Tuesday, April 5, 2005

Nigerian, Olojede, wins Pulitzer prize
By Uduma Kalu

ONE of Nigeria's topmost journalists in the United States of America, (USA), Dele Olojede, has won the 2005 Pulitzer for Journalism for his story published in New York Newsday newspaper based in the U.S.

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The announcement which was made yesterday evening said that the Nigerian who has since left Newsday as foreign editor, won the most prestigeous American prize for journalism and letters for his story entitled, "Genocide's Child", a series that looked back at the civil wars in Rwanda.

Olojede will share this year's Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting with Kim Murphy, a reporter from the Los Angeles Times, the announcement said.

Among other prizes announced were Julia Keller of the Chicago Tribune for feature writing.

Newsday, the Los Angeles Times and Chicago Tribune all are owned by The Chicago Tribune Co.

According to reports from the U.S., announcement of Olojede's prize was greeted in Newsday's newsroom by several rounds of applause.`
The Pulitzers are the country's most prestigious prizes for journalism in the United States. Among other Pulitzer prizes won yesterday were The Associated Press, for breaking news photography, Joe Morgenstern of The Wall Street Journal, for criticism, and Amy Dockser Marcus, also of The Wall Street Journal, for beat reporting.

Olojede was foreign editor of Newsday before he left. While there he was was in charge of the papers's five foreign bureaus and its daily overage of foreign news. Prior to that position, he was the paper's Asian bureau chief, based in Beinjing. He also worked as African bureau chief based in South Africa and travelled extensively throughout Africa.

He was made foreign editor in 2001. Olojede joined the paper in 1988 as summer intern and later became special writer covering minority affairs. On loan to the foreign desk in 1992, he made the first of several trips to South Africa. His coverage drew high praise and won a number of prizes.

When he was later promoted to Newsday's United Nation's bureau chief, he covered a range of international stories before his posting in Johannesburgh.

Olojede was reporter at the National Concord newspaper in Lagos from 1982-1984 and a founding staff writer and assistant editor at Newswatch from 1984-1987.

A 1986 award winning investigating report by the journalist resulted in freeing of international known musician, fela anikulapo. And the dismissal of the federal judge who had sentenced him to prison on trumped up charges.

After winning a $26,000 Ford foundation scholar's grant, olojede ;eft Nigeria in 1987 to earn his Masters degree at columba university where he won the Henry Taylor Award as outstanding foreign student.

Olojede's other awards include the 1995 Publishers Award from Nesday nd the 1995 educational press of American distinguished achievement Award for Excellence in Educational Jounalism. He also won the 1992 Unity Award from the Press club of Long Island and several awards from the New York association of Black Journalists.

Pulitzer Prizes are annual awards for achievements in American journalism, letters, and music. The prizes are paid from the income of a fund left by Joseph Pulitzer to the trustees of Columbia Univ. They have been awarded each May since 1917 on the recommendation of an advisory board comprising journalists, the president of the university, with the dean of the graduate school of journalism as secretary. Fourteen awards are given in journalism-$5,000 each for general news reporting, for investigative reporting, for national reporting, for international correspondence, for editorial writing, for editorial cartooning, and for spot news photography, feature photography, commentary, criticism, feature writing, explanatory journalism, specialized reporting (sports, business, science, education, or religion), and a gold medal for distinguished and meritorious public service in journalism. Special citations may also be presented for journalistic excellence and initiative in other categories. The prizes in letters, of $5,000 each, are for fiction, nonfiction, drama, history, biography, and poetry; works with American themes are preferred. The $5,000 musical composition award was added in 1943. Of four traveling scholarships (of $5,000 each), three are to graduates of the Columbia school of journalism and one is for a journalism student for criticism. Pulitzer directed that the winners "study social, political, and moral conditions of the people and the character and principles of the foreign press."