The Chairman of the Organising Committee of Lagos Media Marathon, Tony Ubani at the weekend said Nigeria will be the first country in Africa to organise a media marathon and the fifth in the world after Japan, Spain, Australia and Brazil and appealed to Corporate and well-meaning Nigerians to support the Lagos chapter of the Nigerian Union Journalists (NUJ) to make marathon a reality in May 2019.
Ubani, therefore, urged the private, public sectors to assist the Nigerian media to achieve an Africa first and a global fifth by supporting the Lagos Media Marathon financially and otherwise.
Said Ubani: “We contacted the IAAF Road Races Department and they made us understand that Nigeria media organising a road race is great development and that ours would be the first in Africa, but that in Japan some of the most traditional and largest races are organized by media, same in Australia, Spain and one of the best examples comes from Sao Paulo, Brazil, where one of the world’s largest and oldest road races is organised by a daily newspaper.”
Ubani revealed that the race in Brazil was started by Cásper Líbero in December 31, 1925 and had not been interrupted or suspended even once during its history, not even for the duration of World War II.