Follow Us on Google
By Oluseye Ojo
The management and staff of The Sun Publishing Ltd yesterday held their annual thanksgiving service and award-giving ceremonies as part of the events to welcome the New Year.
The event, a yearly tradition, was held at the company’s corporate headquarters at 2, Coscharis Street, Off Happy Home Avenue, Kirikiri, Lagos.
This year’s edition featured a guest minister, Bishop Abraham Olaleye, the General Overseer of The Pentecostal Congregation, Ilupeju, Lagos. Bishop Olaleye is also the leader of Abraham’s Evangelistic Ministry and founder of Revival and Reformation Television.
It was an occasion of immense joy and thanksgiving to God featuring praise worship as the cleric, management, and staff prayed God for more grace on the company as they match into the New Year.
Drawing from Psalm 16:11: “In Your presence is fullness of joy; at Your right hand are pleasures forevermore,” the minister invoked the presence of God on the company, soliciting grace on it as the year tees off.
Members of the management team in attendance on the occasion included the Managing Director/Editor-in-Chief, Mr Onuoha Ukeh; Editor, Daily Sun, Mr Iheanacho Nwosu; Weekend Editor, Tope Adeboboye; Senior Manager, Marketing, Operations and Publications, Chidi Nnadi; Senior Manager, Internal Audit, Pastor Johnson Ogwumike; Business Manager, Evelyn Onyibe; General Counsel/Company Secretary, Dr Obinna Kalu and Human Resources Manager, Mrs Jessica Oje-Humphrey.
How the event held
The praise and worship began at 11am. Mr Eric Andrew led the attendees in adoration to God, with staff dancing in gratitude for seeing the company through another year of triumphs and trials, while expressing hope for a better 2026.
The guest minister, Bishop Olaleye was ushered into the arena by the Managing Director of The Sun at 11:15 am as the praise worship was on-going. The worship session lasted for about 30 minutes
This was followed by an opening hymn entitled: ‘Great is Thy Faithfulness O God My Father’. The opening prayer was said by the General Counsel/Company Secretary, Dr Obinna Kalu
The Bible Reading from Lamentations 3:19-32, taken by the Editor, Daily Sun,
Mr Iheanacho Nwosu, came next. The Bible reading speaks about the mercies of God and His compassion towards mankind.
The anchor for the programme, the Senior Manager, Internal Audit, Johnson Ogwumike; interjected with nuggets that bordered on endurance, faithfulness, sterling qualities, spiritual foresight, and functioning exceedingly amid challenges, as he quoted from Habakkuk 3:17.
The Sun Fellowship Choir also followed up with a special song rendition, which lasted for about 10 minutes before the second hymn of the day – ‘O Lord My God, When I in Awesome Wonder,’ was sung. Then the Managing Director presented his welcome address.
Deepest gratitude from MD
In the welcome address, Mr Ukeh noted the powerful messages of the second hymn. He thanked God for His protection, provision and guidance, and for standing by the management team and staff of the company. He appreciated the grace of God on the founder of the company for establishing The Sun, which provided jobs for the staff.
Ukeh said: “I am inspired to only express thanks today. I stand before you to express my deepest gratitude to God Almighty for the gift of life, opportunities, and accomplishments. I thank God for the blessings, the challenges, and the lessons that have shaped us.
“To God be the glory for all that we’ve seen, surmounted and achieved. I know that with God, we will continue to strive for excellence, integrity, and service to others.
“For the founder and board of The Sun, I want to express my gratitude for the trust they have placed in us to continue the legacy of the company. Their investment, leadership, guidance, unalloyed support have been a propelling force for us to do the best.
‘For giving us the opportunity to be part of the vision, to bear the light and to continue the legacy of previous leadership, I say thank you. We’re honoured to be part of this journey and look forward to achieving great things together.
“To members of the management, I say thank you for your support and leadership of the various departments. Your efforts have enabled us to keep our eyes on the ball, pursue dreams and achieve great heights.
“To the staff, I say thank you for your dedication, hard work, and commitment to excellence. Your tireless efforts have driven our success, and I’m honoured to work alongside you.
“I extend my sincere gratitude to our esteemed partners, readers and advertisers and sponsors for their unwavering support and trust in our vision. Their partnership has been instrumental in driving our success and achieving our goals.
“I thank them for believing in us. I appreciate their confidence in our mission and values. Their contributions have enabled us to innovate, grow, and deliver exceptional results. We look forward to continued collaboration and mutual success.
“No matter what challenge we face or the success we achieve, let us have a heart of thanksgiving this year 2026.”
Bishop Olaleye preaches on Greater Grace
The guest minister, Bishop Abraham Olaleye, is the General Overseer of The Pentecostal Congregation, Ilupeju, Lagos. He is also the leader of Abraham’s Evangelistic Ministry and founder of Revival and Reformation Television.
The cleric picked his text from Malachi 4:1, 2. The focus of his message is ‘Greater Grace’.
The author of several books, including: Reformation Classics’, ‘The Elijah Commission’, and ‘Performance Pressure’, stated: “I first feel so honoured to be invited to be the speaker for this year’s annual thanksgiving service of The Sun.
“One of the last statements made by Jehovah, God Almighty, in the Old Testament was in Malachi. Not only that God spoke in Malachi, the last book of the Old Testament, He also said something in the last chapter that I’d like to show you.
