SolaceBase Report Wins International Award for Investigative Journalism
(L-R) James Ojo and Jabir Ridwan
An investigative story by SolaceBase Communications, a leading online publication in Nigeria based in Kano has won an international award.
The award won in the online category at the 2024 African Prize for Investigative Journalists (PAJI) was jointly produced by James Ojo and Jabir Ridwan.
The PAJI award “honours the productions of journalists who showed courage and determination in their work and respected higher journalistic standards and deontological principles.”
The 2024 edition of the award, organised by the Media & Democracy (M&D), an Afro-European organisation, and the SJM (Union of Mauritanian Journalists), took place in Nouakchott, Mauritania, on Tuesday, December 3, 2024.
In the winning entry, the SolaceBase report uncovered how sale of unverified medical documents by health officials for a fee across government-owned hospitals in Sokoto state undermines public trust in health facilities and puts communities at risk of diseases.
The story titled ‘’How sale of unverified medical documents in Sokoto hospitals is undermining public trust, put communities at risk’’ was jointly written by James Ojo and Jabir Ridwan under the Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism (WSCIJ) under the collaborative Media Engagement for Development, Inclusion and Accountability Project (CMEDIA) funded by the MacArthur Foundation.
The report also revealed that some officials at the hospitals investigated issue false medical fitness reports for N1,000 while that of the medical report goes for N2,000.
The PAJI Award was first launched in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso in 2021. The award celebrates investigative journalists in print, web, radio, and TV. Winners in each category get 1,000,000 FCFA or €1,500 while the second and third get 500,000 FCFA and 250, 000 FCFA respectively.
At last year’s edition of the award held in Dakar, Senegal, Ojo was a finalist and got special recognition from the award jury for his investigation into petrol smuggling in Nigeria.
Ojo is a graduate of mass communication from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN) where he graduated with second-class upper.Fire insurance
He has won several awards and recognition for his journalistic works — in 2017, he clinched the Reporter and Editor of the Year awards, respectively, as a campus journalist at UNN; in 2021, he was named one of the most improved journalists at TheCable; in 2022, he was named the second runner-up at the Business & Economy Reporting category of the PwC Media Excellence Awards; he was also named joint-winner of TheCable Journalist of the Year award for 2022.
He also won the 2022 Hostwriter Prize for collaborative journalism as well as Legit.ng’s Copyediting Excellence Award in 2023.
On the other hand, Jabir is a seasoned Journalist working across radio and print. He has a cumulative work experience of 4 years covering underreported stories on human rights and social justice. He holds a bachelor’s degree in physics from Usman Dan Fodio University, Sokoto.
Recalls that an investigative story by SolaceBase Communications emerged as 1st runner-up in the online category at the 2024 Journalists of the Year Award by the Africa Media Development Foundation, (AMDF).
The award was held in Kaduna, northwest Nigeria on Thursday.
The report titled “How Benue Government’s Poor Investment In Primary Healthcare Is Worsening Maternal and Child Mortality,” was written by Arinze Chijioke under the Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism (WSCIJ) under the collaborative Media Engagement for Development, Inclusion and Accountability Project (CMEDIA) funded by the MacArthur Foundation.
The story looked at how maternal and child mortality has continued to worsen as the state government failed to invest in healthcare provision while also exposing a culture of failure to release budgetary allocations for healthcare.
