Esther Onyiyechi Mark, winner of “The Nation’s” Entertainment Reporter for the year 2012.
An immediate past student of the department of Mass Communication, Esther Onyiyechi Mark has won the Entertainment Reporter of the Year award of The Nation newspaper.
Esther bagged this award in an occasion organized in Lagos on December 2, by The Nation newspaper in conjunction with the Nigerian Bottling Company.
The award which had seven categories was scrutinized by editors drawn from The Nation, Vanguard, The Guardian and two other national newspapers.
In an interview with echo online Tuesday, the recipient of the award, Esther Mark who writes for the Campus Life segment of the newspaper disclosed that the award came to her as a surprise considering her reluctance in the first instance to put in for nomination.
“I never wanted to put in for any of the awards but was persuaded by my colleagues from other universities to choose some of my stories for the award. So I chose three stories for three categories – entertainment, investigative and one other. I was surprised when I was called upon for one of them” she said.
She appreciated God for this singular honour while thanking her lecturers for helping her to reach this height at this tender stage of her career. “Mr. Obateru specifically gave me the platform by introducing me to write for the Campus Life segment of ‘The Nation’ newspaper. I took over from Ruth Ofodike – my immediate senior.”
According to Esther, the road to success hadn’t been easy, as she most of the time tries to combine her studies with the art of news gathering. “Things had not been easy. I faced a lot of challenges; borrowing laptops from colleagues, running to cover stories on my expenses and missing some of my lectures. But God has been of help so far.”
She said the awards given to her (an HP laptop, a certificate and a plague) will go a long way in enhancing her performance and encouraging her to do better.
Esther intends to be a journalist by profession while having a thought to establish a school of her own in the no distant future.
