For the umpteenth time, Oyekunle Oyedapo Olorunyomi, publisher of Premium Times, possibly contemporary Nigeria’s most honoured journalist, was garlanded earlier today, with the Hallmarks of Labour Foundation (HLF) Award.

Olorunyomi, popularly called Dapsy, famous for his public spiritedness, brilliance, grit and vision, and particularly renowned for his pragmatism and love for investigative and interpretive reporting, media independence, accountability as well as advocacy for public interest journalism, in his words ‘journalism of relevance’, received the HLF-Christopher Kolade Award for Excellence in Leadership and Professionalism in the Media at an event in Lagos.

Reckoning Dapo Olorunyomi’s journalistic antecedents and the trailblazing Premium Times Media Group – which houses the Premium Times newspaper (an online newspaper), Dubawa (a fact-checking entity), the Centre for Journalism Innovation and Development (a tech-oriented knowledge production centre instituted to empower and support African media), and Premium Times Books (a book publishing arm) – the Hallmarks Foundation found a repository to draw form and content that gave expression to professionalism and leadership.

As captured by Premium Times, this award celebrates Dapsy’s “established track record” in championing media independence, accountability journalism, and ethical standards.

An incurable believer in the promise of newspapering for the promotion of freedom and democracy, a leading light of best-rated, innovative journalism in the service of society, iconoclastic and radical, I first took note of Dapsy as a social actor in the Nigerian space after reading the cover story of the African Concord newsmagazine titled, “Has IBB given up?” an exceptionally objective unsparing analysis of the Babangida regime. The publication’s factuality and poignancy was so stinging as to precipitate the sealing of the premises of the medium for six months and its proscription in 1992 by the military regime.

His story continues to serve as an unvarnished reminder of the value of focus, love for man and country, determination, selflessness, and living for others.

Unbeknownst to me, Dapsy and I have a deeper historical connection. For instance, he was in the league of student leaders of the early 1980s who pitched their tent in the left pole of the ideological spectrum. It was he and his comrades who drafted the Charter of Demands of the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS), a document that would become a consequential duty of my generation of student leaders to implement.

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Born in Kano, educated at Ife, Oxford, Washington and across the world, ever since Dapsy enrolled at the then University of Ife where he obtained a bachelor’s degree in English and a Master’s in Literature, he has been on the famished road of knowledge production, journalistic rectitude, organised, conscious self and collaborative activities of social action and uncommon charity. As a student at Ife, he spent his holidays working PRO BONO as a press officer at the South Africa’s African National Congress Office in Lagos, and he continued to live a life marked by ecumenism and charitableness.

Exactly two years ago, precisely on January 11, 2023, I published a tribute to honour him when he was announced the first African fellow of the Poynter Institute, alongside 26 other global media entrepreneurs and actors for the 2023 Media Transformation Challenge (MTC) programme. The Poynter Fellowship had recorded 350 alumni as of 2023, and Dapsy broke the jinx by becoming Africa’s first alumnus.

In 2020, the International Press Freedom Award was presented to him. Earlier, in 1995, the World Press Review garlanded him as the International Editor of the Year. In 1996 he was awarded the Freedom to Write Award by the PEN Center, as well as Press Freedom Award by the National Association of Black Journalists in New York. For his involvement in reporting on the Panama Papers, he won a joint Pulitzer Award in 2016. The Global Investigative Journalism Network also honoured him with the Global Shining Award in 2017. Still in 2017, he carted away both the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) Press Freedom Award and a distinguishing fellowship of the Nigerian Institute of Journalism (NIJ). Olorunyomi equally received the Diamond Awards for Media Excellence’s Lifetime Award.

He had worked for The Herald newspapers, was an editor at Radio Nigeria, African Guardian, and the African Concord before co-founding TheNews magazine, Tempo, as well as AM and PM News. He became the Enterprise Editor and head of investigation at the Timbuktu Media, publishers of 234Next. Olorunyomi has served on the board of many international organisations including Panos Institute West Africa, Norbert Zongo Cell for Investigative Journalism (a United Nations initiative) and he continued to serve on the jury or as chair or African analyst for many media initiatives or country surveys.

He was the Director Nigeria Project for Freedom House (FH), during which I worked with him as FH’s Regional Media Researcher for the Niger Delta. Freedom House is America’s oldest NGO focused on curating the state of press freedom in over 190 nations and territories. While at FH, he founded the Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism (now Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism). He was Director for Policy and Chief of Staff to Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, when the latter was Executive Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission. It was he who essentially developed crime prevention and education policy at EFCC.

