Investigative Journalist of the Year Award

The MamaYe investigative reporting for maternal and newborn health is to improve the positive representation of stories around the health of pregnant women and newborns, and also to ensure that such stories are in-depth, of high quality and accurate use of evidence.

The health correspondent of Nigeria’s People’s Daily newspaper, Miss Adedoyin Ojosipe, is the MamaYe Investigative Journalist of the Year 2016. Ojosipe was invested in the MamaYe country office in Abuja on 5 August, during which she also received a cheque for the sum of 50,000 Naira.

Ojosipe won the award for her effort in investigating the landmark safe motherhood programme of the Ondo State Government, Abiye, and publishing the report as a two-page special report in the People’s Daily issue of 13 July 2016. This followed a short training in MamaYe’s investigative journalism and evidence-based reporting of Maternal and Newborn Health (MNH).

In the report, Ojosipe detailed the accomplishments and challenges of the Ondo State safe motherhood programme, which has been acclaimed locally and internationally as a model that is saving mothers and children, and can be adopted to improve maternal and child health at all levels in Nigeria.

At her investiture, Ojosipe said the award had caused a fundamental and lasting positive change in her. She also said the effort was her first major investigative report, and thanked MamaYe for the opportunity, which has rekindled her interest in journalism.

The awardee, who studied Mass Communications in the University of Jos, Nigeria, said although she got a job in a bank after her graduation, she left to pursue a career in journalism when she heard of an opening in the People’s Daily.

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