Associate Editor and multiple award-winning journalist with The Nation, Olatunji Ololade, has emerged as winner of the 2021 Fetisov Journalism Awards (FJA)’s Outstanding Contribution to Peace category.
According to the organisers, he emerged as winner with a cash prize of CHF100,000 Swiss francs and a unique silver statuette designed and handcrafted in Switzerland.
Ololade came top ahead of other contenders including Haris Rovčanin and Albina Sorguč from Bosnia and Herzegovina and Ali Al Ibrahim (Sweden) and Khalifa Al Khuder (Syria) who clinched the second and third prizes respectively in the category.
The President of the Ethical Journalism Network and Honorary Advisor to the Fetisov Journalism Awards, Aidan White, in his remarks during the virtual presentation said: “The winners of this year’s Fetisov Journalism Awards are chosen in troubled times. And they are superb examples of fact-based journalism that people need to meet these challenges.”
“These winning stories demonstrate why truth-telling journalism is important to all of us. Today we pay tribute to all the winners, and we congratulate them! They have done good work, and they have made a difference to people’s lives.”
Ololade’s winning entry: “The boys who swapped football for bullets –https://thenationonlineng.net/the-boys-who-swapped-football-for-bullets/” was among the 400 stories submitted in total from 80 countries.
Reacting to this incredible feat, he said: “All praises to Almighty Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. I am immensely grateful and so psyched to win international journalism’s biggest prize, the Fetisov Journalism Awards.”
He also thanked the management and those who contributed to the success of the story.
“It is yet another great win for The Nation and a testament of the newspaper’s constructive, human interest journalism. Great thanks to the management for approving the funding of the field work and my gratitude to the team I work with. I am proud to be part of The Nation’s culture of journalism excellence,” he added.
In 2020, Ololade’s investigative series on sex trafficking of Nigerian girls across West Africa: 21st Century Slaves, was also shortlisted for the Outstanding Investigative Reporting Category of the Fetisov awards.
Ololade is a recipient of 35 awards for journalism excellence spanning different categories of the CNN/Multichoice African Journalist of the Year Award, West Africa Media Excellence Conference and Awards (WAMECA), Wole Soyinka Prize for Investigative Journalism (WSCIJ), Diamond Awards for Media Excellence (DAME), UN/Migration Reporting Awards, Rotary Humanitarian Journalism Awards and the Nigerian Media Merit Award (NMMA).
