Gov Otu Revives 56-year-Old ‘Nigerian Chronicle’ Newspaper

Cross River State governor, Senator Bassey Otu, has revived the 56-year-old State Newspaper Corporation, publishers of the Nigerian Chronicle, and commissioned a newly installed state-of-the-art the state government printing press at the corporation’s complex on Barracks Road, Calabar.

The event marked the return of one of the state’s oldest media institutions after years of decline and infrastructural decay.

The minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, who joined Governor Otu to commission the multi-million naira printing press, commended the governor for the intervention.

He said that by reviving the corporation, Otu had “breathed life into the sector” at a time when newspapers were struggling nationwide.

Defending the federal government’s economic reforms, the minister urged media practitioners not to write stories that would tear the country apart.

He said, “Any proposal that aims to take us back is not acceptable,” and urged medi practitioners to observe professionalism ahead of the 2027 elections, stressing that “Elections will come and go, but Nigeria will remain.”

In his remarks, the immediate past Commissioner for Information and Orientation, Dr Erasmus Ekpang, who executed the project, said the Corporation had for over five decades served as “a beacon of information and custodian of the state’s collective memory.”

He explained that outdated equipment and time had weakened the institution until Governor Otu took “the bold step to renovate, remodel and refurnish the complex” and procure modern printing machines that now place Cross River “alongside leading states in printing technology and capacity.”

Former Governor of the state and former Economics Desk Editor of the Nigerian Chronicle, Chief Clement Ebri, described the commissioning as the restoration of a legacy battered by brain drain and the 2020 destruction.

Recalling the paper’s history, he said, “The intellectual quality was high. We had one of the best minds in Journalism in the days of Ray Ekpo.”

He added that in 1979, “the chronicles sent me to the United States of America, and I learned a lot from that trip. It was a place where young journalists could learn.”

Ebri called for the paper’s repositioning for the digital age, stressing that “digital is immediate” while “Print is archival.” He urged Cross Riverians to support the revived institution by reading, advertising and donating old records so the Chronicle can again “tell the story of Cross River to Nigeria, Africa and the world.