He was on exile for a while when the Abacha regime launched a serial crackdown on activists and journalists. He returned to Nigeria at the onset of Nigeria’s renascent democracy and continued his works without ceasing as a dedicated Nigerian patriot. In 2021, he was arrested ostensibly for publishing a libellous story about former Army Chief Buratai, an incident that suffered a natural fate as cases of unsubstantiated allegations.

The Development Agenda for Western Nigeria (DAWN) Commission aptly described Olorunyomi as ‘Akinkanju’ (the Valiant man) of Nigerian journalism. His story continues to serve as an unvarnished reminder of the value of focus, love for man and country, determination, selflessness, and living for others.

*Dr. Ibietan is Secretary General of the African Public Relations Association. He lives in Abuja

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Premium Times Books said in a statement on Monday that the unveiling ceremony of Cyber Politics: Social Media, Social Demography and Voting Behaviour in Nigeria, will take place at the main auditorium of the communications and digital economy complex of the NCC, located at Mbora District of Abuja, from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. on 25 July.

Published by Premium Times Books, the book publishing arm of the Premium Times Group, the 460-page book, spread over 12 chapters, gives expression to a critical phase within the distinct trajectory of Nigerian democracy through its elections.

Nigeria’s 2015 presidential election is utilised as the sounding board from which analyses that offer great insights into the future of voting behaviour in the country are made in this new title, that is both skillful in its rendition and ground-cutting in its intellectual approach.

The public presentation of the book will be made formally by Umar Danbatta, a professor, and the executive vice chairman and chief executive officer of the Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC, where Dr Ibietan works as head of media relations.

Danbatta is also the writer of the foreword in the book.

In addition to the formal presentation of the book, there will also be a panel discussion to be moderated by Chido Onumah, a social rights activist and coordinator of the African Centre for Information and Media Literacy.

The author of the book, Dr Ibietan; Abiodun Adeniyi, a professor of mass communication and Deputy Dean, School of Post Graduate Studies at Baze University, Abuja; and a writer and newspaper columnist, Mojeed Dahiru, will take part in the panel session.

The panel session will focus on how politics played out and shaped the last two general elections in Nigeria.

The possible implications of cyber politics in future elections will also be sprayed.

Among other prominent personalities who have commented on the book and the author is Prof. Danbatta.

The NCC CEO, in his foreword to the book, noted that: “the author situates the historical context of Nigerian politics and democracy” and more so “…the nexus between social media and voting behaviour, and the influence of the social media ecosystem among others in the electoral process.”

He described the book as a “compelling narrative, a scholar’s guide and companion on the various political communication themes it interprets. It is difficult to put down this work once you are drawn by its alluring and free-flowing prose and incisive analysis.”

The book has been available in the hard back and soft back versions in bookstores across the country since 12 June, 2023.

The electronic copies of the book can also be purchased on online platforms, including Amazon.

Prominent Nigerians and stakeholders within the Nigerian politics cycle and cyber/digital ecosystem are billed to be at the public presentation of the book.

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An Assistant Investigations Editor with HumanAngle, an online newspaper, Adejumo made the top list with his story, “Special Report: Inside illicit timber trade in Osun causing deforestation.”

He wrote the story as a correspondent with Premium Times.

He was shortlisted along with 14 other journalists across the world, who according to the organisers, gave voice to communities that had played little role in raising the world’s temperature but which had been hardest hit by the climate emergency.

Said Thomson Foundation in the announcement: “These journalists have transformed complex ecological issues into compelling storytelling.”

Adejumo’s report is on the illegitimate timber trade in Osun forest, and its effect on climate change in combination with habitat destruction, degradation, and fragmentation.

No fewer than 200 entries from 55 countries were received for the awards before the eventual emergence of Adejumo and 14 others.

The best overall winning story, according to the organisers, would be made public on the night of the FPA Awards in London at the end of November.

It would be recalled that Adejumo was runner-up in 2020 for the same award.

A multiple award winning journalist, Adejumo works with HumanAngle, an online newspaper in Nigeria.

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The four were selected for the courage they have demonstrated in the course of their duties as journalists, having been arrested or faced criminal charges at different times.

The honour is the 2020 International Press Freedom Awards.

Said the Executive Director of CPJ, Joel Simon: “Like brave and committed journalists everywhere, CPJ’s honorees set out to report the news without fear or favor for the benefit of their communities, their country, and the world.”

“They understood that they would confront powerful forces, enemies of the truth, who would try to stop them from doing their work. What they did not foresee was COVID-19. The global pandemic has not only made their jobs more difficult and dangerous, it has fueled a ferocious press freedom crackdown as autocratic leaders around the world suppress unwelcome news under the guise of protecting public health,” Simon added.

