these, one to whom the Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism was particularly attached is a past recipient of our award: Mr. Funsho Muraina, the former Judicial Editor of This Day Newspaper who died on Monday 5th July 2010.
May I ask that we all rise to observe a moment of silence in memory of him and other journalists who died in the past year.
(Pause)
I now turn to the matter at hand, and as a preliminary to this, I would like to introduce the other judges who, together with me, considered the entries for this year’s awards. Would those of you who are present please rise for recognition as their names are called.
Mr. Muyiwa Adekeye is the CEO of Barnes and Molby, a marketing communications outfit. He was formerly an Editor with The News magazine.
Mr. Abiodun Olowu is a Lecturer with the FRCN Training School.
Mr. Gbile Oshadipe is the Director of Picture Perfect, a Photo outfit. He is also a lecturer at the Nigeria Institute of Journalism.
Ms. Kadaria Ahmed is Editor-in-chief with NEXT Newspaper. I understand that she is also the only female editor-in-chief in the country.
Mr. Gbolahan Olalemi is Technical Director with Continental Broadcast Servive owners of Radio and TV Continental.
Mr. Boye Ola is Head of the Photo Department at the Nigeria Institute of Journalism.
You also have me – a legal practitioner, although I do also a bit of scribbling.
The last time we gathered together for this award, the chair of the 2009 judges, Odia Ofeimun expressed the general concern that journalists who were considering submitting entries for prizes should understand fully what is meant by the term ‘investigative reporting’. It is hardly necessary or appropriate for me to repeat all that he said last year – I try to adhere to the wisdom that (unless you are required to deliver a lecture – and perhaps even then) if what you have to say cannot be said in 20 minutes, you should shut up and go and write a book.
Nevertheless, it is worth briefly reminding ourselves what an investigation consists of. It has been said that the primary objective of journalism – or reporting – is to answer the questions: Who? What? When? How? and Why? But as Odia pointed out last year, and I dare say as has been pointed out on previous occasions when this prize is being awarded, investigative reporting requires something more than just description. Do I need to state that it is also more than merely describing a day spent at a public event held by a public official? Going by some of the entries, yes!
A reporter may shed light on little-known facts, or little-explored areas of our national (or international) life, but it isn’t an investigation if all you have done is describe a shocking state of affairs, or alerted your readers or your audience to some terrible events. Mind you, I do not say ‘all you have done’ because this branch of journalism is inferior or unworthy. On the contrary, we must observe, and be aware of people and events around us and in our world before we can know that there is something that might require investigation.
For the investigative reporter however, things may start with the question Why? You see something – could be condition of roads outside your front door, or the shabby, filthy buildings where we pretend to give our children a primary education – and you ask ‘Why?’
What marks investigative journalism out is what the reporter has to do to get the answers to all those questions. It speaks to the amount of burrowing, digging, checking and confirmation that the reporter has to do to get the true answers to those questions. It speaks to the reporter who is not satisfied with the first answer, who tests those first answers and comes up with fresh questions until he or she is fully satisfied that they have as much true information as they can get.
As you may know, today is being observed as International Anti-Corruption Day. And if we think about those questions (alert to the fact that the ‘What?’ question also includes a ‘How Much?’ question) we can understand that because – although the fruits of are not just not hidden, but are, with conspicuous consumption, right ‘in your face’ – the processes of corruption are supposed to be concealed, and therefore, if they are to be exposed, must be investigated, we can understand how appropriate it is that these prizes – for investigative reporting – are being awarded on this day.
Knowing as we do, both the effects that corrupt activities have on the rights of citizens, and the human rights abuses that those involved in corrupt activities commit in their determination to keep the fact of their corruption hidden, it is also fitting that this award is being given on the eve of Human Rights Day – December 10th of each year as declared by the United Nations.
However, we should not be complacent or image that our freedoms in Nigeria are safely wrapped up in constitutional guarantees. Before I left the country last week, a reporter had been remanded in prison custody by an Abuja magistrate on a charge of criminal libel for what was apparently something that had been written about a private citizen and his dealings in a company*.
But the timing of these awards is even more significant due to unplanned and unscripted events. As soon as the Wikileaks website made it known that it had gained access to hundreds of thousands of cables sent by diplomats of the United States of America, as well as some sent to them, we all certainly knew that however low down on the scale the home life of our own dear public figures might be, the leaks would eventually come home to us in Nigeria. It is therefore fitting that we should be having these awards on the day after the contents of some of these cables which refer to Nigeria have made their way to the top of the heap.
