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His Hurried Journey through Life

He rose from obscurity to world prominence through hard work and courage. Everything seemed set for greater stardom. Two years earlier, he had, alongside three other soul mates, successfully established Newswatch, Nigeria’s and probably Africa’s most prestigious news magazine. Then, his sun set at noon.

Twenty five years after his gruesome murder via a parcel bomb on October 19, 1986, Sumonu Oladele Giwa, better known as Dele Giwa, still remains an enigma.

His life exemplified courage. Born on March 16, 1947, in Ile Ife, where his father, Musa Giwa, from Ugbekpe-Ekperi in present day Edo State, had sought fortune, fame did not come easy for Giwa. Son of a palace hand and later washer man at the Oduduwa College, Ile Ife, Giwa knew poverty at the closest range. His father’s meagre income was hardly enough to sustain the family of seven. Yet, the old man was not deterred in giving young Dele education.

After primary school, Giwa proceeded to the Local Authority Modern School, Lagere, Ile-lfe. When his father changed job and moved to Oduduwa College, he secured admission for his son there. At this college, Dele asserted himself. By the third year, he became founding editor of The Torch, the school’s bi-monthly magazine. This probably informed his teacher’s admonition to him to study English Language further even though he had hoped to become a medical doctor or chemical engineer.

When he left the college in 1966, Giwa worked for five months with Barclays Bank, now Union Bank. He, thereafter, moved to the news department of the then Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation, NBC, now Radio Nigeria. There, he worked under the late Saka Fagbo, an indigene of Ile Ife.

From this humble beginning, Giwa was determined to shake off the burden of poverty. He travelled to the United States of America in 1971, for the proverbial Golden Fleece. And through sheer determination, he achieved success. He took a degree in English at the Brooklyn College, New York and subsequently joined the New York Times, America’s most prestigious media outfit. While there, he bagged a masters in Public Communications from Fordham University, New York. At New York Times, Giwa met Patrick Dele Cole who later became boss of the Daily Times, then Nigeria’s biggest newspaper establishment. The duo struck a chord. Cole later invited Dele to Nigeria and made him features editor of the Daily Times in 1979.

Dele Giwa excelled in this assignment. His vibrancy soon earned him national fame and recognition. Thus, it was little wonder that Moshood Kasimawo Abiola poached him in 1980 to strengthen the Concord Group of Newspapers he had just set up. He was made the pioneering editor of the Sunday Concord.  The paper became famous for its elegance and lucidity as Dele put his imprimatur on the project.

When Ray Ekpu, former editor of the Sunday Times, joined the Concord Group, the union of the two men pushed the fortunes of Sunday Concord higher. Its circulation figures were often in six digits. “It was as if Dele had been in journalism for a thousand years,” his biography at his funeral in later years read.

While the euphoria in Concord lasted, the duo of Giwa and Ekpu struck a chord with Yakubu Mohammed, then editor of National Concord. And when trouble began between Giwa and Abiola, the trio left the stable and was joined by Dan Agbese, former editor of New Nigerian, to midwife Newswatch in 1984. Giwa was made the founding editor-in-chief, albeit first among equals. The magazine, Giwa promised, would be “a haven for journalists to practice without let or hindrance.” His leadership qualities drew to the new publication tested journalists like Soji Akinrinade, Nosa Igiebor, Dele Omotunde, Dare Babarinsa and Kola Ilori. The first edition rolled out of press on January 28, 1985. The magazine literally gave birth to Giwa – the man, the journalist, the philosopher and the leader. He inspired his colleagues and subordinates to work 24 hours all in an effort to reach a new frontier in journalism.

 Newswatch, the new baby brought Giwa and his colleagues fame. He relished the fame and connection to high quarters. But he was still conscious of his background. Thus, Giwa used Parallax Snaps, his column, to address socio-economic issues and crucial public policies even as he was considered too close to the corridors of power. In his biography Born to Run, written by Dele Olojede and Onukaba Adinoyi-Ojo, the authors said Giwa cherished and prided his romance with men of power which gave him access to scoops and great stories. They, however, noted that this was his undoing.

As the quartet of Newswatch founders and Nigerians savoured the joy of the less than two-year-old magazine, tragedy befell the organisation. On Sunday, October 19, 1986, Giwa, its founding editor-in-chief, was bombed into smithereens. In Jogging in the Jungle, a new book edited by Ekpu, he provided new insights into the dastardly murder that Sunday morning. Two days before his brutal elimination, Giwa dreamt he had an accident in his Mercedes Benz car and there was a lot of blood at the scene. In the morning when he told Funmi, his wife, she advised him not to go out with that car. Giwa brushed the idea aside and drove out in the same car. He came back in the evening safely.

