Dele Olojede

Dele Olojede (born 1961)

Biography Olojede was born in January 1961 in Modakeke, Nigeria.

Olojede enrolled at the University of Lagos, where he studied journalism, and became a leader of the students' union movement. As a student, he was particularly influenced by Nigerian literary luminaries such as Chinua Achebe, Wole Soyinka and Cyprian Ekwensi, and other African writers including Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o. He also acted in Shakespeare plays in grade school and dabbled in poetry in Yoruba and English.

Newsday On 6 June 1988, Olojede joined Newsday, the Long Island-based newspaper, first as a summer intern and later as a reporter covering local news, including a stint in the Hamptons, on the East End of Long Island. He eventually became United Nations Correspondent, a perch from which he began to cover Africa, making several extended trips to the continent. He was subsequently named Africa Correspondent, based in Johannesburg, South Africa, following the release of Nelson Mandela from prison.

Olojede later worked as a correspondent in China from 1996 to 1999, after being named Asia Bureau Chief, based in Beijing. His reporting took him to all but a handful of Asia countries. Following his assignment in Asia, he returned to Long Island, where he became foreign editor of Newsday. In January 2004, Olojede took an opportunity to return to Africa as a correspondent to write about the 1994 Rwandan genocide, ten years later.

Olojede's 2004 series on the aftermath of the Rwandan genocide was well received. One story that drew particular attention was "Genocide's Child" about a mother who was raising a son conceived during a gang rape during the war.

NEXT Returning to Nigeria, Olojede launched NEXT in 2008, first on Twitter and then online and in print. Hiring 80 new journalists fresh out of college and working out of a diesel-powered 24-hour newsroom, NEXT worked to expose government corruption in the face of much resistance. Most famously, NEXT published the story that the president Umaru Yar'Adua was brain dead and not "returning soon from a Saudi hospital" as promised.

In 2011, Dele Olojede won the John P. McNulty Prize, which was established by Fellows of the Aspen Institute to reward the most innovative projects driving social change. The prize was awarded for Olojede's vision and efforts in creating NEXT in Nigeria.

Under Olojede, NEXT paid its journalists a living wage, opposing the usual local practice of politicians paying journalists and expecting only favourable coverage in return. It scooped many stories of public interest, but found that advertisers would no longer support it. When it collapsed in 2011, it owed its staff more than five months' wages.

Awards

In addition to the Pulitzer Prize, Olojede has won several journalism awards. 2011: McNulty Prize 2010: Prize for Ethical Leadership, World Forum for Ethics in Business 2010: 100 Most Creative People, Fast Company 2009: Distinguished Alumni Prize, Columbia University in the City of New York 1992: Unity Award from Lincoln University 1992: Media Award from the Press Club of Long Island 1995: Publisher's Award from Newsday 1995: Educational Press of America Distinguished Achievement Award for Excellence in Educational Journalism