THE Chairman of the Board of Trustees (BoT) and Founder of Baze University, Datti Baba-Ahmed, this week approved the appointment of a new Vice-Chancellor and Registrar for the University following a rigorous and competitive selection process. Accordingly, Professor Abiodun Adeniyi, has been appointed as Vice-Chancellor of Baze University, Abuja with effect from 6 May 2026. Adeniyi, a distinguished scholar of communication and media epistemology, steps into the role after serving as Registrar of the University.
Professor Adeniyi may not be popular with young people and even scholars. He is a product of The Guardian ‘School of Journalism’ we fondly call Rutam House that has produced so many great journalists and technocrats. I would like to let people know that President Tinubu’s big media man, Bayo Onanuga was at The Guardian. Lest we forget, one of our best, Dapo Olorunyomi of Premium Times also passed through Rutam House. Even political giants such as Governorship hopeful in Ogun State, Senator Solomon Olamilekan, Adeola Yayi and former Governor of Ekiti State, Dr. Kayode Fayemi were associates at the Rutam House.
Former Corps Marshall and CEO of FRSC and former Minister of Aviation, Osita Chidoka also passed through the solid Rutam House. Not many too even in the media would recall that the current Managing Director and Editor-in-Chief of The Sun, Onuoha Ukeh began serious journalism from The Guardian. Do people know too that the Great Kabiru Yusuf, Publisher and Chairman of Daily Trust and Trust Tv, was part of the pioneer associates of The Guardian on Sunday.
That is where it all began for the prolific political journalist, Abiodun Adeniyi that we are celebrating today.
No one among those who worked with Professor Adeniyi including yours sincerely, would be surprised by the grace that propelled him to this academic height. He wrote great stories for the great newspaper, The Guardian and under a very brilliant Political Editor, the late Akpo Esajere who was always waiting for his copies from the Abuja Bureau. It is a time to celebrate Adeniyi, really.
One of the early accolades landed on the newspaper’s registered Alumni Association’s platform, ”When The Flagship Led”, formed by the notables who built the brand equity in the first ten years (1983-1993). The Platform has been registered with the CAC. The first remarkable message from the legendary Kingsley Osadolor, former Editor, The Guardian on Sunday and former Deputy MD/Editor-in-Chief, was quite significant. His words:
‘Congratulations, Prof. Abiodun Adeniyi, on your elevation to the position of Vice-Chancellor of Baze University, one of the country’s leading private universities. Prof. Adeniyi now joins an enviable list of media practitioners who transitioned into academia and climbed the stairs to reach the pinnacle of university governance. They include Prof Femi Onabanjo (Lead City University), Prof Dayo Alao (Adeleke University), Prof Abubakar Rasheed (ex- New Nigerian, ex-VC, Bayero University, ex-Executive Secretary NUC), Prof Nosa Owens-Ibie (Caleb University), Prof Umaru Pate (Federal University, Kashere), and Prof. Jide Oluwajuyitan (ex-Guardian). So, our erudite yet remarkably humble Prof Adeniyi is in league with Prof Oluwajuyitan as Rutamites who have become VCs.
“As Editor of The Guardian of Sunday in the 1990s, Adeniyi was one of my trusted and reliable sources of editorial contributions. On the 30th Anniversary of June 12 in 2023, I ensured he was one of our resource persons when we had a series of NTA’s “Good Morning Nigeria” editions devoted to that electoral landmark. I recalled the reports he filed 30 years earlier, and along with Tonnie Iredia, who was at the Election Management body at the time, the insights were memorable.
Since the 1990s, Adeniyi and I struck a friendship that has endured, and I have been immensely proud of his ascendancy in academia. Prof, congratulations once more. As we always say, we shall speak.
Best wishes,
Kingsley.
Professor Adeniyi’s story should be used by education authorities here to deconstruct how to take advantage of professionals and technocrats to rebuild our broken walls especially in education. There should be a recourse to the much needed integration of ‘town and gown’ in the tertiary education sector. Adeniyi’s rise and rise should not be seen as a flash in the pan. It is only a private university where bureaucracy is somewhat efficient that could have detected his talent and experience before migrating to the academia.
We are blessed here but politicians who specialise in recruiting a cabinet of mediocrities into the highest levels of governance systems won’t understand the value of merit-based administration. That is the message from Dr. Yusuf Datti Baba-Ahmed the Founder of Baze University who placed merit above other considerations and our fault lines. Let’s celebrate the essential Adeniyi.
Abiodun Adeniyi is a Professor of Communication and Media Epistemology at Baze University, Abuja, where he continues to provide exemplary administrative leadership alongside a sustained commitment to scholarship and teaching. Notably, he is the first academic in Nigeria to hold the position of Registrar while retaining full professorial standing, a distinction that reflects both his intellectual stature and the deep institutional confidence reposed in him. His contributions to academia, journalism, and public discourse have earned national recognition, including commendation by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who described him as a distinguished scholar, accomplished media intellectual, and committed nation builder whose work continues to enrich national development.
Before this appointment, he had served as Dean of the School of Postgraduate Studies, having previously held the positions of Deputy Dean, University Orator, and for several years, Head of the Department of Mass Communication, roles through which he made significant contributions to the development of the University’s academic structure and postgraduate culture.
