A Nigerian investigative journalist, Musikilu Mojeed, was lavishly celebrated in Lagos on Friday over a series of articles he published in NEXT exposing the fraudulent claims and self-promotion antics of American-based Nigerian ‘scientist’, Philip Emeagwali.
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A Nigerian investigative journalist, Musikilu Mojeed, was lavishly celebrated in Lagos on Friday over a series of articles he published in NEXT exposing the fraudulent claims and self-promotion antics of American-based Nigerian ‘scientist’, Philip Emeagwali.
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At the 2011 award ceremony of the Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism, Mojeed’s work on Mr. Emeagwali won first prize for the best investigative story in the online category.
Muyiwa Adekeye, a former editor of The News, and member of the judging panel, who read Mojeed’s citation, praised him for alerting Nigeria that one of its most ‘celebrated’ icons was a complete scam.
Mr. Adekeye applauded Mojeed’s courage, persistence and dexterity in pursuit of truth despite several obstacles and attacks.
Mr. Emeagwali, who had lied his way to fame, promoting himself as one of the inventors of the Internet and one of the world’s greatest scientists, was generously celebrated in Nigeria, Africa, and even America as he propagated false and misleading claims about himself.
His lies gained so much currency in Nigeria that he soon became a celebrity, a national icon whose image was put on one of the country’s postage stamps, and was celebrated alongside the likes of great writers such as Wole Soyinka and Chinua Achebe.
But that was until Mojeed, and to a large extent, SaharaReporters, dug into his activities and exposed his pack of lies and deceit.
In his four-part series published in NEXT between November 7 and December 5, Mojeed investigated almost every claim of Mr. Emeagwali, talking to the judges who recommended him for the Gordon Bell prize in 1987, leading computer scientists, professional bodies, the universities he attended, and the organisations to which he claimed affiliation.
The investigation established clearly that the scientist has widely misrepresented himself to the world.
Speaking after winning the prize, Mr. Mojeed said he was proud to have contributed to the process of helping Nigeria, and indeed the world, that “a man we celebrate lavishly is a big fraud, who succeeded in scamming himself to fame.”
He said, “The result is that Nigerians, and indeed the world, are now wiser about the real Philip Emeagwali. Nigerian embassies abroad that had always celebrated him by paying him huge speaking fees to give talks at independence anniversaries have since stopped the practice. The lying scientist is no longer seen as one of our national icons. This series helped to correct a wrong aspect of our national history.”
At the ceremony, Idris Akinbajo, also of NEXT, was named the Investigative Reporter of the year. A six-part series on the corruption in Nigeria’s oil industry in which Petroleum Minister, Diezani Alison-Madueke was repeatedly named, won the first prize in the print category. The series was done by the quartet of NEXT’s Elor Nkereuwem, Peter Nkanga, Akinbajo and Mojeed.
The second prize in the online category also went to Akinbajo for his work on the plundering of the nomadic commission by officials. Another NEXT reporter, Nicholas Ibekwe, won the second prize in the print category for his series on the collusion of top Nigerian officers with Pfizer in the controversial drug trial that killed scores of children.
The remaining prizes of the night went to TELL’s Adejuwon Soyinka, who took the second prize in the climate change reporting category and National Mirror’s Yinka Adeparusi who won the prize for photography.
The print edition of NEXT newspaper was taken off the streets last September by its publisher, Pulitzer Prize winner Dele Olojede, citing Nigeria’s unfavorable business environment.
Early last month, the 2011 Forum for African Investigative Reporters (FAIR) awards in South Africa also named NEXT’s Peter Nkanga and Idris Akinbajo the African Investigative Reporters of the Year. They were cited for their collaboration on the June 2011story, “Last Minutes Oil Deal that Cost Nigeria Dear.”
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