“…However, the journalists who emerged during the colonial period inherited the oral discourse style of communication in identifying with their readers in raising public awareness on the excesses of the colonial administration, and in this way making a significant contribution in setting the agenda in the struggle for nationhood. Hence, although, as Adebanwi (2004: 766, following Omu, 1978 argues, the first Nigerian newspaper in Yoruba, Iwe-Iroyin (translation: Newspaper), was published by a missionary, the Revd Henry Townsend, whose stated objective was to 'beget the habit of seeking information by reading', the paper's demonstrable role was that of 'ambitious political propaganda and [as an instrument for] shrewd manoeuvring for power in Egbaland'. 'Thus, even from its supposedly pedagogic beginning', Adebanwi adds (citing Agbaje, 1993: 459), the press was located at the very vortex of power, becoming 'committed, agitational and, often, political'.…”