MEDIA executives in Nigeria were on Thursday
11 July gathered at a dinner at Intercontinental Hotel in Abuja to honour and celebrate one of the doyen journalists Raheem Adedoyin for his re-election into the International Press Institute (IPI) global board.

Adedoyin has been creditablly representing Nigeria and Africa at the global network of senior editors, media executives, and communication experts headquartered in Vienna, Austria.

At the event Adedoyin received accolades from guests for championing media freedom in the country and abroad.

The Chairman of the occasion the Information Minister Mohammed Idris while commending Adedoyin for being a worthy journalist of note spoke of how President Bola Tinubu’s government “is committed to ensuring freedom of media practice in Nigeria”, warning journalists not to take liberty for granted.

Mr Idris said Mr Tinubu’s administration has accorded a special priority to the entrenchment of responsible media journalism.

“We believe in media freedom. We believe in responsible journalism,” he said. “But you can’t carry out freedom itself and leave responsibilities. They have to go together for media freedom to be entrenched.”

The minister added, “We shouldn’t take it for granted. We shouldn’t think because we are media practitioners we automatically have the freedom to do what we desire.”

Mr Idris also said that press freedom was a collective responsibility that required all hands to be on deck to continue to fight for it.

The minister, however, described the re-election of Mr Adedoyin as director representing Africa on the IPI board as deserving and a source of pride for Nigeria.

“Raheem, you made IPI Nigeria like a 50-year-old organisation. Your contribution to journalism can not be quantified,” he said.

Presidential media aide Bayo Onanuga reminded journalists of their task. He added that there were rules and laws guiding journalism practice that must be observed whenever journalists discharge their duties.

“Let’s not write stories because of traffic or advertisements. Let’s be conscious of our writings,” said Mr Onanuga.

In his own speech thr President of IPI Nigeria Chapter Mojeed Muskilu talked about journalists always celebrating other people, “but we hardly gather to celebrate with each other. So, this is a very unusual event that we all find time to come here’

‘It is my great pleasure to welcome you all to this special dinner in honour of our distinguished IPI global board member, Raheem Adedoyin. We gather tonight to celebrate Raheem’s remarkable achievements and contributions to the world of journalism’, Mojeed added.

‘His tireless efforts to promote press freedom, foster excellence in reporting and support journalists worldwide are a testament to his unwavering commitment to our noble profession’, the president emphasised

The Chairman of the Board of Trustees, International Press Institute (IPI) Nigeria and Chairperson, Media Trust Nigeria Limited, Kabiru Yusuf, in his remarks pointed out the commitment of Adedoyin to the organisation when he served as secretary for 12 years. ” He gave all its time to see to the revitalization of IPI Nigeria Chapter.

he Publisher of Newspot and a member of board of trustee of International Press Institute (IPI), Nigeria, Sir Folu Olamiti commended the President, Musikilu Mojeed for steering the organisation to the path of greatness.

He noted that International Press Institute (IPI) Nigeria “is one of the best African organisations pushing for press freedom and commended members for their commitment and dedication.”

“When IPI was going through crises, there were so many people coming in and out to say let us have the elders take over the organisation. But Kabiru and others stood against it and said let us have the younger ones… We then decided to have the younger ones take over. It was a bold move…These younger ones have actually done well to take IPI to the limelight beyond our expectations”, he said

In his speech Adedoyin thanked the organisers for the surprise honour and reaffirmed his commitment to keep representating Nigeria and Africa on the International Press Institute (IPI) executive board, adding that he had been committed to fighting the ‘euro-centric’ nature of the organisation, which he believed neglected much of Africa’s needs and concerns.

‘Each time we are at the world meeting, I always say I can’t see what you are putting on the table for Africa. I’m here to represent African interests. We are always having issues’, Adedoyin emphasised.

He sad his persistence to have his way almost led to his removal from the board but for the support of  Yusuf, the chairperson  International Press Institute( IPI) Nigeria Board of Trustees, and  Nigeria President, Mojeed, as well as commending his  leadership qualities.

