The Mandate News is a child of protest. Initially conceived as a book title, 'A Mandate denied', it was an immediate, almost instinctive reaction against the injustice of the annulment, in 1993, of the victory of MKO Abiola in what has long since been recognized worldwide as the freest and fairest elections held in Nigeria and the country's best opportunity so far of ridding itself of excess baggage which has held down since then. The book was meant to capture the drama of the annulment and its subsequent fallouts. Owing to inexperience and other sundry challenges however, the book could not materialize.. It was not until 1998 while working as state correspondent for Daily Times of Nigeria in Taraba State, that the title materialized as a news magazine. The naivety/idealistic nature of the publisher, then not long after his youth service, was evident in the publication's first cover story: 'Excesses of a police commissioner', which was a daring, if reckless (truthful) expo of the methods and tactics of a then serving police commissioner (long deceased). Since then, the publication has struggled through, stubornly holdiing on to its ideological principles which often clash with government policies and anti-people actions... and of course landed the publisher behind bars on a couple of occasions. Remarkably, the publication, which has metamorphosis from magazine to a newspaper and now a fortnightly still, insists on the old school brand of journalism, relying on truthful, balanced journalism.
CEO/Editor in Chief: Samuel Adzegeh.