Ogunlesi and Adeyemi win CNN journalism awards

CNN African Journalist Award is a joke if Tolu Ogunlesi, who is not even a journalist by any definition can win for excellence in journalism! It is an insult to all the true journalists of this country. Some connected writers obviously know how to get nominated for every award going, but this takes the cake. If Mr Ogunlesi is a journalist then I'm a banana.

Congratulations to Ayodeji Adeyemi. 'TELL I know, but GLIDE? Does an obscure piece in an in-flight magazine count as journalism? Only in Nigeria I suppose. I'm glad a bonafide journalist like the Kenyan won the overall African Journalist of the Year Award.

Congrats gentlemen...!

I always thought those dreadful Future Awards were the pits, a triumph of cronyism by which Chude Jideonwo builds patronage for his delusions. Now, his Future Award cliques like Tolu Ogunlesi can have CNN validation. We're in it for sure.

@ Meia, you're kidding right? When you asked if Ogunlesi's piece is journalism. Don't be a square. Glide, a blog, a community newsletter, a pamphlet--these are all places where writing and reading happens. so how is Ogunlesi's piece less bonafide?

It does reflect poorly on CNN's Africa journalist awards bash that the judges have to scour in-flight magazines to find winners. But then, think about it: what great newspapers or tv stations does the continent have? Its not as if we have an Al-Jazeerah to tap into. African media and African journalists have a long way to go to catch up even if with Asian standards, let alone Western. I guess we'd need Murdoch to give a damn about Africa to give us the lift we need. Too bad he doesn't.

Whether in an in-flight mag,blog or whatever channel he chose to write,Tolu Ogunlesi is a good and diligent writer Let us bad mouthing our own and take pride in the success of Nigerians.I am also glad for Ayodeji Adeyemi,he is no new comer to the CNN competition and I am glad he won this one.Congratulations guys,weldone.

Weytin some of una dey yarn sef? Tolu Ogunlesi is an excellent writer and journalist. Period.

Tolu Ogunlesi is a diligent but mediocre journalist. We celebrate too quickly this why we allow mediocrity to thrive in this country.

tolu, it truely exeplifies what you are "the readers sweet heart".congrats my brother, how we go celebrate now!

meia, wetin u fit write, am a journalist too. but i believe in tolu because he is doing a great job,stop the mudslinging and celebrate with us!haba

Forget about mediocrity, Ogunlesi is NOT a journalist. Period. Discredited award, if you ask me.

Guys... guys, if he isn't good then how come he's recognized eh? I think he deserves the award...Let's celebrate!

THERE IS A NEWS CHANNEL COMING UP IN NIGERIA CALLED NN24, THEY ARE GOING TO SWEEP THE AWARDS NEXT YEAR WITH PROFESSIONAL JOURNALISM AND DETAILED NIGERIAN COVERAGE

Kenya has a better journalist called robert nagila,how comes he missed out.i wonder what this judges look for.

Tolu, you've really done well and made us proud. I close my eyes to some peoples comment. I'll do the a favour, I'll pray for them.CONGRATS HOMEBOY!!

Point of correction, please - the CNN judges didn't go scouring In-flight publications to 'find' winners. Hundreds of entries came to them, and from which they picked the winners. Glide is new on the scene, no doubt, but Ogunlesi is not...

The CNN African Journalist of the year awards are for journalists and not for writers.But my concern is not whether Tolu is a journalist or not.I am not aware that an article written in an obsure in-flight newsletter has ever qualify as an entry for any of the journalism top prizes anywhere in the world. Glide magazine is not a mass medium as it does not circulate beyond the confines of Virgin Nigeria's two or three aircraft. The adjudicating panel headed by Nigeria's Azubike Ishiekwene has by its decision done a great deal of damage to the CNN awards. Funke Treasure, note that Ayodeji is new to the awards. I am excited that he won but we need to set the record straight that that was his first nomination.

