Daily Times, FRCN repossession won’t bring back glory—columnist urges innovation
Martins Oloja’s September 5 column in Premium Times marks the 100th anniversary of Daily Times (June 1) and the 75th of FRCN (April), lamenting their decline from glorious pasts to struggling entities. He recounts how Daily Times once held a 60% stake in Naira Properties, owned valuable lands in Nigeria and London, and ran the Times Journalism Institute, yet now struggles for survival, likening its state to needing Salvation Army help. Oloja details the troubled privatization of Daily Times to Folio Communications 22 years ago, noting disputes over price, financing, and asset management, and warns that attempting to reverse such sales after mortgages, receivership, and successive owners leads to years of litigation without restoring productive capacity. He cites failed reversals like the Port Harcourt and Kaduna refineries sold under Obasanjo and later reclaimed by Yar’Adua, costing billions, and similar outcomes for Ajaokuta Steel and ALSCON, contrasting with successes like Eleme Petrochemicals and Ashaka Cement. The column argues regret is futile; what matters is whether institutions innovate, adapt, and create sustainable value, pointing to PUNCH’s turnaround under non‑journalist leadership as proof that ownership background matters less than performance. For Nigerians, this reflects broader challenges in managing privatized assets across sectors and underscores that recovering past glory is less important than building future‑ready institutions that meet former standards through innovation, not nostalgia.