Facebook recently reminded me of the article I wrote in 2011 titled Toyosi: Journalism in her bones. Unfortunately, the story is no longer available on The Nation website where I published it as my Sunday column.
Notwithstanding, I remember writing about the amazing story of the young lady with me in the picture above.
She read Biochemistry at the University of Lagos and started freelancing for Sun Newspaper before graduating in 2006.
She joined a defunct newspaper as a Crime Correspondent during which she contested for a Young Journalist Award Media Career Development Network organised and was the first runner-up.
She eventually joined The Punch in 2009 and started winning various local and international awards and was promoted to the post of News Editor of the Sunday paper which was the position she was occupying in 2011 when I invited her to speak at the Journalists for Christ fellowship and we took the above picture.
Her continued excellent performance earned her the higher position of Sunday Editor in 2012 as the first woman to be a title editor in the history of the paper.
Just when it was projected that she would become the first lady to be a Daily Editor at The Punch, she joined BBC as Head of the West Africa office in 2018 and was promoted to Senior News Editor in the London office in 2022.
She left BBC in August 2023 to join Presidential Precinct in the United States as President & CEO where she ensures strategic direction in the organisation’s commitment to delivering world-class leadership programming that engages and inspires emerging leaders.
She ensured she got the necessary academic qualifications and certification as she progressed on the job.
Apart from attending various short courses and conferences, she holds a Post Graduate Diploma in Journalism from the Nigeria Institute of Journalism, a Master’s in Media and Communication from Pan Atlantic University, Lagos and a PhD in Politics and International Relations from Leicester University.
Despite graduating in 1985 and starting my career in 1987, Toyosi became Sunday Editor when I was Sunday Editor of The Nation. I remember meeting her at a Guild of Editors meeting and she wanted to kneel down to greet me.
I said “Editors don’t kneel down for their colleagues” Her response was, ” Which colleague Sir,” she said smiling as she bent down to greet me.
Forgive me for this long story. I just felt like retelling it as I usually do sometimes when I want to inspire female journalists of the heights they can attain in the profession despite the challenges they have to cope with.
Your dreams are VALID if you can dream and work hard to achieve them.
