Soyinka to speak at PUNCH’s 50th anniversary lecture in Lagos

Wole Soyinka, the Nobel laureate, will be speaking on Thursday at the Punch Newspaper photo exhibition to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the media organisation.

The three-day photo exhibition commenced on Wednesday and had Steve Ayorinde, former commissioner for tourism, arts and culture in Lagos, as the curator.

The exhibition will hold at the Alliance Francaise de Lagos/Mike Adenuga centre in Ikoyi, Lagos.

PUNCH was founded on March 18, 1973. This week’s events also mark the 40th anniversary of the passing of James Olubunmi Aboderin, the newspaper’s founding chairman, who died in February 1984.

The anniversary kicked off with a novelty football match at the Onikan stadium on February 24.

During the anniversary celebration, the newspaper will display 100 of its legendary photographs that capture the venerable history of Nigeria and Nigerians.

Photos to be showcased are action moments of Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, the late Afrobeat icon; and Gain Fawehinmi, late human rights activist and lawyer.

This would be followed by a public lecture by Woke Soyinka, the renowned playwright, and would have leaders from private and public sectors in the audience.

Speaking on the exhibition, Steve Ayorinde, who is also a former editor of the newspaper, said Punch Nigeria started its journey at Mangoro, a suburb of Lagos, and ended it at Magboro, a burgeoning new development area in Ogun state.

“Between its birthplace, where it spent 36 years, and the Magboro permanent site, which is its befitting and edifying complex of the last 16 years, is where PUNCH Newspaper’s exhilarating journey through Nigeria of the last 50 years was nurtured,” he said.

“For a good reason, both locations play an important role in telling the visually-engaging story of this dominant quality newspaper, which is celebrating its 50 years of operation.”

The former commissioner said the 50 photos to be exhibited and available on PUNCH’s website demonstrate the “enchanting connect to social relevance topically and how photo news serves as an integral part of good journalism”.

“At the centre of this collection are recurrent issues in Nigeria of the past half a century; the variegated emotions constantly on display showing on the one hand, the mood of the nation, and on the other hand, how PUNCH attaches importance to how they are captured,” he added.

The event will be concluded with a dinner with stakeholders, who have immensely contributed to the success of the platform, at the Eko Hotels and Suites in Lagos on March 2.