Journalist. Author. Great writer. Good administrator. Fine editor. Pastor. A human being and a good Nigerian. All these adjectives aptly define Dimgba Igwe, the pioneer Deputy Managing Director (DMD) of The Sun Publishing Limited, who was killed by a hit-and-run driver on September 6, 2014. It looks like yesterday. However, it is already 10 years gone.
Whenever I look at my first daughter, Precious, who was born one month and three weeks after Igwe died, I remember that this journalists’ journalist left this cruel world 10 years ago. What a tragedy! What a great loss by journalism profession, which needs mentors like Igwe! What a big loss by a world, which needs good people like Igwe! What a great regret for me, for planning to surprise Igwe with the coming of my daughter at her birth only to miss the opportunity as he died before then! What a surprise that never was.
I remember that dark day, September 6, 2014 when I received a message about Igwe’s passing. I was on a short vacation from my seat as Editor, Daily Sun and riding in a train in London underground. The message from my boss, Chief Femi Adesina, at that time the Deputy Managing Director of The Sun, was short: Dimgba Igwe died this afternoon, after being hit by a car while jogging in the morning. It was as if a dagger was thrust into my heart. I shouted, forgetting that I was in a public place, in a train and in a country, where such reaction could be taken as disturbing the peace of others. Everybody looked at me, perhaps, thinking that I had either gone mad all of a sudden or out of my mind.
Those who thought that I may have gone mad all of a sudden or that I had lost my mind were right. I was mad that a driver could be so callous to knock down a human being, who was jogging and instead of stopping to render help or take him to hospital, sped off and left him to die. I was mad that humanity never mattered to people. I was out of my mind that hospitals could see an emergency case, like a victim of hit-and-run and not give it the attention so deserved. I was out of my mind that the Hippocratic Oath in the medical profession had gone to the dogs in Igwe’s case. I was devastated that the combination of these two factors led to the death of a man, who was not ill with any terminal disease, and who died unexpected. It was something I could not comprehend.
Dimgba Igwe lived his life as simple as you could imagine. He was unassuming and without air. He understood humanity well enough to know that what matters in life was for a man or woman to contribute his or her quota to development without expecting rewards or praises. Before he died, it was obvious that his neighbours never knew that he was an important personality. He was not a man that showed off.
I would not forget my first encounter with Igwe during the formation of The Sun. Although I knew him by reputation, with his feat with Mr. Mike Awoyinfa at the Weekend Concord, I never met him until 2002. I had gone to his office then in Ajao Estate, Lagos and requested to see him. There was no previous appointment, but I took my chance. Without hesitation or keeping me waiting, he asked that I should be ushered into his office. Face to face, I saw a small man (in size) with great name and reputation and what came to my mind was that legendry advert catch: Great things come in small packages.
At the meeting with Igwe, I expressed my desire to join The Sun project. He asked me questions on journalism, with great emphasis on tabloid journalism. I answered as much as I could. It became an interview that I never expected to happen that day. Being satisfied with my understanding of tabloid journalism, Mr. Igwe called Mr. Awoyinfa, who was in the next office. to join the meeting. He explained to Mr. Awoyinfa that I understood tabloid journalism and that I wanted to be part of the team. They asked me to go and bring things I had written and got published by any newspaper.
The next day, I brought many published features reports I did as Metro Editor at The Post Express. Mr. Igwe collected them and promised to get back to me. About 20 minutes thereafter, I got a call from him inviting me for another meeting. I guessed that he had read some of the materials I submitted and felt that I could fit into The Sun pioneer team. When we met again, he offered me the position of Assistant Editor. I asked for the post of Deputy Editor, since I was Deputy Editor at The Post Express at that time. My take was that if I was to move and it was not on a higher level, it should be at least on the same level. Mr. Igwe told me that the position of Deputy Editor did not exist in the structure The Sun was going to operate.
Soon after the meeting with Mr. Igwe, I was made editor of The Post Express. I suspected that Mr. Igwe felt there was no need inviting me to take the position of Assistant Editor when I was already editor. However, it appeared that he was monitoring the goings on at The Post Express and decided to invite me again when he felt the time was right. When, in 2003, I got a call from Mr. Ebere Wabara that I should see Dr. Amanze Obi, who was Editorial Board Chairman of The Sun, I remembered my first encounter with Mr. Igwe. Dr. Obi was to tell me that Mr. Igwe had asked him to invite me. When I met Igwe, he reoffered me the post of Assistant Editor.
