Five finalists have been selected for Lekan Otufodunrin 2021 Campus Journalists Award.
The finalists include Mohammed Yakubu, a final year student of Mass Communication at the Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida University; Mohammad Ibrahim, a 200-level student of Mass Communication department at the Ahmadu Bello University, and Fasilat Oluwuyi, HND 2 student of Mass Communication department at the Moshood Abiola Polytechnic, Ogun State.
Others are Ibrahim Kegbegbe Taofeek, HND 1 student of department of Mass Communication department from Nigeria Institute of Journalism, Lagos and Oluwatobi Odeyinka, a year-two student from department of Communication and Language Arts, University of Ibadan.
Their entries were said to make the final list among other 61 entries across higher institutions in Nigeria.
The winning entries:
- Yakubu: Evicted By Guns: How Niger State Residents Lose Homes, Families To Violent Crimes, Kidnappings.
- Ibrahim: INVESTIGATION: How Nigerian State Governments Poorly Interacted with Citizens via Emails During COVID-19 Pandemic, Despite ICT Advancement.
- Oluwuyi: Between Waters and Fishes: How water pollution set lingering crisis for Ogun fishermen.
- Taofeek: Lekki Conservation Centre: Protecting Wildlife, Mangrove Forest From Urban Threat.
- Odeyinka: INVESTIGATION: Agency diverts boreholes to ex-head of state’s residence, lawmaker’s farm, while community drinks from the stream.
While the winners will be announced on May 09, 2021, the first position will go home with the sum of N70,000, the first runner-up with N50,000, while the second runner-up goes home with N30,000.
The award in honour of Otufodunrin, Executive Director of Media Career Development Network, Nigeria’s foremost media career coaching and mentoring organisation is the initiative of two of his former junior colleagues at The Nation, Shehu Olayinka and Late Yinka Akintunde who died early in the year. Olayinka is now Social Media Manager, Fact Checker The International Center for Investigative Reoporting (ICIR).
Otufodunrin thanked the initiators and supporters for the honour of having the award in his name.
“The award came to me as a surprise and I am really grateful to all those who have done me this honour,” adding that the award is in line with his commitment to mentoring journalists, particularly young journalists.
He commended the interest in the award by the students who submitted a large number of quality entries which, according to him, is an indication of how good student journalists in the country are.
He described late Akintunde as “one of the best young journalists I worked with while at The Nation.”
Otufodunrin resigned his appointment at The Nation in late 2018 after a thirty-year stint as a full-time journalist across several media platforms to become a full-time media career development specialist effective January 1, 2019.
Five journalists nominated for 2021 Lekan Otufodunrin Journalists Award
Cc. @RGAMeyer pic.twitter.com/qEWfOIJaJq
— Shehu Olayinka (@ShehuOlayinka1) May 1, 2021
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