In this profile on the Founder/Director of The Journalism Clinic, Mr Taiwo Obe, Media Career Development Specialist Lekan Otufodunrin, highlights the numerous contributions of a top media trainer to capacity development in Nigeria.
He is not a medical personnel, but he runs a clinic. Unlike medical doctors who diagnose health issues that require treatment, he is always busy identifying various skills journalists need to enhance their productivity and career and developing relevant training programmes for the overall development of the media industry.
The Founder/Director of The Journalism Clinic, Mr Taiwo Obe, popularly known as TO, has over the years remained committed to empowering and changing the story of many media professionals as he did this week during the NLNG Change Your Story 2025 sponsored by the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas Company held in Lagos.
The annual capacity-building workshop, facilitated by The Journalism Clinic, and led by Dan Mason, an international trainer, who has trained journalists and media professionals in at least 30 countries focuses on mobile and multimedia Journalism. It has empowered no fewer than 200 journalists and equipped them with the skills needed to thrive in the evolving digital era.
NLNG also sponsored the Gender Active training #NLNGGenderActive2024 in partnership with the National Association of Women Journalists (NAWOJ) in with 27 participants.
Before the NLNG-supported training, first held in 2015 and resumed in 2021 till this year’s edition, there was the Airtel Change Your Story for 100 journalists in three multimedia classes: one data-journalism class, in five cities: Lagos, Abuja, Kaduna, Enugu and Ibadan.
TO who aptly describes himself as a Thinker, Doer, and Human, has also organised Media Leaders’ Summits, Summit for Functional Social Networking sponsored by the United Bank for Africa in 2014 and many other training sessions in which participants, both new and experienced journalists have attested to being invaluable in terms of the skills and knowledge they gained.
Onozure Dania of The Punch Newspaper, who participated in the Gender Active training with emphasis on gender reporting, said the training allowed her to unlearn, relearn, and sharpen her digital communication skills and carve a niche in this modern era.
“I would say it was an eye opener because, over the years, I have just been using my phones to only receive calls, return calls, send WhatsApp messages, and email, but I didn’t know that I could use my phone to tell stories.”
Through the Everything Journalism group on LinkedIn, which he founded in 2021 to promote best practices in journalism, he along with Dr Richard Ikiebe co-edited a book, future Tense: TRAVAILS OF NEXT AND NIGERIAN JOURNALISM IN THE DIGITAL AGE published by the Centre for Leadership in Journalism, School of Media and Communication (SMC), Pan-Atlantic University, Lagos.
When TO says he is committed to raising and nurturing a new generation of first-rate journalists, he means every word of the claim and has been doing so in every way he can.
“ He has over the years remained a veritable gatekeeper that stands at every major pass of the revolution spreading across the media landscape, reminding professionals of the need to adapt their craft to fit the changing consumption trends of their audience,” said Founder and Chairman of Technology Times Sina Badaru.
Publisher/CEO @qedng Olumide Iyanda adds that “ Taiwo Obe has tutored, mentored and empowered practising and aspiring journalists to tell impactful and authentic stories through his hands-on approach and deep understanding of the evolving media landscape.”
In acknowledgement of the impact of the work by the Journalism Clinic, Culture and Travel writer, Pelu Awofeso says, “It’s always an honour supporting Taiwo Obe (aka TO) and Otunba Dan Mason in the very important task of training tens of journalists across Nigeria every year.”
Before 2012, when he founded the Journalism Clinic, Obe, a graduate of the Institute of Management and Technology, Enugu, has served in various media capacities, including being Editor of The Guardian Sunday Supplement, Copy/Associate/Deputy/Managing Editor at defunct THIS WEEK Magazine, Editor/Executive Director, Media Review, Diamond Publication Limited and Executive Vice Chairman, TaijoWanukabe Limited.
The Commonwealth Professional Fellow and Fellow of the Nigerian Guild of Editors is never tired of sharing valuable resources, trends and opportunities on various platforms and programmes he organises; like when he clocked 60, he marked his birthday with a Zoom session during which he shared 60 exciting and rewarding jobs for young journalists.” In the absence of traditional media jobs, he said journalists have to become the masters of reporting any particular area of interest to society.
He practice what he teaches by implementing some ideas like the publication of Mytori, with the mission to get people to tell their own stories, in their own words, straight from their hearts because everyone has a story to tell. Sweet or sour.
Contrary to the belief that journalism is a low-paying job, TO maintains that “ there is prosperity in this business, but you have to be master of your subject to know what to do next and be intentional.” “There are people doing things from which they are getting joy, and you too must, because it’s important to have joy in what you are doing,” Obe stated.
To maximise the opportunities journalism offers, he says journalists need to step out of their comfort zones and adopt modern storytelling techniques to add value to the lives of Nigerians.
If there is a goal TO still has to work hard at to provide more opportunities for continuous training of journalists, it’s the one he once set for himself to have a Lagos-Business-School-Kind-of-Centre for Journalism -where Journalism practitioners, scholars and others can come for (re)training, research, retreat and relaxation. Hopefully, with the support of individuals and organisations who believe that well-practised Journalism contributes to making a society good and great, the dream will be accomplished soon, and Nigeria Media will be better for it.
In many ways, TO has achieved his goal of offering “personalised treatments” of journalistic ailments by individuals – the same way you go to a doctor when you are ill, and s/he diagnoses your ailment and prescribes medication, which was the motivation for establishing Journalism clinic, but there are still many ‘patients’ requiring his treatment and that of other media training organisations in the country.
They need to book an appointment at the The Journalism Clinic soon if they are desirous of overcoming their skills ailments.
“This is one clinic I would like to recommend to any journalist who desires to be different and competitive in this digital age,” a reporter with Garden City Radio, Sontonye Jamaica, who is one of the new digital/multimedia journalism ambassadors from the #NLNGCHANGEYOURSTORY 2025.
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