Yemisi Fadairo writes on his sixteen-year sujourn at the Daily Times that shaped his professional life and understanding of journalism as both a calling and a public trust.
As Daily Times marks its centenary, I cannot help but look back with gratitude, pride and a touch of sadness at what was once Nigeria’s most formidable media institution.
My journey with the Daily Times Group began in 1982. For the next sixteen years, I had the privilege of serving in various capacities, starting as a reporter with the Sunday Times in Agidingbi, Ikeja, Lagos, before working in our offices in Akure, Ilorin, Ibadan and Abeokuta. I was later transferred back to the Daily Times and Sunday Times newsrooms at Agidingbi as Political Correspondent.
It was a journey that shaped my professional life and deepened my understanding of journalism as both a calling and a public trust.
Ironically, journalism was not my original career ambition. As a young man, I had envisioned a future in advertising or public relations. However, my late father, Chief Olu Fadairo, who was once an Advertising Manager and later Chairman of the Advertising Association of Nigeria (1978–1982), persuaded me to enrol at the Times Journalism Institute, then known as the Times Newspaper Training Centre at Iganmu, immediately after secondary school.
Looking back, it was advice that changed the course of my life.
My father was himself a distinguished member of the Daily Times family. He joined the company in 1949 as an apprentice linotype operator and rose steadily through the ranks. At various times, he served as Advertising and Marketing Manager, Director/Sales Manager of Nigerpak in Apapa, Director/General Manager of Times Leisure Services in Iganmu, and ultimately General Manager of the Times Publications Division (TPD), the printing powerhouse of the Group, before retiring in 1984.
Through his remarkable career, which spanned decades, I became familiar with the workings of the Daily Times long before I formally joined its workforce.
Ours was a true Daily Times household. Newspapers and magazines published by the Group, alongside virtually every major publication in the country, were constant features in our home. Reading was not merely a pastime; it was a way of life.
We devoured every publication that came through our doors. Though two of my siblings also studied journalism, fate led them elsewhere. I became the one who carried the family’s journalistic torch.
I still remember the day my byline appeared on the front page of the Sunday Times. My father was overjoyed. He celebrated the moment with a cash gift—a simple gesture that conveyed immense pride. His encouragement never wavered, even long after his retirement.
To those who never experienced it, it may be difficult to fully appreciate what Daily Times represented in its heyday. Widely regarded as one of Africa’s largest newspaper groups, it was far more than a newspaper company. It was an empire of ideas and enterprise.
With more than fifteen thriving publications, a respected journalism institute, successful subsidiaries in packaging, travel and tourism, and the iconic Miss Nigeria pageant, Daily Times was woven into the fabric of Nigerian life.
The company stood as a national institution. Its management structure was efficient, its distribution network unrivalled, and its reputation beyond question. Hundreds of journalists worked across the country, supported by correspondents in every state.
Advertisers eagerly sought its pages because they knew Daily Times publications reached hundreds of thousands of readers daily.
The Sunday Times was the nation’s leading Sunday newspaper. Lagos Weekend dominated entertainment journalism. The flagship Daily Times set the pace for national news. Business Times became essential reading for the business community, while Sporting Times, Evening Times and Home Studies each commanded loyal audiences.
Every morning, Daily Times became part of Nigeria’s daily rhythm.
Employees were proud to belong. Salaries and allowances were paid promptly, and staff welfare was taken seriously. The company inspired loyalty because it treated its workers with dignity.
I recall how the Editor of Evening Times promptly approved a stipend for me after I reported the story of a day-old baby abandoned by the roadside near my then home at Ojota, Lagos. This was because my primary place of assignment was the sister Sunday Times. Such gestures reflected a management culture that valued initiative and enterprise.
For many of us, Daily Times was not merely a workplace; it was home. Colleagues became family, and the institution became an integral part of our identity.
Much of this success rested on foundations laid by pioneering figures such as Sir Adeyemo Alakija, Ernest Ikoli and Richard Barrow. Yet no individual contributed more to the golden age of Daily Times than Alhaji Babatunde Jose, the undisputed doyen of Nigerian journalism, who became the company’s first African Managing Director in 1962 and later Chairman in 1968. He was, in many respects, the architect of its finest years.
