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Punch, New Telegraph Shine at NB 9th Golden Pen Award

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By Dipo Olowookere

It was a night of honour for outstanding journalists last Friday in Lagos at the Nigerian Breweries Golden Pen Awards.

Journalists who have done outstanding jobs were rewarded for their efforts and some of them could not hold back their excitement as they were called to the podium to receive their cash prizes.

The award, which is the 9th in the series, is aimed at promoting professionalism and objective reportage of events in the country. It is also meant to reward journalists who abide by the ethics of the journalism profession in their professional practice.

The night of glitz and glamour saw Isioma Madike of New Telegraph Newspaper emerging as the NB Golden Pen Reporter of the Year. The first runner-up was Arukaino Umukoro of Punch Newspapers while Caleb Ojewale of BusinessDay clinched the second runner-up position.

The Photo Journalist of the Year award went to Olatunji Obasa of Punch Newspapers.  Suleiman Hussaini also of the New Telegraph emerged as the first runner-up, while Toluwani Eniola of Punch Newspapers was the second runner-up.

Mojeed Alabi, a reporter with the New Telegraph won the ‘NB Report of the Year’.

All the winning journalists got cash prizes and special NB Golden Pen Awards statuette as part of the reward package. The top three winners also got high-end work tools as part of their prizes.

While welcoming guests at the event, Managing Director, Nigerian Breweries Plc, Mr. Johan Doyer, noted that the choice of the theme for the award “Agriculture, Local Sourcing and Industrial Development” was directed to align with Nigeria’s current push for economic recovery and growth.

This, he said, was hinged on the expectation that the media, in its agenda-setting role, will exploit the Nigerian Breweries Golden Pen Awards to draw attention of stakeholders to the key sectors required to drive economic revival.

“To us, these three areas – Agriculture, Local Sourcing and Industrial Development are jointly critical in Nigeria’s quest to achieve her full potential and become a self-reliant nation,” he said.

Doyer also acknowledged the role of the media in the successes recorded over the last nine years with the Awards and thanked the panel of judges who rigorously analysed the entries for originality, credibility and factuality.

The guest speaker at the occasion, Mr Ray Ekpu, thanked Nigerian Breweries for the initiative and called for soul-searching by the media who he urged to bridge the gap between training and practice.

Ekpu, a former Editor-in-Chief of the defunct Newswatch Magazine and Chairman of May Five Publications recalled that before crude oil was discovered in commercial quantity in 1958, agriculture was the mainstay of the economy and produced food and prosperity for the nation.

He challenged the press to support the efforts to domesticate the Nigerian economy, maintaining that Nigerian Breweries has set a worthy example on how to grow agriculture and local industry.

Deputy Governor of Lagos State Dr Oluranti Adebule, who was represented by the Permanent Secretary in the Deputy Governor’s Office, Mrs Yetunde Odejayi, lauded Nigerian Breweries for the initiative and described the theme as apt and timely in the journey to restructure the economy.

Dr Yemi Ogunbiyi, Managing Director of Tanus Communications and Chairman of the Panel of Judges commended Nigerian Breweries for the initiative and enjoined journalists to aspire to the highest standards.

He maintained that the quality and quantity of entries have improved significantly and noted that Nigerian Breweries has set a standard for other organizations to follow.

The event attracted other dignitaries from the political and media circles including the Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, who was represented by Ajayi Kehinde and the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina.

Others were the Secretary to the Lagos State Government, Mr Tunji Bello, who was represented by Adekunle Olayinka and the Managing Director of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) represented by Mrs Clara Ebota.

Dipo Olowookere is a journalist based in Nigeria that has passion for reporting business news stories. At his leisure time, he watches football and supports 3SC of Ibadan. Mr Olowookere can be reached via [email protected]

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Kwara Governor Removes Deputy Chief of Staff, Others in Minor Shake-up

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By Aduragbemi Omiyale

The Governor of Kwara State, Mr AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, has removed his Deputy Chief of Staff and the Principal Private Secretary.

In a statement on Monday by his Deputy Chief Press Secretary, Mr Mashood AbdulRafiu Agboola, it was disclosed that the Governor also removed all Special Advisers, Advisers, Senior Special Assistants, and Special Assistants in the “minor cabinet shake-up.

It was explained that the action was to extend opportunities to more party members and inject fresh energy into the administration.

Mr AbdulRazaq directed them to hand over all government properties in their custody to the Office of the Secretary to the State Government.

He thanked the affected appointees for selfless service to the state and his administration, wishing them well in their future endeavours.

“His Excellency expresses his gratitude to all the appointees for their priceless service to the state. He wishes them the best in their future endeavours,” the statement noted.

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Xenophobia: FG Evacuates More Nigerians as South Africa Protests Loom

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By Adedapo Adesanya

The federal government has announced that another batch of Nigerians will be evacuated from South Africa on Tuesday as part of ongoing efforts to safeguard citizens ahead of planned anti-immigrant protests in the country.

