User:Joe Agbro/sandbox

Sam Oritsetimeyin Omatseye

Sam Omatseye is a poet, novelist, playwright and leading journalist in Nigeria. For over a decade, he has shown a versatile gift as writer and public intellectual that also features him on television. Born on June 15, 1961, Sam Oritsetimeyin Omatseye hails from Delta State of Nigeria.

Parents

He is the first child of Moses Oghanero Omatseye and Salome Omatseye. His father was a sales executive and church orator. He worked for several years at the West African Portland Cement and was in charge of the western states which he supervised from the company’s Ibadan office. He did not have the advantage of attending formal high school, so he did correspondence courses. He became a member of Nigerian Institute of Management. Sam’s mother held fort at home but she is still holding the home front as a mother and grandmother.

Education

Sam Omatseye attended Government College, Ughelli from 1973-1979 for his secondary school education and obtained School West African School Certificate. He attended Federal School Of Arts And Science, Victoria Island, Lagos for his higher school education. He studied History at the Obafemi Awolowo University from 1980 to 1985 and obtained Bachelor Of Arts Degree.

Career

He taught English and Literature at the Aminu Kano Commercial College, Kano during his National Youth Service from 1985-1986. From 1987 – 1988 he worked as a Reporter-Researcher at the Newswatch Magazine, and covered a variety of beats from Foreign Affairs to Culture. In 1988 he had a stint as a Staff Writer with the African Concord Magazine, and anchored many cover stories that X-rayed the tyrannies and turbulence that charaterised the Babangida Years. He became the Deputy Political Editor of the Concord Newspapers in 1989 with specific assignment to help lead the coverage of the rigmarole of the political transition programme of the Babangida Years. In 1990 he was selected by the United States Information Service to cover the off-year elections, and worked for six weeks in the country including an attachment with the Kansas City Star in Missouri He was appointed Managing Editor, Abuja Bureau of the Concord Newspapers in 1993. He covered the controversial June 12 Election crisis. He left town later that year after being subjected to military surveillance from dawn to dusk. In 1995 he served as Editorial Page Editor, Thisday Newspaper. He became Deputy Editor, Sunday Concord in 1996 after The Concord Newspaper Group was unbanned. From 1998 -2006 he taught Media and Journalism at the Metropolitan State College of Denver. He also taught classes and gave talks at the University of Colorado and the University Of Denver. He also became a Technology journalist covering the wireless world in its bursting beginnings with RCR Wireless News. From 2006 to the present he has been Chairman, Editorial Board of The Nation Newspapers. He oversees the Opinion Section of the newspaper and runs a popular, sometimes edgy, often controversial column, In Touch. He has given talks several times in Nigerian universities, including Obafemi Awolowo University, University Of Ibadan, University Of Lagos, Etc. He was appointed a member of the Governing Council of The Lagos State University. He has been a frequent commentator on television and radio shows on contemporary Nigerian issues. He is hosting a television show, Standpoint, an edgy political programmme that airs every Saturday on TV Continental TVC.

Awards

He won the Nigerian Media Merit Award in 1991 as Best Reporter for coverage of the military air crash in Ejigbo, Lagos. He was beaten by soldiers for daring to go through military cordon to capture the visual horror and drama of the tragedy. In 1992 he was the first ever winner of the Gordon N. Fisher Fellowship for Journalists in The Commonwealth, and was in a full academic year at the University Of Toronto. During the period, he gave a number of presentations, including a paper on Albert Camus, Absurdity and African Politics. In 1997 he won the prestigious Alfred Friendly Press Fellowship. Under the terms, he worked as a journalist with the Rocky Mountain News. He was not able to return to Nigeria because of the threats during the Abacha Years. He won a distinction as the most prolific journalist in the history of the fellowship. He won the prestigious Association of Black Journalists Award for Feature Writing. He also co-won the prestigious Scripps Award Prize for Deadline Reporting. He was a finalist for The Denver Press Club Prize. He has won the Nigerian Media Merit Award (NMMA) for Columnist of The Year three times and was finalist also three times. He also won the NMMA for best reporter. He won the Diamond Award for Media Excellence (DAME) four times for Informed Commentary. In 2011, He became the first to win both NMMA and DAME the same year. He was made a Honorary Fellow of the Nigerian Academy Of Letters in 2015.

Books

He has published two collections of his columns, In Touch, titled Journalism as National NarrativeItalic text and A Chronicle ForetoldItalic text. He has written two novels titled Crocodile GirlItalic text and My Name Is OkoroItalic text. He is also a poet with four books of poetry to his credit: Mandela’s Bones and Other PoemsItalic text; Dear Baby RamatuItalic text; Lion Wind And Other PoemsItalic text; and Scented OffalItalic text. He wrote and staged a play in 2014 titled The SiegeItalic text to mark Professor Wole Soyinka’s 80th birthday.

Controversies

He generated nationwide controversies with his column, In Touch, when he wrote on sensitive issues such as the legacy of the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo, erstwhile Premier of the Western Nigeria ; the Civil War role of the late Biafran leader, Chief Emeka Odumegwu Ojukwu; the literary accomplishments of the late Chinua Achebe ; and the incessant Southern Kaduna crisis. Some of these controversies involved death threats.

References