About 600km away in Ugbekpe-Ekperi, Elekia, Giwa’s mother, also dreamt the same night about death in the Giwa family. Nobody understood the dreams as signs of an impending danger. Five weeks earlier, Mohammed, deputy chief executive of Newswatch and one of the four pillars of the magazine, had dreamt of a coffin being loaded into a van at Newswatch premises. No one knew the dreadful dream could come true few weeks later. And when it came true, Mohammed, yet unaware dreamt of it. He and Eddy Amana, his friend and chief engineer with the Nigerian Television Authority, NTA, had just had lunch at the Federal Palace Hotel, Victoria Island, where he lodged and Mohammed soon dozed off. He dreamt that “a strange object had fallen on Giwa and he was struggling to free himself from it without success. Mohammed woke up, happy that it was only a dream but his happiness was short-lived. Giwa was, indeed, hit but Mohammed didn’t know. Mohammed’s wife, Rekiyat, had been phoning but couldn’t reach him. She got Mohammed’s uncle, Mamman Idu, a member of the Federal Civil Service Commission, and spilled the sad news of Giwa’s assassination to him. Idu broke the sad news to Mohammed.

Ekpu did not dream but he had a premonition even though he too could not decipher it. “For one full week my left thumb was twitching violently as if it wanted to separate itself from the rest of the fingers. It had never happened before then or since then. As soon as Giwa died, the twitching died too,” he wrote.

Ekpu said there was nothing unusual about that fateful day.  He and Uyai, his wife, had gone to Surulere, a suburb of Lagos, to see some family members. He telephoned Giwa although both of them lived in two wings of a duplex at 25, Talabi Street, Ikeja. “I was anxious to leave quickly so as to get back before 12 noon when we were supposed to meet. I didn’t make the short two-minute journey to his house. I simply phoned.”

Inside his study, Giwa and Kayode Soyinka, the London bureau chief of Newswatch, who arrived the previous day, were engaged in discussion when Billy, 17, Giwa’s first son, brought his father a parcel. It was given to him by Musa Zibo, the security guard. On it was inscribed  “From the office of the C-in-C” (commander in chief). The parcel was addressed to “Chief Dele Giwa” although Giwa was not a chief. Also written on the parcel was: “To be opened by the addressee only.”

Ekpu wrote that Billy went to the living room where Funmi, Giwa’s wife, was watching television. As Giwa examined the parcel he reportedly told Soyinka: “This must be from the president.” According to Ekpu, “There was nothing strange about that. The President, Ibrahim Babangida, had sent him similar parcels in the past containing advance speeches that the president would deliver at one function or another.”

He recalled further that as Giwa placed the parcel on his laps and tried to open it with his right hand, it exploded. “Soyinka, who was sitting opposite Giwa, was thrown on the floor. The typewriter on the table was mangled, the table disappeared and Giwa lay prostrate in the pool of his blood. Soyinka managed to pull himself up while Funmi rushed into the study. Giwa was groaning at one corner of the room saying in Yoruba Won ti pami (They have killed me). She dragged her husband as she screamed, his blood drawing an undecipherable map on the floor. Giwa’s body was mangled beyond recognition. His flesh and bones mixed with his blood were a grim evidence of the dastardly act.”

He was rushed to First Foundation Hospital, Opebi, Ikeja. Giwa was said to have shown exemplary courage and alertness. He repeatedly said in Yoruba Nwon ti pa mi, meaning “They have killed me.” Each time he said it, the wife retorted: Won try ni, ma worry (they just tried, don’t worry). “When they got to the hospital, he asked for an analgesic to ease the pains. He was given novalgin. Soon after Giwa was wheeled into the treatment room, Funmi was taken to an adjacent room. But she had parting words for her husband before she left: ‘Remember what I went through during Aisha’s birth.’ Giwa was in the labour room with Funmi when their darling daughter, Aisha was born. Giwa started complaining of tiredness and the doctors told him to stop talking so that he could conserve his energy. Then he died. Time: 12.27 p.m.”

Agbese was on vacation in London. He learnt of his colleague’s death just as he saw off Soji Akinrinade, senior associate editor at Newswatch, who was undergoing a course at Cambridge University and had visited him. He cut short his holiday.

