Tribune wins DAME Editorial Writing award

The Nigerian Tribune, on Saturday, reconfirmed its status as Nigeria’s media intellectual powerhouse, carting away the 2017 Editorial Writing gong at the 27th Diamond Awards for Media Excellence (DAME) held in Lagos.

At the 25th Nigeria Media Merit Award (NMMA) held in December last year, the Tribune won the prestigious Editorial Writing of the Year award. Our entry, “The post-oil era is here,” was adjudged Nigeria’s best editorial for 2016.

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The latest award, which comes at an epochal moment as the paper approaches 70 years of consistent professionalism and pace-setting in media standards, shows convincingly that Tribune editorials are reshaping public discourse and contributing to the search for a better Nigeria.

The award-winning editorial, entitled: “Being candid on Buhari’s absence,” published on February 17, 2017, is a call for honesty in information management in public office and a call on governance to desist from being a vehicle for falsehood.

Given the conflicting narratives from the government’s information bureaucracy and the difficulty posed to Nigerians in trying to sift the grain from the chaff regarding the president’s health status, the editorial demonstrates that nothing justifies the spreading of rumour better than the absence of a consistent and credible official narrative.

It argues that to the extent that the relationship between the leadership and the citizenry in a democracy is expected to be based on mutual trust, a modicum of credibility is required in the exchange. When this is absent, an unhealthy relationship characterised by mistrust and cynicism invariably ensues, ultimately to the harm of the entire governance process.

At the risk of being repetitive, we insist that editorials are the heart of newspapers, the work of master craftsmen and women. They celebrate noble actions and condemn ignoble deeds, especially by public institutions and officials.

Through our editorials over the years, we have shown that excellence in governance is both desirable and attainable.