•Sonala Olumhense pens tribute to THISWEEK: We can do it
Forty years after THISWEEK first appeared on Nigerian newsstands, its founding editor, Sonala Olumhense, has offered a moving reflection on a publication that not only transformed journalism but also inspired institutions that continue to shape the country’s media landscape today.
For Olumhense, THISWEEK was never merely a magazine. It was an idea, a movement and a declaration that excellence in Nigerian journalism was possible. The publication’s enduring legacy, he suggested, can be traced through the emergence of THISDAY, ARISE News Channel and, more recently, the Lekeelekee social media platform, all founded by Nduka Obaigbena, whose faith in young journalists and uncompromising pursuit of excellence first found expression in THISWEEK.
Recalling those formative years, Olumhense said every challenge within the newsroom was met with four words that became both a rallying cry and a philosophy: “We Can Do It.”
Long before Barack Obama’s “Yes We Can” became a global political slogan, Obaigbena was instilling the same spirit in a newsroom filled with ambitious young reporters determined to redefine Nigerian journalism.