Glide? Do circulation and reach of medium no longer important in determining what a mass medium is? Organisers of the award should tell us how Glide qualifies as a medium of mass communication. I have always suspected that this Azu of a guy, who discreetly does PR jobs for politicians and businesspersons, was going to rubbish the CNN awards. Anyway, congrats Ayodeji.

"836 journalists from 38 countries including Francophone and Lusophone Africa sent in a total of 1665 entries." k adigun and the rest of you losers, please define a journalist for us? chude is deluded? a guy who wrote his first book at 13? pally, you are truly a banana? some body needs to peel you so your brain gets some oxygen. so, tolu has to enter 10 times before he wins? because adeyemi is not new to the cnn competition. how stupid and "pull him down fast" can you people get? thank God ishiekwene is ibo and tolu is yoruba. and finally, where are your articles in high circulating journals? did any of you read tolu's article on madness which was published in farafina? that was fine journalism. oh, i forgot farafina is not mass circulating. you guys better start writing and stop hating. God!!

I have to echo Amazed's comments above. Next thing we know, CNN will be awarding prizes to 'writers' who have a paragraph in a company annual report. CNN should have set the bar higher and only allowed mass media platforms (whether print or broadcast). No disrespect to Tolu, but winning a continent-wide award on the basis of an article in a small airline's glossy is demeaning to the award..

…And I will bet my life on it that the Mr Ishiekwuene that I am priviledged to know from a distance (I read his column in The Punch) isn't one to be dazzled or compromised by youthful 'cliques'.

Pelu, not all that glitters are gold. It might be misleading to judge a man from a distance. Not all pastors or imams practice what they preach. So it is with writers: not all of them abide by the dictates of their writings. Iam sad that the CNN awards has been dragged into the mud when Azu is chairman of its adjudicating panel. I have not read Tolu's winning work but it appeared in a medium that should not qualify to file entries. Why can't we do anything right in Africa?

Tolu Ogunlesi is a talented and ambitious writer whose non-fiction pieces never overcomes the inherent juvenilia of his mindset. With respect, I am not convinced he has done enough to merit this huge award. Award panels need to have a sense of proportion and reality, as well as a sense of responsibility for the precedent they are setting, good or bad. That way, we will have no more screaming howlers like this. My congratulations to the Tell journalist whose award cannot be faulted.

The Arts and Culture Award is a further attestation to the narrative qualities embedded in you. I came across the said publication on a Virgin Nigeria flight and i must tell anyone who cares to listen the editorial content was awesome. For those who propound that Tolu is not a journalist please i urge you to read his article in Next Newspaper about what books elites read, with focus on Babatunde Fashola.

Naija people, na wa for una! una get mout

Some comments amaze me. Articles are sent in as entries for awards. Except circulation/spread is also listed as a criteria for winning, then the fact that Tolu's write up was written in Glide is a no- issue. Pls elevate this discussion from the gutter. If the young man writes well, then his write up can be certified to win an award. To be frank, some "journalists" don't write...they actually just rehash Press releases so spare me the righteous indignation over the fact that a writer and not a "journalist" won. There are many good writers and journalists...lucky for Tolu his writeup in the Arts & Culture category was rated the best. As a Poet and novelist this should hardly be surprising. Congrats Tolu.

Somebody please enlighten me. Who is a Journalist? Somebody who writes in a newspaper or magazine? somebody who went to journalism school? somebody who belongs to NUJ? or anybody who writes well? Really I dont care. Dora Akunyeli should be told about Tolu Ogunlesi and Ayodeji Adeyemi. We should shout about these two Nigerians plus Dr. Johnson and E.C. Osondu to the high heavens. The world needs to know we have great people too.

LMAO!!! How did Future Award enter this matter?

