A Cambridge University Nuffield Press Fellow, Lady Dupe Ajayi Gbadebo, a journalist and lawyer, has been admitted into the fellowship of the Nigerian Institute of Chatered Arbitrators (NICArb).
The conferment ceremony held at the end of the 2022 Hybrid Annual Conference of the Institute, last Friday, at Eko Hotel and Suites, Lagos.
A journalist of over four decades, she had been the Special Adviser to the Osun State Government on Signage and Outdoor Advertisement.
A former Special Assistant to a one-time Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SA/SGF), she holds three Masters’ Degrees and a Post Graduate Diploma: Masters of Communications Art, University of Ibadan (UI), March, 1984;
Master of Business Administration (MBA), University of Ibadan (UI) June 2007; Master of Law (LLM), University of Lagos (UNILAG) June, 2014 and a Post Graduate Diploma in International Relations and Development from the Institute of Social Studies (ISI) at The Hague, The Netherlands, April, 1988.
She was called to the Nigerian Bar, September, 1999.
She is also a Fellow of the Nigerian Guild of Editors; Member, Advertising Practitioners Council of Nigeria (APCON) and Associate Member, Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (CIArb), Nigerian Branch, among others.
A former Board Member of the Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria (FRCN), she has varied work experience starting in 1979 as a Reporter in Punch Newspapers, becoming Editor of the Happy Home Magazine and later Political Correspondent attached to the then Senate in Lagos. She joined the Guardian Group of Newspapers at inception in 1983 as Political Correspondent, then became Diplomatic Editor and later the Political Editor of the Newspaper.
Moving to the Daily Times Newspapers Group in 1989 as Political Editor, Sunday Times, she became Deputy Editor of the Newspaper, which she later edited in acting capacity; she was appointed the founding Editor of the Weekend Times and left the Daily Times Newspapers Group as the Group Political Editor.
She was appointed the Managing Director/Editor-In-Chief of the Sketch Newspapers, Ibadan, 1st June, 2000.
During her working career, she attended various courses including the Studies of the Functions of the Capitol Hill Washington, 1991; Nuffield Press Fellowship Programme at Wolfson College, Cambridge University, April, 1984; East-West German Relations, West Berlin, 1988; Carol Simpson Leadership Course (for Women Journalists) Johannesburg, May, 2000; the Global Senior Executive Programme Series: High Performance Leadership Grade at the Lee Kuan Yee School of Public Policy, Singapore, 2008. She also attended the Global Editors’ Summit (GEN) in France, June 2013 and the same Summit in Vienna, June, 2016.
Socially empathetic, in 1992, she startded with others, the Soroptimists International Club of Festival Town (FESTAC) Lagos (a global volunteer movement founded in 1921, with a network of around 72,000 clubs in 121 countries) and became its Chartered President.
She was appointed Ambassador of Goodwill, State of Arkansas, United States of America ((USA), 1994.
A Student Activist during her school days, she served as Magazine Editor, Fleet Street, College of Journalism, London, 1981; Institute’s Representative (the highest students’ organ), Institute of Social Studies (ISI) at the Hague, Netherlands, April, 1987 and President of Master of Business Association (MBASSA), University of Ibadan (UI) in 2006.
