Deadline: 24-Oct-2025
The Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism (WSCIJ) has announced the Wole Soyinka Award for Investigative Reporting, designed to celebrate excellence and integrity in investigative journalism across Nigeria.
The main criterion for eligibility is that the work (single work or single-subject serial) must involve evidence-based investigative report on public, and or corporate corruption, human rights violation, or on the failure of regulatory agencies. The story should reflect a high quality of investigation in terms of newsworthiness, capacity to expose or prevent clandestine activities, corruption in the public domain, an understanding of human rights implications enhanced by the quality of presentation.
The award is open to Nigerian professional reporters or teams of reporters, including freelancers, aged 18 years and above, who have published investigative stories in print, online, or electronic media targeted at a Nigerian audience. Submissions can be entered in any of the seven categories: Print, Radio, Television, Photography, Online, Editorial Cartoon, and Print – Newspaper and Magazine. Each entry must meet the specific submission requirements for its category, including providing clear scanned copies, e-paper versions, or web links of the published works.
Photo entries will be evaluated based on storytelling, creativity and originality, impact, density, and technical quality, while editorial cartoons will be judged using similar parameters. All entries must be in English, and where necessary, an English transcript should accompany works produced in any Nigerian language. Entrants can submit a maximum of two works across all categories.
A distinguished judges’ board comprising experienced professionals in journalism, media ethics, and investigative reporting will assess the entries. Each submission will be anonymised using WSCIJ’s coding system before evaluation to ensure fairness. All entries will also undergo a plagiarism test, and any that fail will be disqualified. Categories that do not meet the expected standards may have no finalists.
Past winners who have received the award three times are not eligible to re-enter, while employees of WSCIJ and their immediate families are also excluded. Interested applicants must submit a synopsis of their story, a current curriculum vitae with a passport photograph, and any relevant background information.
The deadline for submission of entries is 4:00 p.m. on Friday, 24 October 2025.
For more information, visit WSCIJ.
