Sylvia’s Story: From Proofreader to Publisher

Sylvia’s Story: From Proofreader to Publisher

By Sylvia Tochukwu-Ngige | https://.www.sylviangige.com 

[Awka, July 2026]

AWKA— “Sylvia, nza mara gi tata. You will talk to us about your career as a journalist at our July Congress,” NUJ Anambra State Council Chairman, Dr. Emeka Odogwu, told me on the phone two days ago.

I laughed. What, I wondered, was so special about me that journalists would sit to listen? But Dr. Odogwu insisted. He believed in me before I believed in myself. So I stood before my colleagues yesterday to tell the story.

From the Newsroom Floor
I did not start big. I started small. My journalism career began at the now-defunct _National Light_ newspaper as a proofreader. My job was to correct other people’s mistakes. But while I was correcting, I was also writing — short fiction and small news reports.

Mentorship changed the course for me. Sir Victor Agusiobo took my stories, sat with me, and said, “Sylvia, you can say this better.” With patience, he pushed me to be better. I will never forget him.

Lessons at Government House
I was later posted to Government House to coordinate press engagements for Mrs. Helen Ukargbu, wife of the then Military Administrator of Anambra State. I was young and afraid. The assignment felt too big.

At Government House, however, I met veteran reporters who became my teachers without a classroom: Tony Edike of Vanguard Newspapers and now Advocate News, Tony Okafor, Oni Nwanosike, Okey Maduforo, and others. I followed them on assignments. When allowances were small, they would say, “Leave it for Sylvia.”

After nine months, I resigned on my own volition. Before leaving, I compiled all of Mrs. Ukargbu’s speeches, wrote her biography, and published it for distribution to Chairpersons of Family Support Programmes, FSP, and friends across the state.

Finding a Voice
Back at National Light newspapers I was appointed Woman Editor. That role gave me a platform to write about women in politics, education, religion, and the home.

I was later posted to the Anambra State AIDS Control Agency, ANSACA, as Communication Officer on a World Bank-assisted HIV project. There, an unsolicited email changed my trajectory. A stranger who said she read my columns in Lagos invited me to apply for a scholarship to an international HIV conference and a journalists’ training by the National Press Foundation in Washington, D.C. I thought it was a scam. It was not.

I submitted three HIV stories published over the previous five years and an essay on how the epidemic had affected my community. I was shortlisted. Two Nigerians were selected. I was one of them.

A New Chapter
My career has taken me from _National Light_, to the Anambra State Internal Revenue Service, AIRS, and now to the Awka Capital Territory Development Authority, ACTDA, where I serve currently. With retirement approaching, I asked myself what comes next.

I tried business during the Mbadinuju era when salaries were delayed. It failed. Debtors took goods and never paid. I concluded that business was not my path.

So I built my own platform: https://www.sylviangige.com, a blog “where women’s power meets real life.” I publish three times a week. I also edit and publish stories sent in by other writers, with their names on the byline.

The Charge to Younger Journalists
To young journalists who heard me at the Anambra State Council of the Nigeria Union of Journalists, NUJ, July Congress in Awka, my message is simple: Journalism is a noble profession. It opens doors you never knocked on. It has no retirement age.

Don’t wait for permission to be relevant. Write. Edit. Publish. Your mind is your pension. If it is still sharp at 70, the world will still listen.

So I tell my colleagues: Do not quit. Keep writing.

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Editor’s Note: Sylvia Tochukwu-Ngige, née Nzurumike, delivered this address at the NUJ Anambra State Council July Congress in Awka.

Sylvia Tochukwu-Ngige – Founder www.sylviangige.com | Where women’s power meets real life

Internal Link*: Read more women’s stories on https://www.sylviangige.com

External Link: Learn about the https://nationalpress.org

Outbound: See the history of https://anambra.gov.ng