RADIO NIGERIA WINS 32nd DAME HEALTH REPORTING AWARD

Alfred Ajayi of the Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria, (FRCN), has won the award for the Health Reporting Category of the 32nd Diamond Awards for Media Excellence, DAME.

At an event, which took place in Lagos on Sunday night, his entry entitled “How Anambra State runs over 630 PHCs with 150 nurses, midwives” was adjudged the best among several entries.

Ajayi, a Controller News with Radio Nigeria, Purity FM, Awka, Anambra State, was earlier in November shortlisted as one of the three finalists by a group of 18 erudite judges including academics, journalists administrators, creative consultants and researchers.

His winning entry had also won the 2022 Prize for the Professor Chinyere Stella Okunna Ethical Journalism Award in Anambra State in December 2022.

Responding to the DAME honour, Mr. Ajayi appreciated Radio Nigeria for giving him the platform to express himself and explore the media space, promising to keep the flag flying.

“First of all, it is to give God the glory for this blessing. I am also indebted to Radio Nigeria, which provides the platform for this award. It will spur me to work harder towards uplifting the people and uniting the nation,” Ajayi stated.

Earlier, DAME Trustee, Mr. Lanre Idowu, noted that the society needed the media for sanity.

He said the annual event, which underscored the importance of the media is also to encourage the culture of appreciating the media’s critical role in society.

“From the several entries this year, we noticed that journalists have great story ideas but most of them loose focus in the course of executing their ideas. That’s why some categories were stepped down and are not awarded tonight.

“We should pay greater attention to the emergence of AI. There should be collective efforts to sustain standard and quality of the media in Nigeria.

“There’s a lot to engage all of us who care about standards, the media and the society,” Mr. Idowu said.

FRCN was the only radio station with a winning entry while all other awards were won by print and online media outlets.

EDITED BY CHUKWUBUIKE