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 Proprietors and editors of newspapers and magazines in Nigeria, eminent Nigerians from the legal, business and arts world gathered on July 16 at Terra Kulture, Victoria Island, Lagos for the launch of two books written by Mr. Lanre Idowu, CEO, Diamond Publications Limited. The media and its associates had enough reasons during this occasion to celebrate their own.
The books: The Popular is Seldom Correct and Bridges of Memory, were presented to a thrilled audience led by Mr. Sam Amuka-Pemu, OON, fnge, publisher of Vanguard newspapers. Demands for these promising books followed almost immediately as the launchers, booksellers and other publics in attendence commended Mr. Idowu. While buying some copies, a well-wisher announced Mr. Lanre Idowu succinctly as a journalist revered for his tireless efforts to sustain high media standards, writing vigorously on topical issues about governance, media, and society.
Chief Ajibola Ogunshola, Chairman, Punch Nigeria Limited and President of Newspapers Proprietors’ Association of Nigeria (NPAN), in his opening remarks, described Mr. Idowu as possessing the rare qualities of an acclaimed and thinking journalist in Nigeria today. It was therefore a delight for him, he said, and many distinguished media personalities present, to use the occasion of the writer's two-book launch to celebrate a dogged journalist, committed and deserving.
Reviewing “Bridges of Memory”, Mr. Kunle Ajibade, Executive Editor, TheNews magazine, divided the 30 poems in the book into five broad parts namely, ‘Love Notes’, ‘Tributes’, ‘In the City’, ‘Blues for Tyrants’ and ‘The Writer's Tempers’. To Mr. Ajibade, this book is about the celebration of womanhood, eulogies of persons who live on in our hearts because of their courageous deeds, righteous thoughts and edifying words that influenced us, the inconvenience of urban living, and other remembrances with which the writer tries “to empower our own memories”. You cannot “miss the interesting epigrams, aphorisms, the expressive visuals and the characteristic witticisms which are the hallmark of Lanre Idowu's prose writing”, he said.
Dr. Reuben Abati, Chairman, Editorial Board, Guardian Newspapers who reviewed the second book, The Popular is Seldom Correct, concludes that it is “a good advertisement for the value of the freedom of the expression, and an engaging commentary on the Nigerian media and the environment of its operation”. He therefore recommended the book for reading by the public and scholars of mass communication because the book is “useful both for its historicity and its freshness and for the ideas contained therein”.
The two books are the recent additions to more than 16 book titles under the stable of Diamond Publications Limited. They include: “Bitter-Sweet: My Life with Obasanjo” by Chief (Mrs) Oluremi Obansanjo, 'Rite it Right' by Dr. Adidi Uyo, “Media All The Way” by Mr. Tunji Oseni, “First Call: An account of the Gowon years” by Mr. Moses Ihonde, “The Pursuit of Development” by Akinseye George and G. Gbadamosi.
Diamond Publications Limited are also the publishers of Media Review monthly, MEDIA WORLD, an authoritative resource book of Nigeria's mass media, and the organisers of Diamond Awards for Media Excellence (D.A.M.E.).
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