What, you may ask, is ‘investigative’ about releasing the contents of something handed over to you by a third party, as Wikileaks has done? I will come to that later, although it is worth reminding ourselves that we need to separate the diplomatic chit-chat chaff from the more substantive issues. As Anthony Trollope wrote: if our nearest and dearest friends could all hear the things that we say about them when they are not there, we would probably not have many near and dear friends left!
But for Nigerian journalists, surely the question ought to be more than one of simply repeating the regurgitated ‘Press Association’ or ‘Reuters’ version of what the Western media have reported, and investigating those substantive leads that might be disclosed.
Those behind the Wikileaks website have to possess a necessary quality for an investigative reporter: Courage. But they also provide an important outlet for another indispensable aspect of investigative reporting: whistle blowing. It also takes courage for insiders to blow the whistle on abuses or wrongs that they may become aware of by virtue of their position. We know that both whistleblowers and the journalists to whom they may turn to publicise issues face a variety of dangers, from financial penalties, loss of jobs to physical risks including violence and death.
At the same time, journalists need to guard against the possibility that they are merely being used by people who have their own agenda. “My enemies” may alert reporters to matters because of the “pull him down” syndrome. This does not mean that information fed to journalists by people with such motives should be ignored, but it is essential that any reporter given such information must carry out their own investigation. This year we had fewer of those obviously ‘fed’ stories entered for prizes.
Perhaps because this year, we did not extend the time for submission of entries, we had fewer entries than last year. We were asked to consider reports that had been entered in the following seven categories:
• Print – this attracted the largest number of entries, as well as the widest range in quality, and we had a very hard job to decide which of the best entries should emerge as winner.
• Photograph – this can be something of a mystery to non-professionals: how do you ‘investigate’ a matter with a photograph?
• Television
• Radio
• Online – unlike last year, entries in this field were from more than just one source, but it should be noted that as the Editor-in-Chief of Next newspapers, from where several of the entries were submitted, Ms. Kadaria Ahmed recused herself and did not participate in the marking or consideration of entries from Next in this or indeed, in any of the other fields where it had submitted entries.
• Local Government – this ought to be a very rich field, but it was perhaps the most disappointing in terms of entries. When we consider how important the actions of local governments are in our lives, and how little scrutiny they are subjected to, we can understand why there is so little interest among the voting public in local government elections, with the political party of the incumbent state governments nearly always sweeping the board.
• Climate Change – this field tended to attract entries that could be classified under the general heading of ‘environment’, but it needs to be stressed that what is being sought here is more than just warning us that the climate is changing or alerting us about global warming.
Before closing, I must also note that we do not have enough political stories. It is not just a matter of reporting on INEC and the electoral processes. There is not enough digging into political matters. We have all witnessed the issues raised by the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria about the cost of the National Assembly, but behind the reporting of this matter have been the same easy generalisations about politicians that don’t really help us in the difficult choices that we – the voters – must make in the run-up to the elections. Democracy rarely gives us clear choices between saints and sinners, but rather, it often requires us to make a choice between the devil and the deep blue sea. We need our media to give us information about the options available, how deep and long is the sea? What is the nature of the devil?
Unfortunately, we the general public are becoming concerned that media outlets are not willing to risk upsetting politicians by naming names and shaming the shameful. We expect reporters to go behind the façade and dig below the surface. What is the reality behind the decisions and statements made by committees in our legislatures? What about the contracts awarded by Ministries? How are they executed?
When reporters fail to investigate these matters, and help us – the electorate – to separate the political wheat from the money-grubbing chaff, we are left unable to make informed choices. It is in those circumstances that we end up resorting to voting on the basis of primordial sentiments, the ethnicity or religion or other identity of the candidates. Our democracy requires more than this, and for this reason, I will close by expressing the hope – particularly as we have some months to go before the elections in April – that next year’s entries will include many more of the sort of political investigative stories that will allow us, as voters, to make informed electoral choices.
Thank you.
THE WOLE SOYINKA AWARD FOR INVESTIGATIVE REPORTING, 2010
The award presentation ceremony of the Fifth Wole Soyinka Award for Investigative Reporting held on Thursday 9 December 2010 at the AGIP Recital Hall of the MUSON Centre.
