Former Managing Director of Daily Times of Nigeria, Dr Yemi Ogunbiyi has called for improved remuneration and provision of adequate security for the country’s journalists.

He stated this in Lagos recently during an interview, as part of activities marking 100 years of Daily Times.

He said, “when I was the Managing Director of Daily Times, I doubled staff salaries. I took staff welfare seriously. I also sent a lot of journalists on training abroad.”

He added, “if journalists were well paid and better trained, they would be fearless.”

According to him, for a journalist to do his job well, he has to be sure he is well protected.

“Journalism would be in trouble if those who practice it are underpaid and underfunded. As the Managing Director of Daily Times, my reporters did their job fearlessly because they knew I would stand by them.

People in government must also realise as journalists, our business is to hold them to account.”

Noting invasion of social media has made everybody function like editor, he however expressed optimism newspaper will not die.

He assured, “people will still read the newspaper. I said this in my memoirs. Most of the new generations read only online. For Daily Times to compete in this age, it must combine that reality with what it does. The future is expansion. For instance, it will be nice to have Daily Times Television. New York Times, for instance went into newsprint business and bought lands in Canada. They planted the raw materials for making newsprint. The same with Washington Post. They went onto other forms of business.”

Going down memory lane, he recounted, “when I became Managing Director in 1989, Daily Times owned 60 per cent of the Stock Exchange building. I doubled the rent. That year, we made huge profit, not from selling newspapers, but from rent and I pumped that into Daily Times.”

Saying some of the country’s finest journalists are those originally trained from Daily Times, Ogunbiyi also added, the late sage, Obafemi Awolowo started his media career as a trainee journalist, where he was a correspondent in Ibadan.

He further disclosed the father of former governor of Lagos State, Babatunde Fashola, retired from Daily Times, adding he visited him when he turned 70 years in Surulere.

Saying the brand of Daily Times must be sustained and never die, Ogunbiyi added, “we must document what Daily Times did for the record. That’s why I’m writing a book on Awolowo.”

Concerning documentation, founder of Folio Media Group, (owners of Daily Times of Nigeria) Fidelis Anosike agreed on the need to preserve history and tell the nation’s stories.

To him, “when you don’t know where you are coming from, you don’t know where you are going. This is starting point. The only way we can remember the works of heroes past in Daily Times is to document the history. We are trying to package a product that represents Daily Times. President Tinubu has written the forward. The book gives information about Nigeria. The book can also be called national souvenir.

They are from the archives of Daily Times.”

Speaking further, Anosike disclosed, “we don’t need anybody to pay to get the award. It is a process. We call it Nigeria’s book of life honouring the past and celebrating the future. Daily Times is a nation building platform and Nigeria’s greatest problem at this time is perception. We decided to create the book on Nigeria using our archives to celebrate Daily Times at 100.

“The first release of the book will be in January 2027. Every year, it will be revised. We also created Times Heroes Awards. Everybody that gets into the book has to come through an award system.”

We have set up an award council that will check what everybody is doing. What you get as an awardee is to be in this book. We have seven levels of screening. We are bringing one hundred most influential Nigerians.

Responding, Ogunbiyi commended Anosike’s efforts but added the job will be tough, considering level of moral decadence in the society.

To him, “our values have been perverted. The mentorship programme is in trouble.”