The awardees are:

Shahidul Alam (Bangladesh):  Alam is a renowned photojournalist and commenter, and the founder of the Bangladeshi multimedia training organization, the Pathshala Media Institute and the Drik photo library. In August 2018, Alam was detained after posting a video to social media about student protests in Dhaka. He spent 102 days behind bars, and said he was beaten in custody, before being freed in November 2018.

Mohammad Mosaed (Iran): Mosaed is a freelance economic reporter who investigates corruption, embezzlement, labor issues, economic sanctions, and popular protests. Forced to resign from a reformist newspaper under government pressure, he publishes news on social media platforms. Mosaed was arrested in late 2019 in relation to a tweet, and released in early 2020. He was briefly arrested again in February after criticising the government’s handling of COVID-19.

Dapo Olorunyomi (Nigeria): Olorunyomi is the co-founder, CEO, and publisher of the Nigerian newspaper Premium Times, and during his decades-long career as a journalist has been a fierce defender of press freedom in Nigeria despite repeated government harassment. He was arrested twice before having to go into hiding in 1995, and more recently he was arrested alongside a colleague in 2017 when police raided the Premium Times’ office on allegations of defamation.

Svetlana Prokopyeva (Russia): Prokopyeva is a regional correspondent for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, known as Radio Svoboda. In early 2019, authorities raided her home, seized her equipment and personal belongings, and interrogated her. She was charged with “justifying terrorism” and her bank accounts were frozen in relation to comments she made on liberal radio station Ekho Moskvy in 2018, when she discussed a suicide bombing attack. This month she was convicted and ordered to pay a fine of 500,000 rubles (US$6,980). The prosecutor had sought a six-year prison term.

The Gwen Ifill Press Freedom Award is given annually by CPJ’s board of directors to recognize extraordinary and sustained commitment to press freedom.

This year’s awardee, lawyer Amal Clooney, has represented embattled reporters around the world, including Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo of Reuters, who were imprisoned in Myanmar for 17 months.

She promotes freedom of speech and journalism through the Clooney Foundation for Justice’s TrialWatch initiative, which monitors the trials of journalists worldwide and provides free legal representation for those in need.

“Journalists in trouble have no better champion than Amal Clooney, which is why we are so delighted to honor her with the Gwen Ifill Press Freedom Award. A talented barrister, gifted negotiator, and powerful speaker, Clooney works tirelessly to free journalists unjustly targeted by despotic leaders using increasingly punitive laws to stifle reporting,” said Kathleen Carroll, CPJ board chair.

The winners will be honored on November 19, 2020, at CPJ’s annual benefit gala, to be chaired this year by Patrick Gaspard, President of Open Society Foundations, and hosted by veteran broadcast journalist Lester Holt.

Due to health and safety restrictions related to COVID-19, this year’s gala will be virtual, with video profiles, compelling press freedom stories, award presentations, and acceptance speeches streamed online and shared around the world.

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What would you say are the gains that have come with winning awards?

Since I left National Mirror, I’m not sure I’ve written any application for a job.  Because people know what you can offer, they invite you:  We need you.  That is the beauty of it.  They say the best form of advertisement is referral.  I told you about how the former Managing Director of New Telegraph, Mr. Bolaji Tunji, said he could not afford to lose me.  So, it shows one is being appreciated.

Then, there is also the cash award that comes with it.  The biggest of them for me is the Golden Pen Award.  For two consecutive time, I won N1 million each.  I won N1 million back to back – 2017 and 2018. This is the kind of money that is difficult for journalists to come by.  Even when you run from pillar to post, it may be difficult for you to come by it.  I have seen someone who went to the award and had only the last kobo on him for transportation.  He eventually won N2 million that night.  It is because of the hard work he had put in and the grace of God.  When you win, there is this pride that you enjoy that “Oh, I can do it.” People who never tolerated you when you were doing the story will now encourage you. You become a mentor to so many people.  You become a role model.  There are still other opportunities that come your way like fellowship and others.  Where I work now as Deputy Head of Investigation, I never applied.  That is Premium Times.  I was in New Telegraph for four years and when it was in December last year, I felt I needed to move and we had an interaction and I was offered the opportunity.  They gave me their terms and I gave my terms too.  As at that time, I still had two other opportunities.  These are platforms that are also funding my stories.  The ICIR wanted me.  Some of the stories I do now are being funded by ICIR and others.  There are times they invite me to do stories for them.  I had done two for ICIR.  I think those two won the Wole Soyinka Awards at different times.  Even when I don’t knock on their doors, they call me and ask if I have a story idea that I can work on for them.  It is also a thing of pride for them because their name would show them as having sponsored it.  They present to their funders to say this is what we have been able to do.  It is more of an honour.  When I went for a Tiger High Foundation camp the other time, I wasn’t allowed to present any idea.  We were so many. People were vouching for me.  Out of 27 ideas only five were picked.  Based on recognition, mine was picked along.  There were big guys in the industry whose ideas were not considered. So, that is the kind of honour one gets.

