Ripples Nigeria stories grab three awards at Next-Gen Alfred Opubor Awards for campus journalists 

Two stories published by Ripples Nigeria have won awards in three categories at the Next-Gen Alfred Opubor Awards for campus journalists in Nigeria held in Abuja.

The winning stories authored by Abubakar Abdulrasheed, a campus journalist who publishes with Ripples Nigeria, emerged as winners in three categories from the pool of entries submitted for the awards across three categories.

Abdulrasheed won Best Investigative Story, Best Health Story, Best Environmental Story, and was crowned Campus Reporter of the Year.

His story in the health category supported by Ripples Nigeria, which highlighted how an abandoned PHC in Kwara State contributes to the rise in maternal mortality and complications in the state’s rural communities, won Best Story in the Health category.

His environmental story, which chronicled how indiscriminate waste dumping and open defecation in Kwara State pose the threat of epidemic to the people, won Best Environmental Story.

His report, titled “In Niger, communities suffer as multi-billion naira Auna Dam project remains uncompleted despite 38 years of investments,” which was supported by the International Centre for Investigative Reporting (ICIR), won Best Investigative Story.

The project, despite over N20 billion funding and repeated contract revisions since its initiation in 1985, remains uncompleted, dashing the hope of residents who gave up their ancestral lands for the project. They are, however, left without potable water, electricity, or irrigation for farming, which they earlier hoped for when the project commenced.

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The report that won him Best Investigative Story, along with two others in the Environment and Health categories, earned him the Campus Journalist of the Year award, bringing him a total of four awards.

The awards were presented by Netherlands Ambassador to Nigeria, Bengt van Loosdrecht, and the Deputy Director of the Centre for Journalism Innovation and Development (CJID), Busola Ajibola, at the closeout dinner of CJID’s Media Development Conference 2024, held on Wednesday, November 27 in Abuja.

For each of the three reporting award categories, Abdulrasheed received a plaque and a cash prize, while also receiving N200,000 for winning Campus Journalist of the Year.

According to the organiser (the CJID), the Next Gen Alfred Opubor Awards for campus journalists in Nigeria, organized by the Centre’s Next Gen/Campus Reporter project, recognises excellence across various categories.

The awards also celebrated exceptional campus journalists who demonstrated a strong commitment to promoting accountability, transparency, and integrity in their reporting.

Picture 1: Abdulrasheed with his four awards won at the award event.

By Abubakar Abdulrasheed

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