Story: About Leadership Newspaper

Like many others, Leadership is a daily  Nigerian national newspaper. The Leadership media group was created in October 2004 and it was published by Leadership Newspaper Group situated in Abuja, Nigeria. One thing you can find with clarity on the site is the media assertion which says “We shall stand up for good governance. It goes further to say  We shall defend the Nigerian interest even against its leaders and we shall raise our pen at all times in defense of what is right. These are the assertions and claim boldly on their website, This can also be seen as there values by which they intend to be assessed.

HISTORY

The history of this paper is a very interesting one to consider, although it is not as old as other newspapers and probably did not witness the brutality and the media oppression that comes with the military regime, this however does not mean it didn’t battle it own challenges.  On 2007, 9th of January, some state security service agents raided the Leadership offices and made some harrasment and unlawful arrests, part of the people they arrested were Abraham Nda-Isaiah, editor Bashir Bello Akko and journalist Abdulazeez Sanni. The reason for their arrest is considered by some to be a funny one, the main cause was about an article which was written by journalist Danladi Ndayebo, the article contains the political overturn within the ruling party  “People’s Democratic Party” (PDP) as Umaru Musa Yar’Adua was nominated and emerged the winner of the presidential candidate for the party. So much harassment was made by state security services and especially the police force. On the 6th of May 2008, some members some the Nigerian police force from the Niger State Command again raided this time the Leadership head office and made some unlawful arrest which is not new to the people, they arrested the deputy editor, Danladi Ndayebo with no warrant at all. The editor of the paper thought that the main reason behind the unlawful arrest is that Prince Charles Dickson wrote an article that was said to have defamed the person and character of Senator Isa Mohammed.

SOME NOTABLE AWARDS

The Leadership media house is known for there unbending courage and involvement in political affairs. Their ability to unravel some political mysteries got a lot of attention from the members of the public and government officials. The media house has won many awards in its lifetime.  The Nigerian Union of Journalists on December 2009, Named the Leadership newspaper as the Newspaper of the year. The prestigious award was accepted by Abraham Nda-Isaiah, he is the company group Executive Director.

The Leadership media group has also marked some structural changes in its lifetime. Right on the first of January 2011, Azubuike Ishiekwene became the first managing director of Leadership Newspapers and Abraham Nda-Isaiah became managing director of Leadership Holdings. It was not new that Ishiekwene had formerly been editor of The Punch, and subsequently managing director of that same newspaper. April 2011 was the year IGolu Timothy who was a former editor of the newspaper was elected into the office of the state House of Assembly in the Kanke Constituency of Plateau State. He contested on the PDP platform. He was reported to be interested in being the speaker of the Plateau House of Assembly.

The Leadership reposted Writer Shai Afsai’s photograph along with his first-person article On July 17, 2013. The article was entitled “Igbo Jews of Nigeria Strive to Study and Practice” right under the title “Igbo-Jews Of Nigeria Study And Practise Judaism,” which is named the Leadership’s Igho Oyoyo as its writer. This, however, did not go well for him as he was being threatened with lawsuits and some specific legal action as raised by the New English Review editor, the Leadership media house was forced to issue a public apology for the plagiarism and also forced to correct it errors.