How would you describe journalism as an industry today?

The industry is troubled.  It is troubled on different phases.  One is the issue of funding.  It has a financial challenge; may be because of the democratisation of the profession.  Nobody can claim monopoly of information any longer.  There is no gate-keeping anymore and that has created a kind of saturation in the industry.  We have many platforms that are doing so many things.  So, to excel, you have to do extra-extra things.  Secondly, there are a lot of quacks in the industry and that has created so much fake news among other problems.  When you have quacks in the industry, what you have at the end of the day is hasty generalisation.  People don’t respect you any longer.  Once you call yourself a journalist, they dismiss you as one of those reporting fake news. You see so many blogs around; every Tom, Dick and Harry.  Once you can write your name, you have become a journalist. Although there is a distinction.  Some say there are those that are not professional journalists.  Tell me, how you recognise a professional journalist.  Is it because of the platform? Is it because of the association of journalists? Is it because of NUJ?  Is NUJ living up to expectation? Is the Nigerian Guild of Editors living up to expectation?  They are not doing what they should do.  That is why there is need for regulation.  Professionalism has declined.  A lot of people are in the trade for other purposes and you can’t bar them.

Are you talking about online platforms alone?

Including the print.  You see a lot of other newspapers, including community newspapers which are seriously unprofessional.  It is not just about online.  Everybody is a journalist today as long as he or she can print on papers.  But what distinguishes a true journalist?  How do you distinguish between a journalist and a quack?

How do you think the problem can be solved?  How can the NUJ, NGE, other professional bodies and the government come in to put things in order?

I think the onus is on these professional bodies to see that things are done properly, the professional bodies  should not be serving as appendages of state apparatuses.  What you have seen is that many of them have become extension of government houses.  And these are people who say, no you cannot have beat associations. What’s the difference between beat associations and these our professional bodies? What other organisations that are not unions of journalists are doing are far far better than what the unions are doing.  When you see International Press Centre owned by Lanre Arogundade and others, you will agree with me that they are doing even far better than what the professional unions are doing.  They are doing a lot of trainings, they are creating a lot of opportunities, but not so for the unions.   Some of them don’t have libraries.  How can you be a writer when you are not a reader? That is the challenge.  You see media houses these days without a library.  That is a problem.  Everybody is interested in putting some things together and they run to politicians.  When they run it for two to three years, they start an award programme.  The same set of people you gave award last year, you still give them award this year.  Those are some of the problems we have in the industry.  We need to sit down and see how we can regulate things so that things will be done well.  If it is not regulated, there will be saturation and if there is saturation, there will be quackery.  You see quacks all over the place, especially at events and they embarrass you.   When you look at what other organisations like Wole Soyinka Centre, which was started by the founder of Premium Times and others have achieved in terms of exposing journalists,  you will realise that they are much more than what the unions have done.

The only way out is partner with the government, create a good regulatory system.  I am not saying people should be registered, but there should be regulation.  Teaching is being regulated now.  Teachers are not being registered.  TRCN is doing that because every Tom, Dick and Harry is a teacher now.  The most abused profession in Nigeria is teaching.  Yet, when you go to the best economies of the world, teaching is one of the most respected professions.  We need to sit down and protect this profession. A single fake news can destroy the nation.  If you are in the business of managing information and those into it are not competent, what do you get?  It is worst than having a bad health sector.  A wrong dosage can kill a patient, but a wrong dosage of news in the form of fake news can kill a nation. That is why there is need for professionalism; that is why there is need for regulation.

What is your ambition?  What is your projection into the future?

Oh, I have dreams; I have dreams.  I know one day I will be in politics.  There is no doubt about that.  That is what my father was into and it runs in the blood.  At the same time, I want to be seen to be different, even in politics.

How?

