The Centre for Journalism Innovation and Development (CJID) last night, Dec. 2, unveiled the winners of this year’s Alfred Opubor Next Gen Awards for Campus Reporters, with some of the prizes going to authors supported by HumAngle Media.
The awards are given under the Campus Reporter project, which supports investigative journalism in tertiary institutions, provides mentorship for students, and helps them publish their reports.
The best two entries in the conflict reporting category were published by HumAngle. With ₦3,500, Sokoto Residents Buy Locally-made Guns As Insecurity Spikes In Nigeria’s Northwest by Abiodun Jamiu, a student of Usmanu Danfodiyo University Sokoto (UDUS), won the grand prize while Adebayo Abdulrahman, a political science student at the University of Ibadan, got the first-runner up prize with Beyond Numbers (I): Distraught Family, Scheduled Wedding … Victims Of Owo Massacre.
Abdulrahman also won the grand prize in the fact-check category with his report, No, Buhari Did Not Lift 10.5 Million Nigerians Out Of Poverty In Two Years.
Zainab Yetunde Adam of the University of Maiduguri got the Best Campus Investigative Reporter of the Year Award as well as the prize for Best Health Reporting.
Other grand prize winners celebrated at the event in Abuja included Abdulwasiu Olokooba (Environment/Climate Change), Mariam Hamzat (Gender), Omoniyi Jeremiah Oluwaferanmi (Observation Election Report), Sunday Awosoro (Budgetary Tracking/Procurement), and Confidence Chibueze (Sports).
Jamiu says he sees the award as a call to continue to write about the impact of conflict on people in Nigeria.
“The award means so much to me, personally. It’s not just about the recognition. Winning it gives credence to the fact that conflict can be and should be reported beyond statistics or numbers,” he told HumAngle.
“A lot of young journalists like me get inspired, on a daily basis, by the remarkable works the team at HumAngle are doing, redefining conflict reporting in Nigeria and the greater Sahel.”
Abdulrahman also thanked HumAngle for providing editorial and funding support for his shortlisted stories. “It’s a testament to the quality of work that the organisation churns out,” he noted.
“I learned a very long time ago never to tie the value of my works to awards. Nevertheless, winning these awards feels different. It tells me that people, in this case, the judges, were impressed by the quality of my work. I see this as a call to do more quality and impact-driven reports aimed at demanding accountability and driving development.”
HumAngle Investigations Editor ‘Kunle Adebajo, who was a panellist at the event, was awarded too “for supporting campus journalists through mentorship and for inspiring them through his dedication to accountability journalism”.
Adebajo is an alumnus of the Campus Reporter project and was one of the first to benefit from capacity-building workshops held in 2017 across the country. He received the Most Outstanding Alumnus award alongside Premium Times journalist Oge Udegbunam.
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