Ibrahim Ahmed, 2015 winner
While reporting on the terror wreaked by Boko Haram in Nigeria, VOA Hausa reporter Ibrahim Ahmed spent weeks traveling through Borno, Yobe, and Adamawa States during the height of the extremists’ attacks there. His on-the-scene coverage brought stories of survival and resistance to VOA audiences on radio, television and on digital products, including the Hausa website he helped create.
“I feel that I have the obligation to bring the story to the world,” Ahmed said. “I was born and grew up in this part of Nigeria where, because of vicious attacks by Boko Haram, people are being killed and displaced, the economy is devastated.”
Ahmed also organized town hall meetings with youth leaders and election commission officials to discuss preventing a reoccurrence of post-election violence in Kaduna. He returned for the historic poll and delivered on-camera interviews with voters, party leaders, a former military ruler, the vice president, and the winning candidate Muhammadu Buhari. The work, however, was particularly dangerous and his reporting brought condemnation from extremists. During his travels he had to be especially cautious, never sleeping in the same place twice.