Our own role in the future is to be able to show what we have learnt. As an investigator, you should know that you can also be investigated.   The moment I started the work of investigation, I started checking myself.  What do I do that is not correct?  What do I do that can give me out?  I ask myself:  If eventually I find myself in politics, what are those things that I do now, that I criticise now, but that I would not be able to do?  It is not that I have not been there before.  At a time in history, I had co-ordinated students for gubernatorial candidates, but I saw the need to use my hand.  There is a need for people to know what you are qualified in.  In future, I may be in politics, but before then, I want to leave a mark on the sand of time in journalism;  I want to impact on the society.  What actually gives me joy in journalism is the fact that I have been able to impact on the society.  There are people we had written stories about who were on the streets and they are today undergraduates in universities.  I have seen candidates, whose results were withheld or cancelled either by WAEC or other bodies, and we pursued their cases through writing and achieve success.  A case in point is that of Ogudu Grammar School.  About 320 candidates were affected, they just withdrew their results online after it had been released; some of them were First Class candidates in higher institutions; some of them were outside the country.  They came back after their graduation, they wanted to do screening or clearance, and they could not see their results any longer.  They almost went mad.  We had to write their reports, we went to lawyers to find out if WAEC had the power to withhold results already released without the consent of the people; we had to go to parents.  When we did the story…  about three series. Their results were released.  Up till today, they still call me.  At a stage, some of them made me WAEC results retriever.  This is because those who had similar experiences from Edo and other parts of the country came to Lagos to look for me.  We were able to do it for them too.  At a stage, I no longer wrote WAEC.   I would just call WAEC and give the necessary details and the problems would be solved.  These are the kind of things that give me joy. Some workers would be deprived of their rights and you will write about it and their problems will be resolved.  It is not about award alone.  Award is just a part.  The impact of journalism, that you can right some wrongs, without even carrying a sword gives me enough joy.  Pen, like they say, is mightier than the sword.

Journalists are open to hazards, especially during investigations.  I know you must have encountered such at one time or the other.  How best do you think journalists can be protected?

We are usually afraid, even when we need not be afraid.  It is not only when you are a journalist that you are exposed to hazards.  Even those who hew the woods, like a poet would say, also have their hazards.  The axe can cut their legs; even someone just going by the roadside may be hit by a vehicle.  But when you are a journalist, you should also know that you are like a police officer, the only difference is that you are not armed.  A police officer can protect himself (with his gun).  I have been attacked once.  I was stabbed in 2014.

Why and by who?

I was stabbed by somebody who felt we were reporting what we should not. That was in Osun State.  Also, there was another report which I did last year (that was the report that won me Wole Soyinka Award for Investigative Reporting 2018).  The report was titled:  Nigeria Deputy Speaker in $1.1bn Water Contract Scam.  After the report was published, it was run for two days.  The Deputy Speaker, Yusuf Lasun, his younger brother went to my family house and was harassing my sister and my mum, saying that they were going to kill me as a result of the story; that they were going to kill me in their presence.  It became an issue that was taken to the police. We had to write reports and statements.  Throughout the period I received a lot of strange calls.  Even during the investigation, I was arrested because I took the photograph of a building which he claimed to be his office but was not.  The owner of the house had gone through a lot of challenges because the house was used by some people to defraud banks.  I was arrested.

We pray to God for protection.  Protection comes from God.  But as much as you are getting protected there are places you do not go and there are times you do not go out. There are times you need to tell your confidants where you are going.   If you are the type that likes social life it may be difficult for you to operate as an investigative journalist because you can be easily exposed.  There are so many safety tips on IJNET. They send mails out.

What should employers do in that regard?

That is what is lacking.  98 per cent of organisations don’t have protection plans for their workers.  No insurance, no security.  Not even the common tools that you can use.  In my place of work, there is team spirit and that works for us. Then, there is the principle of equality.  You are able to relate with your people very well.  I discover that what has saved me more is my personal relationship with my editors and staff generally. Whether it is the cleaner, security guard, editor and even the MD, I relate with them one on one.  That gives me the opportunity that when I run into trouble, the first number I dial, the owner will take me serious, whether the person is in advert department, circulation or wherever.

In my home, I have confidants.  My family is my confidant.  They know everywhere I go, even before my place of work.  This is because when the chips were down the other time, they rose in my support.  There are people who even advise me on security:  “You are known with this car, don’t go out in it, we’ll provide you another one.”

However, it is different from the security measure that needs to be put in place by the work place.  Nothing stops them from having an insurance scheme for the journalists.  Another one is that they should keep tab on their journalists to know what they are working on, where they are and other details.  If it is a story that requires the organisation to inform the police about your presence in certain places, they should.  That is what some foreign journalists do.  They come and report themselves to the police authority stating their mission.  So, if anything happens, they will know that you need help and the numbers to call.  That is lacking in most media houses.  You look for funding for your stories, you provide security and so on.  Theirs is to just publish.  It shouldn’t be so.

What would you say is your philosophy of life?