This year, the programme honoured works of seven Nigerian journalists in print, online and photo journalism. There were three winners, three 1st runners-up and two second runners-up. Bagejo Ademuyiwa of Business Day Newspaper won the prize in the print category, while Emmanual Mayah of The Sun and Chukwuma Nuanya of the Guradian took home the first and second runners-up respectively. In the online category, Peter Nkanga of 234next.com took the winner’s plaque and Nicholas Ibekwe of the same media was commended as the first runner-up. Femi Ipaye was crowned the winner of the photo category of P. M. News; his counterpart in The News Magazine Olatunji Obasa was first runner-up while Aghaeze Sunday of This Day Newspaper was the second runner-up.
Due to the Centre's commitment to best standards vis-a-vis the quality of entries received, the judges were unable to find any work worthy of a prize in the broadcast radio, broadcast TV, Local Government and climate change reporting categories this year.
The award win included award plaques, exchange programme to the UK, laptop and one-year internet access for the winners; certificates of commendation, laptops and fifty Thousand Naira (N50, 000) cash prize for the first runner-ups and; certificates of commendation and laptops for the second runners-up.
Apart from the merit awards, there were two honorary awards; Lifetime Award for Journalistic Excellence and Anti-Corruption Defender Award and six service awards; for five-year serving judges and support organisations. The Lifetime Award for Journalistic Excellence was be presented to Dr. Doyin Abiola by Kadaria Ahmed, Editor of NEXT Newspapers while the Anti-Corruption Defender Award which is done in collaboration with other civil society organisations, was presented posthumously to Chief Gani Fawehinmi, by Justice Bunmi Oyewole and received on behalf of his family by his wife Mrs. Ganiyat Fawehinmi.
The award programme day is significant as it is the world anti-corruption day and the eve of the world Human Rights day. It was supported with funding from the Royal Netherlands Embassy, the Lagos State Ministry of Environment and in-kind support from the British Embassy, Z-mirage light and sound, Sunset café, Marthas Décor, Kuma small chops and a host of media houses.
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The judges’ board consisting of top local and international professionals with impeccable character and integrity included; Ms. Ayo Obe, Constitutional Lawyer; Mr. Muyiwa Adekeye, CEO of Barnes and Molby and former Editor with The News Magazine; Mr. Boye Ola, Head of the Photo Department at the Nigeria Institute of Journalism; Ms. Kadaria Ahmed, Editor-in-chief with NEXT Newspaper; Mr. Abiodun Olowu, a Lecturer with the FRCN Training School; Mr. Gbolahan Olalemi, Technical Director with Continental Broadcast Services and; Mr. Gbile Oshadipe, Director of Picture Perfect, a Photo outfit and a lecturer at the Nigeria Institute of Journalism.
The Wole Soyinka Investigative Reporting Award which was first held in October, 2005 to encourage the development of an investigative tradition in the Nigerian media through rigorous scrutiny of human rights violations, regulatory failures and corruption in the public and corporate department of the nation’s life has so far rewarded nineteen (26) journalists who are called ‘Soyinka Laureates’.
WOLE SOYINKA AWARD FOR INVESTIGATIVE REPORTING 2010
WINNERS’ BIO
PRINT CATEGORY
WINNER: BADEJO ADEMUYIWA
Nigeria’s economy is majorly dependent on crude oil; hence corruption in the institution vested with power of control over the country’s major source of survival must receive the full attention it deserves. No wonder Badejo’s serial, NNPC Insurance Programme, concerning the inflation of the premium by some insurers in the late ‘90s up to 2009 whose water shed was published as a front page of Business Day Newspaper on Tuesday 1 June 2010 has been adjudged a classic example and commentary on how the public and private sectors collude to misappropriate funds and defraud Nigerians and how the media through investigative journalism can best serve public interest by shedding light on such issues.
Displaying a rare attention to details; backing his report with data, facts and figures and painstakingly running the story in a whopping 10-serial plot thereby unravelling deeds that date back almost two decades, Badejo carefully reveals mammoth corruption in the management of the government-run programme. The implications for the Nigerian people are huge: the figures declared are indicative of foul play by the managers of the insurance scheme.
Born October 22, 1968, Badejo, whose Journalism career began at the National Concord as a reporter on the Insurance desk, is currently Assistant Editor and Bureau chief with Business Day Newspaper. He is a Mass Communications graduate of The Polytechnic Ibadan and holds a MBA from Ambrose Alli University.
Badejo Ademuyiwa has now earned himself a prestigious place among the Soyinka Laureates as the winner of the print category of the 5th Wole Soyinka Award for Investigative Reporting.
