THEWILL is an online news service founded in October 2009 by journalist/publisher, Austyn Ogannah, an advocate for good governance and promoter of change in Nigeria and Africa.
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The online edition is a part of an ambitious and revolutionary media project being nurtured by its promoter.
First published from San Francisco, California, USA, where the Bill of Rights protects press freedom, THEWILL soon gained prominence and respect when Nigeria was faced with a constitutional crisis and the power struggle that ensued fueled by the sudden illness and eventual demise in office of then former Nigerian President, Umaru Musa Yar’Adua.
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With its fair, no-bias, fearless and authoritative publications through the intrigues of the power struggle, making the news service one of the first mediums to break the news of Yar’Adua’s eventual death in Abuja on the night of May 05, 2011, the blog quickly attracted a legion of readers.
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One week later, precisely on May 12, 2011, THEWILL got another major break and consolidated its position as a powerful emerging media when it exclusively reported the arrest and detention by Interpol in Dubai, UAE, of a key and very influential player in the Nigerian power struggle, Chief James Ibori, a former governor of oil-rich Delta State, who somehow evaded Nigeria’s security agencies and fled after a warrant was issued for his arrest in Nigeria and Britain over charges of money laundering. Since that report, the Austyn Ogannah led agency has forged ahead establishing itself as a model for other patrons in the rapidly growing independent online news community in Nigeria.