Few hours after the bombing, media men, Newswatch directors and staff and Giwa’s friends thronged the hospital. Among them were Segun Osoba, then managing director of the Daily Times, Stanley Macebuh and Alex Ibru, managing director and publisher of The Guardian, respectively, Biodun Shobanjo, boss of Insight Communications Limited and Abdulaziz Ude, a director of Newswatch. The question on most lips was: who killed this star of Nigerian journalism?

But there were tell tale signs a few days to the murder. Giwa was interrogated by officials of the State Security Service, SSS, over a column he wrote on the introduction of the Second-tier Foreign Exchange Market, SFEM, by General Babangida. In the column Giwa argued that SFEM must succeed otherwise those in government would be stoned in the streets. Lt. Col. Kunle Togun, deputy director of the SSS, reportedly told him that he saw nothing offensive in the article, especially since he asserted that Babangida was determined to make SFEM work.

On October 16, 1986, three days to the gruesome killing, Giwa was again asked to appear on Friday, October 17, at the headquarters of the SSS at 15, Awolowo Road, Ikoyi. Ekpu accompanied him. He was taken into Togun’s office while Ekpu waited in the outer office. “When he came out, there were worry lines on his face. I knew the handshake had gone beyond the elbow,” Ekpu said.

Giwa told his colleague that Togun levelled four allegations against him. The first was that Newswatch was planning the “other side” of the story on Ebitu Ukiwe who was removed as chief of general staff, CGS, to General Babangida. The magazine had published a cover story titled: Power Games: Ukiwe loses out in its October 20 edition which was on sale on October 13, 1986.

Also, Togun accused Giwa of promising to defend Alozie Ogugbuaja, a superintendent of police and spokesman of Lagos State Command, who was suspended for saying before the Akanbi panel that probed the student’s riot which took place a few months earlier, that all that soldiers do is to eat pepper soup and drink beer and so had all the time to plan coups and that Newswatch would employ him if sacked from the police.

Giwa was also alleged to be holding discussions with the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, and students to carry out a socialist revolution but more worrisome, he was planning to import arms into the country for the revolution. “Togun did not substantiate these allegations; Giwa was not given names of people or places or any details at all because these allegations were obviously cooked up. Giwa was very far from being a socialist and even farther from being a militant. He could engage anyone in robust intellectual arguments for which he was well equipped but it was ludicrous to associate him with arms or with an insurrection scheme,” Ekpu wrote.

Giwa was worried and rightly so. “If they can think this of me, then I am not safe. They are only trying to give a dog a bad name in order to hang it,” he told his colleague. He reported his encounter with the security goons to Tony Momoh, his kinsman and former editor of Daily Times, who at that time, was minister of information to Babangida’s government. Momoh dismissed it as a joke and said the security men just wanted to rattle him. He promised to look into it.

The following day,  Saturday, October 18, Giwa raised the issue of his encounter with Togun at a meeting with Vice Admiral Augustus Aikhomu, who replaced Ukiwe as CGS, at 3 p.m. At that meeting were Ekpu, Mohammed,  Osoba and some other editors. “The Vice - President appealed to the press to continue to co-operate with the government. A couple of other people spoke and Giwa drew Aikhomu’s attention to the event of the day before. He said: ‘I was called yesterday by the SSS. You cannot believe some of the things they said to me. They said I was a gun-runner. Me a gun-runner’? Everyone thought the allegation was hogwash. Giwa elaborated on his complaint and Aikhomu assured him that he was already aware of the case. In giving the vote of thanks, Giwa said he hoped the press would be allowed to do its work without let or hindrance,” Ekpu recalled.

While the trio of Giwa, Ekpu and Mohammed were out that day, someone called Giwa’s house allegedly on behalf of Halilu Akilu, director of the Directorate of Military Intelligence, DMI. He spoke with Funmi and got Giwa’s office phone number. He called back that nobody picked the call to Giwa’s office. He then put Akilu on the phone. Funmi recognised his voice as he had called frequently recently. The DMI boss asked for Giwa’s house address which she supplied. “I am not very familiar with Ikeja. Is it after the roundabout, he asked. “No,” Funmi said and went on to describe how he could get to the house. Then she asked why Akilu was asking for the home address of her husband. Akilu replied “The ADC has something for him, an invitation or something like that.” And he ended the call. On Giwa’s return, Funmi told him what transpired between her and Akilu.