Yet, as with many great institutions, clouds eventually gathered on the horizon.
The political turbulence surrounding the June 12, 1993, presidential election proved particularly damaging. The company’s perceived closeness to successive military administrations weakened its credibility and alienated many readers.
The annulment of the election, widely regarded as Nigeria’s freest and fairest, won by the late Bashorun MKO Abiola, marked a turning point not only in Nigeria’s democratic journey but also in the fortunes of Daily Times.
What followed was a painful decline. Talented journalists and administrators departed. Advertisers stayed away. Circulation fell. Public confidence weakened.
Distribution vans were stopped while on inter-state journeys and the newspapers were burnt by those who regarded Daily Times as sympathetic to the regime that denied Abiola victory.
The once-mighty institution gradually lost the commanding influence it had enjoyed for decades.
Many observers traced the roots of these difficulties to the acquisition of a controlling stake in the company by the Federal Military Government in 1975. Editorial independence became increasingly constrained, and an atmosphere of caution gradually emerged.
It was an era when careers could change overnight. Because the government appointed senior editorial and management officials, many executives watched the NTA Network News with unusual attention, knowing that appointments and dismissals were often announced without prior notice.
I vividly recall the night my father and other senior management staff, including Managing Director Adagogo Jaja, learned of their disengagement through the NTA. Their successors included Aremo Olusegun Osoba and the late Prince Tony Momoh. Such was the uncertainty of the period.
Despite the efforts of dedicated leaders, including Ambassador Patrick Dele Cole, Adagogo Jaja, Aremo Olusegun Osoba, Dr. Yemi Ogunbiyi, Mr. Tunji Oseni, Mr. Innocent Oparadike, Chief Tola Adeniyi and Dr. Onukaba Adinoyi-Ojo, the forces working against the company ultimately proved overwhelming.
Subsequent privatisation exercises, including the sale of the company to Folio Communications, which generated controversy and prolonged uncertainty, finally brought the conglomerate to its knees.
Valuable opportunities were lost, and a company that once possessed an extraordinary national footprint steadily receded from prominence.
Perhaps the most painful aspect of this decline before the sale was witnessing the anguish it caused those who had devoted their lives to the institution.
In his later years, long after we had both left the company, I deliberately avoided discussing Daily Times with my father. The company’s deterioration troubled him deeply. He had given so much of his life to its growth and success.
Nothing captured his pain more than seeing the Agidingbi premises—once a proud centre of journalism and printing—reduced to a storage facility for cartons of alcoholic beverages stacked visibly above the fence by the road.
For those who knew what the Daily Times once represented, it was a heartbreaking sight.
Yet even amid the sadness, I choose to remember Daily Times not for its decline but for its greatness.
I remember the energy of the newsroom, the excitement of deadlines, the camaraderie among colleagues, the pride of seeing our stories in print, and the profound sense that we were helping to shape the national conversation.
The Daily Times of our era was more than a newspaper. It was a national institution, a university of journalism, a marketplace of ideas and a mirror reflecting the hopes, aspirations and challenges of Nigeria.
Today, as the company marks one hundred years, many of us who belonged to the old Daily Times family carry mixed emotions. We celebrate an extraordinary legacy while mourning the loss of what once was.
But history is not measured solely by present circumstances. The greatness of Daily Times cannot be erased by time nor diminished by its current state.
Its contributions remain permanently etched in the story of Nigeria and in the memories of countless journalists, readers and citizens whose lives it touched.
One hundred years after its birth, the ink may have faded from some pages and the presses may no longer thunder as they once did, but the spirit of Daily Times endures.
For those of us privileged to have been part of that remarkable journey, Daily Times will forever remain more than a newspaper. It will remain a cherished chapter of our lives, a monument to journalistic excellence, and an enduring symbol of what Nigerian journalism can achieve at its very best.
Happy Centenary, Daily Times.
