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Frontline International Journalist, Tony Iyare has won the Lifetime Media Icons Award for “pacesetting contribution and growth of media industry in Nigeria”. He was named along with other outstanding Journalists – Ovation Publisher, Dele Momodu, Publisher, Africa Today, Kayode Soyinka and Ladi Ayodeji, managing director, BMG Promotions haven garnered overwhelming votes from readers of the international newspaper, Naija Standard, which is celebrating its 10th anniversary.

Iyare, a former Media Adviser to Ex-Edo State Governor, Mr Adams Oshiomhole, was voted to receive Nigeria’s Legend Lifetime Political Award 2021 haven received 745,000 votes from readers.
Momodu, pioneer Editor, This Day newspaper, who polled 850,000 votes won the Nigeria’s Legend Lifetime Celebrity Award 2021.
Soyinka, former Newswatch Bureau Chief in London, received a vote of 850,000 to clinch the Nigeria’s Legend Lifetime News Reporting Award 2021. Ayodeji, also a columnist with The Sun, was unanimously awarded Nigeria’s Legend Lifetime Entertainment Award 2021, after he was voted 790,000 by readers.

Gbenga Dan-Asaba was also voted Nigeria’s Best Investigative Journalist of the Year 2021 while Azuh Arinze earned Nigeria’s Most Outstanding Society Journalist of the
Year 2021.

The Punch won the Africa’s Most Accessible, Readable Newspaper Award 2021. Channels Television emerged Most Watched Nigeria News Station of the Year. The award of the Best Africa Broadcast Station in the Diaspora was won by BEN Television, London while SAHARA Reporters outshined others to win the coveted Best Anti-Corruption African Blog in the Diaspora.

More popularly known with his byline “Tony Iyare,” Mr Anthony Oluwatoyin Iyare, a renowned International Journalist, African Affairs Analyst, Trainer, Development Advocate and Human Rights Activist, was born on October 1st, 1960.

A former Group Editor with the Daily Times of Nigeria, his special area of work includes Media, Environment, Development, Gender, International Relations and Government Business.

Iyare attended Methodist School and United Christian Secondary School both in Apapa, Lagos before proceeding to the University of Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University), Ile Ife in 1980 where he graduated with a Bsc in Political Science in 1984 and later Post Graduate Diploma in International Relations in 1987. He has also attended many training programmes both locally and abroad.

Apart from haven edited four national newspapers in his professional media career that has spanned over 30 years, Iyare has been a stringer for America’s high brow newspaper, The New York Times since September, 1992. He has also written for Choices, a magazine of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) where he has been an Editorial Consultant since 2001 and African Report based in Paris.

He’s a Consultant on Media and Development to several local and international organizations. Iyare was Special Adviser, Media & Publicity to Edo State Governor, Mr Adams Oshiomhole between October 15th, 2009-November 11th, 2012.

He has written extensively including delivering papers on media issues which have been published in several publications, journals and books.

A Nigeria Country Specialist to the Department of Political Science, Swarthmore College, Philadelphia, USA, since 2017, he also anchored a Special Report on Nigeria for the Wall Street Journal in September 2001.

Iyare was Editor, Index on Corruption and also a Contributing Editor to Nigerian Review, a monthly magazine. He also edited the Nigeria Country Report on Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in 2004.

A former Columnist at The Punch and co-author of a book titled “The 11 Day Siege: Gains and Challenges of Women’s Non Violent Struggles in Niger Delta,” Iyare published the country’s pioneer online newspaper, The Gleaner News Online, which debuted in November 2003 as its Editor-in-Chief.

He was at different times an Assistant Editor in Platform, Newswatch and Timesweek magazines. He has been Foreign, Features and Political Editor. Iyare was also Acting Editor, The Post Express, Editor, The Post Express, Midweek; Editor, National Interest, Sunday, and Editor, Business Times.

A member of the Media Technical Sub Committee of Vision 2020, where he was deputy chairperson, he is a fellow of the Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE) where he’s been an active member for over 20 years. He’s also a member of the Global Investigative Journalists Association and the World Editors Forum.