Three members of Press Club MAPOLY have been shortlisted for annual Campus Journalism Awards (CJA) organized by Youths Digest.
The trio of Efosa Taiwo, Hassan Abdulsalam and Oluwuyi Fasilat, former editor of the club all from the department of Mass Communication are among the 30 finalists shortlisted for the award.
Press Club MAPOLY and University of Ilorin Association of Campus journalist will be battling it out for the best campus media outfit.
MAPOLY and Abraham Adesanya Polytechnic from Ogun state will be competing with 28 Universities.
According to the organizers, the awards received a total of 304 entries from over 50 institutions in the country and the finalists emerged from fifteen tertiary institutions in Nigeria, who cut across 15 categories of the awards.
The 15 awards up for grabs at the event include: “Edirin Jerry-Wesley Best Student in Broadcasting Award”, “Upcoming Writer”, “Entertainment Writer”, “Sports Writer”, “News Reporter”, “Gender Equality Reporter”, “Broadcaster” and “Photo-journalist”.
Others are: “Penclub”, “Author (Book)”, “Social Media Influencer”, “Investigative Journalist”, “Features Writer”, “Editor”, “Print Magazine”, and “Campus Journalist of the Year”.
The award is the first campus journalism awards set aside for student journalists in tertiary institutions across Nigeria.
According to Alfred Olufemi, who headed the committee, the entries were graded based on merit but said some of those categories were very competitive.
“The quality of the entries received shows that journalism in the students’ space has gone beyond what we used to have in the past. Students did excellent reporting, investigations and insightful features.
“The awardees for the Campus Journalism Awards will be announced at Hotel 2020, Wuye District, Abuja on Saturday 11th December, 2021 by 3pm prompt,” he added.
The Editor of Youths Digest, Gidado Shuaib, noted that the finalists will be provided with accommodation, feeding and stipends for local transport.
He also disclosed that Dayo Aiyetan, Executive Director, International Center for Investigative Reporting (ICIR) will be the keynote speaker while Senator Ibrahim Shekarau, Former Minister of Education will be the Chairman of the Occassion, Femi Adesina, Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity will be the Special Guest of Honour, Comrade Auwal Musa Rafsanjani, Executive Director of Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre and Chairman Transition Monitoring Group (TMG) will be the Chief Host.
The theme for the 2021 CJA is “The Role of Media in Troubling Times”.
The award is now in its fourth edition after organising its first in 2018 in Abuja; the second edition held at Nicon Luxury Hotel while the Campus Journalism Dialogue held in Kano state.
