Tunde IPINMISHO

1977 and graduated with Bachelor of Arts (Hons) degree in English with Second Class, Upper Division in July 1980. For the mandatory National Youth Service, he was posted to the old Cross River State and had his primary assignment initially at the famous Hope Waddel Training Institution, Calabar but was, at his request, redeployed to Emilis Vocational Commercial Secondary School, on Ekpo Eyo/Atamunu Street, Uwanse, Calabar where he taught English Language and Literature. While on national service, he had gone to Ilorin to attend an interview for a teaching job at his alma mater, Kwara State College of Technology. At the end of the interview, he took a train ride on a visit to Minna, Niger State where, with his host, went to the Nigerian Television Authority and Radio Niger in search of a job. He filled the employment form at NTA, Minna and was invited to an interview immediately he was discharged from the NYSC in July 1981. He did well in the interview and on August 12, 1981, began what eventually, became the beginning of an illustrious journalism career. It was while in Minna that he met his wife, Modupe Ibileye (as she then was), who he married in 1987. They are blessed with two boys and two girls. After eight years in Minna, he went to the Nigerian Institute of Journalism, Ogba, Lagos where he obtained a Post Graduate Diploma in Journalism in 1989. That same year, he launched out into a career in print journalism at the famous Daily Times of Nigeria PLC. He was recruited as a Rewriteman to, in the words of the then Managing Director, Dr Yemi Ogunbiyi, "clean up the errors in the Daily Times." He excelled in the job and was soon promoted Deputy News Editor, Group News Editor and Deputy Editor of the Daily Times before being named Editor of the Sunday Times in 1998. As new owners were coming to take over the company after its privatization in September 2004, Ipinmisho took his exit from the company. He joined the Federal Housing Authority in February 2005 and became the Authority's Head, Corporate Communications in 2007, a position he held till he retired in November 2017. At the peak of the crisis over the stool of the Ologidi of Ogidi in December 2006, the community beckoned on him to lead the Ogidi Development Union at what was arguably one of the most difficult periods in the history of the town. He held the position of National President of the ODU till December 2015 when he handed over to his successor. Ipinmisho, a crack investigative journalist and columnist has visited the United States, China, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, France and Kenya. He has to his credit, many investigative reports including the series on the corruption-ridden Korean Distance Education Programme of University of Lagos which led to the forced resignation of the then Vice Chancellor, Professor Jelili Omotola. He also investigated and published in the Sunday Times, a series of reports on property illegally acquired in the United States and the United Kingdom with the proceeds of corruption by former Kogi State Governor, Abubakar Audu. The reports fueled the voters' revolt that led to Audu's defeat in the 2003 governorship election. Ipinmisho was twice at the International Centre for Journalists, Washington DC, United States under the aegis of which he did training attachments with the Lexington Herald Leader newspaper in Lexington, Kentucky, United States (1996) and the Cincinnati Enquirer newspaper in Cincinnati, Ohio also in the United States (1998). He is also a member of Gegrapha, a global coalition of Christian journalists and had attended the group's conventions in Chichester, UK, Washington DC, US and Nairobi, Kenya. Ipinmisho is a Fellow of the Nigerian Guild of Editors, member, Nigerian Union of Journalists and associate member of the Nigerian Institute of Public Relations. He has served the nation on critical assignments such as Member, National Publicity Committee on the Movement of the Nation's Capital to Abuja, Member, National Publicity Committee on the National Mass Literacy Campaign and Member, National Publicity Committee on the Campaign on the Eradication of Illicit Drugs and Other Psychotropic Substances. Ipinmisho is also the Secretary, Okun Think Tank, the research organ of the Okun Development Association (ODA).