On Thursday, September 20, 2012, the International Conference Centre, Abuja, will host the nation’s crème de la crème in politics and business at the public presentation of an Abuja-based newspaper, the ‘Blueprint’.
The event which is expected to attract many state governors, according to the Publisher/ Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of the newspaper, Mohammed Idris, is to formally present the paper to the public.
?A public lecture entitled, “The Challenges of Growth and Development in a Multi-Cultural Society,” will be delivered at the event by the former military President, retired Gen. Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida.
Expected at the occasion are Governors Shehu Shema of Katsina state; Musa Kwankwaso, Kano; Sule Lamido, Jigawa; Abdulfatah Ahmed, Kwara; Godswill Akpabio, AkwaIbom; Ibrahim Yakowa, Kaduna; Tanko Al-Makura, Nasarawa; Idris Wada, Kogi; and Kashim Shettima, Borno.
?In an interview, Idris told LEADERSHIP WEEKEND: “We chose former military President, Ibrahim Babangida as our guest lecturer for the occasion because you cannot wish General Babangida away. As a former military president, he has contributed a lot to the development of this country.”
The publisher noted that since the country has experimented with democracy in the last 13 years, “there is need to have somebody like IBB, who has also seen it from the military perspective, to take a look at how civilians have fared thus far.”
Also, Executive Editor, Blueprint, Hajiya Zainab Suleiman Okino, said the newspaper opted to have Babangida deliver the lecture so that he would throw more light on how he managed the nation’s diversity as? military president, in view of the current crises nationwide.
Blueprint newspaper hit the streets on May 2, 2011, as a weekly publication, and went daily on September 19, the same year.
Idris explained that although the newspaper was already in the public domain, “there is need to bring people together to tell them once again what Blueprint newspaper stands for and to listen to Nigerians about what they think of us.”
?On what motivated him to venture into the publishing business, Idris disclosed that publishing had always been his passion in life.
He added: “You would recall that before now, we were publishing a business and economy magazine, which is the first of its kind in this country, and it is really very successful. So, we thought we should do a daily newspaper to complement it, fill the gaps that we think other publications have not been able to fill and serve Nigerians better.”
He pointed out that “Blueprint newspaper has a distinct feature because it combines hard news with soft news or human angle stories. A wide gap has been created by the fact that reportage in the country primarily focuses on politics and business.
?“To a large extent,the common man has not been the focus of reportage in the country. Nigeria is about the common man. The bulk of our population is actually common, so to say. So we felt that we should have a paper that would represent them and speak for them and be their voice. We have achieved that, to a large extent, in the last one year with Blueprint.”
Okino maintained that the visibility enjoyed by the newspaper was “a product of efforts in investigative journalism and strict adherence to high ethical and professional standards.”
According to her, “the mission statement of the newspaper reads more like a declaration of war against bad governance and bad journalism, as well as the defence of democracy and people’s rights.”
Okino continued: “Our vision is to rid the country of the dearth of information while strengthening the extent to which information can be used as power to build a more prosperous society.”
Early in its operations last year, Blueprint exclusively revealed the identities of suicide bombers who struck at the Force Headquarters and the UN House in Abuja, fuelling speculations that the newspaper might have established a close relationship with the Boko Haram sect which allegedly perpetrated the terror acts.
But Idris told LEADERSHIP WEEKEND: “I don’t think we are closer to the Boko Haram sect than any other person or any other publication in the country. I think we are all close to them, but the issue is that in journalism, you also have to rely on your ability to really research and get to know those you are reporting. We usually go the extra mile to get our facts and Nigerians respect us for that.”