As Assistant Editor, I did not have much to do with Mr. Igwe. I only related with the editor, daily. However, I worked with him more closely when I was appointed Editor, Saturday Sun in 2007. As the DMD, Igwe worked with editors after our interface with the Executive Director, Publication. I used to meet with him on Thursdays, to present our cover stories. For the meeting, I must be prepared because Mr. Igwe cannot be sold a dummy. He was a deep thinker, had great insight into many issues and happenings as well as knew a story that not only made sense but also would make great impact and good sales. He could change the angle of a story by a snap of the finger and he was an exceptionally good headline writer.
I could remember when, as Editor, Saturday Sun, I got an interview with the late Mrs. Maryam Babangida. It was a good encounter, where the former First Lady and wife of General Ibrahim Babangida, spoke about the 1990 Gideon Okar coup and how the first family survived, among other things. When I briefed Mr. Igwe and presented the interview, he almost jumped out of his chair in joy. He quickly called Mr. Awoyinfa and said: “Ogbeni, Onuoha has nicked it. He has a great interview.” In the next minute, Mr. Awoyinfa came to his office and together they crafted a headline for the Saturday Sun edition of that week. The edition recorded good sales.
Mr. Igwe is unforgettable. Despite the fact that years have passed, memories are fading and physical presence not possible, I will always remember him. He taught me many lessons that helped to shape my life as a man and a professional. One of them came when I adopted the “baa kwomi” attitude in dressing and he noticed it. He invited me and taught me a lesson in dressing. He was not a fashionista, but he knew good and formal dressing. He pointedly told me that since in future I could be in higher position of authority, like him, that I must start dressing like a manager. He said that journalists must dress very well because doing so defined their personality. He told me that if a journalist dressed shabbily to an event and something got missing, that the first suspect would be the journalist who is shabbily dressed. The lesson sank.
Mr. Igwe taught the world a lesson in relationship. He and Mr. Awoyinfa had a bond that is beyond comprehension. Not even brothers and twins have such impeccable relationship. Brothers and twins quarrel, but Igwe and Awoyinfa never had any case of quarrelling. This is despite the fact that they had different personalities and not from the same tribe. Awoyinfa is Yoruba. Igwe was Igbo. But they trusted each other with their lives. Their love and respite for each other was mutual and astonishing. I could say that if there was any situation where any of them could have died for the other, they would have easily done so without hesitation.
Igwe and Awoyinfa has mutual love and respect for each other. Awoyinfa was the Editor, Weekend Concord. Igwe was his deputy. Awoyinfa was Managing Director of The Sun. Igwe was his deputy. Awoyinfa would say that Igwe was his boss. Igwe would call Awoyinfa “Ogbeni” (Mr. or Gentleman) with so much respect. The friendship, trust and respect the two had for each other defy all definition. It puts a lie to the belief that Yoruba and Igbo cannot work together. It exposes the foolishness of the mutual suspicion and rivalry between the Yoruba and Igbo. In fact, when I think about the quit notice by some Yoruba to Igbo to vacate Lagos, I tell myself that if only they knew about an Awoyinfa and an Igwe, such nonsense would not be contemplated, let alone expressed.
As friends, associates and family members and all of us remember Igwe next week, on his death day, the lecture topic “Tabloid Journalism Yesterday, Today and the Future” in his honour comes at the right time. As one of the Fathers of Tabloid Journalism (with Mr. Awoyinfa also) in Nigeria and a time when the country’s newspaper industry has been stung by the bug of tabloidism, the celebration of Igwe is well deserved. Those who felt that tabloid journalism was low-class when Igwe and Awoyinfa pioneered and amplified it, should look at Nigerian newspapers and see that the majority of them only promotes headlines on their covers and run the reports inside. That was a paradigm shift in newspaper production in the country. That is tabloidism.
The hit-and-run driver who killed Igwe may not be known by others, but whoever it was would continue to live with the guilt of cutting short the life of an innocent man at his prime. Igwe may have died, but he cannot be forgotten. His journalism lives. His legacy lives. His name lives. Dimgba Igwe lives.