The status of Tribune editorials has an integral link with the mission statement of the paper during its rollout on November 16, 1949, wherein the founder, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, had described the paper as “A tongue and a pen that will care less of what the opponents might say, they might feel and will have enough courage to call hypocrisy, humbug, and tyranny by their true names. Such a tongue, such a pen, will mortify the proud and provoke despotism to repent its ways.” In November 1949, barely a week old, the Tribune wrote an editorial denouncing the Enugu colliery incident in which the police had killed protesting coal miners. It deplored “ the beastly, outrageous and dastardly conduct of the police”, saying that “the great sacrifice paid by the unfortunate miners shall be a monument of man’s struggle for unfettered and just living and shall spur us in our fight for freedom.”
Across the Nigerian landscape today, Nigerian Tribune’s editorials are known for…