Last week was a date with with cerebral excellence at Nestle Nigeria, where, at a colorful ceremony organised to reward and celebrate the exceptional talent and professionalism of journalists in Nigeria, winners of Nestle Nigeria Media Awards 2024 flew high in the view of attendees and the lens that projected the event in spiralling dimensions.
The judges had a herculin task to review severally especially in a situation of extended back to back winner, but the eagle still could not loose focus of the prime winner Edet Udoh, the Publisher of The Revealer Online, www.therevealerng.com; it was his third consecutive time (2022-2024). He emerged as the highest award winner at the 2024 Nestle Nigeria Media Awards which took place, December 19, 2024, at the 157 Gardens & Event Centre, Ikorodu Road, Lagos. and was attended by journalists from various media organizations, including those who submitted entries for the Awards. Laying credence to this the organisers said “This year’s awards promise to highlight some of the most exemplary pieces of works that you have done which have captured the essence of truth, integrity and social responsibility.
Udoh’ colours was the brightest out of the 285 entries received for the seven categories of awards, he lifted off the hands of the organisers two first positions and one second position in the following categories: Best Story on Nutrition and Affordable Foods Solutions (1st position), Best Story on Women Empowerment and Best Story on Agriculture (2nd position).
In 2023, out of the eight categories of awards presented by Nestle Nigeria, he won three first positions and one second position in the following categories of the awards: Best Story on Agriculture (1st position), Best Story on Community Development (1st position), Best Story on Youth Empowerment and Development (1st position) and Best Story on Nutrition and Affordable Food Solution (2nd position).
This year, Udoh’s submissions for Nutrition/Affordable Foods Solutions, Women Empowerment, categories namely: “Enhancing Nutritional Levels To Achieve Sustainable Growth,” Assessing Nestle Nigeria’s Contributions To Women’s Empowerment In Nigeria” were adjudged the best stories for first position, while his entry for Agriculture titled “Nestle Supporting Regenerative Agriculture, Guaranteeing Food Security,” was considered the Best Story for second position.
Other winners of award at the occasion were: first BEST STORY ON FINANCE Odume Festus Azubuike of Financial Edge (1st Prize Winner, Best Story on Finance) for his entry titled “Navigating Turbulent Times: Nestle Nigeria’s Journey To Recovery”
Joan Chioma Obinagwam of Confiance News (2nd Prize Winner, Best Story on Finance) for her entry titled “How Nestlé Nigeria can leverage Hedging in mitigating currency risks”
Nkiruka Nnorom of Vanguard Newspaper (3rd Prize Winner, Best Story on Finance) for her submission titled “Top manufacturers list woes, incur N266bn losses in 1yr.”
On the stand of BEST STORY ON AGRICULTURE CATEGORY Godwin Anyebe of Consumers Assembly (1st Prize Winner, Best Story on Agriculture) for his entry “Nestlé Nigeria’s Agricultural Ventures: A Model for Multinational Corporations in Nigeria.”
BEST STORY ON ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY was flown high by Vivian Ihechu of the News Agency of Nigeria (1st Prize Winner, Best Story on Environmental Sustainability) for her story titled “How WASH Facilities foster hygiene practice in Ogun State.” Usukuma Ntia of Brand Communicator (2nd Prize Winner, Best Story on Environmental Sustainability) for his entry titled “Why Environmental Sustainability Remains The Core Of Business Operations At Nestle Nigeria.” Obinna Odogwu, working with The Gavel (3rd Prize Winner, Best Story on Environmental Sustainability) for his entry “Nestlé: How we’re tackling climate change, promoting environmental sustainability globally.”
For BEST STORY ON NUTRITION, Innocent Eneta of the Daily Global News (2nd Prize Winner, Best Story on Nutrition) for his entry titled “Combating Malnutrition in Nigeria Through Accessible and Nutritious Food Solutions, A Collaborative Approach – Daily Global News.”
BEST STORY ON WOMEN EMPOWERMENT
The women’s order was occupied by Bonny Amadi of NewzMile Africa (1st Prize Winner, Best Story on Women Empowerment) for his entry “Beam of Light in Nigeria’s Extreme Austere Era.”
BEST STORY ON COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT was also recognised, the winning hand was Usukuma NTIA of Brand Communicator (1st Prize Winner, Best Story on Community) for his story titled “Nestlé’s Commitment To Development: Empowering Needy Citizens In Our Communities.” Chikama Roseline working with the African Brands (2nd Prize Winner, Best Story on Community), for her story with the headline “Nestle Nigeria: Championing Community Development Through Sustainable Initiatives.”
Temitope Comfort Obayendo of Pharma News clinched the (1st Prize Winner, Best Story on Youth Empowerment) for her entry titled “How Nestlé is Empowering, Shaping Future of Nigerian Youths.” Hyacinth Nwafor of the Hybrid News (2nd Prize Winner, Best Story on Youth Empowerment) for his story titled “Nurturing young talent throughh Nestles Development Programmes.”