I am a Muslim and I believe in God.  I believe that we are just here temporarily.  The beauty of this world is that this is where we are going to do what will take us to heaven or to hell.  I always pray that whenever I meet people, they don’t regret meeting me.  Wherever I leave, I always want to go back there and be welcome.  That happens a lot of time.  For instance, in New Telegraph, I relate with all of them very well.  That is the same thing about life.  The Holy Prophet (S.A.W) said when somebody dies, they ask:  Is it somebody tired of this world or one the world is tired of?  If you are the one that is tired of the world, you are going to relax.  I congratulate you.  But if you are the one that the world is tired of, I pity you.  I always ask myself: What will people say about me when I leave a place?  If I die today, what will they say?  How many people have I impacted on positively?  How much relationship have I built?  You can’t satisfy everybody, but at least, you should do the little you can to warrant being missed.  Not a situation where people will pray for you to go.  I am not saying I am good, but the fact that I keep learning everyday, particularly on human relations.  I like to say that when I leave an environment, I pray people don’t regret meeting me.  Whenever I step on toes, I always pray for God to forgive me.  I want people to have that mindset.  With that, this world will really not mean much to you.  You’re not going to gossip about anybody, you are not going to set traps for anybody; you would not want to hurt anybody.  That has always worked for me, and I’ve always enjoyed God’s mercy.

*Concluded

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You are a multiple awards winning journalist. How many awards have you harvested in the past few years?

First let me thank you for this honour.  I have been in journalism for about nine years.  I started my journalism career in 2010 with the National Mirror.  So, I’m in my ninth year.   I started as a reporter.  If I may count, at least, I have got more than ten awards from competitions like NMMA (Nigeria Media Merit Award), Golden Pen, Wole Soyinka Award for Investigative Reporting and some others.

How did the award winning spree start?

I must give credit to the team that put up the editorial team together at National Mirror.  I never had the mindset and never believed I could do it.

If I must digress a little, the experience I had when I was going for recruitment was very discouraging.  One of the editors at the time told me that I was not competent, that I had never had any experience as a journalist.  He said I could not be recruited.  I felt very bad.  I was told I did not have any newspaper cuttings, so, I was not qualified.  Then, I had a book already written alongside my colleague.  When I finished school, I went into documentary and biography writing.  I never had the mindset of seeking employment anywhere.  So, we set out to write books.  We were on the second or third one.  It was a book about a community leader whom we knew had something to tell the public.  He was a teacher and great men had undergone tutelage under him.  He is still alive.  He was a teacher and so many great men had undergone tutelage under him.  Some of them are the Ogiyan of Ejigbo and the Oloko of Oko.  He was the Secretary of the popular Oroki Social Club sang about in the past by Alhaji Haruna Ishola.  This man was still alive and we wanted people to learn from his life.  So we wrote a book on him.  But at the point of launching the book, the man suffered some challenges – he lost a child; another one that was ready to marry was involved in an accident.  So, we put that off.  Over that, I had already taken a loan of about N500,000.  That money went down the drain.  At that point, we just felt we needed to move on in life.  That was the point when I considered going into journalism.  I must thank one or two persons who encouraged me – One Aunty Bola, who was the Secretary to the Managing Director then.  She insisted I must come to National Mirror.  I came for test, they said I passed, I came for interview and I also passed, but I was told I never had experience as a journalist and could not come in.  I tried to publish in some other newspapers so that I could use, but it did not really work.  I did a story on a blind man, took the photograph, submitted to The Nation. It took a long time before they could publish it.  When it was published eventually, my name was miss-spelt.

I think it took Steve Ayorinde, the Daily Editor at the time to look at my file and I learnt he wondered why I was not employed.  I was invited, I wrote another test.  After the test, he asked me when I was going to join the newspaper, and I was shocked.  I said resume? He said yes, that he had seen my script and he was satisfied.  He asked what I would like to cover and I said Politics.  He said apart from Politics what else, and I told him I would prefer Education.  He said when did I want to resume and I told him as soon as he wanted me to.  I resumed on the 1^st of November.  I resumed on Politics desk, but Steve Ayorinde later told me to move to Education desk.  He said he did that because he wanted me to have a good career.  On the Education desk, I was fortunate to work with very fantastic people who knew how to mentor.  They likes of Sam Eferaro, who was the head of the desk.  Then, I met somebody who loved awards – Tubosun Ogundare.  He came from Champion newspapers.  His idea was, no matter how obscure your platform may be if you write quality stories, you can win awards.  He had won NMMA, he had won DAME.  He was one of those celebrated as award winners to start the National Mirror.

