By Tony Erha
Sufuyan Ojeifo, indefatigable journalist, Publisher/Editor-in-Chief of The Conclave, a frontline Nigerian online newspaper, and Secretary General of the Guild of Corporate Online Publishers (GOCOP), turned sixty years of age on August 6, 2026.
Prof. Wole Soyinka, a Nobel Laurette, because Nigeria lacks most essentials of efficacious nationhood, once described this generation as “wasted”. In a country, where about 50 years is average lifespan of its folks, Ojeifo would be considered lucky to have surpassed the threshold, with ten years.
A ‘shout-out’ to him at the ‘Diamond Age’, is particularly decisive. Ordinarily, his kind represents ‘an endangered specie’, due to his hazardous watchdog and caregiving engagements, that marks him out from the populace.
And so, let Sufuyan the son of Ojeifo, rejoice and dance ‘Igbabonelinmin’, the spin and summersault choreography, meaning “handclaps to the deities”. Why will Sufuyan not dance like a proud son of Esan land, from the Ojeifo’s ruling house of Ewu community, that has also produced great men and women, including Prof Friday Okonofua, a professor of obstetrics and gynecology, who is pioneer Vice Chancellor of Ondo State University of Medical Sciences, and Pastor Chris Oyakhilome, globally-acclaimed televangelist, cum patriarch of the ever-present Christ Embassy?
Already, it’s been torrents of goodwill messages on him, with supplications to the Lord God, from the lowly and the mighty of the society, in the fecundity of honest thoughts and appreciations. The same testimony is that the valuable life of selfless dedication, Ojeifo had put to bear on his decades of journalism practice, precepts and examples, is felt by his society.
“Agbon hi ughegbe na re ghe egbe”. “The world is a mirror with which a man sees himself”. The Esans would say. Now, the same world; biological relations, friends, contemporaries and admirers, has amassed caring thoughts, actions and resources, laying the red carpet to celebrate him.
The birthday was laced by a twin event, which aptly defines some of Sufuyan’s dispositions. As a natural and cheerful giver, who would “give out his only cup of cold water to assuage the thirst of others”, he had recreated his pastime with a visit to the orphanage, to donate and felicitate with the inmates, as well as to the widows.
A pious Christian, Ojeifo is also lined up for a thanksgiving at his Abuja church.
In my journalistic practice, Sufuyan Ojeifo is a valuable and household name, and a symbol of industry, unbiased and fearlessness delivery, which underscores its code of belief.
Since early1990s, when he came on board, reporting for the Punch, Champion, ThisDay and peaking as Abuja Bureau Chief of the Vanguard, a frontline national tabloid broached by Sam Amuka Pemu, the revered doyen of Nigerian journalism, my path didn’t cross with Sufuyan’s.
All along, I read and appreciated his reportage, and prose, as I am till this day.
It was penultimate 2020s, shortly after he had established the Conclave online media, that we had a chance meet through “our old man”, Senator Roland Owie.
“Have you ever met my good son, Sufuyan Ojeifo? He is your kind of person; creative, hardworking and reliable. Like you, he could trek all the way from Benin to Lagos, and not be bulged, once he believes in a cause”. Daddy Senator Owie repeatedly reminded me.
When we finally met at the Abuja headquarters of a political party, Senator Owie had dropped it.
“Tony, my son, this is your twin brother, Sufuyan Ojeifo, whom I always told you about”.
And my path has since got crossed with his.
It pained me most that I couldn’t get to match my late ‘younger brother’, Oronto Natei Douglas (OND), with Sufuyan. I didn’t meet Sufuyan for the decades I hobnobbed with Oronto. A remarkable thing is that both ‘younger brothers of mine’ share the same day, month and year of birth.
The painful death of Oronto at his boom was to me a devastating blow. I also had missed the opportunity of a ‘fight’ to decide who would have been the senior between them, who also trained as lawyers.
Our age’s disparity has always been a subject of ‘katakata’ between me and Sufuyan. His probing, like he does in news investigation, is whether my nine years of seniority, was enough to make me his father. Only few hours ago, he had issued a ‘threat’ that I no longer have sufficient grounds to boast about my nine years age difference, when he is now sixty years old.
That is Sufuyan Ojeifo for you; a quiet and easy-going personality with a keen sense of humour making. Sufuyan often edges me out and win ‘argument contests’. He would subdue me with ‘a yellow card’.
A man, who uses the pen like a gun or a spear, is the same who birthed two strong men called Daniel and David. If you get to know the bravery of Daniel and David of the Holy Bible, you would understand my fear. Saint Daniel was that God’s devout, who kissed the Lions that were meant to devour him, whilst David was a lad who downed Goliath, a boastful war-chested giant with mere catapult and a stone.
The fear becomes ‘fears’ as Daniel and David joins ‘Sharon and Shalom’, his girls, thus forming the acronym of ‘DDSS’. And when it sounds like the office of the ‘incompatible twin-brothers’ of the journalists, who am I not to be very careful?
Like Senator Owie, I and Sufuyan have a common friend in an amiable Prof Abiodun Adeniyi, first Nigerian Professor of Diaspora Communication, who was recently appointed Vice Chancellor; Baze University, Abuja. There is also Emmanuel Adah, a jovial Abuja-based journalist and publisher.
The late Captain Hosa Okunbo, had also cemented me and Sufuyan, for whom he had a soft spot and trust. Okunbo, the late billionaire and socialite, always told me how competent and supportive Sufuyan Ojeifo was to him, and that we had great similarities.
Prince Clem Agba, immediate-past Minister of State for Budget and National Planning, under whom Sufuyan served as Special Adviser on Media, also holds same opinion about him.
For children of this generation, and those unborn, the commendable media work of Sufuyan Ojeifo, his good disposition to society, and a readiness to charitable giving, and love for the Lord God, will always be there for them to emulate.
I wish “Sufu Wonder” the best life offers, in his new age and beyond.
