The significance of Dele Giwa’s death, by journalists

Twenty-three years after the founding Editor of Newswatch, Dele Giwa, was killed by a parcel bomb, his colleague and friend, Ray Ekpu, the chief executive officer of Newswatch Communications Limited, says “nothing has changed.”

Speaking with NEXT by telephone yesterday, Mr. Ekpu said the date, October 19, 1986 “is significant because of the nature of his death. That significance is highlighted by the fact that in subsequent years, a number of journalists have been murdered by forces known and unknown in the course of their work and that indicates to you that if anything has changed, it’s changed for the worse, for the journalism profession, and for journalists who are practising in Nigeria.”

Other journalists have also described Mr. Giwa’s death as the “opening of a very sad chapter in the history of journalism which has not been closed.”

Gbenga Adefaye, Chairman of the Nigerian Guild of Editors, said; “it is a very significant date for the practice of this profession because it introduced a new dimension. Journalism became something people could die for, be killed for.”

Lanre Arogundade, Co-ordinator of the International Press Centre, Ogba, Lagos said today “marks a black spot on the media calendar in Nigeria because that was the first time that a journalist would be brutally assassinated... through a parcel bomb, for that matter.”

Every media practitioner spoken to expressed disappointment that Mr. Giwa’s killers remain unnamed.

Wahab Oba, Chairman of the Nigerian Union of Journalists, Lagos Chapter, called the development a serious threat. “For us as a union, we see it as a critical challenge to continue everything to stop this trend. The fact that almost 23 years on, the government has not been able to unveil those behind it is a major shortfall on their part.”

For Mr. Arogundade, the killing “raises a big question as to how safe the journalist is in this country today.”

He said, “Because Dele Giwa’s murder remains unsolved, the perpetuators have the confidence to continue to murder journalists. ”

Where were you on October 19, 1986?

Mr. Arogundade had just finished his National Youth Service and was hoping to “just walk into Newswatch, introduce myself and drop an application” when Mr. Giwa was bombed. When it happened, there was no way you could talk about going there. It was something that made one to wonder the nature of the profession one was about to enter, but here I am,” he said.

Mr. Adefaye told NEXT he was already a practising journalist, with the Vanguard, and so didn’t think of leaving the job. “I was devastated and frightened, given the way he was killed. But I didn’t become a journalist by accident or because I couldn’t get a job. So it wasn’t something that made me want to leave the profession, because you could die anywhere, in any case. One could die of food poisoning, by accidents, or of natural causes.”

Mr. Oba on the other hand, was still an undergraduate and found added conviction to be a journalist in Giwa’s death. “Not very long before, he came to our campus at the University of Ilorin and told us that ‘as a journalist, you will make it’. He was an icon to us. To hear that he was murdered was so sad. There were some of us who thereafter chose this profession and decided that we would be like Dele Giwa. We felt that the aim was not to get rich, to be a millionaire, but to expose evil in the society, to let life be meaningful for others and to represent others.”

Effect of Giwa’s death on the profession

The journalists are of the opinion that the print media in Nigeria is growing despite the adverse conditions in which its practitioners work.

Mr. Ekpu was quick to point out that “every profession has its downsides, and its upsides. Journalism is no exception. There are risks, all types of risks involved, and nobody can hope to practise any profession sans risk. You take journalism as a whole; the grind and the glamour, the burdens and the benefits, they all go together. So it is not enough; the fact that people are exposed to these risks, they pay the ultimate price...it is not enough for anyone who wants to practise journalism to shy away from it.” Mr. Oba summed up his opinions with what he described as the immortality of journalism “Today, 23 years after, Dele Giwa is still being remembered.

A lot of people have died without anybody knowing or remembering. The life of a journalist is worth living, provided you do the job well.”