NB’s Golden Pen Awards Beckons

Yinka Olatunbosun
In furtherance to its support of arts and literary excellence in Nigeria, the Nigerian Breweries has opened another window of opportunity this year for writers and photojournalists in the media with the fresh call on them to enter their works published in 2015 for the 8th edition of the prestigious Golden Pen Awards. The winners will be announced at a glamorous ceremony slated for Friday, October 28.

The award was instituted in 2008 on the heels of successful projects such as The Creative Writing Workshop and The National Arts Competition. Asides those, Nigerian Breweries had backed talent hunts and reality shows such as Star Music Trek, The Maltina Dance All, The Gulder Ultimate Search and Amstel Malta ShowTime.

To promote professionalism and objective reportage in Nigeria, the award was instituted to reward journalists, both in the print and electronic media. The good news for photojournalists for this edition of the award is that the prize money had been raised to be at par with that of the winner of the Report of the year.

For those who wish to participate, the central theme for the award this year is “Education, Youth Empowerment and Talent Development’’. At a press conference held at the Nigerian Breweries office, Orile Iganmu, the corporate affairs adviser, NB, Mr. Kufre Ekanem commended past winners of the awards and encouraged journalists to add some class to the profession by improving on personal appearance and decorum. He recalled the past beneficiaries of the awards and how they have projected the ethics of journalism through their winning entries.

“The 2014 edition was the beginning of the expanded platform that draws attention to critical development areas by rewarding journalists who excel in reporting themed areas. In that year and also in 2015, we rewarded journalists such as The Nation’s Seun Akioye, The New Telegraph’s Hussain Sulaiman, Tell Magazine’s Anthony Akaeze and The New Telegraph’s Godwin Irekhe, top winners in the Reporter of the Year and Photojournalist of the Year categories of the award in 2014 and 2015 respectively, for their works that draw attention to Education, Youth Empowerment and Talent Development. We also celebrated THISDAY’s Raheem Akingbolu and Canice Opara of BusinessWorld who won the prize of the Golden Pen Nigerian Breweries Report of the Year in 2014 and 2015 respectively as well as eight other winners who were runners up in the Reporter and Photojournalists of the year categories,’’ he said.

Meanwhile the deadline for the submission of entries is August 19. An independent jury will analyse the received entries for their originality, news value, use of resources, credibility and factuality. Other areas of interest would include info-graphics, layout/headline, clarity and social responsibility.

The winner of the NB Golden Pen Reporter of the year will smile to the bank with the sum of N1m, while the sum of N500,000 goes to the winner of the Report of the year. The Golden Pen photojournalist of the year gets N500,000 while the first runner-up and second-runner up in the reporter of the year category get N300,000 and N200,000 respectively. In addition, the first runner-up and second runner-up in the photojournalist of the year category will win N250,000 and N200,000 respectively.