Pastor Ndubuisi Elvis Iruh, is a trained journalist, the Publisher and Editor in Chief of the Voice magazine. He is an ordained minister of the gospel. He was born on 9th April 1965. Pastor Iruh had a humble yet adventurous beginning masterminded by a very discipline and no nonsense father who emphasized on education.
After completing both his primary and secondary school education, his choice of becoming a journalist overruled every other ambition of his father who wanted him to become a Doctor. His passion for journalism took him to Nigeria Institute of Journalism; Lagos where he graduated in 1991 and ever since he has grown in size and status as his CV would attest.
He has worked round the media field as a newsroom correspondent, sports correspondent, features writer, newspaper Editor, co-publisher and finally publishing his own magazine in The Netherlands, The Voice magazine which started on August 12th 1999.
The adventure into publishing the Voice magazine was simply because on his arrival in the Netherlands from Germany in September 1996, he discovered that there was absolutely nothing for the African community in terms of expressing themselves or understanding the social-cultural nature of their new homeland. He decided that what the African Diaspora in the Netherlands needed was A VOICE to showcase their lives and activities to a foreign audience that was suspicious to say the least of the so called “unknown Africans”.
The birth of the Voice magazine gave not just a voice to the Africans in The Netherlands but added a face to them and gave them a full life. Today, events and activities of Africans in The Netherlands and in extension Africans in the Diaspora are reported and covered by the magazine.
He has consistently published each month starting from a modest 500 copies of the magazine to a monthly circulation of 100,000 copies across 30 countries around the world until in 2016 when he decided to make it a digital online monthly publications the global trend demanded. Its reach has grown and expanded around the world.
He has affected the lives of many Africans in the Diaspora, with this publication and made a success of it by helping other Africans to dare aspire to go into publishing in The Netherlands. Today, there are seven other African oriented publications, several radio and television stations in the Netherlands and many more will come on board in the future despite the economic difficulties around the globe.
He is a holder of Advance Diploma in Mass Communication (University of Lagos); a Diploma in Journalism (Nigeria Institute of Journalism) with specialization on Broadcast and Print Journalism.
He attended Victory Outreach International School of Ministry (VOSOM) graduating with Pastoral license degree. He has subsequently done other ministerial trainings withvarious certificates.
Pastor Elvis Iruh is a passionate person with love for sports as he played football, table tennis and badminton at his youthful years and he loves to read, write and travel.
He is the Author and publisher of the book; “KASIMAWO LALOKO: A FOOTBALL VOYAGE (A biography)”. And he has twice contributed to other publications like “People Building Peace” (35 Inspiring stories from Around the World) published by European Centre for Conflict Prevention in co-operation with IFOR and the Coexistence Initiative of State of the World Forum. He is a former lecturer at the Royal Tropical Institute in Amsterdam and guest lecturer at Leiden University at the department of Multi-Cultural Studies.
He has received several recognitions for his contribution to community development; notably the Amsterdam Bible College award; the government of the Republic of the Gambia recognition through its mission in The Netherlands, the Nigerian Mission in Ukraine, Bulgaria, various church organizations, the Kenyan Government for community service in that country and in The Netherlands among others and themedia fraternity in the Netherlands, Germany and United Kingdom. He has received several Ambassadorial recognitions, being a Goodwill Ambassador to the Maasai Community in Kenya and recognized as a Maasai Moran (Maasai Warrior/Elder).
Other awards and recognition includes the following:
- Community Service Award, Amsterdam, 2012
- Goodwill Ambassador to Maasai Community from Kenya as a Maasai Moran,
2012
- MBE Improver Award & Goodwill Ambassador for Black European
Scholarship Pageant, Amsterdam, 2013
- Award as God’s Agent of Change & Restoration, Uganda, 2014
- NEU Awards as Publisher of the Year, Spain, 2014
- African Diaspora Merits Award, Amsterdam, 2014
- African Media partnership Award, Germany, 2015
- Friendship Award, Nigeria, Amsterdam 2016
- Leadership Service Award, The Gambia, 2016
10.Nollywood Media Supporter in Europe Award, Germany, 2017
- Nigeria Diaspora Global Hall of Fame – London, 2018
- Ambassador of Hope recognition by UK Gulf Center for Studies & Business in
support of Therapeutic Diet Initiative to help children suffering from autism,
2018
He makes his services available to any organization or institution that may require him either as a conference speaker, seminar moderator, workshop organizer, debate contributor and any other things he is able to do within his knowledge and God’s giving wisdom. With his latest recognition, the Dubai based organization expects himto use his ambassadorial title to facilitate his function; working and raising awarenessfor autism children in Africa with kick off in Port Harcourt, Nigeria.
Pastor Ambassador Elvis Iruh is a family man married to Sandra Iruh-Monsels; theyhave two beautiful daughters, Deborah Iruh (19) and Esther Iruh (16). And twoadopted children, Risper Isioma Membo (33) and Anthony Ouma Iruh (30), bothbased in Kenya.
TONY TOKUNBO ETEKA FERNANDEZ 