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Reporters have been
reminded that investigative journalism involves remaining dogged in the
face of adversity until answers are obtained as to why situations
thrive in any given society.

Speaking at the
fifth edition of the Wole Soyinka Award for Investigative Reporting,
held on December 9, 2010, a legal practitioner, Ayo Obe, stated that
investigative journalism goes beyond the traditional reporting process
of asking ‘Who? What? When? How? and Why?’. “What marks investigative
journalism out is what the reporter has to do to get the answers to all
those questions,” she said. “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.”

Rewarding hard work

The award was first
instituted in October 2005, and was named the Wole Soyinka
Investigative Reporting Award. It was named after the 1986 Nobel
Literature laureate for his consistent and outspoken activism,
particularly during Nigeria’s military regimes. The name was later
changed to the Wole Soyinka Centre For Investigative Journalism in
2008. Since inception, the centre has awarded 21 journalists for their
best practices in the Nigeria media aimed at ensuring accountability in
the society.

At this year’s
award presentation ceremony, which held at the Agip Recital Hall of the
MUSON Centre in Onikan, winners were decided from the print, online and
photo categories; as works submitted for the broadcast, local
government and climate change categories did not meet the standard of
the judges. The winner of the print category was Badejo Ademuyiwa, of
Business Day Newspapers, for his serial on ‘NNPC Insurance Program’;
the first runner-up was Emmanuel Mayah, of The Sun Newspapers, for his
story on ‘Europe by desert: Tears of African migrants’; and the second
runner-up was Chukwuma Muanya, of Guardian Newspapers, for his story on
‘The scramble for Pfizer’s token in Kano’.

In the online
category, Peter Nkanga, of NEXT, winner for his serial on ‘The Pregnant
Inmate’. Last year’s winner and this year’s only other runner-up was
Nicholas Ibekwe, also of NEXT, for his story on ‘Nigerians lose
millions in search of diplomas’. Winning the photojournalism prize was
Femi Ipaye, of PM News, for his photograph on ‘The great scramble for
Patience Jonathan’s rice’. Olatunji Obasa, of The News, was the first
runner up, for ‘(Police) man’s inhumanity against man’; while the
second runner up prize went to Sunday Aghaeze, of This Day Newspapers,
for ‘The president convoy on the way from Abuja airport’.

Winners from the
various categories were rewarded with certificates of commendation,
plaques, laptops with one-year Internet access, and an a trip to the
United Kingdom. First runners-up got laptops, fifty thousand naira cash
prize, and certificates of commendation; while second runners-up were
given laptops and certificates of commendation.

Other awards given
on the day includes the Lifetime Award for Journalistic Excellence,
which was presented by the Kadaria Ahmed, the Editor of NEXT
Newspapers, to media icon, Doyin Abiola; while Bunmi Oyewole, a high
court judge, presented the Anti-Corruption Defender Award posthumously
to legal icon, Gani Fawehinmi, which was received by his wife, Ganiyat
Fawehinmi.