Reflections on the five-year voyage of storytelling of the Congress newspaper

My voyage today centres on the five years of Congress’ uninterrupted journalistic voyage around the world, driven by a philosophy to re-imagine and reconceptualise the borders in human relations between the rulers and the ruled as a site for meaningful interaction and integration towards building a great society. The envisioned great society is the type where the search for self-actualisation and social belonging would be fully attained without being gripped by thoughts of transnational migration, terminologically termed ‘japa’. Distinguished by this philosophy of reconceptualisation, the journalistic radiance of the Congress newspaper in the media world has become a priceless endearment to the teeming readers of this principled and fearless paper in Nigeria. By implication, the presence of the Congress newspaper in the wider media space parallels the orbital position often occupied by the sun and the moon in the sky.

The philosophy of the Congress newspaper is quintessentially geared towards building orientations and consciously moving people away from border tensions and the ever-tempting transnational migration. For this Congress newspaper, the attainment of a borderless society of unimpeded growth exemplified by educational, infrastructural and human capital development is an aim. This aim must be devoid of the destabilising tendencies by the rulers to manipulate and hegemonise the symbolic borders and ignite tensions linked to self-actualisation struggles. Towards the realisation of this aim, the Congress newspaper has effortfully built up a reputation as a focused, fearless, confident, consistent, independent and investigative newspaper. With this conduct, it tells stories in a manner ethically faithful to all our cultural imaginaries, particularly our indigenous African spirituality.

Found ethically faithful to all the components that foreground and assert the identity of a people in any given society in your five years of journalistic voyage — including their developmental sorrows, joys and expectations/aspirations from the government at any given time — the Congress newspaper deserves hearty celebrations and congratulations. In the waiting years, may you succeed in building that borderless society of educational, infrastructural and human capital development which you have mapped out for yourself as a philosophy in your journalistic voyage of five years in Nigeria.

Without equivocation and fear of repetition, I must confess that for five consistent years you have barked relentlessly at power-wielders to be awakened to the core of their national task and stop creating administrative and developmental borders in their varied spaces of governance. This is because borders stifle self-actualisation and social belonging and create tensions that endanger meaningful interaction, integration and engagement between the rulers and the ruled. Interestingly, however, despite the covert and overt threats from power-wielders, the Congress newspaper has never deflected from its core philosophy of advocacy against power rot and manipulation of the symbolic borders at any level of governance. The Congress newspaper, in its five years of practice of journalism, has never bowed to the power-wielders. I mean those combative power-wielders who are always stung by advocacy and anti-establishment journalism.

The Congress newspaper boldly walks on the path of anti-establishment journalism. This anti-establishment voyage is a path some media houses are too lily-livered to take on as the core of their pro-people journalism and advocacy. Media houses that walk unwaveringly on this path are few and far between. This is why the Congress newspaper must be loudly congratulated and memorably celebrated — even if with ordinary words — for being steadfast in their pro-people journalism and advocacy for the past five years. This steadfastness of the Congress newspaper in advocacy and anti-establishment journalism is seasoned with a functional philosophy that prioritises the interest of the ordinary people with whom there should always be a ‘vital link’ with the power-wielders. This emphasised ‘vital link’ is the anchor of Chinua Achebe in his novel, ANTHILLS OF THE SAVANNAH. This signals a unique storytelling strategy that is commendable because the ordinary people are the measuring tape of good governance that does not create borders. Borders created by government and privileged individuals often give birth to border tensions that suffocate and invisibilise the masses supposed to be the core of any government.

I am ‘peterd’ today, though without the abject component of being ‘peterd’. ‘Peterd’, I can only authorise a congregation of words to act out the five-year performance story of the Congress newspaper without being performative. My hearty congratulations are therefore yours on your vision-driven advocacy and pro-people journalism that have enabled the Congress newspaper to cross five turbulent rivers gloriously marked without exhibitionism in Warri on July 16, 2026. I wish the Congress newspaper better days of anti-establishment journalism. I wish the Congress newspaper better days of pro-people journalism. I wish the Congress newspaper better days of fearless, investigative and ethically driven journalism, armed with the potential to awaken government to the desideratum of border inclusivity in the business of governance. What is meant here is a border inclusivity bound to activate and strengthen the ‘vital link’ viewed ‘achebeically’ as a sine qua non to bring the rulers and the ruled together for mutually beneficial engagements on the symbolic borders.