FIRST RUNNER-UP PRINT CATEGORY
EMMANUEL MAYAH
You would be right to call Emmanuel Mayah the hands-on-journalist. With a full understanding of the commitment required for an investigative piece, Mayah posed as an immigrant in the company of three human traffickers and travelled 37 days, covering a total of 4, 318 kilometers for his work, Europe by Desert: Tears of African Migrants published in Daily Sun Newspaper of Wednesday 30 December, 2010.
The report is a rich illustration, and gripping account of the heart renting experiences of Nigerians (mostly youths) in their desperation to pursue greener pastures outside a failing country. His account reveals trade-offs with prostitution, starvation, sex slavery in transit camps, desert bandit, corrupt custom systems, arduous toil in salt mines, voodoo, cruel thirst and death in the hot desert Nigerians have to make to realise their mostly unachievable sojourn to promise land.
The story which ensured the fraud academy mentioned in the report was shut down has since been republished on various websites across the world and Mayah has received commendations from religious community leaders, the Nigerian Press Council, the National Agency for Prohibition in Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) and he was also honoured at a public ceremony an ‘Anti Human Trafficking Ambassador’.
Born on 14th December 1971 in Asaba, Delta State, Nigeria, Mayah
Emmanuel attended Federal Polytechnic, Bida, Niger State and graduated with a degree in Electrical Engineering in 1993. He started his journalism career in 1995 as a reporter with Independent Weekly. In 1997, he obtained a Diploma in Investigation from the Centre for Security Education and Research amongst other qualifications.
Emmanuel Mayah is fast becoming a house-hold name as he has consistently distinguished himself in the Journalism industry in and out of the country receiving many laudable laurels.
Currently Investigations Editor with The Sun Newspaper, Mayah’s outstanding investigative reporting style has won him the first runner-up place in the Print category of the Wole Soyinka Award for Investigative Reporting for this year.
SECOND RUNNER-UP PRINT CATEGORY
CHUKWUMA NUANYA
The Pfizer Trovan study which used untested drugs on 200 Nigerian children, at the Infectious Disease Hospital (IDH), Kano, during the 1996 Cerebro Spinal Meningitis (CSM) epidemic in some parts of Nigeria, left many permanently disabled and at least 11 people dead. Chukwuma Nuanya’s report The Scramble for Pfizer’s token in Kano (The Guardian, Sunday 7 February 2010) is a sequel to this gross human rights abuse and disregard for human life by the company and Kano state government officials which have protracted the process of funds settlements to victims or their beneficiaries for fourteen years after Pfizer agreed to provide settlement funds on the basis of no admission of liability in connection with the 1996 study.
According to the reporter, the report was published despite threats, cajoling and offer to buy up the story by people in high authority.
Senior Science/Health Reporter with The Guardian Newspaper, Chukwuma Muanya is an M.Sc graduate of Pharmacognosy from the University of Lagos and holds a certificate in Advanced Writing and Reporting Skills (AWARES).
Chukwuma has won several awards, including the 2009 NMMA Best Reporter Award; and the DAME Best Child Reporter of the same year. Today, his tenacity and courage has again won him the second runner-up place in the2010 Wole Soyinka Award for Investigative Reporting.
ONLINE CATEGORY
WINNER: PETER NKANGA
Peter Nkanga’s online winning entry, The pregnant prisoner is a single-subject 7-plot serial, first published on 234next.com of the NEXT Newspapers. It tells the truly sad story of a 17year old girl who became a victim of her supposed benefactor, a 50 year old man who allegedly plotted her imprisonment at the Kirikiri Female Prison for eight months after impregnating her. Peter’s report reinforces the incontestable potentials of investigative reporting to empower the oppressed by giving a chance for fairer hearing thereby ensuring social justice, even as it details the failings of the Nigerian legal system with the appointed magistrate absent four times for the hearing of the case.
Apart from reporting the story in his media, 234next.com, Peter wrote to all ministries and agencies of the Lagos State Government and to the State Governor, eventually drawing the attention of the Ministry of Youth, Sports and Social Development which then took up the case. According to the report, the alleged culprit was arrested and has remained in prison facing prosecution as he is unable to meet the court’s bail conditions. On the other hand, the Lagos state government has since taken up the welfare of the lady and the baby she had while in prison.
Born in 1981, and a graduate of French from the University of Uyo, Peter, who had a stint with banking moved to journalism working with Timbuktu Media, publishers of Next Newspapers because of his desire to impact positively on the society.
His selflessness, doggedness and thirst for justice in his hunt for the crux of the matter has won him the lead position in the Online category of this year’s Wole Soyinka Investigative Reporting Award.