So, when we started working together, he told me, Mojeed, don’t worry, you will win awards.  We continued to work together.  Even stories that won awards, I didn’t know they could win awards.  It took Steve Ayorinde, the Editor of the newspaper, who was searching for stories that could win awards to identify them.  One day, he came to me and said, Mojeed, have you entered for some of these awards and I said no, I didn’t have stories that could go.  He opened his file and asked:  Who wrote this? Who wrote this? Who wrote this? (pointing to some of my stories as he flipped the pages of the newspapers).   He shouted at me:  Go and enter the stories for awards my friend!  That was how I won my first NMMA awards.  The story that won me the NMMA award of Education Reporter of the Year came about a year after I joined National Mirror.  I think it was about setting agenda for the new OAU Vice Chancellor.  That was when Professor Omole was to resume.  We set agenda for him, the challenges and other things.  That was what gave me the award in 2011.

There was one before that.  Rotary Club, Ikeja.  We won the best report in Education.   We also won the runner up in the Health category for National Mirror.  After that, we felt, oh, we could do better.  That was how it all started.

What was your feeling when you won the first award?

The feeling was just that:  Oh, somebody, somewhere is looking at what you are doing?  What gave me joy more was that I won the award in my beat – Education.   It is common to find somebody straying into it from another beat and winning awards.  People who did not cover Education would come in and win award in the beat by writing quality stories. I was proud that it was my beat and I proved that I understood my beat and was rewarded for it.  I felt very happy, particularly given the opportunity that it made me to meet people.  I think it was presented by former Minister, Nike Akande.  I was proud that I could mount the same rostrum with a a person of that caliber and I could have a handshake with her.  That really gave me the motivation that if I did well, the reward would come.

To what extent did the initial push by your editors and others assist you?  Did you take off from there or you still relied on them for further assistance?

If you have a good spirit, and you have people who, at least have shown you the way, what else do you need?  After three years in National Mirror, I had a stint in Leadership newspapers.  But when I joined New Telegraph, I had an ambition.  It was to leave a mark.  Not as a journalist alone, but to impact society, to positively affect society.  I want a situation where, journalism is seen as the fourth estate of the realm, and it is seen as the job that has a constitutional backing.  If that is so, how much can we use this to positively affect the society; to right the wrongs; to also know when things are going wrong.  It is to also appreciate good things that are done.  It should not always be negative, negative and negative stories in the media.  There should also be room for appreciating the good things that people may have done.

When I joined New Telegraph in 2014, courtesy of the Managing Director, Mr. Bolaji Tunji, who was so proud of me.  I can remember, he was telling the Editor then, Mr. Gabriel Akinadewo:  Please, give this guy his letter, I cannot afford to lose him.  When I heard what he said, I was like, “Who am I?  What am I bringing on board?” I asked myself:  How do I make this person proud.  The only way I could do that was to show what I could do.  So, when I got in, I was on the Education desk, and I felt I could still poke my nose into other sectors like Agric, Health and more.  That was the basis of my ability to do big stories across other beats.  I just wanted to do things that would affect lives positively.  Even beyond the awards, there are fellowships that I won which I didn’t know I could win.

Something happened in the newsroom one day.  I saw one of my colleagues in the newsroom, who went into the street and bought a drink – an alchoholic drink.  People asked him if he bought it on the street and he said “Yes.”  I was surprised.  I wondered how they could be selling alcoholic drinks on the street and people could buy it in traffic; it means that something is wrong.  Then,  I wondered:  Could the availability of such drinks have contributed to the increase in the rate of accident?  I felt that was an interesting story idea I could pursue.  That was all.  I did my findings.  Moved from one place to the other trying to find out who was responsible for what.  I moved from NAFDAC, Advertising Practitioners of Nigeria… Federal Government does not have any agency to control where alcohol is sold.  Then, I learnt Lagos had a task force on child rights.  I went on and on.  Fortunately, a matter was brought to my notice, where a drunk female driver killed an entire family in Ibadan on January 1, 2015.  Father, mother and a three years old child were killed.  The woman was also pregnant.  The whole family died.  The entire family died because a woman was drunk.  Inside the car, they saw bottles of alcohol in the vehicle of the woman that drove and killed them.  Obviously, the woman had gone to enjoy, drinking alcohol in celebration of the new year.