BEST PHOTO STORY
The beauty of the lens was spotted and Nurain Aliu of the Legend News got (1st Prize Winner, Best Photo Story) his winning entry was “Nestlé Provides Water And Sanitation Facilities In Community Schools, Ogun State.” Following after was Shaba Gbenga of Omonaija Blog (2nd Prize Winner, Best Photo Story) Photo story: “Nestlé Nigeria supports media practitioners with challenges, families of deceased journalists, and Olawale Amoo of BusinessDay (3rd Prize Winner, Best Photo Story) for his entry “MILO Basketball Championship- A losers pain”.
In her opening remarks at the awards ceremony, Victoria Uwadoka, Corporate Communications/Public Affairs Manager & Sustainability Lead, Nestle Nigeria, highlighted why the awards was initiated in 2021. She said the awards was initiated to recognise the pivotal roles that the media plays in shaping public discourse, influencing policies, and driving societal progress.
Uwadoka added that Nestle Nigeria Media Awards is Nestle’s way of acknowledging the invaluable roles journalists play in fostering a well informed and empowered public as well as to turn the spotlight on journalists who have always busy turning the spotlight on others.
She said the privilege “to celebrate excellence in journalism and the remarkable contributions to Nigeria’s social-economic development as media professionals” deserves awards. “This is why we created the Media Awards to turn the spotlight on you who always turn the spotlight on others..You are always busy celebrating others behind the camera, using your pen, behind the radio programmes – you are always there celebrating others. This is the time to turn the spotlight on you – you deserve it! This is also the time to celebrate your achievements – You who have always celebrating the achievements of others.”
Emphasising the need for media integrity, responsibility and innovation, she said “This year’s awards come at a time when media integrity, responsibility, and innovation are more important than ever. It is a time when this is very important to us as a nation. This is a time that we either make it or break it as a nation, so this is very important.
“From breaking news to investigative journalism, from in-depth reporting to story telling that resonates with the heart of our nation, you continue to be a pillar of democracy, national development and unity.
“As we go on with today’s celebration, we are reminded of the power of words. Today we are going to celebrate those words that you used to create a picture in our minds. We are also going to look at the power of images; so there is a category that celebrates images. We are going to see how you have used story telling to shape our perceptions, to shape our minds, to challenge the norms and to encourage accountability.
“Let us take time to recognize the hard work and dedication we have put behind that work; let us celebrate each other. Everyone in this house is already a winner. Let us encourage and acknowledge that passion that drives us to seek excellence and to commit to truth that makes all the difference. Welcome to the fourth Nestle Nigeria Media Awards. I look forward to celebrating you all.
Members of the panel of judges for the awards were Lead, Lagos Chapter, Nutrition Society of Nigeria, who is also a retired nutritionist, Africa Manager, Nestle Nutrition Institute, Dr. Chioma Emma-Nwachukwu, Lead Judge, Dr. Sunday John, Senior Lecturer, School of Media and Communication at Pan Atlantic University, and Rosemary Ngozi Otalor, an Account Director at APO Group.
While commending participants for their entries the judges also pointed out areas the journalists need to improve upon in submitting credible and acceptable entries as well as on how to improve the standard of the awards going forward.
According to Dr. Chioma Emma-Nwachukwu, “I want to congratulate all the participants for doing a good job; I remember that when we started it was not like this. I have seen that there has been a lot of improvement, I must say “You know that when a child is just sitting there are certain things you will expect from that child. But when a child starts crawling, standing, walking and running, you will want to get more from the child. So I can see that the Nestle Media Awards is no longer sitting, it has started crawling, I think the child is no longer crawling, the child is now walking.”
Dr Sunday John in his contribution said, “I saw very interesting topics by journalists as people who have gone through journalism education. Many of the entries were not disappointing, they were very well written such that in going through the entries, one really needs to read them many times to be able to come out with the one that is considered to be better than others.
“Even with this, some areas require improvement, especially the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) as a tool available for us. Technology is good and AI is one of the emerging technologies we are still adapting to its responsible use, and how it can be of benefit to us without eroding our essence as human beings; without taking over our thinking faculties; so for it to be used responsibly, we must put in our perspectives as human beings endowed with knowledge and understanding.”
Speaking also, Rosemary Atalor added “Last year the entries we got were good but not as the entries we received this year. I can tell you there was too much pressure on the judges who had to read the entries many times to come out with the best. It was a tense session for us and it got to the point that we had to review the reviewer; everybody was put on the spot.
“There were two entries that we had after reviewing it several times, we had to keep them aside and went back to review them again. This shows how competitive the entries this year were. What stood out about the winners is the originality. Last year we saw a lot of press release submissions. People were submitting their stories as received. But this year, you see the effort of originality, people own those stories, you see the depth of research.
The entries were superb this year.
“So those things like originality, and owning the stories by putting themselves into the story so that people understand their perspective stood out very clearly. People over-researched and it became a problem. Next year, we need to talk about the length of entries because some entries were like a case study – like a White Paper thereby giving judges a tough time to go through it. These things will be considered next year so that we have a good standard of measurement and grading to ensure that we have the best entries and a globally acceptable Awards.”
Commenting, Udoh expressed excitement for being the winner of the highest number of awards at Nestle Nigeria Media Awards for three consecutive years (2022, 2023 and 2024).
He thanked God for His favour and commended Nestle for instituting the Awards to celebrate, reward and recognise professionalism and journalistic excellence among media professionals in Nigeria.
