Celebratory Notes for the Congress Newspaper After Five Years of Journalistic Voyage - Ekanpou

By: Enewaridideke Ekanpou

Five years of uninterrupted journalistic  voyage around the world driven by a philosophy to re-imagine and reconceptualise the borders in human relations between the rulers and the ruled as a site for meaningful interaction and integration towards building a great society where the search for self-actualisation and social belonging  would be fully attained without being gripped by thoughts of transnational migration locally termed  'japa', the journalistic radiance of Congress newspaper  in the media world has come to stay like the sun and the moon.

Towards building orientations  and consciously moving people away from border tensions and the ever tempting transnational migration, having as an aim the attainment of a borderless society of unimpeded growth exemplified by educational, infrastructural and human capital development, devoid of tendencies to manipulate and hegemonise the symbolic borders and ignite tensions linked to self-actualisation struggles, Congress newspaper has  effortfully  built up a reputation as a focused, fearless, confident,consistent, independent and investigative newspaper that tells stories in a manner ethically  faithful  to all our cultural imaginaries, particularly our indigenous African spirituality. 

Found ethically faithful to all the components that foreground and assert the identity of a people in any given society in your five years of journalistic voyage  - including their developmental sorrows, joys and  expectations/aspirations from the government at any given time, the Congress newspaper deserves hearty celebrations and  congratulations. In the waiting years may you succeed in building that borderless society of educational, infrastructural and human capital development which you have mapped out for yourself as a philosophy in your journalistic voyage of five years in Nigeria.

Without equivocation and fear of repetition I must confess that for five consistent years you have barked relentlessly at power-wielders to be awakened to the core of  their national task and stop creating administrative and developmental borders in their varied spaces of governance because borders stifle self-actualisation and social belonging and create tensions that endanger meaningful interaction, integration  and engagement between the rulers and the ruled. Interestingly, however the covert and overt threats from power-wielders, the Congress newspaper has never deflected from its core philosophy of advocacy against power rot and manipulation of the symbolic borders at any level of governance and   bowed to the power-wielders who are always stung by advocacy and anti-establishment journalism. 

The Congress newspaper boldly walks on the path of anti-establishment journalism. This anti-establishment voyage is a path  some media houses are too lily-livered to take on as the core of their pro-people journalism and advocacy. Media houses that walk unwaveringly on this path are few and far between. This is why the Congress newspaper must be loudly congratulated and memorably celebrated  - even if with  ordinary words -  for being steadfast in their pro-people journalism and advocacy for the past five years.This steadfastness of the Congress newspaper in advocacy and anti-establishment journalism seasoned with a functional philosophy that prioritises the interest of the ordinary people with whom there should always be a 'vital link' with the power-wielders   -  as echoed by Chinua Achebe in ANTHILLS OF THE SAVANNAH  -   signals a unique storytelling strategy that is commendable because the ordinary people are the measuring tape of good governance that does not create borders. Borders created by government and privileged individuals often give  birth to border tensions that suffocate and invisibilise the masses  supposed to be the core of any government.

I am 'peterd' today, though without the abject component  of being 'peterd'. 'Peterd', I can only authorise a congregation of words to act out the five-year performance story of the Congress newspaper without being performative. Congress newspaper, my hearty congratulations are therefore yours on your vision-driven advocacy and pro-people journalism that has enabled you to cross five turbulent rivers,  which was gloriously marked without exhibitionism in Warri on 16 July 2026. I wish the Congress newspaper better days of anti-establishment journalism. I wish the Congress newspaper better days of pro-people journalism. I wish the Congress newspaper better days of fearless, investigative and ethically driven journalism armed with the potential to awaken government to the desideratum of border inclusivity in the business of governance  -  a border inclusivity  bound to activate and strengthen the 'vital link' viewed  'achebeically' as a sine qua non to bring the rulers and the ruled together for mutually beneficial engagements on the symbolic borders.

Dr. Ekanpou writes from Akparemogbene, Delta State.