Manasseh Azure Awuni, the founding Editor-in-Chief of The Fourth Estate, has been named the overall best African Investigative Journalist at the 2023 Norbert Zongo African Prize for Investigative Journalism (PAJI-NZ).
Held on Saturday night in Burkina Faso, the awards ceremony honoured outstanding investigative journalism pieces from 140 applications originating from 29 different countries.
After taking home gold in the broadcast category and silver in the web category, Mr. Awuni was named the night’s grand winner. Plaques, certificates, and a US$4,000 award were given to him.
President Akufo-Addo’s COVID-19 spraying scandal, which won first prize in the television category and the overall award, exposed how the president of Ghana started a needless and fraudulent Covid-19 spraying campaign that ended up costing the nation around $100 million.
The investigation revealed that the spraying operation violated guidelines from the World Health Organisation, which prohibited such operations. Additionally, it stated that multiple government contracts now covering the entirety of Ghana were in place to carry out the exercise, should it be necessary.
The story continued by providing concrete evidence that the Ghanaian assemblies were capable of completing the spraying task, but they were forced to step aside so Zoomlion Ghana Limited could be awarded a new contract.
The three-part investigative series “The Licenced Sex Predator,” which placed second in the online category, exposed a quack medical professional who took advantage of his registered practise to seduce and assault several women seeking treatment at his clinic.
On behalf of Manasseh Azure Awuni in Burkina Faso, Prof. Kwame Karikari, a well-known media scholar and the founder of the Media Foundation for West Africa, collected the prize.
Ghanaian state officials apprehended the licenced sex predator, closed down his establishment, and prosecuted him, thereby ending his mistreatment of helpless and vulnerable victims.
The sanitation business that the President engaged, Zoomlion Ghana Limited, has been ordered by the Ghanaian Parliament to have all contracts with Metropolitan, Municipal, and District Assemblies revoked for fumigation. Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee referred to the contracts as a “waste of taxpayers’ money.”
In 2017, Manasseh’s Robbing the Assemblies investigative series involved extensive investigation on the existing fumigation and spraying contracts.
“I am particularly happy about this award because of the story that won me the ultimate prize, the spraying scandal,” Mr Awuni said of his recognition. “Because it involved Zoomlion, media houses did not want to broadcast it. Zoomlion had paid for media coverage for the exercise.”
In honour of the murdered Burkinabe investigative journalist Norbert Zongo, the Norbert Zongo African Prize for Investigative Journalism (PAJI-NZ) honours African journalists for their outstanding work in print, radio, television, and online media exposing corruption, organised crime, human rights abuses, environmental crime, and terrorism.
