According to a press statement by Ogbuefi Remmy Nweke, GOCOP’s publicity secretary,  this highly anticipated event promises to be a significant milestone in the literary and publishing landscape.

He quoted Ms Maureen Chigbo, GOCOP president, to have said that the event will feature a Fundraiser for the N2.3 billion GOCOP MEDIA CENTRE, a multi-purpose resource centre comprising a secretariat, a 21st Century library and event halls, among others.

Chigbo further said that “this landmark publication chronicled the transformative journey of Nigeria’s media landscape, highlighting the pivotal role of online publishing in shaping public discourse, enhancing transparency and fostering national development.

“It is a testament to the resilience and innovation of Nigerian media practitioners in the digital age,” she said.

The event, she said, will bring together distinguished personalities from government, media, private sector, academia and civil society to reflect on the challenges and opportunities in online publishing and its critical role in nation-building.

GOCOP which currently has 120 members was established to ensure that online publishers uphold the tenets of journalism in doing their jobs.

Its membership is a constellation of editors and senior journalists, whom, having distinguished themselves in their various stations in the print and electronic media, ventured into online publishing which is both the present and future of journalism globally.

The book aside tracing the historical trajectory of online journalism in Nigeria is also a veritable contribution towards enriching the discourse on civil liberties, press freedom and the role of the media in the sustenance of democracy, the statement added.

President of GOCOP and Publisher of RealNews Online, Ms Maureen Chigbo described  Edomaruse’s appointment as a welcomed development.

Chigbo in a press statement by GOCOP Publicity Secretary, Ogbuefi Remmy Nweke, also congratulated Edomaruse for this appointment assuring of support from over 110 members of GOCOP in carrying out his duties.

Until his appointment, Edomaruse who is a founding member of GOCOP and the Secretary General of the body of reputed online publishers is also a member of the Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE), among others.

Edomaruse doubles as the Publisher/Editor-in-Chief of METROWATCH, and has held several senior editorial management positions in THISDAY, including Group News Editor, Group Politics Editor, Deputy Editor, Daily, Saturday and Sunday titles respectively, as well as the Editor, Nation’s Capital/Abuja Bureau.

Also known as ‘General’ because of his mastery of the Defence Beat, his records in THISDAY have remained unbeaten, where he ranked the best among the editors.

Other awardees included the Managing Director, Digital Realty Nigeria, Engr. Ikechukwu Nnamani, Executive Director, Paradigm Initiative Nigeria (PIN), Mr. Gbenga Sesan, and Managing Director, Internet Exchange Point of Nigeria (IXPN), Mr. Muhammed Rudman, among others.

Confirming these at the weekend, Sir Remmy Nweke, the lead consulting strategist, DigitalSENSE Africa and Group Executive Editor, ITREALMS Media group, said that recognition in the corporate category included Upland College, Digital Realty Nigeria, Welcome Centre Hotels and the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC).

As said by him, Dr. Emmanuel Ekuwem emerged the DigitalSENSE Africa Broadband Advocate of the decade; Mrs. Ibukun Odusote was acknowledged as DigitalSENSE Africa Empowerment Advocate of the decade; Dr. Chris Nwannenna as DigitalSENSE Africa IG4D Advocate of the decade; Engr. Gbenga Adebayo was honoured as DigitalSENSE Africa Telecoms Advocate of the decade; and Mr. Muhammed Rudman was named the DigitalSENSE Africa Internet Personality of the decade.

Also, Engr. Ike Nnamani emerged as the DigitalSENSE Africa Connectivity Enabler of the decade; Mr. Francis Uzor was honoured as DigitalSENSE Africa IG4D Ambassador of the decade; Mr. Gbenga Sesan came top as DigitalSENSE Africa IG4D Influencer of the decade, while honour was bestowed on chairman, NDSF@15, Mr. Edetaen Ojo as the DigitalSENSE Africa Freedom of Information (FoI) Champion of the decade.

Dr. Ekuwem, he said, was represented at NDSF@15 by the Chief Technical Officer, Teledom Group, Engr. Joseph Enyia, and Mrs. Odusote likewise Mr. Rudman were represented by President, Nigeria Internet Registration Association (NIRA) Mr. Sola Akinsanya, while the legal adviser to DNS WomenNG, Barr. Mrs. Amaka Onumonu and Ms Peculiar Showale stood in for Engr. Ike Nnamani and Mr. Gbenga Sesan, respectively.

In the corporate category, he said that the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) emerged DigitalSENSE Africa Telecoms Regulator of the Decade; Digital Realty Nigeria (formerly Medallion) was named the DigitalSENSE Africa Data Centre of the decade; Upland College come-forth as DigitalSENSE Africa Most Supporting School of the Decade; and Welcome Center Hotels went home with the DigitalSENSE Africa Valuable Partner of the Decade.

He also said that the recognition were part of the agenda to mark the 15th years of hosting the Nigeria DigitalSENSE forum on Internet Governance for Development presided over by the award-winning Executive Director, Media Rights Agenda, Mr. Edetaen Ojo with the theme: “IG4D: Innovative Digital Economy & Safer Civic Space in Nigeria.”

