As a teenager, I was a member of “The Young Punchers”, a column reserved for young readers by The Punch to express their opinions on topical issues within the polity. The page was coordinated then by Madam Chinwe Ogbuka, and this got me glued to the paper even before I got the admission to study Mass Communication. Several years later when I needed to go for my internship, I did not think twice before settling for The Punch Newspapers. I submitted my letter to The Punch ahead and the request was approved on July 20, 1998 and I was asked to commence on the 27th of the same month. However, by the time I got to The Punch, the Head of Administration at the time who had swapped my place with another person close to her told me I had no space to undergo my internship. I felt devastated and confused as I came all the way from Kaduna prepared for the task ahead.

What you have just read is an excerpt from my book: “Persona Non Grata,” due to be unveiled soon. But today is Oga Gbemiga Ogunleye’s birthday.

I wasted no time in writing to the then Managing Director, Mr Ademola Osinubi, who mandated the editor, Mr Gbemiga Ogunleye , to intervene and he promptly did. By August 11, after my visit, the editor asked me to visit the admin department. As I was leaving  his  office  that  day,  he  gave  me  N200 (Two Hundred Naira) to support my transportation fare. By August 13, I finally secured a place for my internship but not without insults and name calling from the administration manager. I eventually resumed on August 17, 1998, following Mr Ogunleye’s intervention. On the day I eventually resumed, the admin woman looked at me and said in Yoruba that, “you have not started work, you are already writing a petition.”

READ ALSO: Again, Police smash kidnapping gang in Imo, free four hostages

I told her it was not a petition per se but just to draw the MD’s attention to my plight. Here, I must single out Mr Ogunleye, who did not know me from Adam, yet provided a space for me to take my first step in the struggle for a place in the annals of Nigeria journalism practice. I will remain eternally grateful to him for giving me the opportunity to undergo my internship at  The Punch in 1998. It was what prepared me for today. May the Lord continue to uphold him and his household. I thank God for sending him to me at that hour of need.

Note:

What you have just read is an excerpt from my book: “Persona Non Grata,” due to be unveiled soon. But today is Oga Gbemiga Ogunleye’s birthday. I know he may have forgotten. But I kept my diary. Help me pray for him and his children, please. May Allah send helpers their way. Happy birthday to you, sir! Aseyi se amodun, sir.

The post EXTRA: Initiation into the World of Journalism appeared first on Frontpageng.

Fate, however, had a different plan for him. An advertisement from the Nigeria Institute of Journalism appealed to his strong literary skills, and he applied, still thinking of keeping himself occupied, whilst awaiting admission into the Nigerian Defence Academy. The NIJ admitted him to study for a short-term course in sub-editing. He found the programme so enjoyable that he entered for the more demanding two-year professional and academic diploma programme, which included an industrial attachment, which took him to the Daily Times. By 1976, he was ready for the job market and the Punch, established as a weekly in 1973, employed him in readiness to go daily in 1976.

From the reportorial cadre where he was an airport correspondent in 1976, and chief reporter in 1978, to his emergence as the Group News Editor in 1985, Deputy Editor in 1986, and later as the pioneer editor of the Saturday Punch, editor of the Sunday Punch, and the Punch, Osinubi built the reputation of a diligent worker. He credits the early influences on some of the elders he worked with and those, elsewhere who served as sources of inspiration. In the former category are the likes of Sam Amuka, the first managing editor of Punch, and publisher of Vanguard newspapers, Sola Odunfa, former editor of The Punch and Jibade Fasina-Thomas, the first editor of the Sunday Punch. In the latter are the likes of Peter Enahoro, Segun Osoba, the late duo of Gbolabo Ogunsanwo and Andy Akporugo.

The Diamond Awards for Media Excellence Trust Fund is delighted to name Ademola Osinubi, a knight of John Wesley of the Methodist Church, outstanding reporter, accomplished media manager, and a legal practitioner as the recipient of its Lifetime Achievement Award for 2022.

His career in journalism spanned the second Golden Age of Nigerian journalism – the 1970s through the 1990s – in Dickensian-speak, ‘the best of times and the worst of times’; over two decades mostly under military rule, and two decades of uninterrupted civilian administration.

In this period, journalists and the news industry were tested; only the gritty, the innovative and the competent survived; some prospered, but many fell by the wayside. As a reporter, newsroom strategist, editor, and manager, Ademola Osinubi passed the tests of competence, integrity, and excellence. As a manager in a turbulent industry, he and the board of The PUNCH nurtured a corporate entity that broke bounds amid the crashing of many other news outlets.

As a professional, he experienced the burgeoning of the newspaper business during the military, when practising journalism was fraught with arrests, sometimes closure, and proscription of publications. Yet, the media held its head, and PUNCH was in the thick of it, reporting where many feared to tread and speaking truth to power.

Shut down several times by different military administrations, the paper always bounced back. During these travails and the general adverse operating environment, Osinubi proved his mettle as a manager. He and the emeritus Chairman of The PUNCH board, Chief Ajibola Ogunshola, are credited with rescuing the company when internal and external turmoil threatened its very survival. It fell on him to translate and execute the board’s vision and policies on a day-to-day basis.

Under his superintendence, The PUNCH titles excelled, setting standards and winning laurels at home and abroad. For example, as the editor-in-chief, The Punch has won the DAME Newspaper of the Year prize a record thirteen times in the 22 years that DAME has offered it.

A stickler for professionalism, and prudent management, the financial success of The PUNCH today and its reputation for reliable reporting, critical analysis, and hard-hitting intervention in the public space are part of legacies for which he and Chief Ogunshola are credited.

As a manager, he took hard decisions necessary to keep the business going. Those who worked with him appreciate his humaneness. He shares the belief that journalists deserve to be well remunerated and provided with all the modern tools they need to work. This extended to the heavy investment in printing and other production equipment in which The PUNCH stayed ahead of its competitors. The multibillion-naira PUNCH PLACE edifice at Magboro on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway that is the envy of competitors is a testament to this visionary bearing.

The Trustees of DAME see Osinubi, 67, as a study in loyalty and single-minded commitment to a cause and acknowledge his lifetime devotion to responsible journalism evidenced in his 46-year media career. In him, they see an advocate of a free, strong, and responsible media, a defender of professional standards, and a courageous patriot who has demonstrated great strength of character at momentous phases in the history of Nigeria and of its media.

The Diamond Awards for Media Excellence Trust Fund is delighted to name Ademola Osinubi, a knight of John Wesley of the Methodist Church, outstanding reporter, accomplished media manager, and a legal practitioner as the recipient of its Lifetime Achievement Award for 2022.

The post FOR THE RECORD: A lifetime of commitment to best practices appeared first on Frontpageng.