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CHIEF Dare Babarinsa, the Chairman and Editor-in-Chief of Gaskia Media Limited, is one of Nigeria’s best known journalists. He graduated with a Second-Class Upper degree in Mass Communication from the University of Lagos in 1981 and since then has plunged into the mainstream of Nigerian journalism.
He was a member of the pioneering team of Newswatch where he rose to the position of Associate Editor before he and four other top journalists, Nosa Igichor, Dele Omotunde, Onome Osifo-Whiskey and Kolawole llori, teamed up to start TELL. in 1991.
He was the Managing Director and Editor-in-Chief of The Westerner, published by the Western Publishing Company Ltd, the publishers of the defunct Compass Newspapers.
Babarinsa maintained a weekly column until recently in the highly-rated Guardian Newspapers as one the Grandmasters of Nigerian journalism.
He served as Executive Director of TELL for 15 years during which time he maintained a powerful column that was as a weapon of offence against military dictatorship and tyranny.
He retired from TELL after he celebrated his 50″ birthday in 2005. In truth, his post-retirement career has been packed with action and accomplishments.
Babarinsa was born May 9, 1955 in Okemesi, Ekiti State of Nigeria. He has won honours and recognitions both at home and abroad. He won the prestigious Journalist of the Year Award in 1986 which was presented to him at a colourful ceremony attended by prominent Nigerians including Chief Ernest Shonekan, Chief Emeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu and Chief Mrs Stella Obasanjo.
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He was one of two Nigerian journalists invited in 1985 by President Felix Houphouet-Boigny of Ivory Coast to witness the convention of the then ruling Party Democratic de Cote d’Ivoire, PDCI.
He was the only Nigerian journalist invited by the United States Government in 1988 to witness the convention of the Republican Party in New Orleans in the state of Louisiana during which time George Bush Snr. emerged as the party presidential candidate. His team, which included top journalists and leaders from all over the world, was later invited to the White House.
In 1997, he was the guest lecturer at the Africa Hall in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, during the 50 anniversary of the Ethiopian Journalists Association.
Babarinsa started his journalism career with the Concord Group of Newspapers in 1982 after a brief spell with the old Drum magazine, publishers of Drum, Trust, Sadness and Joy, Truck and Car and African Film.
He served as the Concord National Assembly Correspondent in Lagos in 1982 and later was posted to Akure in 1983 as the Chief Correspondent for Ondo State (including the present Ekiti State).
He is the author of House of War, a definitive study of Nigeria’s Second Republic especially as it affects Chief Obafemi Awolowo and his followers, and One Day and a Story, the Reminiscences of an African Journalist.
He is the editor of The Nigerian Century, the epochal compendium that was commissioned by the Federal Government in 2014 to commemorate the 100 anniversary of our country’s amalgamation.
His latest book is Eat Now, Pay Later, a collection of some of his public essays. Gaskia Media Ltd is Babarinsa latest staging post where his team is making pioneering forays into new territories of the mass media.
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The company is the publisher of many great biographies of outstanding Nigerians including the likes of Senator Olabiyi Durojaiye, Honourable Justice Ishola Oluwa and Governor Adebisi Akande, whose book, My Participations, remains a measuring-rod of African historiography.
Babarinsa is a co-founder and first Olori of Idile Oodua, a pan-Yoruba resistance movement that fought for the revalidation of the electoral victory of Chief Moshood Abiola in the 1993 presidential elections. Membership includes many prominent Nigerians among whom are Engineer Bayo Adenekan, His Majesty, Oba Adedokun Abolarin, the Orangun of Oke-lla, Osun State, Senator Dayo Adeyeye, Senator Ayo Arise, Honourable Funminiyi Afuye, the late Speaker of the Ekiti State House of Assembly, Professor Rotimi Akinola, Prince Pascal Adeleke Idowu, Pastor Abiodun Bamidupe, Engineer Kayode Anwo, Prince Ademola Oyinlola, Chief Alao Adedayo, Honourable Ajibola Famurewa, Chief Kole Omololu, Barrister Rotimi John, Mr. Kehinde Akinola and many other prominent Nigerians.
Babarinsa later emerged as the leader and Chairman of Alajobi Committee of the Yoruba Nation, the intellectual wing of Afenifere, the mainstream political and cultural movement of the Yoruba people. Among members of Alajobi are Governor Gbenga Daniel, Engineer Femi Yerokun and Mr. Jimi Agbaje, Chief Tokunbo Ajasin, Mr. Gbenga Adebusuyi, Dr Charles Akinola, Chief Ayo Afolabi, Mr. Kunle Famoriyo, Honourable Wale Oshun and Mr. Tola Mobolurin.
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Babarinsa continues to participate in different aspects of the society and our country.
He is the Otun Ijo of Saint John Anglican Church, Okemesi-Ekiti. He is the President of the Band of Light Society of the Archbishop Vining Memorial Church Cathedral, Ikeja GRA, Lagos. He is a Patron of the Apostles of Peace Society International, also of the Anglican Church. He is a former President, Ife Anglican Grammar School Alumni Association. He is also the National Treasurer of Afenifere. He is a member of the Association of World Editors. In 2024, the Nigerian Union of Journalists honoured him with the award of Icon of the Nigerian Press.
Babarinsa, husband of Modupe lhinosen and father of four children, has infused into Nigerian journalism an intellectual vigour that is bound to transform the landscape of the profession. He is also the Chairman of Lekeleke Investment Ltd, a company that deals in high quality tyres.
Now at 70, his story continues as he remain active on many fronts of professional, social and national endeavours.
-the end-
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