Femi Akintunde-Johnson to celebrate 60th birthday with colloquium, book launch

Eminent journalist, communication scholar and entertainment guru, Mr. Femi Akintunde-Johnson (FAJ), will be celebrating his 60th birthday on Saturday, October 30, 2021, with a colloquium and a book launch.

The colloquium, conceptualized as a storytelling format, is themed, “Did Anything Good Come Out of The ‘60s? – Lessons and memories of Nigeria’s formative decade”

The colloquium will also feature the launching of four books written by FAJ, ‘the moniker’ as many fondly called by many.

The books are:

• An anthology of poems: the first of such literary work FAJ will write; it is composed of 108 pages and covers the first 40 years of his life, otherwise named the “Gestation Period”.

• A 110-page compilation of six stories and a play, themed differently and cutting across different epochs.

• Two memoirs, one of which is a 170-page book capturing the circumstances that led to FAJ’s detention at Kirikiri Maximum Prison. It also captures in graphic illustrations his struggles, resilience, and elastic spirit.

• The other memoir is a recount of the vicissitudes faced during his odyssey during the defunct, but iconic, FAME magazine years.

This encompasses the birthing, challenges, and the loss of the FAME project between 1991 and 1997 – with the story sewn in lucid prose and digestible form to give a compelling, hard-to-put-down expository read. The 300-plus-page book details several events, actions, and reactions.

All books would be made available in digital and paperback versions.

FAJ started as an entertainment journalist with The PUNCH newspapers and, later, Climax magazine between 1988 and 1991.

He would rise to become Editor of Climax.

He held the same position, and as Editor-in-Chief, in four magazines he co-founded.

They are FAME, National Encomium, New Treasure, and Treasure People & Life.

FAJ masterminded the establishment of four of Nigeria’s most celebrated awards: FAME Music Awards (FMA), The Movie Awards (THEMA), The Reel Awards, and Awards For Musical Excellence in Nigeria, (AMEN).