Our team

ZAINAB SULEIMAN OKINO (Founder and Editor-in-Chief)

 Zainab Suleiman Okino is the immediate past Commissioner for Information in Kogi State and now chairperson of the Editorial Board of Blueprint Newspaper. She has almost30 years of experience as a media practitioner, researcher, writer, administrator, consultant, public policy analyst and a critic.

An astute journalist, writer and communications professional, she began her professional career in 1988 as a reporter with the defunct Today Newspaper in Kaduna and rose to the position of Woman Editor before joining Citizen Magazine also in Kaduna as a sub-editor from 1991 to 1994.

She joined Media Trust in 1998 as the pioneer Production Editor of Weekly Trust Newspaper and rose to the position of editor of Weekly Trust and later as the Deputy Managing Editor and Deputy Chairman of the Editorial Board of Daily Trust Newspaper where she galvanized the publication to enviable editorial and commercial successes with her administrative skills and through her weekly column, Rendezvous, which has continued to attract large national and international readership with breath-taking and incisive discourse of public policies, national and international issues for about twenty years now.

She also served as the Managing Editor at Leadership Newspaper in 2008 and later worked at The Sun Newspaper as Editor-at-Large before moving to Blueprint Newspaper as Executive Editor and rose to the position of Editor-in-Chief and now chairperson of the Editorial Board.

Her writing through the weekly column, Rendezvous, is now well syndicated in several local and international blogs and websites with a huge audience base from diverse background.

She had her first degree in Englishand History from Bayero University, Kano in 1987. She later earned a Masters Degree in International Affairs and Diplomacy at the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria in 2002 and she has remained a life-long learner.

Beyond her enviable track record as a successful media practitioner, she has a robust consulting experience working for organisations in the public and private sectors in Nigeria.

With several published works in newspapers, magazines and blogs and her participation in public policy debates, she has become one of the most recognized female journalists in Northern Nigeria.

Revered for her uncommon work ethic and capacity as a team player, Zainab Suleiman Okino also enjoys reading, writing, and travelling in her constant quest to discover new things in life and in advancing the interest of humanity.

She is a member of several professional and social organisations among which are the Nigerian Institute of Public Relations (NIPR), the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ), Nigerian Association of Women Journalists, (NAWOJ), the Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE) and among others.

 Zainab Suleiman Okino is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Verity News.

Abdullahi Mohammed Gulloma, Content provider

Abdullahi Mohammed Gulloma is a cosmopolitan, broad-minded, vibrant and dynamic young man with about two decades experience in mainstream media practice. A graduate of Mass Communications, Gulloma has covered virtually all the strategic beats in the country including the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

He is an author, publisher, media, marketing, advertising and Public Relations practitioner of repute, and member of Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA), Nigerian Institute of Public Relations (NIPR), Nigeria Guild of Investigative Journalists (NGIJ), among other professional bodies. He is also a member of the State Executive Committee (SEC) of FCT Council of the Nigeria Union of Journalists.

Gulloma’s extensive and vast reportorial experience has conferred on him impeccable mastery of people, places, personalities, government policies and Nigeria’s rich culture and history. He is fast gaining nationwide recognition as one of the country’s most renowned biographers having written highly successful accounts of the life and service records of several key national figures who have made significant contributions to the social, political and economic evolution of Nigeria.   

The young media entrepreneur is of the view that journalists must, as part of their contributions to the emergence of a decent and productive society of everyone’s dreams, probe into the background of national icons – government officials and private individuals – who have made indelible impacts on the lives of people for posterity.

ISAH ISMAIL (Chief Content Strategist)

 Ismail has over fifteen (15) years of experience in media practice, public service and communications consultancy. He started his journalism career as a reporter with the Financial Standard Newspaper in 2007 before going into communications consultancy in 2009 at SilverBullet Public Relations, a member of the US-based Young&Rubicam Brands where he rose to the position of Account Director. He later joined Brand Research & Advertising as Director of Strategy and Business Development in 2010 and thereafter moved to TouchpointXM, an experiential marketing and brand activation agency as General Manager/Chief Operating Officer until 2015 when he worked briefly with the Kogi State government in a communications advisory capacity before moving to Abuja where he now works as the lead communications consultant to the Independent National Electoral Commission, (INEC) and chief content strategist for Verity News.

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Ismail has been a part of several successful strategic interventions in media and communications for major local and international brands such as LG Electronics, DHL, Texaco (now MRS Oil), Chevron, The Bridge Clinic, Zain (now Airtel) Rapido Foods, Coleman Wires & Cables, Nigerian Breweries, Stanbic IBTC, Sterling Bank, Diamnd Bank, Reckitt Benckiser (makers of Dettol & Harpic) Avon HMO and Jagal Pharma (makers of Tetmosol), among others in over ten years of active communications consultancy.

Winner of the Golden Eagle Award for The Most Outstanding Talent in the PR Industry in Nigeria in 2010, Ismail is a member of the Nigerian Institute of Public Relations (NIPR), Advertising Practitioners Council of Nigeria (APCON) and the African Council for Communication Education (ACCE)

Ismail is among a few communications consultants in Nigeria with robust cross-functional experience in public relations, advertising, media management, content creation, strategy, concept origination and execution of creative communication solutions across diverse channels.

An alumnus of the School of Media and Communications of the Pan-Atlantic University, Lagos; Ismail holds a Bachelor of Arts (B.A)  in Mass communication from Bayero University Kano, a Master’s Degree (Msc.) in Mass Communications from the University of Lagos; he is currently studying for his Doctorate degree in Media Studies at the University of Abuja.

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