Vivian Chime, James Ojo, Busola Aro share TheCable Journalist of the Year award

Vivian Chime, James Ojo, and Busola Aro have been named joint winners of TheCable Journalist of the Year award, the newspaper’s editors announced on Saturday.

The award, which comes with a cash prize of N300,000, recognises journalists within the ranks of TheCable “who have demonstrated industry, resilience, and self-motivation as well as having produced impact stories during the year”.

Chinedu Asadu — who now works with the Associated Press (AP), an American non-profit news agency — and Taiwo Adebulu, now features editor of TheCable, won the awards in 2020 and 2021, respectively.

VIVIAN CHIME

Chime is a joint winner courtesy of her trailblazing reports on the Climate Change Desk — which she pioneered. With a small team, she has made the desk a reference point for climate change reporting in Nigeria.

One of her most impactful stories for 2022 is on the resilience of women in Ibagwa community in Owukpa, Ogbadibo LGA of Benue state, who sent coal miners packing following the contamination of drinking water and environmental degradation by coal miners.

Chime, a graduate of mass communication from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN), won a Climate Tracker fellowship to cover COP27 in Egypt in November 2022. She is also a corps member of the US-based Report for the World (RFW), an initiative of The GroundTruth Project which supports “ground up” journalism to serve under-covered corners of the world.

JAMES OJO

Ojo, also a graduate of UNN, is a joint winner by virtue of his versatility, hunger for significant reports, and his drive to consistently push himself to do more. Some of his reports — including an undercover report on the bribery and cartel conspiracy around the cross-border petrol smuggling trade, as well as an investigation into security operatives flouting the okada ban in Lagos — have shaped national discourse.

After the report on petrol smuggling, the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) announced efforts to tackle the menace and weed out “bad eggs” within the agency.

On the okada ban violation, the Lagos police command vowed to take urgent steps to prosecute officers found culpable.

BUSOLA ARO

Aro, a graduate of Kogi State University, where she studied mass communication, joined TheCable in 2021.

She was picked as a joint winner for her rapid development as a journalist, and for writing one of the most impactful reports of the year — an exposé on court officials in Lagos state who charge arbitrary amounts before issuing documents and certified true copies (CTC) of court rulings.

After the report was published, the Lagos government set up a panel to probe and take disciplinary action against court officials found guilty of extorting residents.

CLAIRE MOM, AYODELE OLUWAFEMI ARE FINALISTS

Claire Mom and Ayodele Oluwafemi were selected as finalists for the award, owing to their consistency and immense contribution to the team, which make them primed for greater heights in 2023.

Mom, a graduate of theatre arts from Benue State University, joined TheCable in 2022 and has carved a niche in quality reportage, commitment to professionalism, and dedication to duty.

Some of her reports include how a 12-year-old born with HIV was “rejected” by Command Secondary School over his status, as well as the plight of teenage internally displaced persons (IDPs) who rely on herbs and quacks to remove unwanted pregnancies.

Oluwafemi, also an RFW corps member and graduate of the University of Benin in Edo state, is a criminal justice reporter whose reports have brought issues around crime, security, and justice in Nigeria to public consciousness.

One of Oluwafemi’s most impactful reports of the year is an investigative piece on affidavit trading and seal forging inside Lagos black market for court documents.

Following the report, the state declared “total war” on persons dealing in counterfeit court documents. Subsequently, fake affidavit traders were arrested by officials of the Lagos State Environment and Special Offences Enforcement Unit.