Two United States-based professors from the School of Communication, Texas Southern University: Dr. Chris Chinweuba Ulasi and Dr. Anthony Obi Ogbo, have revived the West African Pilot News, with aims at invoking the same fighting spirit of the 1930s to give the common man a voice in surmounting political, social, and economic environment the West African sub-region and Nigeria in particular.
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The first project was the Pilot Media Inc., an American-based multinational mass media corporation with focusing mostly in news, television, and film. And then the West African Pilot News also Pilot News structured as a political, community, and business-focused, English-language international news site based in Houston, Texas, United-States targeting news and events in the sub Saharan Africa with emphasis on Nigeria.
With the motto ‘The Spirit of Investigative Journalism,’ the West African Pilot News www.westafricanpilotnews.com, according to Ulasi is, “is a trusted information hub for Africa and the African diaspora in an era the news industry has been under the threat of awfully substandard news delivery under the influx of technology applications and availability of inexpensive publishing tools.”
Ogbo said in sub-Saharan region where democracy is under threat and freedom of speech not often guaranteed, the editorial team at the West African Pilot believes that a fearless and trusted voice was necessary.
He said, “Protection of the First Amendment rights might not just be enough in sustaining a free society. We must also give people the platform to tell their stories their way. We are bound to fail when allow others to tell our stories.”
According to Dr. Ogbo, “We have arrived, and we are sustaining the indefatigable spirit of Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe and what was left of the Pilot in 1967.”
Currently, westafricanpilotnews.com is powered by the latest news content management machinery, capable of providing custom news services and deliveries to targeted audience. It has assembled more than 200 writers across all disciplines to facilitate columns and blogs. Reports are in place to represent various cities, political interests, and ideologies.
For example, The Pilot Business (PB), is structured as a West African leading financial outlet, furnishing readers with routine corporate, financial, economic, and political news; Pilot TV is broadcast online, targeting news and events in the Sub Saharan Africa with emphasis to Nigeria; the Africa Pilot reports African to the World and the World to Africa.
The first President of Nigeria, late Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe Zik, on November 22, 1937 established The West African Pilot with the major aim to fight for independence of Nigeria as well as liberate other African countries from the British colonial rule. Azikiwe personally edited the West African Pilot from 1937 to 1947.
The quality of this publication won the heart of both the colonialists and indigenes yearning for self-resurgence. This newspaper thus championed national awareness and nationalistic ideas in the populace with its motto, “Show the light and the people will find the way”. The West African Pilot went out of business in 1967 following the outbreak of the Nigerian Civil War (1967–70). Since then, major attempts to resuscitate this publication were unsuccessful.
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Pilot Media Inc. is an American-based multinational mass media corporation focusing mostly in news, television, and film, while the West African Pilot News also Pilot News is a political, community, and business-focused, English-language international news site based in Houston, Texas, United-States.