Anti-immigrant groups in South Africa have set a June 30 deadline for immigrants to leave the country, planning widespread demonstrations on that date and threatening a national shutdown if the country’s government does not take significant action on immigration.

According to the spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Mr Kimiebi Ebienfa, an Air Peace aircraft departed Nigeria on Monday and is expected to return to Lagos on Tuesday morning with another group of Nigerians who opted for voluntary evacuation.

The latest operation comes as anti-immigration groups prepare to stage demonstrations from June 30. The government has continued its evacuation programme for Nigerians who have indicated a willingness to return home.

Providing details of the latest flight, Mr Ebienfa said, “Nigeria will resume the evacuation of our nationals from South Africa today.

“Air Peace aircraft will depart Nigeria today, Monday, June 29, 2026, at 3:00 pm and is expected to arrive in South Africa at approximately 9:00 pm local time.

“The return flight is scheduled to depart South Africa at 12:00 midnight and is expected to arrive at Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Lagos, on Tuesday morning.”

He added that 271 Nigerians are expected to arrive on the evacuation flight.

President Tinubu approved the voluntary evacuation programme earlier this month to enable Nigerians willing to leave South Africa to return home safely.

Earlier in June, the federal government disclosed that five Air Peace evacuation flights had been approved after more than 500 Nigerians were screened for repatriation. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the flights were intended to ensure that all registered Nigerians who wished to return would be evacuated safely.

Before the latest operation, 328 Nigerians had already been repatriated in two batches. The first flight, which landed on June 11, brought back 262 returnees, while a second batch of 66 arrived in Lagos on June 25.

The evacuation exercise is being coordinated by the Federal Government in partnership with Air Peace and other relevant agencies.

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Why Ad Platform Policy Changes Are a Hidden Risk in Every Outsourced Paid Media Relationship

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The rules governing digital advertising landscapes are never set in stone. Major platforms like Google, Meta, and TikTok frequently update their privacy frameworks, compliance requirements, and algorithmic bidding logic without giving agencies much time to prepare. When a marketing team decides to delegate its active campaigns to an external production partner, these sudden policy shifts can introduce a major element of vulnerability into the relationship. Integrating a professional white label ppc management structure allows your business to scale production and tap into high-level optimization talent without building a massive internal department. However, if your fulfillment partner is not built to monitor, interpret, and rapidly deploy adjustments in response to changing platform guidelines, your clients risk facing sudden account suspensions or massive spikes in customer acquisition costs.

Decoupling Technical Adaptability from Account Ownership

When an advertising platform changes its rules, the changes need to be made away in the live ad accounts. This is so the ads do not stop working. Sometimes there is a problem when one team thinks another team is taking care of making sure the ads follow the rules. The team that is supposed to make sure everything is working thinks the other team is doing this job. This can cause problems like missing information and ads that do not work. To keep your clients happy, you need a plan that says who is in charge of checking for rule changes, who updates the ad information, and who updates the ad text rules when the advertising platform changes its rules. You need to know who does what so everything runs smoothly. Advertising platforms and ad accounts are important for your clients.

Managing the Financial Fallouts of Compliance Delays

The real-world financial cost of failing to adapt to sudden policy changes can ruin an agency’s reputation and cause high client turnover. If an automated ad platform updates its rules for a specific industry—such as healthcare, real estate, or finance—and your campaign structure fails to adjust within the grace period, entire accounts can be paused overnight. While your backend team works to fix the errors, your client loses valuable inbound leads while their fixed overhead costs remain. Agencies must make sure their fulfillment partners don’t just focus on basic optimization but also maintain a proactive stance toward platform compliance to prevent budget waste and operational downtime.

Maintaining Strategic Alignment Through Platform Shifts

Relying on a partner to manage the daily execution of your paid media means you must remain highly aligned on how macro-level platform changes alter your broader strategy. When networks restrict traditional targeting methods, your backend white label ppc management team must quickly pivot to alternative solutions, such as first-party data loops or contextual targeting systems. If your vendor operates on autopilot without adjusting to these shifts, your campaigns will slowly lose efficiency as the old targeting methods become obsolete. Regular strategy sessions are essential to confirm that your optimization partners are actively adjusting their setups to remain effective beneath the latest network rules.

Building a Resilient Operations Partnership

To do well with ad networks, you need to work together with your partners and be able to change quickly. You also need to be open with each other. Ad agencies can not just set up their paid media. Forget about it. They need to keep an eye on it and make changes when needed. If you work closely with the company that provides your white-label service, you can protect your business from losing money. You should expect this company to tell you about changes to the network rules and to take action. The best partnerships are the ones where people work together all the time and make changes fast. This helps your clients make money consistently from their investments even when the rules of the ad networks change. Modern ad networks are always changing, so you need to be able to change with them to do well. Modern ad networks require a lot of work to navigate successfully.

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