As part of activities marking the centenary celebration of Daily Times of Nigeria (DTN), the Times Heroes Awards Council, led by its Chairman, Bolaji Okusaga, has announced plans to convene a high-level Town Hall Meeting on November 3, 2026, at Harbour Point, Victoria Island, Lagos, as the newspaper moves from celebrating Nigeria’s past to shaping its future.
The Town Hall, which will be anchored on the centenary theme, “Honouring the Past, Shaping the Future,” will bring together key stakeholders from government, business, media, creative industries, civil society and other sectors to examine practical pathways towards a more prosperous, competitive and positively positioned Nigeria.
The event represents the second phase of the Daily Times@100 centenary programme. The first phase was marked by the Times Heroes Awards, held on September 3, 2026, where deserving Nigerians and organisations were recognised for their exceptional contributions to national development and nation-building.
While the first phase focused on acknowledging individuals and institutions whose contributions have helped shape Nigeria’s journey, the Town Hall will turn attention to the future and explore how the country can harness its human capital, innovation, enterprise and institutional strengths to accelerate development.
Speaking with the media in Lagos, Chairman of Folio Communications, owners of Daily Times, Fidelis Anosike, said Nigeria has enormous potential and that Nigerians at home and in the diaspora must play a more active role in shaping the country’s future.
“Nigeria has a great future ahead of it, and every Nigerian, at home and in the diaspora, must take part and take pride in its development. We have a responsibility to contribute to the Nigeria that we want to see,” he said.
Anosike said one of the critical challenges facing Nigeria is the perception of the country internationally, noting that changing the narrative must form part of the national development conversation.
In nhis words: “Nigeria is struggling with perception, and we believe that one of the first things we can do is to change the narrative through which Nigeria is perceived. We have also embarked on the writing of the Nigerian Grand Book because we believe we need to tell the story of Nigeria better and, in doing so, change the global perception of our country.”
He stressed that the media has a critical role to play in changing the narrative around Nigeria, adding that Folio Communications and Daily Times intend to work with stakeholders across the media ecosystem to amplify the positive developments taking place across the country. “It is very critical to us at Daily Times to galvanise the necessary stakeholders to change the negative stories about Nigeria. We will work with the entire media ecosystem to make this happen,” he said.
According to him, the strategy will involve identifying and telling the stories of Nigerians and Nigerian institutions that are creating meaningful impact across different sectors of the economy. “We will tap into what the game changers in Nigeria are doing to tell this story better—in music, business, banking, oil and gas and other sectors. There are many Nigerians doing remarkable things, and these stories need to be told more effectively.”
Anosike explained that the centenary programme was deliberately structured around two complementary objectives: celebrating those who have contributed to Nigeria’s development while creating a platform for conversations about the country’s future.
The November 3 Town Hall will retain elements of the first phase of the centenary celebration, with awards, a fireside chat and a keynote address by the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) forming part of the programme.
The event is expected to provide a platform for robust conversations around Nigeria’s development trajectory, its global image and the role of different sectors and stakeholders in building a more prosperous and competitive nation.
Speaking on the broader vision behind the Daily Times@100 initiative, Bolaji Okusaga, Chairman of the Times Heroes Awards Council, said the centenary celebration is not simply about commemorating the newspaper’s long history, but about positioning the institution for its next century.
He noted that over the past 22 years, Folio Communications has invested in rebuilding and expanding the Daily Times brand while developing new platforms and franchises across the media and creative economy.
According to Okusaga, the transformation has included the digital evolution of Daily Times, the re-engineering of the Miss Nigeria pageant, the development of the Craft Creative Market as a pan-African franchise and strategic partnerships within the international media ecosystem, including its partnership with CNN. These initiatives, he said, form part of a broader effort to reposition Daily Times for relevance in a rapidly changing media environment.
Okusaga said the next phase of the journey is focused on taking the newspaper and its platforms into their second century through accelerated digital transformation and a renewed commitment to relevance, innovation and national development.
He described the centenary programme as a journey into the next chapter of Daily Times, saying the November event would provide an important opportunity to articulate the direction the institution intends to take in its second century.
Founded in 1926, Daily Times has been an important part of Nigeria’s media and national development history, documenting major political, economic and social milestones while providing a platform for public discourse across generations.
The centenary celebration therefore seeks not only to reflect on that legacy but also to explore how the institution can contribute to the conversations, ideas and innovations required to shape Nigeria’s next chapter.
For the Times Heroes Awards Council, the Town Hall is intended to extend the conversation beyond recognition and celebration to action, ideas and shared responsibility.
The Council believes that changing Nigeria’s global perception will require a sustained effort to identify, document and amplify the achievements of Nigerians across sectors, while creating platforms where policymakers, entrepreneurs, creatives, professionals and citizens can engage meaningfully on the country’s future.
The “Honouring the Past, Shaping the Future” theme consequently captures the central philosophy of the Daily Times@100 celebration: recognising the people and institutions that have helped build Nigeria while mobilising the ideas, partnerships and leadership required to move the country forward.
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