Adesina to GOCOP: You have done great as professional online publishers; Dotun Oladipo returned as Guild’s President

The Special Adviser to President Muhammadu Buhari on Media and Publicity, Chief Femi Adesina, has commended members of the Guild of Corporate Online Publishers, GOCOP, for raising the bar in online journalism as thorough-bred professionals.

Adesina stated this while delivering his goodwill message at the just concluded and well attended third annual conference of GOCOP, which held elaborately on Friday at Sheraton Hotels, Ikeja, Lagos.

In the words of Adesina, a two-time president of the Nigerian Guild of Editors, NGE, who also represented his boss at the epoch gathering: GOCOP has done great.

“It is my pleasure to be here. Remember, I have always attended all your events because I believe in you and what you are also doing online as professional journalists. In fact, I helped in setting up GOCOP. I am very happy because GOCOP has kept its standards since inception. GOCOP has done great and has also helped to bring sanity to the online space. Truth is that GOCOP has done better than some traditional media houses, who now rush to publish just anything,” he said.

While speaking further, Adesina, a former Managing Director and Editor-in-Chief of The Sun newspaper, called on Nigerians to support their leaders, adding that no country is totally secured.

He added: “We need to pray for our country and her leaders. We also need to join hands together to make Nigeria great. Nigeria is a success to still remain a united country, despite all what we have been through. Nigeria is a work in progress.”

Mr Dotun Oladipo, Publisher of The Eagle Online was re-elected President of the Guild at the business session of the Conference on Thursday.

He was returned unopposed through affirmation alongside other members of the executive committee elected in 2017.

Sequel to a unanimous view that the Oladipo-led executive committee performed creditably well, Horatius Egua, Publisher of The BridgeNews moved a motion to return the exco members unopposed and was seconded by Yinka Aderibigbe, Publisher of Sunrise.ng

Other officers re-elected are Maureen Chigbo, Publisher of Real News Magazine (Deputy President); Danlami Nmodu, Publisher of Newsdiaryonline (General Secretary); Collins Edomaruse, Publisher of Metrowatch Online (Deputy General Secretary); Olumide Iyanda, Publisher of QED (Publicity Secretary); Segun Adeleye, Publisher of World Stage Online (Financial Secretary) and Janet Mba Afolabi, Publisher of Scroll Magazine as Treasurer.

The election of the new executive committee for another two-year term (2019 – 2021) was superintended by Ken Ugbechie, Publisher of The Economist and assisted by Akeem Oyetunji, Publisher of Prompt News Online.

The new executive was sworn in on Friday, October 4, during the Conference at Sheraton Hotel, Ikeja, Lagos.