“What IPI International has not been able to do, IPI Nigeria is doing. And we have become the favourites whenever we have meetings. Nigeria has become the shiniest. We’ve been organising trainings conducting advocacy, and whenever we see cases of press freedom violations, we try to tackle them’, he stated.

‘But on this note, I want to caution, a little bit . International Press Institute(IPI) is not an activist organisation. In fact, we do our jobs better when we use internal mechanisms to resolve issues that bother us’, Adedoyin added

He spoke of how he joined the International Press Institute (IPI) 29 years ago through Olamiti during a trip in 1995.

‘I got to IPI through Mr Olamiti. I think we were going to Japan and other places. He (Mr Olamiti) said you have to register to become a member before you can enjoy the organisation’s benefits, Adedoyin recalled at the event

Adedoyin further said, he later served as the organisation’s secretary for 12 years while running the organization under the leadership of Yusuf, adding that Nigeria’s successful hosted the International Press Institute (IPI) World Congress in 2018 as a result of great efforts by Yusuf and his newspaper, Daily Trust.

“Everybody talks about how well we did when Nigeria hosted a successful congress in 2018. To be honest, (I give it to) Kabiru and Daily Trust. Daily Trust was the secretariat. I was literally sleeping there. For six months, for the first time in my life, I did not leave Abuja. I even missed Ileya (Eid-el-Kabir festival) for the first time in my adulthood,” he said.

He narrated how the then chairperson of Blueprint Newspapers, Idris came to his rescue when he was going to become a refugee, recalling that he was just squatting at one hotel, and Idris just came and provided N500,000 for him(Adedoyin) to offset his accumulated accommodation bills”.

He disclosed that Messrs Yusuf, Idris and Olamiti, were instrumental to his nomination and reelection into the International Press Institute (IPI) global executive board having agreed that he was the choice of the Nigeria chapter.

‘You know, Kabir (Yusuf) is a democrat. We had agreed that I was going to be nominated. On the day we were to do it, he just kept mute. I was expecting him to say, ‘gentlemen, we have nominated Raheem,’ but he didn’t. He wanted the congress to actually nominate me, which was good. And who did the nomination? It was the honourable minister. Who seconded the nomination? It was Sir Folu Olamiti.”

Roll call at the event were senior government officials, including the former Minister of Power, Olu Agunloye; former Managing Director of Champion Newspapers, Emma Agu; a former editor of The Guardian on Sunday, Fred Ohwahwa; the Director General of the National Orientation Agency (NOA), Lanre Isa Onilu; the Executive Secretary of the National Institute for Cultural Orientation (NICO), Biodun Ajiboye; and  the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media, Tunde Rahman.

The others include Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga; the Senior Special Assistant to the President, Media and Publicity, Temitope Ajayi; the Head, Editorial Board of Blueprint Newspapers, Zainab Okino; Assistant Director, Voice of Nigeria, Rafat Salami; Deputy Editor at 24th Century Chronicle, Catherine Agbo and Administrative Secretary, International Press Institute (IPI) Nigeria, Linda Kpum.

Othrts were ; Managing Editor (North) of The Nation, Yusuf Alli; the Chief Executive Officer/Editor-in-Chief of Media Trust Limited, Ahmed Shekarau, who doubles as the secretary for International Press Institute (IPI) Nigeria; the Executive Director of the International Centre for Investigative Reporting (ICIR), Dayo Aiyetan; and the Chairperson of Blueprint Newspapers Editorial Board, Zainab Okino.Chief Executive Officer of People’s Daily newspaper, Hamid Bello; the Publisher of Nature News; Aliu Akoshile; the Managing Director of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), Ali M. Ali; the Head of the Postgraduate School of Baze University, Abuja, Prof Abiodun Adeniyi, and a former President of the Nigerian Union of Journalists, Waheed Odusile.

Adedoyin was accompanied by his wife and daughter, Zainab Adedoyin.

— Additional details from NAN and Penpushing.