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Members of the family Dele Giwa left behind are in various parts of the world keeping the family name aglow

Time may be the great healer. But it is yet to heal the pains of the family members of Dele Giwa, founding editor-in-chief of Newswatch magazine, 25 years after the gruesome murder of their son through a parcel bomb. The people of Ugbekpe-Ekperi kingdom, Giwa’s hometown in Etsako Central local government area of Edo State, are also still crying for vengeance for the perpetrators of the dastardly act.

When Newswatch visited Ugbekpe-Ekperi last week, Fatima Musa, the youngest sister of the late iconoclastic journalist, was in a pensive mood. As  she sat on the floor of the sitting room in the late Giwa’s bungalow ruminating over the death of her brother, she  lamented  that 25 years after his brother’s murder, his killers were yet to be brought to justice. “I feel sad that 25 years after the brutal murder of our brother, the perpetrators of this heinous act have not been brought to book and his aged mother, siblings and the children he left behind have been abandoned. He was our bread winner. So, you can imagine what we have been going through in the past 25 years. We are not happy. We leave everything for God to judge,” she told Newswatch.

Elekia, Giwa’s aged mother, who is currently living in Lagos with Ronke Aboaba, one of her daughters, has continued to rain curses on those who murdered his son and is equally unhappy that they have not been unmasked. “Nothing on earth can heal the wound inflicted on her by her son’s murder because every second she remembers him, the pain keeps coming,” according to a source who spoke to Newswatch on her behalf.

When Giwa was assassinated on October 19, 1986 at a youthful age of 39, he left behind an aged mother, who is now 84 years old, two younger brothers and three sisters. The five siblings of the late pioneer editor-in-chief of Newswatch are Tunde and Biodun, both based in the United States, Hauwa Omomohle, Ronke Habibat Aboaba, and Fatima Musa.

He is also survived by Funmi, his widow, three sons and two daughters. Billy, his first son, who was then a student of the University of Jos, was only 19 years old when his father was brutally cut down. Incidentally, Billy, a graduate of English, who has been resident in the United Kingdom for more than a decade, was the person who received the killer parcel bomb from Musa Zibo, the security guard, and handed it over to Giwa in the study, unknown to him that it was the harbinger of death. Billy’s two other younger brothers whose mother is an American are Dele Jnr., and Tunde Jnr., while Giwa’s two daughters are Funmi, who is now a lawyer and Ayodele Aishat, who was about one-year-old when her father was assassinated.

Ayodele Aishat, the youngest of the late Dele Giwa’s children who was still a baby when he was murdered, said recently that she always felt sad she was not old enough to know her father. “I wish I had that kind of male model, somebody to look up to like a lot of my friends. But my mum has been the best mother and father that I could ask for,” she said.

However, her only consolation was the fact that people hold him in such high regard.  “I wish I could understand where they are coming from, but the way people talk about him, especially when I say my last name, they are like “wait – the journalist?” and I say yeah and they are like “wow! I have so much respect for him.” It makes me happy that people see him that way; it affects me in a good way. It’s pretty interesting just hearing what people have to say about him, Ayodele said.

She, however, wonders why a lot of Nigerians have so much respect for his late father yet nobody is really doing anything to try and get to the bottom of his murder. “If he was such a great person then why don’t you try and, at least, let people know he didn’t die in vain. The way people are saying ‘I respect him and he was such a great journalist and he was always telling the truth,’ ok, if he was telling the truth, can you not find out the truth about who murdered him?,” she asked rhetorically.

Like Giwa’s immediate family members, the memory of his brutal murder has refused to die in the minds of his Ekperi kinsmen who appreciate the brand of investigative journalism he practised.  Deke Yakubu Kanoba, Egiegba 11 of Ekperi Kingdom, who is the traditional ruler of the community was unhappy that investigation into his murder has been stalled. He said that the people of Ekperi are always in pain when they remember his tragic demise because they have not been able to fill the gap his death created.

Zekeri Mochi, the Ezomo of Ekperi Kingdom and proprietor of Dele Giwa Memorial Secondary School, DGMSS, Ugbekpe-Ekperi, told Newswatch that it was regrettable that the federal government has not been able to unravel his killers 25 years after his murder. He explained that his only consolation is that God who knows his killers would surely take vengeance against those who spilled the blood of the innocent. “Though, we do not know the killers, I know God knows them and one day, God will reveal it because there is nothing God cannot do. We are still having the feeling that one day, the killers will face the wrath of the law,” he said.