According to Nweke, NDSF@15, held at the prestigious Welcome Center Hotels, International Airport Road, Lagos, attracted civil societies, non-st actors, community based organisations, youth, students, media, men and women as well as internet and telecommunications enthusiasts in the country.

A panel session anchored by Nweke had speakers made up of seasoned industry experts including the NDSF@15 chairman, Mr. Ojo, Engr. Adebayo; Executive Director, Mr. Sesan, who was represented by Ms Peculiar Showale and Data Protection Officer, Upperlink Limited, Ms Francisca Iloezumma, whereas the open mic session was sponsored by the Domain Name System Women Foundation in Nigeria (DNS WomenNG).

Nweke recalled that in 2009, the Nigeria DigitalSENSE Forum (NDSF) series on Internet Governance for Development made a debut at the Golden Gate Restaurant Ikoyi-Lagos and ever since, has remained firm in rallying stakeholders to take discourse on Internet access, openness, affordability, connectivity and ICT infrastructure among others.

“These awards are our own ways of appreciating both individual and corporate support over the years. It has not been easy but with God by our side and support of most of these persons and organisations in deepening and sustaining our contribution on Internet penetration, improving access, affordability, technological adaptation that bring forth digital sense in Nigeria. So, here we are today,” Nweke declared.

NDSF series on IG4D powered by ITREALMS Media group is hosted by DigitalSENSE Africa, an At-Large Structure (ALS) certified by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), in collaboration with relevant stakeholders not limited to Internet Society (ISOC), Nigeria chapter, Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Digital Realty Nigeria, NNPC Limited, NLNG, Internet Exchange Point of Nigeria (IXPN) among others.

Speaking at the pre-conference business session of the 2023 annual conference of the Guild of Corporate Online Publishers (GOCOP) held at the Abuja Continental Hotel, recently, Nweke said that by developing web analytical strategy, mediapreneurs under GOCOP will be propelling their websites for healthy growth.

According to Nweke, who dwelt on ‘How to GROW your website: The Fundamentals’ at the per-conference session of the 7th annual conference of GOCOP,  noted that such a growth strategy must include making out time to check the personal health of the strategists themselves, especially the chief executive officers.

This, he said, is imperative due to the level of stress and obvious distractions associated with managing a burgeoning media concern in this digital era.

Stressing that this is prerequisite to having a healthy website because health is wealth with profitable return on investment as the bottom-line.

“Above all, make out time to check your personal health, which is prerequisite to checking your website healthiness; health is wealth,” he declared.

In developing growth scheme for their businesses, Nweke who also is the lead consulting strategist at ITREALMS, advised the online mediapreneurs to come up with two approach tools, which comprise strategic and technical components.

The strategic component, he said, would afford them to organize their websites to reflect business goals by ensuring they are aligned.

“That way, you could know what to measure going forward,” he said.

On the technical component, Nweke pointed out that it would enable them to examine everything from site architecture and page loading speeds to the quality of the user experience; all the moving parts contributing to your goals while supporting your specific customer digital footprint on a given website.

Nweke cited an instance of using the Google PageSpeed Insight (PSI) to deepen web analytics and search engine optimisation (SEO), underscoring that any anticipated growth must have a ‘GROW’ model alignment.

Stages of a ‘GROW’ model, he said revolves around the goal, realty, obstacles cum options and way forward.

“The goal is the end point, where the Publisher wants to be and must be clearly stated, so that when achieved its noticeable,” he said.

On the reality, he said, is where the Publishers and or the websites are now, taking cognizance of what are the issues, the challenges, how far are they away from their goal?

“The obstacles stopping the Publishers/websites getting from where they are now to where they want to be, need to be properly identified as well as available options to find ways of dealing with them if they are to make progress and grow.

On the way forward, Nweke said it involves converting the options into actionable steps which will take the Publisher to anticipated goal built on commitment and willingness to advance further the growth.

In advancing the growth goal, publishers, he advised should do everything possible to make their websites more users, readers and search engine friendly.

He suggested in addition to establishing content authority, perfecting website technical SEO via multivariate testing in order to create a seamless mobile experience, by use of

Google PageSpeed Insights (PSI) which is a popular, but free tool that analyzes the page speed of a website on mobile and desktop devices.

Further, Nweke canvassed for deployment of latest image compressor formats to improve website growth like the use of WebP created by Google since 2010 and AVIF developed by Alliance for Open Media, a non-profit organization since 2019 which translates to faster downloads and less data consumption.

WebP for instance, he said, makes online images less bulky by significantly reducing photo and graphic sizes, websites loading faster and giving users a better experience.

“WebP is estimated to reduce JPEG/PNG formats by 25-35% compression,” he asserted, reiterating that these are some of the things needed to be incorporated into the strategy for web analytics by online mediapreneurs, so as to grow their businesses.

