Kunle Ajibade, Executive Editor of TheNEWS and PMNEWS and, author of Jailed for life, and What a Country!, will be 60 years old on May 28, 2018.
To honour him, the Friends of Kunle Ajibade, alongside the Committee for Relevant Arts and other well wishers are holding a one-day Colloquium at the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs (NIIA) on Wednesday May 30, 2018 at 10a.m. It will be followed by a Cultural Evening/Poetry Reading at the Freedom Park to start by 4p.m. on the same day.
The Colloquium will be led by Professor Wole Soyinka, the 1986 winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, on A Bright Future for Nigeria and How to Get There. Fellow speakers on the day would include Dr. Kingsley Chiedu Moghalu; Mrs. Ayo Obe; Mr. Femi Falana (SAN); Mr. Owei Lakemfa; Senator Shehu Sani, etc.
The Cultural Evening/Poetry Reading that would follow this later in the day, will comprise tributes, readings and music, involving poets, solo saxophonists, drummers and other performance artistes.
Ajibade was born on 28th of May, 1958 in Nigeria. Ajibade attended Muslim Grammar School, Ibadan, Oyo State, College of Arts and Science and the University of Ife, Ile-Ife, where he obtained his first degree in English Studies. Shortly afterwards, he earned a Masters degree in Literature-In-English in the same institution.
After graduation, he worked as a Copywriter with Grant Advertising in Lagos; Senior Correspondent, The African Concord; Assistant Editor, The African Guardian; and now he is Executive Editor, TheNEWS and P.M.News.
Hia Arrest, Imprisonment, and Release
In 1995, the military administration of Sani Abacha announced the arrest of a number of Nigerians on suspicion of participating in a coup attempt. The list included former head of state Olusegun Obasanjo, his deputy Shehu Musa Yar’Adua, among others.
During the trial of the coup plotters, TheNews, one of Nigeria’s prominent investigative and combative news magazines published a story titled “Not Guilty – Army Panel Clears Coup Suspects.”
He was charged for ‘publishing materials which could obstruct the work of the coup plotters tribunal’ and for ‘misleading the public’. The crime was being “‘as an accessary after the fact of treason” and the punishment was life in prison. It was the first time journalists would be tried (and convicted) with coup plotters in the country. The account of his three years in jail is documented in the book titled: Jailed for Life: A Reporter’s Prison Notes. The book won the Victor Nwankwo Book of the year award in 2005. He is also the author of What a Country! In 1998, he was a scholar of the Feuchtwanger Fellowship.
Other journalists arrested at the same time were George Mbah of Tell Magazine, Chris Anyanwu of The Sunday Magazine, and Ben Obi of the Weekend Classique.
They were all convicted and sentenced to life in jail, while Yar’adua was sentenced to death. Ajibade was taken to Makurdi prisons, according to him, “to die incrementally”.
There was international outcry and the sentence for Ajibade was reduced to 15 years.
On 8 June 1998, General Abacha died in office. Ajibade was released on 18 July of that year by General Abdulsalami Abubakar.
Ajibade is married and has children.
• With additional biographical materials from Wikipedia
