The Board of African Media Initiative (AMI) has elected Mr. Wale Aboderin as the new chairman of the organisation to take over from the maiden chairman, Mr. Trevor Ncube.
The organisation made the announcement in a statement made available to News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Wednesday in Abuja.
According to the statement, Ncube, who is the Executive Vice-Chairman of South Africa’s Mail and Guardian, has steered the organisation since its inception in 2008.
Aboderin is the chairman of The Punch Newspaper.
The new chairman in 2012 was appointed chairman of the company’s Board of Directors, adding that his tenure has witnessed ground breaking changes in the editorial quality, management and fortunes of The Punch.
The new chair was a trained commercial pilot at the Burnside-Ott Flying School, Florida, United States.
Aboderin is the founder and owner of Dolphins Basketball Club, a leading African female basketball club, with local and continental honours.
He was also former chairman of the Lagos State Basketball Association and a former member of the Nigerian Handball Federation.
The new chair promised to champion the AMI cause everywhere and ensure that Africans stop being suspicious about home grown initiatives and support AMI.
“I thankfully accept this role and I believe AMI will help African media bridge the communication gap between policy makers and the citizens to allow for a two-way feedback engagement,’’ Aboderin said.
The statement quoted Mr Eric Chinje, CEO of the African Media Initiative as saying, “with more than two decades of direct involvement in media, Mr. Aboderin brings a wealth of experience to the organisation.
“He will surely help AMI refocus its work around the four major pillars of activity around which a new strategy is being developed: strengthening media capacity, content development and promotion; research; and performance incentives for media professionals’’.
AMI is a pan-African organisation that seeks to strengthen the continent’s private and independent media sector with a view to promoting democratic governance, social development and economic growth.
It does so through a set of strategic activities aimed at transforming the media and communications landscape on the continent.
AMI’s overall goal was to promote the development of pluralistic media as a necessary and critical ingredient of democratic governance, as well as economic and human development in Africa.