NIRA, founded on 23 March 2005, oversees Nigeria’s country code top-level domain, .ng, just as registration of domain names are handled by NiRA certified registrars, under its Registry–Registrar–Registrant model in operating and managing the top-level domain.

The other four are the former pioneer technical contact person on .NG, Mrs Ibukun Odusote; former Financial Secretary of NIRA, Mr. Biyi Oladipo; former NIRA president, Mrs. Mary Uduma and Executive Director Centre for Information Technology and Development (CITAD) Mr. Yunusa Zakari Ya’u.

This is coming as NIRA also at the 15th Annual General Meeting (AGM) cum election held in Lagos on Friday at The Zone, elected Mr. Adesola Akinsanya and Mr. Murtala Abdullahi as new President and Vice President respectively. They took over from Mr. Mohammed Rudman and Mr. Toba Obaniyi in that order.

Other members elected into NIRA Executive Board of Directors (EBoD) at the meeting included the Editor of TechEconomy, Mr. Peter Oluka, Mr. Ebenezer Dare of Hostlag Limited, and Seun Kehinde of QServers Networks Limited.

Recall that Mr. Remmy Nweke aka “dotNG Evangelist” is the Group Executive Editor of multiple award-winning ITREALMS Media group and Lead Consulting Strategist at DigitalSENSE Africa. He is currently the Publicity Secretary, Guild of Corporate Online Publishers (GOCOP) and chairman, Awareness and Sensitisation Committee, Nigerian Content Consultative Forum on Information and Communications Technologies (NCCF-ICT) Sectoral Working Group.

Remarkable member and former Executive Director at NIRA plus the immediate past Vice President, African Civil Society on the Information Society (ACSIS), Nweke also known in the industry as .NG Evangelist, pioneered the NIRA eNewsletter as the chairman, Publicity and served on various committees including the Establishment and Finance, Accreditation as well as promoted the institutionalizing of NIRA House and pioneered the NIRA Media College during his term on the board, among other initiatives, with collaboration of EBoD.

At DigitalSENSE Africa, a project of ITREALMS Media group and an ICANN-certified At-Large Structure (ALS), Nweke leads a team that hosts several industry stakeholders since 2009 to the impressive Nigeria DigitalSENSE Forum series on Internet Governance for Development (IG4D), IPv6 Roundtable, ITREALMS’ E-Waste Dialogue and Digital Rights Series of DSA.

Remmy Nweke holds MA in Contemporary Diplomacy from University of Malta with background in new media journalism with over 25 years’ experience in Nigeria and global ICT industry, crowned with several professional awards including the prestigious Highway Africa News Agency (HANA) African Journalist of the Year, Africa Siemens Profile Awards, African Information Society Awards to name but a few.

An active member of the Multistakeholders Advisory Group (MAG) of Nigeria Internet Governance Forum (NIGF), Nweke, a former Non-Profit Operational Concerns (NPOC) Representative to the Non-Commercial Stakeholders Group (NCSG-Finance Committee) at the Generic Name Supporting Organisation (GNSO), is equally the chairman, Communications and Advocacy at IPv6 Council Nigeria and a member with stakeholders’ interest across the Non-Commercial Stakeholder Group (NCSG); Non-Commercial Users Constituency (NCUC) and Not-for-Profit Operational Concerns Constituency (NPOC), Africa Regional At Large Organisation (AFRALO) in addition as a team member of the NomCom Implementation Review Working Group (NomComIRWG), Internet Society (ISOC), AFRALO, At-Large Advisory Committee (ALAC), Language Services Working Group on ICANN website document translation; Next-Generation gTLD Registration Directory Service (RDS); NPOC Policy Committee; NCSG Policy Committee; Cross Community Working Group on Enhancing ICANN Accountability [CCWG-ACCT] [Ws2-hr] HR subgroup among others.

A former member of the NIRA and ISOC Nigeria Chapter Constitution Review Committee respectively, among others, Nweke is an Online Personality and Influencer (OPI). He is the pioneer Publicity Secretary, Open Source Foundation for Nigeria (OSFON) and is the National Coordinator, Media Centre Against Child Malnutrition (MeCAM), pioneer Secretary, Cyber Security Experts Association of Nigeria (Lagos branch).

Additionally, Nweke is the author of industry books not limited to “A Decade of ICT Reportage in Nigeria, the award-winning series; Sagacity of a digital revolution; Role of Nigeria in Peace Keeping in West Africa,” to name a few.

As an Associate Member (Patron), Nigeria Red Cross, St. Jude Catholic Parish Oshodi-Lagos, Nweke is also an Associate (Patron | Lt. Col), Man of Order and Discipline (MoD). He was admitted into the Knight of Mulumba in 2022, and Leads, Cyber Rights Advocacy Coalition (West Africa).

Further, Remmy Nweke, a former Chairman of Awba-Ofemili Development Union (ADU Lagos branch), is lead representative of ADU to the Association of Anambra State Development Unions (AASDU) in Lagos and lead curator of African Media.