From a four-page colonial newspaper to a leading voice, Daily Times has spent a century at journalism intersection, politics, business and national memory. Its rise, domination, government takeover, decline, privatisation, controversies and attempted revival mirror the story of Nigeria itself, writes Sunday Ehigiator
When the first edition of the Nigerian Daily Times (DTN) appeared in Lagos on June 1, 1926, Nigeria was still a British colony, and the idea of an independent Nigerian state belonged largely to the future. A century later, the newspaper is still here. That simple fact is remarkable.
Daily Times has lived through colonial rule, the nationalist struggle, independence, the First Republic, two military coups in 1966, the Nigerian Civil War, successive military regimes, the oil boom, the Second Republic, the annulment of the June 12, 1993 presidential election, the Abacha years, the return to democracy in 1999, privatisation, economic upheaval and the digital revolution that has fundamentally altered the newspaper business.
Few Nigerian institutions can claim such a continuous relationship with the country’s public record.
At its zenith, Daily Times was a publishing empire, a training ground, a commercial powerhouse, a generator of public opinion and, for generations of Nigerians, an indispensable part of everyday life.
