Tomorrow, Friday, November 6, Adeniyi clock 50, while it will be Abati’s turn on Saturday, November 7.
Although, Adeniyi is yet to unfold his plan for hitting the golden age, some few friends of Abati, who believe he deserves to be celebrated, are planning to host him to a “surprise party “, in Ikeja.
Born on November 6, 1965 in Ile-Ife, Osun State, Adeniyi is the current chairman of the editorial board of ThisDay newspapers and a former presidential spokesman for the late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua.
He is a graduate of International Relations from Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife and holds a Master’s in International Law and Diplomacy from the University of Lagos.
Adeniyi began his journalism career as a Staff Reporter at The Guardian in December 1990 and moved to the now rested African Concord magazine in April 1992, as a Senior Staff Writer. In September of the same year, he became the magazine’s Abuja Bureau Chief and State House Correspondent.
In 1995, Adeniyi joined Sunday Concord as Assistant Editor. He then joined THISDAY in January 1999 as Deputy Editor of the Sunday Newspaper. A year later, he became the editor of the Saturday newspaper. In 2001, he became the Editor of the Sunday newspaper and in 2005, he was appointed THISDAY Editor.
Adeniyi was appointed Special Adviser to the President on communications on May 30, 2007, a position he held for three years. He is a founding member of the National Stakeholder Working Group of Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) and Fellow of the Nigeria Leadership Initiative (NLI)
He is married with three children.
On his own part, Abati the former Special Adviser to the Nigerian President for Media and Publicity was a powerful and brilliant columnist and chairman of the Editorial Board of the Guardian Newspapers before he was tapped by President Jonathan.
Born on November 7, 1965 in Abeokuta, Ogun State, Nigeria, Abati was Special Adviser on Media and Publicity to former President Goodluck Jonathan of Nigeria. He was previously a newspaper columnist and the chairman of the editorial board of the Nigerian newspaper, The Guardian from 2001 to 2011.
Abati was a first class honours graduate of Theater Arts from the University of Calabar where he won the Vice-Chancellor’s prize for the best overall graduating student. After obtaining a doctorate degree, Abati later studied Law at the Lagos State University, LASU.
He won a number of awards including The Cecil King Memorial Prize for Print Journalist of the Year in 1998, The Diamond Award for Media Excellence for Informed Commentary in 1998, Fletcher Challenge Commonwealth Prize for Opinion Writing in 2000, and the Diamond Award for Media Excellence for Informed Commentary, 2000.
While at The Guardian Newspapers, Abati gave the paper a reputation that made it the “primus inter pares” among its competitors in the print media. The Guardian became the Newspaper of choice for most Nigerians because of the powerful editorials of Abati. His column also appears regularly on many Nigerian websites.
Abati is married to two wives and many children.