In 1976 he won a scholarship jointly sponsored by activist lawyer Gani Fawehinmi and Jùjú musician King Sunny Adé for indigent students of the state, the start of a long-term friendship with Fawehinmi.
The News was founded in 1993 by Bayo Onanuga, Babafemi Ojudu and other former staff from the African Concord who had resigned in protest over a request by M.K.O. Abiola, the publisher, to apologise to President Ibrahim Babangida over a critical story about the military regime.