Renowned Mass Communication teacher Prof Idowu Sobowale (OON) has been appointed Ombudsman of The Nation by the newspaper’s Board.
Prof Sobowale, who has accepted the job, will serve in that capacity to strengthen the paper’s efforts to regulate its operations and promote better relationship with the public.
His appointment comes on the heels of the advice of the Nigerian Press Organisation (NPO) comprising the Newspapers Proprietors Association of Nigeria (NPAN), Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE) and Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) to every media house to appoint an Ombudsman. The Ombudsman will act as an arbiter between a media house and the public during a dispute.
The NPO’s advice followed moves by a member of the House of Representatives to amend the Nigerian Press Council (NPC) Act by inserting certain clauses inimical to the interest of the media.
The Federal Ministry of Information backed the plan and went before the National Assembly to endorse it, despite the objection of NPAN, NUJ and NGE.
The sole aim of the amendment is to ensure regulation of the press by the government, a task which the media houses contend that they can adequately perform by themselves.
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In a letter to Prof Sobowale, the Managing Director/Editor-in-Chief of The Nation, Mr Victor Ifijeh, said the eminent scholar and public opinion poll expert was appointed because of his antecedents.
The MD said Prof Sobowale would, in the discharge of his duties, ensure that The Nation kept to the Canons of Journalism and the Code of Ethics.
The Ombudsman will also mediate conflicts arising from internal and external pressures, hold The Nation responsible to the principles of honesty and accountability in the discharge of its duty and protect the public’s right to know.
Prof Sobowale, academic, author and administrator thanked the company for the appointment. Prof Sobowale, a seasoned journalist, worked in the Daily Times in the days of Doyen of Modern Nigerian Journalism, the late Alhaji Babatunde Jose. He covered the civil war for the paper and also had a stint in Lagos Weekend, a title in the Daily Times stable.
He left journalism for the academia. He was a lecturer in the Mass Communication Department of the University of Lagos and a part-time teacher at the Times Journalism Institute (TJI).
Prof Sobowale was invited to repackage Prime People, a soft sell, when the paper was in crisis. He subsequently left to start his own publication.
He served in the Jakande and Tinubu administrations in Lagos State.