Nigeria’s National Security Adviser, Nuhu Ribadu, former Ekiti State Governor Kayode Fayemi, human rights lawyer Femi Falana, and former minister Oby Ezekwesili are among the prominent figures expected to gather in Abuja for a symposium honouring veteran journalist, author, and rights activist, Chido Onumah, on the occasion of his 60th birthday.
The event, themed “Formation or Nation Building: Nigeria’s Troubled Quest for a Modern Federal Republic,” will, on Friday, bring together some of the country’s most respected voices in democracy, media, and civil society to reflect on Nigeria’s political trajectory and celebrate one of its most committed public intellectuals.
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Mr Ribadu will attend as Special Guest of Honour, while Mr Fayemi will chair the session.
The National Chairman of the Association of Nigerian Universities Alumni (ANUA), Yakubu Ochefu, will deliver the keynote address.
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The panel of discussants includes Ms Ezekwesili, Mr Falana, Samson Itodo, executive director of YIAGA Africa, and journalist Ebenezar Wikina.
MacArthur Foundation’s Amina Salihu will moderate the session.
PREMIUM TIMES’ Publisher Dapo Olorunyomi, a close associate of Mr Onumah, will serve as Chief Host while Maupe Ogun-Yusuf, co-host of Sunrise Daily on Channels Television, will anchor the event as Master of Ceremonies.
Who is Chido Onumah?
Mr Onumah brings to his 60th birthday a career spanning over three decades across journalism, rights activism, academia, and social mobilisation — work that has taken him across Nigeria, West Africa, North America, and Europe.
He currently coordinates the African Centre for Media & Information Literacy (AFRICMIL) in Abuja, an organisation focused on whistleblowing and whistleblower protection through its accountability and good governance project, Corruption Anonymous (CORA). He also chairs the board of the Scotland-based Whistleblowing International Network (WIN).
Mr Onumah co-founded the Media & Information Literacy and Intercultural Dialogue Foundation (MILID Foundation), a not-for-profit organisation that advances media and information literacy through research, education, and civic participation. He additionally coordinates the Socialist Library and Archives (SOLAR), an initiative aimed at digitising and preserving socialist, radical, and progressive history, culture, and literature.
He is co-publisher of Ikengaonline, a specialised online newspaper launched in March 2022 to promote accountability, good governance, and investigative journalism in Nigeria’s South-east.
His earlier career took him to Ghana, where, from 1996 to 2000, he served as Associate Editor of The Insight, a radical and progressive newspaper in Accra. During the same period, he was Assistant Editor of African Agenda magazine — the journal of Third World Network-Africa (TWN-Africa) and coordinated the West African Human Rights Committee, while also serving as correspondent for the New York-based Africa Observer magazine.
From 2002 to 2004, Mr Onumah served as Director of Africa Programmes at the Panos Institute in Washington, D.C., supporting journalists across West Africa and the Caribbean in covering underreported issues, including HIV/AIDS, environmental degradation, and ethnic and religious conflict.
Between 2006 and 2008, he headed the civil society and crime prevention unit at the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), where he developed a civil society anti-corruption agenda for Nigeria.
Mr Onumah holds a first degree in Philosophy from the University of Calabar, a master’s degree in Journalism from Western University in London, Ontario, Canada, and a doctorate in Communication and Journalism from the Autonomous University of Barcelona, Spain.
A Prolific Author
He is the author of several books, including Time to Reclaim Nigeria (2011), Nigeria is Negotiable (2013), We Are All Biafrans (2016 and 2018), The Politics of State Robbery (2018), Death of a Nation: Biafra and the Nigerian Question (2018), and Ndi Igbo, Leadership, Nationhood, the Nigerian Dilemma and Why We Are All Biafrans.
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He has also edited numerous volumes, among them Edwin Madunagu at 75: Tributes and Reflections (2021); Misinformation Policy in Sub-Saharan Africa: From Laws and Regulations to Media Literacy (with Peter Cunliffe-Jones, Assane Diagne, and others, 2021); Remaking Nigeria: Sixty Years, Sixty Voices (2020); Testimony to Courage: Essays in Honour of Dapo Olorunyomi (with Frederick Adetiba, 2019); Making Your Voice Heard: A Media Toolkit for Children and Youth (2004); Anti-Corruption Advocacy Handbook (with Comfort Idika-Ogunye, 2006); Youth Media: A Guide to Literacy and Social Change (with Lewis Asubiojo, 2008); Understanding Nigeria and the New Imperialism (with Biodun Jeyifo, Bene Madunagu, and Kayode Komolafe, 2006); and Sentenced in God’s Name: The Untold Story of Nigeria’s “Witch Children” (with Lewis Asubiojo, 2011).
Awards and Recognition
His work has earned him multiple international honours, including the Jerry Rogers Writing Award from the University of Western Ontario, Canada (2002); the William C. Heine Fellowship for International Media Studies, also from the University of Western Ontario (2001); the Alfred W. Hamilton Scholarship from the Canadian Association of Black Journalists (2001); the Kudirat Initiative for Democracy (KIND) Award for Excellence in Journalism in Nigeria (1999); and the Clement Mwale Prize for Courage in Journalism from Africa News Service in Kenya (1997).