‘So, it says in verse one, ‘For behold, a day is coming, burning like an oven, And all the proud, yes, all who do wickedly will be stubborn, And the day which is coming shall burn them up, says the Lord of Hosts.
“When you look at what is happening globally, you will definitely know that we are in the end times. It says there will be so much to be burned up that it will leave them neither root nor branch. Verse two is where I’m going.
‘But to you, fear my name, the SUN of righteousness shall arise, with healing in its wings. And you shall go out and grow fat like tall, fat calves. But to you, I repeat again, fear my name, the Son of Righteousness.
‘And the SUN of righteousness is the SON of God. Or can I say it the other way? The SON of God, is the SUN of righteousness. So, you are bearing the name with the SON of God.”
“So, there could be challenges, which is normal. I like the fact that we accept the fact that life comes with various challenges. But Jesus calmed our nerves in the scriptures when he says, in this world, you shall have tribulation. But he said, be of good cheer for I have overcome the world. Psalm 19:34 tells us many are the afflictions of the righteous, but God delivers him from them all.’
Bishop Olaleye stated that people do not want to hear truthful messages from the pulpits again. Truthful messages, he said, bring healing.
‘All they want to hear are what are not real, like God will open an expressway before you and you shall not have challenges again. But it is not real that a person will not have challenges in this world.”
He added that many people, these days, prefer prosperity messages to holiness preaching. Many people in Nigeria, he continued, want ‘manna’ from God everyday like the biblical Israel.
“They don’t want to work. They are looking for miracle money. They are waiting for a miracle a lot. We are looking for a miracle in the name of Christianity. But we are not dutiful. We are not working, but we are not faithful and loyal to our employers, who have employed us.
“God is challenging us that we can do better this year. We can be faithful. We can be loyal. We must not steal from the company that is paying us. Plan your budget around your salary. I encourage you to do your job dutifully. If God is for you, who can stand against you?”
Bishop Olaleye also thanked The Sun management for inviting him. He described the MD, Ukeh as a man of humility, simplicity, touchability and approachability.
The cleric noted that he was a very young man when he started reading newspapers.
“But I remembered that when The Sun came, it came with a bang, and you could not but be attracted because of the name – The Sun Newspaper. I’m so, so excited about The Sun, and we follow it everyday,” he stated.
While praying for the company, Bishop Olaleye invoked greater grace from God on the staff, management and directors. He prayed that great success like had never been achieved in the company’s history would be accomplished this year.
He invoked the spirit of excellence, the mercies of God, continuous success and abundant grace upon The Sun, its founder, board of directors, management, and all staff members, both in Lagos and in all its outstations.
He extended the blessings to every critical stakeholder associated with the publication, including advertisers, distributors, and readers.
He prayed further that divine favour would empower The Sun to maintain its reputation for high-quality journalism and impactful public service, as well as thrive in a challenging media landscape, and continue to be relevant in Nigeria’s information ecosystem.
Honour for outstanding staff
Immediately after the thanksgiving service, the second segment, anchored by the Human Resources Manager, Jessica Oje-Humphrey, kicked off.
Some employees of the organisation, who distinguished themselves in the year 2025, were also garlanded with awards by the company in two categories – Long Service Awards and Excellence Awards.
For the Long Service Awards, two awardees were honoured for clocking 10 years in the company. They are Joseph Osom and Jelili Olatunji Alli for the year 2015 to 2025.
Under the Employee Excellence Awards, there are Revenue Champion Award, Creative Genius Award, Game Changer Award, Efficiency Excellence Award, and Outstanding Achievement Award.
The Revenue Champion Award was won by Chinwe Obioha for her efforts in bringing the largest revenue to the company in 2025.
The next award went to Friday Egege for Creative Genius Award in recognition of his exceptional creative designs, which brought about positive results.
The Efficiency Excellence Award, for Outstanding Operational Mastery, which also brought about positive results, went to the duo of Omotunde Alawode and Peter Bakare.
Outstanding Achievement Awards went to the trio of Oluseye Ojo, Chinenye Anuforo, and Temitope Aina. They were honoured for winning external awards that brought honour to the company in 2025.
Ojo won the Ibrahim Shekarau Prize for the Education Reporter of the Year, while Anuforo won Tourism Reporter of the Year, both of the Nigeria Media Merit Awards (NMMA). Aina won the Child-Friendly Photography Prize at the Diamond Awards for Creative Excellence
After the award presentation, the MD/Editor-in-Chief, Mr Onuoha Ukeh, who presented the awards to the awardees, said the Outstanding Achievement Award was instituted to propel all employees to make effort outside and record successes.
He explained that Ojo, Anuforo, and Aina won media awards in 2025, adding that “by so doing, they brought honour to the company and to themselves. We have encouraged our people to always apply for awards. It goes for not only editorial, but other departments as well to strive for excellence.
“The award winners, apart from what they have earned, the certificate and the gift they will get, will also get financial rewards,” Ukeh said.
The vote of thanks for the annual thanksgiving was delivered by the Senior Manager, Marketing, Operations and Publications, Mr Chidi Nnadi, while the closing prayer was said by the Senior Account, Mr Dennis Ogierhiakhi.
