Former Minister of Education, Oby Ezekwesili, the Executive Director of the Media Rights Agenda, Edetaen Ojo, as well as ten distinguished journalists have been shortlisted for the 12th edition of the Wole Soyinka Award for Investigative Reporting scheduled to hold on the World Anti-Corruption day, Saturday, 9 December 2017, at the NECA House, Alausa, Lagos.
Ezekwesili was nominated for the Anti-Corruption Defender award. She is to be recognised for her untiring efforts to promote transparency and accountability as well as her unstinting commitment to the values of justice within and outside Nigeria.
Ojo will be receiving the Lifetime Award for Journalistic Excellence for his leadership of issues that enshrine freedom of expression, including his dogged trailblazing effort at ensuring the passage and implementation of the Freedom of Information Act in Nigeria.
The shortlist of journalists for the award includes, Ebere Ndukwu of Ripples, Ayodele Adeniran of The Guardian, Kolawole Aliu of Leadership, Soyombo Olufisayo of The Cable, Ayodele Ojo of Daily Sun, Adekunle Yusuf of The Nation, Kemi Busari of Premium Times, Chinwe Agbeze of BusinessDay, Ujorha Tadaferua of Daily Trust and Mojeed Alabi of New Telegraph.
The award this year, has six categories – print, online, television, radio, photo, and editorial cartoon, as well a special prize for food security and agriculture. The winning stories from journalists were selected by a board of judges from a total of 166 entries received by the deadline of the call for application.
Meanwhile, the 2016 winners of the award, Kunle Ajayi a photojournalist with Daily Independent, Mojeed Alabi a reporter with New Telegraph and Fisayo Soyombo, the former Editor of The Cable, recently returned from South Africa, where they participated in the Global Investigative Journalism Conference with over a thousand other leading reporters from all over the world, according to a statement signed by Motunrrayo Alaka, Coordinator of WSCIJ.
