Naijmobile.com present the biography of a popular Nigerian journalist known as Sam Omatseye. Our Sam Omatseye biography will take a closer look at his age, awards, family and whey he used the term, obi-tuary on Peter Obi.
Where Is Sam Omatseye From?
Sam Oritsetimeyin Omatseye is a Nigerian poet, novelist, playwright and journalist. Born on June 15, 1961, Sam Omatseye hails from Delta State, Nigeria. He is itsekeri by tribe.
Sam Omatseye Biography: Education Background
Sam Omatseye attended Government College, Ughelli, (former Bendel State), Delta State from 1973 to 1979 for his secondary school education and obtained School West African School Certificate. He attended the Federal School Of Arts And Science, Victoria Island, Lagos for his higher school education. He studied history at the University of Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University) from 1980- 1985 and obtained Bachelor Of Arts Degree.
During his National Youth Service from 1985 to 1986, he taught English and Literature at the Aminu Kano Commercial College in Kano. He worked as a Reporter-Researcher at Newswatch Magazine from 1987 to 1988, covering a variety of beats ranging from Foreign Affairs to Culture. In 1988, he worked as a Staff Writer for African Concord Magazine, where he anchored stories about the tyranny and turmoil of the Babangida years. Who is Sam Omatseye – Biography, Age, Career, State, Net Worth
In 1989, he was appointed Deputy Political Editor of Concord Newspapers, with the specific assignment of assisting in the coverage of the rigmarole of the Babangida Years’ political transition program. He was chosen by the United States Information Service to cover the off-year elections in 1990, and he spent six weeks in the country, including an attachment with the Kansas City Star in Missouri. In 1993, he was named Managing Editor of Concord Newspapers’ Abuja Bureau.
He covered the election crisis on June 12th. After being subjected to military surveillance from dawn to dusk, he left town later that year. He was the Editorial Page Editor of Thisday Newspaper in 1995. After The Concord Newspaper Group was unbanned in 1996, he became Deputy Editor, Sunday Concord. He taught Media and Journalism at Metropolitan State College of Denver from 1998 to 2006. He also lectured and taught at the University of Colorado and the University of Denver. With RCR Wireless News, he also became a Technology journalist, covering the wireless world in its early days.
From 2006 to the present, he has served as Chairman of The Nation Newspapers’ Editorial Board. He is in charge of the newspaper’s Opinion Section and writes a weekly column called In Touch. He has spoken at several Nigerian universities, including Obafemi Awolowo University, the University of Ibadan, and the University of Lagos. He was appointed to The Lagos State University’s Governing Council. He has been a frequent commentator on current Nigerian issues on television and radio shows.
He previously hosted the TVC show Standpoint and now hosts The Platform, an edgy political program that airs every Saturday on TVC. Who is Sam Omatseye – Biography, Age, Career, State, Net Worth.
Achievements and Awards
In 1991, he received the Nigerian Media Merit Award for Best Reporter for his coverage of the military air crash in Ejigbo, Lagos. Soldiers beat him for daring to enter the military cordon to capture the visual horror and drama of the tragedy. In 1992, he was the first recipient of the Gordon N. Fisher Fellowship for Commonwealth Journalists, and he spent a full academic year at the University of Toronto.
He was awarded the Alfred Friendly Press Fellowship in 1997. He worked as a journalist for the Rocky Mountain News under the terms of the agreement. Because of the threats during the Abacha years, he was unable to return to Nigeria. He received the Association of Black Journalists’ Feature Writing Award.
He was also a co-winner of the prestigious Scripps Award for Deadline Reporting. He was one of the finalists for the Denver Press Club Prize. He has three times won the Nigerian Media Merit Award (NMMA) for Columnist of the Year and has been a finalist three times. He was also named NMMA’s best reporter.
Sam Omatseye received four Diamond Awards for Media Excellence (DAME) for Informed Commentary. In 2011, he became the first person to win both the NMMA and the DAME in the same year. In 2015, he was named an Honorary Fellow of the Nigerian Academy of Letters.
The Rotary Club International named Omatseye a Paul Harris Fellow in July 2019. Kola Sodipo, District Governor of the Rotary Club of Gbagada, Lagos, presented him with the award. In November 2019, he was awarded the National Productivity Order of Merit (NPOM).
What does Sam Omatseye mean when he refers to Peter Obi as Obi-tuary?
The term Obituary refers to a deceased person or an announcement for the deceased. When used, it indicates that something has died. Sam Omatseye may be implying that Obi’s political ambitions are dead.
We checked the dictionary meaning of ‘tuary’, and this is what I found; “a notice of a death, especially in a newspaper, typically includes a brief biography of the deceased person”.
