The Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism (WSCIJ) is inviting professional reporters and teams of reporters with published investigative stories targeted at a Nigerian audience to submit entries for its 21st Wole Soyinka Award for Investigative Reporting (WSAIR).
Through the awards, the Centre rewards, promotes, and encourages best practices in journalism work from the print, radio, television, photo, online, and editorial cartoon broad categories, as well as from other special categories which focus on themes ranging from regulatory failures, corruption in the public and corporate spheres, and human rights abuses in Nigeria.
According to the WSCIJ, overall, judges will be looking for ethical reporting, courage, individual creativity, and public benefit in the entries submitted for the awards.
The award is open to any Nigerian professional reporter or team of reporters, whether full-time or freelancers, who are 18 years and above, who have published stories either online, in print, or in electronic media, primarily targeted at and received by a Nigerian audience.
The main criterion for eligibility is that the work, including both a single work or single-subject serial, must involve an evidence-based investigative report on public and/or corporate corruption, human rights violations, or the failure of regulatory agencies.
The story should reflect a high quality of investigation in terms of newsworthiness, capacity to expose or prevent clandestine activities, corruption in the public domain, and an understanding of human rights implications enhanced by the quality of presentation.
Such works should have been first published or broadcast in a Nigerian media outlet between October 4, 2025, and October 3, 2026.
An applicant may only submit a maximum of two entries, and applications should be submitted through the online application portal at https://award.wscij.org/award-entry-form/.
The award categories are print, radio, television, photography, online, and editorial cartoon.
The WSCIJ said that, due to the volume of entries, only reporters shortlisted as finalists will be contacted and announced after selection by the Judges’ Board.
The reporter with the most outstanding work(s) amongst the finalists will be selected as the WSCIJ-Nigerian Investigative Reporter of the year.
Only a maximum of two entries across all categories of the award will be allowed per entrant, and all submitted works must be in English language. Where the entry is in a Nigerian language, a transcript must be provided in English.
Entering for the competition commits the applicant to grant WSCIJ a worldwide, perpetual, royalty-free licence to use their works for any purpose deemed appropriate for the development of the award initiative.
According to the Centre, in order to enhance the development of media in Nigeria, reporters who have been winners in the competition on three occasions are ineligible to enter. In addition, employees of the WSCIJ or their immediate families are ineligible to participate in the competition.
The competition rules are covered by and will be interpreted in accordance with the laws of Nigeria.
The submitted entries should include a brief synopsis of the story or series, which should be a maximum of 400 words; or a picture, or a portfolio. In the synopsis, the applicant is expected to explain the background of the project, identifying the issues and key players, describe what led to the topic or caption, any unusual conditions faced in developing the project, and whether the investigation had any ramifications.
The applicant should also describe the challenges to the content of the story or series that were not reported in the original work and include an up-to-date Curriculum Vitae for every reporter who bears the by-line of the story as well as their passport photograph(s). They should also include any relevant background information on the submitted work(s).
A distinguished judges’ board, which comprises respected persons with suitable knowledge, competence, and experience in news media practice, investigative reporting and ethics, shall adjudge the competition, while every entry will be coded to conceal media houses and reporters’ by-lines using the WSCIJ entry coding system before they are dispatched to judges.
Members of the judges’ board can only assess, score, or vote on works to which they have no organisational or family ties.
All entries will undergo a plagiarism test and entries which fail the test will be disqualified.
According to the WSCIJ, due to its commitment to excellence, a category may not have a finalist if the entries in such a category are adjudged to have fallen below expected standards, as the rigorous judging process upholds the integrity and reputation of the Wole Soyinka Award for Investigative Reporting 2026.
The judges reserve the right to disqualify any piece of work or finalist if, in the judges’ opinion, there exists reasonable doubt about the authenticity or accuracy of the submitted entry or the integrity of the finalists based on the set criteria.
The WSCIJ said award recipients and winners, including Soyinka Laureates, runners-up, and commended works, are expected to be persons with high ethical and professional standards, adding that the organisation reserves the right to withdraw awards at any point in time based on the misconduct of an award recipient.
Further information may be obtained by email at wscij@wscij.org or by phone through +234-908-251-517
The deadline for submission of entries is 4 pm on Saturday, October 24, 2026.
To apply for the Awards, please go to https://award.wscij.org/award-entry-form/.
The Award was instituted and first held in October 2005 to aid the development of an investigative reporting culture in the Nigerian media.
In naming the award after Professor Wole Soyinka, a Nigerian writer, playwright, poet, and winner of the 1986 Nobel Prize in Literature, the initiators hoped to bring further attention to his untiring and relentless support for the cause of freedom of expression.
Annually, nominations open in October for the award presentation ceremony usually held on December 9, during the World Anti-Corruption Day.
Judges are selected from a pool of veteran investigative journalists, media professionals and academics for the award programme, which has so far rewarded 130 finalists, 13 investigative journalists of the year, and 31 honorary award recipients for their outstanding work.
The award winner receives a cash prize, an award plaque, a certificate of commendation, a computer backup hard drive, and an international study tour.
Besides the investigative reporting category, the award also has two honorary awards, namely the Lifetime Award for Journalistic Excellence and the Anti-corruption Defender Award, to honour the great past of the media profession and to recognise individuals or organisations for their noteworthy stance against corruption respectively.
The Executive Director of Media Rights Agenda (MRA), Mr. Edetaen Ojo, was honoured with the Lifetime Award for Journalistic Excellence in 2017 at the 12th edition of the Award ceremony.
