Index to Nigerian Newspapers

Chief Ernest Adegunle Shonekan provided the confluence in which two rivers of Nigerian history met. He was a career technocrat in the giant United African Company (UAC) until 1980, when he combined the two most powerful offices of the company as the Chairman and the Chief Executive. He then became the Head of the Interim National Government (ING) at 57 in 1993, an unprecedented experiment in national politics and statesmanship. His widow, Mrs. Margaret Shonekan, was the equally powerful former head of national office of the West African Examination Council (WAEC). Shonekan's brief incursion into the sanctum of national power dominated discourse about his passage. Shonekan was invited to participate in the Newswatch Communications Ltd's first year anniversary, where he was presented with the Journalist of the Year Award. He then became the Head of Interim Government, overseeing the final lap of the ill-fated transition to civil rule programme. His involvement in politics was supposed to end with the successful handover of power to an elected President.