The next day, Sunday, October 19, Giwa called Akilu to find out why he called his house many times the previous day. Akilu was said to have replied he called to tell him that he should not worry about the SSS allegations. Giwa said: “I will worry. It is an attempt to ruin my name. I have already written to my lawyer about it,” Ekpu recalled. And the DMI boss retorted: “Dele, this is not a matter for lawyers. Don’t bother yourself. The matter is now settled.”

According to Ekpu, “Exactly 40 minutes later two men drove to No. 25 Talabi Street, Ikeja, in a white Peugeot 504 saloon car with an unidentified registration number. One of the men wore a black French suit while the second wore a white long sleeve French suit. The man with the white French suit alighted from the car and gave the security man, Zibo, a padded brown envelope for delivery to Giwa after confirming from Zibo that Giwa was in. They immediately drove off without waiting to confirm that the parcel had reached the addressee.”

Nigerians condemned the murder of Giwa. Gani Fawehinmi, Giwa’s lawyer, said the military government must clear its name. Wole Soyinka, the first black man to win the Nobel in Literature, said the murder had marred the celebration of the award and that the federal government should set up an independent inquiry into the death.

Babangida sent a condolence letter to the Nigeria Union of Journalists on Monday, October 20. In it, he paid glowing tributes to Giwa. Momoh reaffirmed his earlier statement on the day of the assassination that government would set up a commission of inquiry that would get to the bottom of the matter.

Also on Monday, October 20, the CGS held many meetings with top government officials in Dodan Barracks. Ekpu recalled that Mohammed Gambo, the new inspector-general of police then, Tunji Olagunju, special adviser to the president, Akilu, Momoh and Yusuf Mamman, press secretary to the CGS, attended one of the meetings. They resolved that the CGS should meet the press.

However, it turned out a non-event. Mamman ordered press photographers, foreign correspondents and Nigerians working for foreign news organisations to leave before Aikhomu was ushered into the press centre at 4:50 p.m. The briefing was declared off the record and the CGS entertained no questions. “In effect, this was a charade, an attempt to do something without doing anything, some kind of motion without movement,” Ekpu said.

“Aikhomu asked Ismaila Gwarzo, director of SSS and Akilu, to render their own account of the events that happened in the recent past in connection with Giwa. Gwarzo confirmed that the SSS had been interviewing Giwa on some allegations including gun-running. Akilu confirmed that he had telephoned Giwa’s house, asked for and received the home address from Giwa’s wife, the day before the tragedy. He also confirmed that on the day of the assassination, he had talked to Giwa for about 10 minutes. Akilu said he phoned Giwa’s house on Saturday, October 18, and obtained the residential address from his wife with the hope of stopping over at the place on my way to Kano. This was to prove a Hausa adage that if you visit someone in his house, you show him you are really a friend.”

At the end of briefing, Ekpu remembered that Gwarzo said Giwa’s murder was “quite embarrassing” and that Momoh described it as “a clear case of assassination.”  Aikhomu then promised that the government would conduct a full-scale investigation into the matter. “We shall leave no stone unturned in our efforts to find the truth,” he assured.

Government did not set up any board of inquiry on Giwa’s assassination. A police team headed by Abubakar Tsav was asked to investigate the case. However, the principal suspects were not available for interrogation. At a point the case file was taken from him. “Throughout my investigation, I was unable to reach Cols. H. Akilu and A.K. Togun for interrogation in view of the positions they held as Director, DMI and 2i/c SSS respectively. Alhaji Ismaila Gwarzo who was the director-general of SSS could not be reached or interrogated for the same reason. They were untouchable,” Tsav said many years later before the Oputa Panel in July 2001. The panel was set up by President Olusegun Obasanjo to probe human rights abuses in Nigeria.

But on October 27, 1986, Togun, a principal suspect in the dastardly assassination, slipped during an interview with airport correspondents. While drinking schnapps and bitter lemon with three security men guarding him, Togun told the news men who engaged him in a conversation the following things.

Reporter: Good afternoon, sir. We are airport correspondents. You are Col. Togun. I know you.

Col. Togun: Who told you I am Col. Togun?

Reporter: I’ve been seeing you around. I know you are Col. Togun.

One of the guards: Do not tell lies. You asked the desk over there.

Reporter: No, I have had a clash with you at the airport.

Col. Togun: What clash? I have not had a clash with any single soul.

Reporter: Sir, not clash in the real sense but in journalistic maxim, that is to say he has met you before.

Col. Togun: I am a journalist myself. Only I am not a practicing one.

Reporter: We would like to have a chat with you as regards Dele Giwa because I understand your present situation. We would like you to clear yourself because your name and that of Akilu have been mentioned in connection with Dele Giwa’s death. We would like you to clear yourself.