I went through FRSC, finding the statistics of accidents recorded at certain period, and which one was linked to drink-driving.  I wrote the material and never knew it would come handy.  I saw an entry where WHO needed to have a road safety conference in Brazil.  They needed fellowship for journalists across the world.  I did not know I was going to meet the deadline.  I applied on my phone, a Blackberry.  They needed one per country and they chose about 27 countries.  How I qualified, I did not know.  When they released the list, I think it was a colleague in The Punch that saw it and drew my attention to it.  I never knew that beyond plaques and certificates, I could also travel out of the country in an all expenses paid trip by WHO.  I was in Brazil and had a good experience of road safety.  I became an ambassador.  From there, I learnt so much about road safety.  I never covered motoring as a reporter, but was just interested in tackling the problem of accident caused by drink-driving. I was the only journalist in Nigeria that attended it and all over the world, we were 27. That gave me a sort of encouragement and I am happy about it.  It gave me the motivation to pick on any topic and work on without targeting any award.

I’ve also encouraged some of my colleagues. When I was in New Telegraph, I was the secretary of the award committee and did my best to ensure that we entered for award any story capable of winning.  I forced people to submit their entries and the accompanying documents.  Within four years of New Telegraph’s existence, for two consecutive years, we beat other newspapers to rank the highest in NMMA award.  Most of the awards, we have always participated.  In 2016, I won Wole Soyinka awards as the Print Journalist of the Year.  I repeated the same feat in 2018.  When I won the 2016 award, by 2017 I became a fellow at the Global Conference of Journalists in South Africa.  That was part of the reward for winning Wole Soyinka award in that year.  I was to participate in the global conference of investigative journalists in South Africa.  That opened my eyes to a lot of opportunities as a journalist.  I made a lot of networks.  You see your people who are making a lot of fantastic things outside.  You can’t just sit down here.  Once I have the opportunity, I link up and that gives me some kind of eye opening.  I think I am much more motivated by young Nigerians who are doing well, particularly in the area of investigation as journalists.

What would you say are the tricks of winning awards?

I can’t say there are tricks anywhere.  If you have it, it will show.  There are people who have it, but because of environmental factors or individual issues… In some organisations, you just have to enter for it.  That was the culture Steve Ayorinde introduced in National Mirror.

But not every entry wins?

Yes, that is true, but the tradition was that you just must enter for it.  What pains me is that at the time I am interested in awards, the likes of CNN and Multichoice awards are not longer on.  These are platforms that would have allowed us to showcase our talents across the continent and even beyond.  There are others anyway.

I think I have also worked with people who can also influence me positively.  So, I have created mentors along the line, and when I need to, I can walk up to them.  They can be younger persons or older persons.  I have been motivated by the likes of Fisayo Soyombo, who is today the editor of Sahara Reporters.  I think he finished school in 2010 and I finished in 2005.  But when you look at what he has been able to do within the period, you would notice that it is not about how far, but how well.  He started as the first editor of The Cable, and after The Cable, he went to ICIR.  He left ICIR and today…  He is just moving from one place to the other.  He had done a lot of investigative work that are of good quality.  I look at him, what is the motivation behind him.  I try as much as possible to learn from people like him.  Those kinds of people have really motivated me and they give me the push.

There is another person that had really motivated me even before I joined journalism, and he may not know.  That is Deji Bademosi.  He was in Channels then.  Each time I attended Wole Soyinka award, I would see quality works that he did.  When he showcased his works I was always impressed.  There is another person, Bayo Ewuoso.  He won the photo category that year.  It was a thing of pride and I told myself I wanted to be on the same podium with these people.  I think I was able to do that. However, I haven’t won overall.  That is my target.  I have only one opportunity more in Wole Soyinka award.  If I win the third time, that would be all.  Deji Bademosi, I think is on his own now, but has created an impression strong enough to motivate one to do quality work.

What advice do you have for those coming behind you?

I would want them to make the best of their moment.  Journalism has become cheap these days.  Everybody is a journalist these days.  But we are suffering from some challenges, one of which is fake news.   Journalism is not just about making name.  You shouldn’t say because you want to make name, you manufacture stories.  Stories are meant to be sourced with facts and figures.  If you can do that, you are good.  The future of journalism is not about “he said, he said.”  The future of journalism is about how much of deeper information you are able to get and send out, otherwise, you will be publishing what has been reported may be 24 hours ago or so. Every story has a fresh angle.  That is what I tell many people.  Take for instance, the story of UNILAG graduates 48 First Class.  Out of the 48 First Class, who is the best?  How do you get to know the best to give you the trick behind coming to be the best?  There are so many other things.  Boko Haram kills so so number people is not new any longer.  You need to do more to get more information.  If you do, the society will appreciate it.  People ask:  Who is reading newspapers?  But people are reading once they find something that is worth their time.  It is always not easy, particularly at a time like this when journalism does not really pay.  It still pays, I must say.  This is the time when those doing quality work are being appreciated.

*Concluding part to be published on Wednesday.

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