L-R: Rotimi Durojaiye, Aruna and Charles Okogene
The Board of Directors of Independent Newspapers Limited (INL) last week Thursday approved the promotion of some editorial staff to senior management positions.
Editor of the Daily Independent, Ikechukwu Amaechi, has been moved up as General Editor.
Amaechi, a widely read and travelled journalist, will be driving the synergy between the Editorial and Marketing Operations of the company, tying his editorial exposure and experience to react to current demands.
Oguwike Nwachukwu, the Editor of Sunday Independent, also promoted General Editor, has the core task of creating and managing the on-line publications of the organisation, among other responsibilities.
Oguwike is a tested and proven professional who has worked in other reputable media organisations before joining the INL in its formative years. He held the position of Group News Editor before becoming the Editor of the Sunday title 2007.
Other promotions made by the Board included those of the title editors and some new deputies.
Deputy Editor of Daily Independent, Rotimi Durojaiye, is to assume the position of the Editor of the flagship title, Daily Independent.
Another Deputy Editor of the title, Habib Aruna, will become the Editor of the Sunday paper, while the Deputy Editor of the Saturday paper, Charles Okogene, will step up as the Editor of the title.
The Features Editor, Emeka Duru, will take over from Okogene as the Deputy Editor of the Saturday title while the Business Editor, Kingsley Ighomwenghian, will take over from Durojaiye as Deputy Editor of Daily Independent.
The promotions take effect from November 1, 2013.
Durojaiye is an alumnus of the University of Lagos, Nigerian Institute of Journalism, Ogba, Lagos, and Times Journalism Institute, also in Lagos, from where he obtained degrees in Mass Communication and Journalism, respectively.
He joined the Independent Newspapers Limited on October 1, 2003.
In June 2006, he was arrested and charged with sedition after writing a report questioning the cost and airworthiness of former President Olusegun Obasanjo's new Presidential jet.
The charges were later dropped.
In December 2006, he was honoured by the House of Representatives Committee on Aviation for his invaluable assistance on the Civil Aviation Act, 2006.
He was appointed the Group News Editor of Independent Newspapers in 2007; he became Group Business Editor in 2008.
He was promoted Deputy Editor of the newspaper in 2011 but still with oversight functions over the Business Desk, a position he held till January 2013 when he became the substantive Deputy Editor.
He won the Best Line Manager Award of Independent Newspapers Limited in 2011.
In 2012, Durojaiye emerged as the Best Manager and Best Staff of the Year.
Charles Chukwuma Okogene started his journalism career in 1991 as a reporter with the Evening Times, a year after graduation from the Nigerian Institute of Journalism (NIJ).
Before leaving the then biggest newspaper conglomerate in Africa in 1997 to Fame Weekly magazine, he had worked in almost all the titles on the stable of Daily Times of Nigeria (DTN) like Saturday Times, Sunday Times and the famous Lagos Weekend.
He joined the Lagos-based Fame Weekly magazine in August 1997 as the Showbiz Editor, a post he held till September 1999 when he moved to Global Excellence as its pioneer Showbiz Editor.
Three months after, he became the magazine's General Editor and in 2001 was promoted the Editor of the magazine; a position he held till 2004 when he took up appointment as one of the pioneer staff of Sunday Independent on May 1, 2004.
Between 2004 and October 24, 2013 when the Board of Directors approved his promotion as the Editor of Saturday Independent, Okogene had functioned as the Group Life Editor and the pioneer Deputy Editor, Saturday Independent.
A widely travelled journalist, he went on tour of Papua New Guinea in 1993 with Ras Kimono, in 1999 he was the only journalist from Nigeria that accompanied three times Grammy Awards nominee and KORA Award winner, Femi Anikulapo Kuti, on a promotional and performance tour of his hit album, Bent! Bent! Bent! to France, Switzerland, Belgium and Germany, a tour that lasted for three months.
His quest for excellence in journalism has taken him to Ghana in 1994 to cover PANAFEST (Pan African Arts Festival), 2010 for African Movie Academy Award (AMAA) nominees' party and March 2013 for Ghana Musicians' Union Week, Cote D'Ivoire for Dunhill Jazz Festival, Kenya in 2010 for the second edition of MTVbase Music Award for Africa (MAMA) and South Africa in 2010 for the closing ceremony of Big Brother Africa (BBA) and Cannes, France for MIPCOM in 2009.
As a young reporter, he won the Daily Times Ombudsman award in 1995 and 2006; he received a letter of commendation from INL management for the professional manner he covered the Big Brother Nigeria (BBN) TV reality show in 2006.
Born 50 years ago, Okogene who holds a degree in History and International Studies from the Lagos State University (LASU), has also attended workshops and seminars such as the BBC World Service Training Trust workshop on election coverage in Nigeria in 1999, Nigerian Copyright Commission (NCC) workshop on collective management organisation (CMO) held in 2010, Annual CNN Multichoice African Journalist Media Workshop also in 2010 among others.
Habib Adamson Aruna, the new Sunday Editor, joined Independent Newspapers Limited as a pioneer staff on October 1, 2001.
Before then, he had a stint with The Guardian, where he worked for two years in the Features and Supplement Departments before leaving to teach British/American Politics at a Sixth Form school, D-Ivy College, Ikeja, Lagos.
Before his new appointment, Aruna was the Deputy Editor (Politics) of the newspaper.