Col. Togun: Let me tell you my mind. This is not meant to be published in the papers. If you allow them to take away my uniform thereby losing my job, I will deal with you people. I will go to any length to even score with you. I can really be mad with you. So you are warned and do not publish what I am telling you now. Though journalists have been making a hell of noise, they have only heard one side of the story and not the other side and they are shouting for crucifixion. Dele is my friend. Go and ask Ladbone. I am a very plain man. I taught Ladbone.

Reporter: You mean my editor?

Col. Togun: Are you from Guardian?

Reporter: Yes.

Col. Togun: Were you there on October 9? Were you there? You were not in the seminar initiated by Dele and Ibru for all media executives and the SSS. In that meeting, we came to a compromise, I mean utmost secrecy. And there and then, we agreed that any story that will be damaging to the state will be brought to the notice of the SSS and we decide what to do with it. I mean we came to real secrecy and one person cannot come out to blackmail us. I am an expert in blackmail. I can blackmail very well. I studied propaganda so no one person can come and blackmail us after an agreement. If a motorcycle man suddenly dashed into the front of a driver and the driver kills that motorcycle man, another motorcycle man who was not there would not say the motorcycle man was wrong. He would say I deliberately killed him, not knowing that he killed himself.

Let me let you into a bag of secret. Do you know of an unnamed Lieutenant Colonel that went into the prisons and released detainees? It was carried on NTA network news and in the papers. Up till today, the mystery has not been unravelled. My friend, I am that unknown lieutenant colonel who went into the prisons and released the detainees. I removed my name tag and said if I get to the prisons and any officer refuses to release any detainees that has been asked to be released, I will release them. I gave one of them who claimed he had no money on him transport fare to go to Ibadan. I have warned you not to write this story for your own sake because I can be very mad.”

The journalists defied his warning. They published the story the next day. “Togun’s parable of the motorcycle rider was whichever way you look at it, a classic confession of guilt and the inept attempt to justify it,” Ekpu said.

Twenty five years after the murder, Nigerians still have fond memories of Dele Giwa. One such person is Jimoh Ibrahim, publisher and chairman of Newswatch. “His zeal for justice at any price including his life cut short the desire of the military boys to alternate the use of gun for government,” he told Newswatch, adding; “Dele may not be here today but democracy is here to celebrate him.”

Ekpu, Agbese, Mohammed and Akinrinade believe that the greatest tribute to their fallen compatriot has been the continuation of the publication of Newswatch magazine ethically and professionally. “These were the ideals that were very dear to him. That is why despite all difficulties which came with his assassination, we remained steadfast. We did not stop publication so that Dele Giwa will continue to be remembered and memorialised for the virtues of excellence and hard work which he stood for,” Ekpu said.

To Ekpu, Giwa was a journalist’s journalist. He epitomised excellence and that the ideals and goals of Newswatch which he and the rest of his colleagues worked for have remained as a guide to journalism in Nigeria. “That is a testimony to his greatness. We may not have achieved all the goals and ideals of Newswatch but that is not a mark of failure because all goals and ideas are never fully achieved. But they serve as a guide urging you to move on. But we have proved one point – that a magazine can be published professionally in this country. And to a large extent, the staff provided what was needed to help achieve the goal that we attained. The quality of staff produced by Newswatch is the best and even when they leave Newswatch, they succeed elsewhere because they are well groomed.”

Giwa’s soul mates have missed his vibrancy, intellect, friendship and approach to life. “You can imagine what he will do and say to the myriads of problems facing Nigeria today – the bombings, killings and general insecurity in the land,” said Mohammed. To Agbese, it is a permanent loss of friendship and his robust contribution to the magazine. He said it is unfortunate that 25 years after, Nigerians are still asking who killed Dele Giwa? “I feel sad that the killers have not been found. That would have put our minds at rest,” he said.

To Akinrinade, the loss is multi-dimensional – his personality, larger than life character, his driving force and the way he always wanted things done. On a personal level, they played squash and Giwa was godfather to one of Akinrinade’s sons. When the boy learnt of Giwa’s death, he would pick his photograph and begin to admire him. “It is sad his killers have not been found and punished,” Akinrinade said. He said that this was symptomatic of the decadence in the society as there is a long list of those killed and their killers have not been found. However, he took solace in God, the supreme judge. “They have not escaped justice,” he surmised.

Reported by Modupe Ogunbayo