Dimgba Igwe, Good Night (l)

The nature of Dimgba’s murder is, to borrow a Shakespearean expression, too cruel anywhere. Jogging on an early morning routine on a busy road along his street in Okota, a mindless, run-away killer (murderer?Assassin?)struck down this rare gem and doyen  of the Nigerian media and snuffed priceless life out of him, most untimely, and indeed, […]

The nature of Dimgba’s murder is, to borrow a Shakespearean expression, too cruel anywhere. Jogging on an early morning routine on a busy road along his street in Okota, a mindless, run-away killer (murderer?Assassin?)struck down this rare gem and doyen  of the Nigerian media and snuffed priceless life out of him, most untimely, and indeed, at the prime of his life. Unable to receive adequate medical attention that could rescue his life for Nigeria and the media world, Dimgba died a most undeserved death, brining to a shocking and devastating end his vibrant life of exploits, media travails, professional experimentation to demonstrate that his profession can earn him a comfortable living with dignity and integrity. The sheer waste of it all further forebodes the value-less-ness of life, especially costly lives, in our country where little or no value or price is set on heroic lives, or any lives at all.
 Now, every who is who—Presidents, Governors legislators, business tycoons, media finest professionals, cognoscenti, all, roll out burgles and drums, cymbals and xylophones to bring out the finest expressions to rush our dead heroes to their graves without taking any serious steps to account for those deaths—those lives brought down by the most senseless agencies of death—death by drunken knaves that are let loose on our roads as drivers; death by parcels of bomb and bombs by political motivations of power people or insurgent warriors; deaths visited on us by armed robbers and ritual profiteers; deaths by avoidable plane-crashes and petrol tankers explosions, and so on. Too cruel anywhere, the manner and manner-less-ness of this death inflicted on our Dimgba. Pray, who will unravel and find this criminal agent of death that terminated the life of such a gentle dove, an inimitable narrative aesthete of the pen fraternity; such an essayist and philosopher of the public and popular space; such a manager of ideas and people in the house of letters; such a smith of socio-critical lyric in the domain and crucible of urgent stories of existence; such adventurer into the possibilities of the media to profile achievers in our and world firmaments and in so doing, enunciate the business and economic value of the media.
On reading the crushing and dispiriting death of Dimgba, I shook the shock out of my marrow and mustered some courage to ‘scribble’ a few txt messages to those who more than most, and besides his immediate nucleus family—his beloved, equally gentle wife and his young children, would be most hard hit by this un-called for death—former Governor Orji Kalu, Publisher and Chairman of The Sun Newspaper, Mike Awoyinfa, ‘twin brother’ and soul mate of Dimgba for more than a Silver season, and Femi Adesina, the man who took over his seat as Deputy MD and Deputy Editor in Chiefs and current MD of the paper. The text, besides the personal angles of the wordage carried the same message thus;
I call to commiserate with you over this devastating news of the demise of your brother, friend, colleague and vice-chairman, DmgbaIgwe. No one can doubt the gravity and enormity of the loss to the profession of journalism—the pain and heavier blow that this death most certainly inflicts on you more than most of us. Dimgba’s death is a colossal depletion and deprivation to the world of journalism, here and elsewhere. May God console you and his immediate family.
There is not much more that needs be said and can be said about the great invaluable tree that has been prematurely cut down from our hapless midst by those who know him most intimately at professional and family levels that has not been said most eloquently and passionately. I just add here, from a personal perspective and side from which my slash of this great elephant had evolved and from which so much personal pain and grief endure.
My first contact with Dimgba came through the Publisher of The Sun,  OrjiKalu. I had met Governor Kalu in Lakoja sometime in 2003 during a reception held for General TundeOgbeha who had been returned as Senator representing my Kogi West Senatorial District. I had been asked to make a brief speech, which I made, referring to my earlier column on Ogbeha in The Comet Newspaper. To my utmost surprise, Orji Kalu came to me and wondered why I would not write for The Sun, which was going to be the greatest newspaper in Nigeria. He instantly took my details and ‘ordered’ Dimgba to fetch me ‘by all means possible’ to join the Editorial Board of The Sun. Of course, in his characteristic, soft but determined voice and power of persuasion, Dimgba actually left me with no option but to join the Board of The Sun and take a back-page Thursday column.
To be continued.