From left: Mr Akeju, Sen. Akin Odunsi, Haroun Adamu, Madam Taiwo Ajai-Lycett, Alh Mohammed Ibrahim, Prof Okunna & Sir Steve Omojafor


 Dr OMONIYI IBIETAN  captures moments at the formal flag-off of the NMMA 30th Anniversary and Special Recognition Dinner for Corporate Partners and Media Leaders at the Lagos Sheraton Hotel, Ikeja.

The keynote address was delivered by Prof. Umar Danbatta, Executive Vice Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Communications Commission. The keynote, titled, “The NCC New Strategic Vision (Implementation) Plan (SVP) 2021-2025: A Transformation Agenda”, was presented by my boss, Mr. Reuben Mouka, Director Public Affairs of NCC, on behalf of Prof. Danbatta.


Dr Omoniyi Ibietan & Prof. Chinyere Okunna


The Nigeria Media Merit Award, NMMA is Africa's foremost media excellence scheme. The Keynote Presenter at its inauguration in December 1991, Chief MKO Abiola, said:

"History has clearly shown that only the credible threat of exposure keeps public officers from abusing their public trust. Where no such fear exists, we are compelled to depend only on the good conscience of the public officer. And common sense and bitter experience have shown that conscience alone is a notoriously insufficient guaranty of accountability and probity. Unless and until the press becomes the eyes, the ears and the mouth of the electorate, acting as watchdog over the conduct of public affairs... government shall continue to be run like a company without internal control and without proper audit."

Today, at the 30th Anniversary forum of NMMA, Prof. Danbatta states in his keynote speech: 

"The foregoing adds up to reasons I consider it a great honour to stand before this gathering of media professionals, who wield considerable influence as members of the Fourth Estate of the Realm, an institutional social structure that holds the three leading branches of governmental power – the Executive, Legislature, and the Judiciary – accountable and responsible to the public...let me emphasize at this juncture that, the Commission seeks increased partnership of the Nigerian media professionals gathered here today to help in tracking progress being recorded and identifying challenges to achieving each of the 5 visions in the SVP 2021-2025." 

What M.K.O. Abiola and U.G. Danbatta have said is to amplify the voice of the America's 3rd President, Thomas Jefferson, who said, "Our liberty depends on the freedom of the press, and that cannot be limited, without being lost." The British perceptive historian, Lord Acton, restates, with candour, the imperative of vigilance on power and implicitly called the media to task when he put the danger of unquestionable power of the ruler in a poignant, ominous sense in his popular quote: "Power tends to corrupt; absolute power corrupts absolutely."

And the Premium Times, Nigeria's flagship of online newspapering, puts the centrality of objective media conclusively: "Good journalism costs a lot of money. Yet, only good journalism can ensure the possibility of a good society, an accountable democracy, and a transparent government."