FIRST RUNNER-UP ONLINE CATEGORY
NICHOLAS IBEKWE
With the near collapse of tertiary education in Nigeria, there has been a proliferation of institutions claiming affiliations with foreign universities and professional bodies. Meanwhile, many of these institutions are mere vehicles of fraud thriving due to poor regulations and preference of Nigerian employers for employees with foreign degrees. Nigerians lose Millions in search of Diplomas a report published on 234next.com is an example of the extortions and fraud that characterise some of these institutions. It chronicles the extent to which these phoney institutions would go to defraud Nigerians, and more sadly the Nigerian government.
Nicholas is a graduate of English from the Lagos State University LASU where he led his class of 2004 with a second class upper degree. He had a little stint as a school teacher before moving into the world of the media. Born on 17 October 1981, he started his Journalism career in 2008 as a reporter with NEXT Newspapers. He was winner of the online category of the 2009 Wole Soyinka Award for Investigative Reporting. He does it again this year as he goes home second runner-up in the same category.
PHOTOJOURNALISM CATEGORY
WINNER: FEMI IPAYE
The great scramble for Patience Jonathan’s Rice published on Thursday 30 September 2010 in the P.M. News, is a direct statement on the tangibility of poverty in Nigeria, the shameful politics of handouts and the failures of security agencies in their primary duty of protecting the people.
Femi Ipaye, is a Senior Photojournalist with The News Magazine and he is 46years old. He has gathered experience as a photojournalist with different media as well as awards including the 2003 NMMA award in the photo category.
Ipaye had to stand on a fence hidden under a tree to take the pictures at the risk of being apprehended by uniformed men. Through his camera lens, he has presented us with vivid pictures of the state of the Nigerian nation, challenging us to ponder on what the future holds, given these present realities. He has thus been adjudged and now pronounced winner of the Photo-journalism category of the 2010 Wole Soyinka Award for Investigative Reporting.
FIRST RUNNER-UP PHOTO CATEGORY
OLATUNJI OBASA
Born on March 11 1973 Olatunji Obasa, is a Photojournalist with The News magazine. He has a Diploma in Mass Communication from the College of Journalism and speciality in World Press Photo from the Nigerian Institute of Journalism.
True to his training, he captures a worrying image of the emotional, psychological, and physical oppression men of the Nigerian Police subject the Nigerian people to many times for absolutely no reason in his photo entry captioned ‘(Police) man’s inhumanity against man’ and published in The News Magazine of June 21, 2010 . The picture depicts fear and helplessness in the victim’s eyes, sweat (from man-handling his prey) on the brow of the aggressor, and the helplessness of passers-by. Today it is this victim, tomorrow, it could be any other Nigerian; what are stakeholders doing to curb the excesses of the Nigerian law enforcement agencies?
Olatunji Obasa is awarded first runner-up of the photo category of the 5th Wole Soyinka Award for Investigative Reporting.
SECOND RUNNER-UP PHOTO CATEGORY
AGHAEZE SUNDAY
Call it daunting audacity or sheer disregard for the Nigerian citizenry and rule of law, the former President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria Late Umar Musa Yar’Adua was sneaked into the country amidst tight security and engulfed in darkness after 90days of sparse information on his absence and state of health.
Aghaeze Sunday in his pictures published in This Day Newspaper on the same day, Wednesday 24 February 2010 titled ‘The return of a President’ covers the entering entourage of the president. What other way to unravel a top government secret than through pictures! Aghaeze risked his life with unfriendly weather conditions and heavily-secured environment to bring images of the president’s return and state of health to the public.
Sunday Aghaeze’s photojournalism career dates back sixteen years of his 41 years on earth. Currently Photojournalist with THISDAY Newspaper, he is a graduate of the Federal Polytechnic, Oko, Anambra State.
***The WOLE SOYINKA CENTRE FOR INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISM (WSCIJ) is a registered not-for-profit, non-governmental organisation with social justice programmes aimed at exposing corruption, regulatory failures and human rights abuses with the tool of investigative journalism. Initially known as the Wole Soyinka Investigative Reporting Award (WSIRA), the change in name became necessary in 2008 to reflect the intentions of the coordinators to embrace a more robust line of activities that have greater capacity for engendering the right values of investigative journalism in the Nigerian media. The centre is named after Professor Wole Soyinka in recognition of his life-long work in support of the freedom of expression, freedom to hold opinion, and freedom to impart them without fear or favour and without hindrance or interference.
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