Mochi, who named the secondary school he co-founded after Giwa as a way of immortalising him, said he was surprised that the federal government has not considered it worthy to honour the ebullient journalist posthumously. He co- founded the school in 1996 with the late Audu Ezuata, former principal of the school, because Giwa had brought honours to Ekperi even in death. The motto of the school is “Knowledge and Truth”, which are virtues Giwa epitomised.  

Mochi had fond memories of Giwa last week when Newswatch met him in Ugbekpe-Ekperi. “I am the proprietor of Dele Giwa Memorial Secondary School. I and my co-proprietor, who is now late, named the school after him in order to immortalise him. We did it for the love of the man and to immortalise him in Ugbekpe-Ekperi because we know he was loved by the people and was popular all over the country. His death was a shock to everyone and as such, we want him to be remembered always. So, up till now, we still make the anniversary of his death yearly.  The students of the Dele Giwa Memorial Secondary School   mark the anniversary annually by marching round the town carrying his photograph and eulogising the late Dele Giwa, our illustrious son.”  Other activities to commemorate his demise include debate, quiz, and dance. October 19, every year is declared public holiday by the school authorities in honour of their hero. The students also go to his grave to pray for the repose of his soul.

Mochi told Newswatch that the family Giwa left behind was not faring well because he was their bread winner before he died. “You can imagine, he left behind an aged mother and very young children. So, we cannot say the members of his family are faring well because they cannot be doing well as expected since the man died at a very young age.”

Donald Osekhena Boih, Edo State commissioner for commerce and industry, who hails from Ekperi, described Giwa as a pride to the people of Ekperi and Nigeria. “He is somebody that was humble, honest and a respectable gentleman. Dele Giwa meant a lot to us and as we speak now, his person is immortalised in our heart because he is one of the trail blazers in Ekperi. You cannot write the history of Ugbekpe-Ekperi today without mentioning Dele Giwa. In fact, his name would be in history not only in Ekperi but also in Edo, Delta and, of course Nigeria; because you cannot write anything about journalism in Nigerian without mentioning Dele Giwa. So, he means so much to us and our people will continue to honour him even now that he is no longer alive,” he said.

He however, regretted that the late Giwa has been forgotten by those in authority despite the fact that he laid the foundation for the robust  journalism practice that has enhanced democracy in the country today. “You know that Nigerians hardly celebrate the dead. They are only good at showing sycophancy when you are there but once the person is gone, he will be forgotten. To be very candid, I think Dele Giwa has not been fairly recognised because he is one of those who promoted the entrenchment of democracy that we are enjoying today. His death was not as if he was bed ridden, perhaps, part of his drive to see that there was sanity in the system and that there was political order in the country was why his life was terminated. So, I think that the government of the day should begin to look into how to recognise our son who fought and won the democracy we have today even though he is not alive right now,” Boih told Newswatch.

Joseph Ayegbeni Ugheoke, former chairman, Etsako Central local government area of Edo State, and an indigene of Ekperi, described Giwa as an icon. “He was a person that we all respected so much and even up till today, the vacuum that was created by his demise has not been filled by anybody. But what we can always beat our chest about are the virtues the man stood for. Basically, Newswatch which he co-founded is still striving and setting the pace in investigative journalism. The children that he left behind will be able to stand and make their father proud.  But our prayer is that as we commemorate the 25th anniversary of his death, his killers who have murdered sleep will never sleep until his death is avenged. We believe that at the appropriate time, God will solve the mystery surrounding the death of our beloved son,” Ugheoke said.

On his part, Yusuf Kadiri, youth chairman, Ekperi, who described Giwa as a role model to the youths wondered why despite his contributions to the growth of the Nigerian media industry, not much has been done to immortalise him. It was only in 2008 that  the government of Nigeria named a street in the New Federal Capital, Abuja, after Giwa along  with other activists such as Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, the Afro beat king and Ken Saro Wiwa, the late environmental rights activist and former  president, Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People, MOSOP.

Reported by Annette Oghenerhaboke