For the gatekeepers of journalism bellyaching here, one would want to point out that some two years ago, another Nigerian, Toyin Akinosho won the CNN Journalism Award in the Business-Economy category while still a geologist with a leading oil company and publishing an Oil&Gas journal by the side. May be the simple lesson is that, with the rise of more niche publications and other non-traditional media - new media for example - traditional Nigerian journalists should wake up to the reality of 'gatecrashers' entering into the hallowe ground and out-performing them. I mentioned new media because I read a contributor call Tolu a blogger with a ring of snottiness to it. May be a little broadmindedness would serve us here. Newspapers are closing down in the US while political blogs are on the rise. It is said that Huffington.com would sell for $200dollars a few months ago, not that Arianna would be doing that soon. President Obama recognises reporters from Politico.com in his press conferences now. By the way, i am able to celebrate Ogunlesi, not because I know him or his body of work - creative and, yes, journalistic, but because I read the Glide edition where it was published and am not surprised he got the award.

As a former journalist myself, I'd like to take a moment to ask these guys bellyaching here to just sit down, take a glass of water, drink it well well and go to sleep. This CNN Award has been running for years now and we can all count the number of Nigerian 'journalists' that have won them. I'm sure many other 'bona fide' Nigerian journalists sent in entries, but if what they sent in is anything like what mostly appears in Nigerian newspapers as articles, then its no wonder they didn't win. If you define journalist as one who has been to journalism school, then the hallowed halls of most Nigerian newsrooms would be eerily empty. Azubuike may be the president of the board, but he didn't make the rules about what gets in. Don't even think that those other judges would have let it pass if the article in question did not deserve to win. Ogunlesi may not be a 'veteran' journalist, and I say that with as little seriousness as possible, but he writes with as much verve and power as any. I believe that it was his skill that the judges recognized, not the number of copies of the magazine published. I wonder what these guys would have said if Tolu had written that article, put it up on his blog, sent in his entry and still won the award. Maybe we would have heard some screams about new media not being real media. Next thing now, we will hear gist about how really, Azubuike's wife's sister is actually married to Tolu's uncle's son, that's why Azubuike 'let' Ogunlesi win. Seriously, people. Seriously. P.S Also, wetin be Chude Chideonwo own inside this matter? Why join abuse with am? If you wan abuse Chude, wait until im win award (or is nominated(or not)) then post a comment on the story about him.

Congrats John Allan Namu for bagging back home a prestigious CNN African Journalism Award.You have always been my role model Allan.I vividly remember your journalism skills both reporting and news coverage in the KTN newsroom.All the very best and raise the bars even higher next year.Dont allow your fellows to catch up with you.

Tolu, you know I told you your next award is the Pulitzer, and then the Nobel. You were one of those I learnt the rudiments of journalism from back at Mellanby Hall Press Organisation, University of Ibadan during our undergraduate days. Today, I can beat my chest that I can do write better than many so-called journalists who went to NIJ! Na so, when you win Nobel, e go be like film trick for them eye! Carry go jare!

I am really glad for Tolu Ogunlesi.I encountered him as a brilliant co-participant in the British Council/Lancaster university crossing borders writing scheme.I am genuinely elated he made Nigeria proud at the CNN awards.We can't take anything away from this exceptional writer. I have just encountered this remarkable distinction by Oscar Wilde-journalism is unreadable, while literature is not read. Ayodeji Adeyemi also gladdens my heart for the simple reason that he is a Nigerian.This duo made sure Nigerians didn't leave the awards venue with long faces.Let us sound the conga for these young men.My prayer is this:Lord,teach us to rejoice with our own.And may we continue to produce world beaters and award winners.

IT'S SAD TO KNOW THAT WE CANT REJOICE WITH THOSE WHO REJOICE BUT VERY EASY TO WEEP WITH THOSE WHO WEEP IN THIS OUR NIGERIA. WHILE I DONT KNOW MUCH ABOUT JOURNALISM AND CO. , I WAS HAPPY TO C TOLU OGUNLESI WIN THE AWARD. BAD MOUTHING THOSE THAT SHOULD BE CONGRATULATED AND ENCOURAGED WILL NOT TAKE US ANYWHERE. IF U FEEL HE DOES NOT DESERVE THE AWARD, THEN SEND YOUR ENTRIES AND LET'S SEE WHAT YOU CAN DO!

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