December 12, (THEWILL) – Nothing best describes an individual who, in the space of one year, steps up from an almost position to a winning one than hard work. Around this time last year, Victor Osarumwense Asowata, Cartoon Editor of THEWILL newspaper, stood on the podium of NECA Building on Agidingbi, Ikeja, along with two or so colleagues nominated for the Wole Soyinka Award for Investigative Reporting (WSAIR).
At that stage, any of the nominees could emerge winners of the most prestigious award for excellence in journalism in Nigeria, especially investigative journalism.
Asowata was hopeful like the rest of the contenders, to be the one to be presented with a plaque depicting the leonine features of the Nobel Prize laureate. The award went to someone else. If he was disappointed in any way, Asowata did not show it. Instead, he went back to the drawing board and, as they say, worked assiduously like a beaver and quietly like a computer.
Just last Thursday December 9, 2021 at NECA Building, before an assemblage of scholars and the diplomatic corps, media heavyweights, students and the public, Asowata had his day: his industry paid off as he emerged winner of WSAIR in the Editorial Cartoon category.
Unlike the other categories, Asowata had no contenders. Translation? The judges were simply bowled over by his entry that they didn’t even consider nominating other entries along with his as runner-up. His entry, it must have seemed to them, was in a place all by itself, a real cut above the rest.
Titled “Seed Time and Harvest,” Asowata’s winning entry is a subtle dig at the consequences of a common practice in the northern part of Nigeria where young men and women are compelled to beg in the streets. Decades later, the Alamjiris morph into terrorists, a scourge that has become a real problem to the country.
Along with the now famous plaque resting secure on shelves in the homes of dozens of journalists who have won in the past, Asowata received a cash prize of N200, 000 and a laptop, the most important gadget for any working journalist anywhere in the world.
“I dedicate this award to God,” Asowata said in his acceptance speech shortly after he won. “I also dedicate it to the entire team at THEWILL newspaper.”
Barely a year on the newsstands, THEWILL newspaper has done well for itself in its short period of existence, a point echoed by Asowata in his post-victory speech. “We are not big but we have done big things for ourselves and the country as a new media organisation.”
How true! Sometime in September, Anthony Awonor, Aviation Correspondent of the newspaper, won the first prize in the Nigeria Media Nite-Out Award which also held in Lagos. Asowata’s is the second.
However, this is not the first time the cartoonist will stand before distinguished audiences in Lagos and elsewhere to lift up trophies recognizing his dedication to work, the artistry he brings to bear on his craft. In 1999, for instance, he won the Musical Society of Nigeria National Painting.
Asowata started gathering his sheaf of awards from very early on. He won the Yusuf Grillo Award for Most Deserving Student while in Auchi Polytechnic as a diploma student. In the same year, he got Best Rector Award for best painting student as well as Nigeria Card award for best life drawing student. There have been Academy Press Award and Diamond Award for Visual Excellence in 1995 and 2005 respectively. He also won the BBC – WST (World Service Trust) Thirteen Cartoon Award of Excellence on FG Budget monitoring and fiscal policy between 2007 and 2008.
It was not for nothing that during the citation, the compere at the 2021 WSAIR, Ini John-Mekwa, pointedly called Asowata a serial award winner.
The cartoonist’s latest addition to his shelf-full of laurels reconfirms what his colleagues already know about him. With his oblong face and angular features, Asowata is as serious as they come, working in monkish seclusion either at home or in the office, not aloof but sometimes taciturn, sitting for long stretches with the unblinking concentration of an artist at work in a cat-quiet atelier.
Asowata has worked in more than a dozen media establishments ever since he took up his first media work as a Graphic artist in Edo Broadcasting service in 1992. Those old enough remember his bylined illustrations for Sunday Concord, Comet and Anchor. They would also have seen his cartoons in Punch, Daily Independent and Leadership newspapers. He has also had his run with private organisations like Tanus Communications, Vericore Technologies and Zenith Bank plc.
All through his odyssey as a cartoonist, illustrator and painter, Asowata has snapped up awards here and there like a traveller picking up booties along the way. WSAIR is the latest in a string of accolades.
Begun in 2005, WSAIR honours outstanding journalists from the print, radio, television, photo, cartoon and online categories who focus on themes from regulatory failures, corruption in the public and private spheres, and human rights abuses in the country.
In the words of the Executive Director of WSAIR, Motunrayo Alaka, the centre uses the award as “the mechanism of investigative reporting as a tool for social justice.”
