By Oluwafemi Popoola
Veteran journalist and former presidential aide, Laolu Akande, has celebrated Nigeria’s 63rd Independence anniversary, reminiscing on how his new outfit, Empowered Newswire, honoured 50 prominent Nigerians in the US and North America during the celebration of Nigeria’s golden jubilee independence anniversary in 2010.
In the throwback videos he shared, via his official social media accounts, Facebook and Instagram, some prominent Nigerian personalities are seen in the clip posing for group photographs while others are seen exchanging pleasantries.
These prominent persons include Harry Akande, Oby Ezekwesili, Joy Ogwu, late Ambassador Adebowale Adefuye, Prof. Toyin Falola, Billionaire Dr. Kase Lawal and so on.
Akande, who is the founder of Empowered Newswire, wrote on his official Instagram account, “#ThrowbackThursday: A leap back to over a decade ago when Empowered Newswire honoured Nigeria’s golden jubilee. We celebrated 50 outstanding Nigerians, making waves in the US and North America. Time truly does fly when you are witnessing greatness. #ProudlyNigerian”
Also, in a separate post, Akande wrote, “More throwback clips from over a decade ago when Empowered Newswire honoured Nigeria’s golden jubilee. We celebrated 50 outstanding Nigerians, making waves in the US and North America. Some prominent faces seen in the clip from back then are; Harry Akande, @Obyezeks, Joy Ogwu, Late Ambassador Adefuye, Prof. Falola, Kase Lawal and so on.”
In one of the videos, Akande fielding questions from a female interviewer asking the veteran journalist how he came up with such an idea, said in his response: “We just figured out that the golden jubilee anniversary of Nigeria presented a great opportunity for global focus on Nigeria. And we thought that was the right time to come up with this idea. We do have issues in the country, at least we think the country can do better than what it is right now. And we thought what is there to celebrate, the people, especially the people that are here in North America.”
Continuing, he said, “So, we said OK, let’s celebrate the Nigerians that are here, that are distinguished. Let us use this opportunity to correct the often bad press that we get in the media. Like I said during the Programme, if we don’t shine the light on our people, nobody else is going to do it. So the golden jubilee anniversary presented a very good opportunity for us to capture that idea which has been on for a while and we said wow, this is the time to do it.”
While in Nigeria, Laolu Akande worked with media outlets such as The Guardian, The News and Tribune, (where he became an editor), among others. He turned out to become one of the youngest ever Nigerian journalists to edit a national newspaper when he was named the editor of Nigerian Tribune at 30 years old before he relocated to the US in 1998.
Having worked as a journalist in Nigeria between 1989 and 1998, Akande became a Foreign Correspondent for The Guardian in North America and also founded Empowered Newswire, a private news agency.
