Dimgba Igwe: A journalist’s death that sent a shockwave across an industry

That Igwe died at 58 was perhaps not what has left many speechless but the fact that the late editor was said to have been knocked down by a hit-and-run driver in his neigbourhood at Okota area of Lagos while performing his usual jugging in the morning. Media managers and editors who spoke with Sunday […]

That Igwe died at 58 was perhaps not what has left many speechless but the fact that the late editor was said to have been knocked down by a hit-and-run driver in his neigbourhood at Okota area of Lagos while performing his usual jugging in the morning.

Media managers and editors who spoke with Sunday Trust correspondent, all lamented that Igwe’s death was indeed a great loss to the profession. “Igwe’s death was quite shocking,” James Akpandem, a former Managing Editor, Daily Independent newspaper said. “I was meant to be at the last NGE meeting in Katsina but I couldn’t go because of some of the reform we are handling. Despite not being able to participate at the meeting, I was monitoring events from here and I was told that Dimgba was very active at the summit from the beginning till the end. Only for me to  be opening my mail on Sunday morning only to see the President’s condolence message on Dimgba’s death. I was shocked and I had to call their Managing Director who indeed confirmed the death to me.”
According to Akpandem, “Dimgba was a very humble but also very professional in his dealings with people. I have followed his career right from when he was in Weekend Concord with Mike Awoyinfa. They were the ones who started it and took it to a greater height. The duo were also the ones who started The Sun newspaper and we all know how the Sun rose and eclipsed some other newspapers it met on ground because of the professionalism of these two people. So it was a very painful thing to know that Dimgba was killed. Nigerian media will definitely miss him because we have lost a professional in him.”
For Ademola Adegbamigbe, editor The News magazine, Dimgba’s professional sojourn was an exemplary one while his relationship with Awoyinfa could be best described as “handshake across the Niger”. “I knew him to be a good man who was able to combine his calling with  his religious belief.  He was a pastor and he mentored many journalists. If not directly, through his book which he co-authored with Mike Awoyinfa; ‘the art of features writing.’ Another thing about him is that his friendship with Awoyinfa is one of the best in the industry. It was a classic of friendship that devoid ethnicities. “Like I wrote in my piece coming out on Monday, that friendship between Awoyinfa and Igwe is a classic case of ‘handshake across the Niger’. At Editors’ summit last year in Asaba, he was there alongside his colleague, Mr Awoyinfa and Mr Garba Shehu who is a media adviser to former Vice President, Alhaji. Atiku Abubakar. They all sensitised us on the need for some of us who are editors not to see that position as a place we would be forever. That we must learn how to start preparing for lives after editorship. These are some of the things I can recollect about him. By and large, he was a good man,” Adebamigbe said.
Martins Oloja, Editor The Guardian newspaper on his part said, he is still finding it hard to use past tense to describe Igwe’s death. “Mr Igwe is a good example of how a normal professional should be. Rather than saying he represented, I will say he represented good professionalism, good conducts and all of that,” Oloja told Sunday Trust. According to TheGuardian editor, the kind of “marriage” that grew up between Igwe and Awoyinfa who was older than him, shows that they are both disciplined and enterprising.
“He was one of the elders in journalism who was still reading, writing and also reporting. When they were at Weekend Concord, they showed innovativeness. They later combined effort to write a features book. Then, they also went on and started talking to business men, finding out  from them, lives in business.  That must have also changed their perspectives. So basically he lived a very good life. I know many people have written about him, those whom he worked for, those who worked with him and those who worked for him. But for me, I think what I picked from him is the ability to live a very good life, a very disciplined life that was devoid of scandals,” Oloja said.
On the claim by the management of Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) to launch a manhunt for the killer driver who knocked Igwe to death, not many of the editors were optimistic of any break though. “Was anybody able to write the bus number plate? Was there any CCTV camera that captured the event? If they were able to do all these, I wish them goodluck. If not, I don’t know how they are going to do that. This also brings to the fore issue of security in our cities. Like I noted in my column coming out on Monday, It takes the city of London to have one CCTV camera for 14 people as reported by BBC. And that makes it easier to track anyone who commits a crime yesterday or last week to be nabbed. Well, I wish them best luck if they say they can nab the culprit. Or I say pray that the person comes out himself if his conscience pricks him and he comes out and confess. There is nothing impossible with God,” Adebamigbe said.
In a statement signed by Femi Adesina, the Managing Director/Editor-in-Chief of the news organization, the company said Igwe passed on at about 10 am on Saturday September 6, 2014 at Lagos State University teaching Hospital (LASUTH) Ikeja of injuries suffered from a hit-and-run driver.
Igwe and his long time friend and associate, Mike Awoyinfa were reputed to have added verve to Nigerian journalism with the setting up of Weekend Concord in 1989. The duo also pioneered The Sun newspapers in 2003 with Igwe serving as Deputy Managing Director/Deputy Editor-in-Chief to Awoyinfa. In all of the tributes, one thing that appeared to have been constant  is the persistent reference to the long-standing friendship between Igwe and Awoyinfa. Thus, not a few have had waited to hear from Awoyinfa what he might have to say about a man who was more than a colleague but a brother to him. When Awoyinfa finally did, that expectation was never dashed. For Awoyinfa, the lost of Igwe has become a quagmire. “Oh, my God! You know why I am sad.  My best friend is gone. My twin brother is gone.