A scholar of international repute, Professor Adeniyi is a British Chevening Scholar and holds a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) and a Master of Arts degree in International Communications from the University of Leeds, alongside a Bachelor of Science degree in Sociology (Second Class Upper Division) from Ahmadu Bello University and a Postgraduate Diploma in Journalism from the Nigeria’s International Institute of Journalism. His academic formation reflects intellectual rigour, global exposure, and a longstanding dedication to the advancement of communication scholarship and democratic values through responsible media engagement and thought leadership.
Professor Adeniyi’s academic and professional career reflects a rare synthesis of theory and practice. Before transitioning fully into academia, he had a distinguished career in journalism, rising through the ranks from reporter to desk editor. He covered politics and national affairs with notable depth and insight at The Guardian, Nigeria. This professional grounding continues to inform his scholarship, particularly in journalism studies, political communication, media ethics, and critical discourse analysis.
In the academia, he has taught and mentored students across a range of institutions in Nigeria and internationally, including the American University of Nigeria and the University of Leeds, his alma mater. He has also served, and continues to serve, as Visiting or Adjunct Professor at institutions such as Kogi State University, the University of Abuja; the National Open University of Nigeria, and Miva Open University.
In these roles, he has made substantial contributions to teaching, postgraduate supervision, curriculum development, and the mentorship of younger scholars and professionals. In addition, he has served extensively as an external assessor for promotions to the professorial cadre and as an examiner of numerous doctoral theses, further underscoring his standing within the academic community.
Professor Adeniyi is widely acknowledged as a pioneering voice in Diasporic Communication, as well as the first Professor of Mass Communication produced by Baze University. His research spans international and transnational communication, migration and diaspora studies, development communication, strategic communication, global media communication, and cultural studies.
Besides, he is respected as a prolific scholar with an extensive body of publications, including books, edited volumes, journal articles, and policy-oriented research. Among his notable works are the co-edited volume Media and the National Security Question: Communicating (In)security in Nigeria, West Africa and the Sahel (Palgrave Macmillan, 2025); and single-authored works such as Diasporic Communication in the Digital Age (2022) and New Hidden Narratives of African Migration: Exploring Media and the Contestation of Place (Palgrave Macmillan, 2026).
He is also completing a forthcoming book on Roots and Networks: Memory, Migration and Digital Belonging in Africa. His scholarship is both theoretically grounded and policy relevant, reflecting a deep engagement with contemporary societal challenges and a sustained effort to shape critical conversations around governance, media, migration, and society in Nigeria and beyond.
Beyond academia, Professor Adeniyi has made substantial contributions to public policy, governance, and development communication. He has also been Deputy Chairman of the National Values Charter Committee, a strategic national initiative on reorientation and civic renewal.
His consultancy footprint is extensive, having served as Communications Consultant to major international development organisations, including the World Bank Economic Reform and Governance Project, the UK Department for International Development, the European Union, and the International Organisation for Migration. He has designed and implemented communication strategies for key national institutions, including the National Bureau of Statistics and the Nigerian Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, while contributing to high-level policy and institutional reform initiatives across governance and public sector management.
As an engaging public intellectual, Professor Adeniyi is a regular media analyst on national and international broadcast platforms, and a sought-after speaker, moderator, and facilitator at high-level conferences, policy dialogues, and executive training programmes across Nigeria and beyond. His interventions consistently bridge the gap between academia, policy, and practice.
Within the scholarly community, he has contributed significantly to knowledge production and dissemination as Editor in Chief and Associate Editor of reputable academic journals, while also playing a pivotal role in securing accreditation and developing postgraduate programmes in Mass Communication.
Professor Adeniyi has, in the course of his sustained research in media, migration, and diaspora studies, delivered scholarly lectures and undertaken fieldwork across several African countries. In recent years, his academic engagements have taken him to key intellectual and policy hubs, including Johannesburg and Cape Town in South Africa; Accra; Nairobi; Kigali; Banjul; and Freetown, experiences that continue to enrich the empirical depth and continental relevance of his work.
His contributions have been recognised through several honours and distinctions, including his election as a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Communication and Development, alongside other recognitions reflecting excellence in scholarship, institutional service, and professional practice.
His contributions to academia, journalism, and public discourse have earned national recognition. On the occasion of his last birthday, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu congratulated Professor Adeniyi and described him as “a distinguished scholar, accomplished media intellectual, and committed nation builder whose contributions to academia, journalism, and public discourse have continued to enrich national development.”
The President further commended his longstanding dedication to intellectual excellence, institutional service, and the advancement of democratic values through responsible media engagement and thought leadership, while also acknowledging his role in mentoring younger scholars and shaping critical national conversations around governance, media, and society in Nigeria.
At the heart of Professor Adeniyi’s career is a deep commitment to intellectual inquiry, institutional development, and societal advancement. His work embodies the ideals of scholarship in service of society, rigorous, relevant, transformative, and deeply invested in national development and civic renewal.
I would like to celebrate this very cultured journalist and journalism scholar who returned to serve the country when it wasn’t expedient to do so in 2008 when he completed his doctoral degree in the United Kingdom.
I hope Nigeria’s leaders at all levels would realise from this story that there is no alternative to the power that meritocracy can bring to this time that knowledge rules for country and global competiveness.
- Oloja is former editor of The Guardian newspaper and his column, Inside Stuff, runs on the back page of the newspaper on Sunday. The column appears on News Point Nigeria newspaper on Monday.