Farooq Adamu Kperogi (born 1973), is a Nigerian-American professor,[2] author, media scholar, newspaper columnist, blogger and activist. He was a reporter and news editor at many Nigerian newspapers including the Daily Trust, Daily Triumph and the now defunct New Nigerian.[2][3]
Farooq Kperogi | |
---|---|
Born | March 30, 1973 Baruten, Kwara State, Nigeria |
Occupation | Professor |
Academic background | |
Alma mater | Georgia State University (Ph.D) University of Louisiana at Lafayette (M.Sc) Bayero University (B.A) |
Thesis | Webs of Resistance: The Citizen Online Journalism of the Nigerian Digital Diaspora (2011) |
Doctoral advisor | Michael L. Bruner |
Academic work | |
Discipline | English language, Communication, Social and Behavioral Sciences[1] |
Sub-discipline | English usage, Media English, Nigerian English, World Englishes[1] |
Institutions | Kennesaw State University |
Main interests | New Media, English usage, Journalese, Political criticism[1] |
Notable works | Glocal English: The Changing Face and Forms of Nigerian English in a Global World |
Website | farooqkperogi |
He worked as a researcher at the Presidential Research and Communications Unit in the Olusegun Obasanjo administration and had taught journalism at Ahmadu Bello University and Kaduna Polytechnic. He is a full professor of journalism and emerging media at Kennesaw State University in Georgia, United States.[4][5][6][7]
He is one of Nigeria's newspaper columnists whose views are quoted by former president.[8][9]
He is the author of Glocal English: The Changing Face and Forms of Nigerian English, published in 2015, as the 96th volume in series of Berkeley Insights in Linguistics and Semiotic.[10][11] He is also the author of Nigeria's Digital Diaspora Citizen Media, Democracy, and Participation (University of Rochester Press, 2020) which was awarded the "2021 CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title Winner,".[12]
Kperogi was born in 1973, in Okuta, Baruten local government area of Kwara State, Nigeria and is a member of the Bariba (Baatonu) people.[13] He attended Bayero University between 1993 and 1997, where he received bachelor's degree in mass communication. He obtained a master's degree in communication at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette and a Ph.D. from Georgia State University in the United States in 2011.[5]
After graduating from Bayero University, Kano, Kperogi started working as reporter with newspapers in Katsina and Kano before joining the Media Trust as correspondent for the now defunct Weekly Trust.[citation needed] He also worked for the now defunct federal government-owned paper, the New Nigerian, in the early 2000s. Kperogi began his academic career between 2000 and 2002 at Kaduna Polytechnic, where he taught journalism and mass communication.[citation needed] He also taught at Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria for a brief time in 2004.[6] Between 2002 and 2004, Kperogi worked in President Olusequn Obasanjo's administration as a presidential speechwriter and researcher. Kperogi writes two columns, "Politics of Grammar" and "Notes from Atlanta", for the Abuja-based Daily Trust weekend editions. Kperogi has written extensively about Nigerian English.[14]
Farooq Kperogi is married to Maureen Erinne Kperogi with whom he has three daughters and one son.[15][16]
Kperogi's "Notes from Atlanta" political column in the Daily Trust was stopped in December 2018 under pressure from the president Muhammadu Buhari administration[17] which he has been critical of in his columns and social media posts.[18][19] In protest, he stopped his popular "Politics of Grammar" language column in the Daily Trust on Sunday, which he wrote for more than a decade.[20] He has faced death threats from supporters of the Nigerian government for his critical columns and social media updates.[21][19]
Kperogi's "Notes from Atlanta" column now appears every Saturday on the back page of the Nigerian Tribune, and in Peoples Gazette, an online newspaper.[22][23]