From inception till date, more than 100 Nigerian journalists have become finalists with 11 bagging the coveted prize as overall winners. The very first of the laureates in 2005 was Emmanuel Mayah, another serial winner of both indigenous and foreign journalism awards and called the Messi of Nigerian journalism, who was writing for The Sun newspaper at the time.
Putting life and limb at risk, Mayah worked as an undercover reporter in an Indian-owned company in Ogba, Lagos. His report “Inside Nigeria’s Industrial Concentration Camp” about the inhuman treatment of Nigerian workers by their Asian employers was just the kind of story the judges were looking for. By that time, there were only three categories – print, broadcast and photo.
Deji Badmus of Channels Television emerged winner with his story on “Makoko Demolition” while Bayoor Ewuoso of Punch won in the photo category with his entry “Suspects Arrested by the Police.”
With the march of time and technological advancement, the categories have been broadened to include cartoon, online and radio. But what is blindingly obvious is that the very first winning entry set a benchmark for subsequent winners: rigorous research, attention to detail and craft. Since inception, more than half of the overall winners have been in the print category.
After winning the first prize in the print category, for instance, it was no surprise that Olukunle Akinrinade of The Nation won the Nigerian Investigative Reporter of the year for his entry on how soldiers aided herdsmen in displacing a certain community in Ogun state. The displaced villagers found a new home in Benin Republic.
Taiwo Adebayo of Premium Times was commended for his investigative online publication while Ibrahim Adeyemi of Foundation for Investigative Journalism was runner-up in the online category. Kunle Adebajo won in this category.
Sharon Ijasan of TVC and Tessy Igomu of Punch were commended while Labake Fasogbon of THISDAY was runner-up.
For the radio category, Zainab Sanni of Agidigbo FM, Ibadan, and Kelechi Ogu of Rhythm 93.7 were runner-up. Mary Abayomi Fatile won in this category while Olatunji Obasa of Punch got commendation. The runner-up was Bennet Uwalaka of Daily Trust with his entry photo shot of three policemen brutalising a man they arrested at Ojota.
The winning entry was also shot at Ojota but by Abiodun Omotosho of Nigerian Pilot about a trader, Jumoke, who was killed by stray bullets from a policeman’s gun at Ojota.
WSAIR also presented CLEEN Foundation for its commitment to human rights and its Anti-Corruption Defender & lifetime Awards. Legendary cartoonist Josy Ajiboye received the Lifetime Award for Journalistic Excellence.
Speaking as the chairperson of the judges for WSAIR 2021, Ayo Obe said more than 200 entries were received this year. She commended the writers but particularly the finalists. “This is an evening of appreciation, an evening that you will also be appreciated,” insisting that “many of the entries were of very high standard. We urge Nigerian reporters to continue in this trend.”
On his part, Chairman of the Board of Trustees, Professor Ropo Sekoni, praised the entries as well. He personally presented some of the awards to some of the winners. Like a senior colleague passing the torch to a younger one, Josy Ajiboye, celebrated cartoonist for more than five decades, presented Asowata with his plaque, laptop and cardboard cheque.
Encomiums have followed Asowata’s win ever since.
Publisher of THEWILL, Austyn Ogannah, has this to say: “Victor is an incredibly gifted artist that we are blessed to have in our team. Congratulations to him for winning the Editorial Cartoon of the year in the respected Wole Soyinka Award for Investigative Reporting. It is a well-deserved recognition for his resilience and dedication to duty.”
As for the Editor of THEWILL, Olaolu Olusina, he says he is not surprised at Asowata’s win. “I’m not in any way surprised at this. Asowata is a diligent and dedicated member of the team at THEWILL. A talented artist and painter, he is passionate about his work as he speaks to the powers that be through the editorial cartoon he churns our every week. The result of his dedication to duty and passion for his work is what has manifested in his recognition as winner of the Wole Soyinka Award for Investigative Reporting.”
Described as “a prolific visual and communication artist of note, with over two decades of excellent practice in the creative arts,” Asowata insists that “art is the strongest instrument of change in all societies, through diverse creative platforms. Cartooning, particularly in editorials, provides the space for visionary probity, accountability and scrutiny in governance.”
Of the award itself, Asowata told THEWILL that he is “elated about this award, which I think is a reward for passion for advocacy and consistency in excellence. Years back, in my school days I craved for world class cartoon illustrations in our local tabloids because I was not so pleased with many that I saw. I desired to bring into the print media excellent cartoon drawings that will compare and compete with what is obtainable in foreign publications. This was my drive. I stayed on this resolve for about two decades now, and the result is what is culminating in awards today.”
About the Author
Michael Jimoh is a Nigerian journalist with many years experience in print media. He is currently a Special Correspondent with THEWILL.
