Pioneering Editors Celebrate 20 Years Of LEADERSHIP’s Impact (2)

LEADERSHIP Has Evolved Into A Formidable Media Outfit

Winifred Ogbebor, first female reporter, LEADERSHIP Weekly, LEADERSHIP Daily

Twenty years is just like yesterday. I remember vividly when I went to the premises of LEADERSHIP Newspaper at No. 8, Umuozu Close, off Samuel Ladoke Akintola Boulevard, Garki II, to apply for the proofreader position.

But, in a twist of fate, I was told that, as a paper just starting out, they only needed a small number of employees, preferably those who could apply themselves to other duties besides reporting.

Besides, the late Uche Ezechukwu, a veteran journalist, humorously told me that I was too young to be a proofreader and that the position was mainly for older adults who could no longer move around.

Anyway, I was tested and taken in.

In the beginning, we were few correspondents, just about four of us in the newsroom then: Sam Nweze, Ishaku Kigbu, the late Danladi Ndayebo, the late James Avre, and me.

My job as a correspondent took off immediately.

As the only female reporter in the newsroom, I was responsible for handling the coloured eight-page pull-out, LEADERSHIP Xtra.

While writing and planning materials for the first pull-out pages, I encountered the chairman/founder, the late Sam Nda-Isaiah.

As I was engrossed with my writing, I didn’t notice when someone strolled into the newsroom and stood where I was sitting, at one of those round tables we had.

I looked up, greeted him, and he asked to see what I was writing. I handed it over to him. He read it, nodded his head, said, “Good,” and strolled out the same way he came in.

A few minutes later, upon inquiry, I learnt that he owned the place!

It was a fateful meeting with the man who I had read avidly on the back page of Daily Trust.

LEADERSHIP Xtra was a potpourri of entertainment, society, religion, education news and more.

We started as a weekly in September 2004, but less than five months later, the relentless and indefatigable chairman was ready to go daily.

The success of the weekly paper spurred him on, no doubt.

LEADERSHIP led the pack with the quality and exclusive stories it was publishing.

One such was former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s third-term agenda. I dare say LEADERSHIP was the first to break the news, even when it was just an intention that the former president had barely muted.

In December 2004, I became the first staff member to be promoted to the position of Society Editor.

By January 2005, the following year, the newspaper was on the newsstand as a daily.

As a journalist, I found it challenging in those early years, given the investigative stories the paper was known for and its visibility.

Initially, when I attended events, I was either ignored or told outright that I was not invited.

But over the years, that has changed. LEADERSHIP has evolved into a formidable media outfit that cannot be ignored.

I rose through the ranks in LEADERSHIP, and I dare say, I’m the only staff member who has worked in virtually all the departments—society editor, and went on to start the business pages with Theophilus Abbah. From there I was head of the health desk, head of the education desk, a title editor for LEADERSHIP Friday; director of adverts; director of editorial business and presently at the digital arm of the business in the Podcast unit.