Hayatullah Folorunsho Mudathir was busy helping his customers editing, and printing their projects on a sunny Sunday afternoon in October when his phone popped up new messages on the notification bar. He had initially wanted to look away as the mammoth crowd before him could warrant, yet he couldn’t help but swung his eyes and peeped through to see a message directing him to his email for an important message.
While combing through his mail, Hayatullah, who had earlier given up because he thought the deadline had passed, saw a congratulatory message in his spam folder. He therein discovered that he had been nominated for the most competitive Alfred Opubor Next-Gen Awards, and filling the google form sent to him was the only means of confirming his availability to attend an in-person conference, featuring Award & Dinner ceremony at Abuja.
In 2023, Hayatullah co-authored a data story sponsored by Campus Reporter under the Centre for Journalism Innovation and Development (CJID) project after Data Journalism Training facilitated by Mr. Kehinde Ogunyale. The story titled; School Fees Increment Pose Troubles for Nigerian Students subsequently won the 2024 Best Data Story of the Next Gen Alfred Opubor Awards for campus journalism in Nigeria.
The award was presented by Netherlands Ambassador, Bengt van Loosdrecht, and the deputy director, Centre for Journalism Innovation and Development (CJID) Busola Ajibola, was announced on Wednesday, November 27, during the closeout dinner of the CJID’s Media Development Conference 2024.
About The Alfred Opubor Next-Gen Awards
The Alfred Opubor Next-Gen Awards are a set of awards for campus journalists in Nigeria. The Awards aim to recognise and encourage exceptional campus journalists who continue to champion accountability and transparency in Nigeria and also contribute to solutions through storytelling.
The awards, facilitated by the Centre for Journalism Innovation and Development (CJID) through its Next Gen/Campus Reporter project, are named after Alfred Opubor, Nigeria’s first professor of mass communication.
The maiden edition of the awards was held in 2018 with seven categories, and second edition in 2022 with nine categories. This year’s categories include Best Fact-Check, Best Campus Investigative Journalist of the Year, Best Procurement and Budgetary Story, Best Gender Story, Best Health Reporting and Best Solutions story among others.
The award is organized to celebrate exceptional campus journalists who have demonstrated a strong commitment to promoting accountability, transparency, and integrity in their reporting.
Reward for Excellence and Commitment
In the late evening of Wednesday, 27th November, 2024, at the Dinner and Awards ceremony which formed part of the CJID 2024 Media and Development Conference that took place at Continental Hotel, Abuja from Monday 25th to Wednesday 27th, the former Pen Press Editor-in-chief, Hayatullahi Folorunsho Mudathir was announced as overall winner of the Best Data Story with a story he co-authored with a campus journalist from the University of Ibadan, Olanshile Ogunrinu titled “School Fees Increment Pose Troubles for Nigerian Students”.
In an interview with PEN PRESS, Hayatullahi expressed his happiness for emerging the winner of the category.
“I felt so excited when I heard my name called alongside my co-author, Olanshile. Although the story we pitched was a very good read, I wasn’t expecting it to emerge winner because of the competitiveness of the category we pitched for. However, the win gave me the utmost joy and affirmation that our work is worth celebrating,” he said.
Tale of Rejections and Dejection
Hayatullahi Mudathir narrated how he and his co-author suffered while writing the story that won the award. Ranging from inability to get students’ reactions to several rejection of the story and the infographic designs by their editor and trainer.
“The affected students were afraid to speak up at that time, due to the fear of intimidation from their school’s management. Most of them pleaded anonymity, but we couldn’t publish a story with all sources being anonymous. So, it took us a long time to get sources who were convinced by our pleas to get their names published.
“Also, our infographic design gave us a tough time, as our trainer kept rejecting our designs until we got it right. When we also thought we were done with the story, our editor, Iretomiwa Dele-Yusuff sent us back to the field to get some particular reactions and cover some of the Departments we reached out to, from 100 level to their final years. At some point, we wanted to give up, but the collaborative efforts kept us moving till we got the story published,” he reeled out.
The Glimpse of Hope and Success
Former Editor Hayatullahi confirmed that the achievement meant a lot to him because he had been rooting for the Alfred Opubor awards since its second edition when some of his fellow campus journalists were selected in 2022.
“That year, I felt happily jealous as I wished I could also be among them, so I put more effort in my writings, as I kept shooting for opportunities, and thank God, those I genuinely clapped for that year now clapped for me too among other well-wishers,” he To all Campus Journalists
Hayatullahi advised aspiring campus journalists to continue writing good works and always shoot their shots for opportunities.
“The only tips to use in gaining global recognition is to Keep writing rightly, and never stop reading other people’s works, and never get tired of shooting for opportunities and networking. That application you thought you were not qualified to apply for, may be your starting point of success, so, shoot it!” he advised.
About Writer: Abdullateef Faruq is a 300-level student of Education English at Usmanu Danfodiyo University Sokoto (UDUS). He is a passionate campus Reporter.