The two honorary awards; the Lifetime award for journalistic excellence and the Anti-corruption defender award will be presented to Ms. Amma Ogan, first female editor at the Guardian and Dr. Chidi Odinkalu, Chair of the National Human Rights Commission, respectively.
Amma Ogan is being honoured with the Lifetime award for journalistic excellence for her invaluable contribution to media excellence in Nigeria while the Anti-corruption defender award is being awarded Chidi Odinkalu for his integrity, hard work, unconcealed crusade for the enthronement of human rights and his dogged stance against corruption.
Winners, runners-up and commended works will be announced at a public award presentation ceremony scheduled for Monday 9 December 2013 at the NECA main hall, opposite Afrika Shrine, Agidingbi, Ikeja Lagos at 5pm.
Professor Wole Soyinka, WSCIJ’s Grand Patron; Dr. Andrew Pocock, the British High Commissioner to Nigeria; Hon Rotimi Amaechi, Rivers State Governor; Prof Ropo Sekoni, WSCIJ Board Chair are some of the guests expected at the event which is supported with funding from the Rivers State Government and the British High Commission.
The Wole Soyinka Award for Investigative Reporting was first held in October, 2005 to encourage the development of an investigative tradition in the Nigerian media through rigorous scrutiny of human rights violations, regulatory failures and corruption in the public and corporate sectors of the nation’s life and has so far rewarded 59 finalists.