INSPIRING:
NIGERIA’S journalist, AMINA YUGUDA of Gotel Television WINS BBC World News Komla Dumor Award…Receives Honor for consistent Investigative News on high-profile stories including the Boko Haram insurgency
* News Presenter begins three-month placement at the BBC in London
* Award created to honour Komla Dumor, a presenter for BBC World News, who died suddenly aged 41 in 2014
* She impressed the panel with her story-telling and her ability to convey complex ideas in a way that resonates with a wide audience
* “It was a huge honour. I was overwhelmed with joy. Storytellers have always had an important role in Africa… this is what defines us. Today journalists are taking on that responsibility”-Amina rejoices
* BBC World Service Group Director Francesca Unsworth: ‘Yuguda was a worthy winner. She possessed Komla’s sterling virtues in Investigative Journalism’
*Receives Ovation from Nigerian-American Press Association
BY KUNLE OLAWOLE/REPORTER, LONDON & GEORGE ELIJAH OTUMU/FOREIGN BUREAU CHIEF, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
HARDWORK pays. HER love for investigative journalism pays off eventually, as AMINA YUGUDA representing Gotel Television wins British Broadcasting Corporation, BBC World News Komla Dumor Award for various insightful, resourceful investigative reportage on high-profile news stories in North-Eastern Nigeria, including Boko Haram insurgency.
According to BBC, Yuguda, a news presenter on local network Gotel Television, constantly reports on high-profile news stories, including the Boko Haram insurgency with lots of passion in investigative journalism drawing in human angles.
She already began a three-month placement at the BBC in London two months ago (September), where she is undergoing detailed training in broadcast journalism, learning of new media tools and latest media technology for news sourcing.
The award was created to honour Komla Dumor, a presenter for BBC World News, who died suddenly aged 41 in 2014, Komla Dumor: Face of Africa. Yuguda said her win was a “huge honour. I was overwhelmed with joy. Storytellers have always had an important role in Africa… this is what defines us. Today journalists are taking on that responsibility.”
Intelligent-spoken Yuguda impressed the panel with her story-telling and her ability to convey complex ideas in a way that resonates with a wide audience. She is excited working at the BBC, given her understanding of the corporation’s impact among pastoralists in her hometown. Her application for the award reads:
“With little or no formal education, my countrymen can hold their own in a variety of topics, including the Trump presidency in America, North Korea’s defiance, Russia’s foreign relations under Putin, and more.”
BBC World Service Group Director Francesca Unsworth said Ms Yuguda was a worthy winner, “To find someone who possesses many of Komla’s qualities is something for us to celebrate, and we are very excited about working with Amina.”
Previous winners of the Komla Dumor Award were Ugandan news anchor Nancy Kacungira and Nigerian business journalist Didi Akinyelure.
Nigerian-American Press Association, NAPA celebrates this remarkable media achievement of Amina Yuguda as “an extra-ordinary media feat worthy of emulation in Investigative journalism.” Making this position known during the Annual General Meeting, AGM, Steven Franklin, President of NAPA said, “Yuguda sterling media feat has shown to the world that Nigerian brand of investigative journalism can stand, shoulder-to-shoulder with any Western press.”
