25th April, 2023
Veteran journalist, Peter Enahoro also known by his pen name ‘Peter Pan’, has passed on, aged 88.
His demise was announced by Ms Bunmi Sofola in a terse statement.
It read in part, “Regret to announce the passing on of our iconic journalist Peter Enahoro “Peter Pan” today in London at the age of 88. RIP.
“Also known by the pen name of “Peter Pan” because of his popular column in New African magazine under that name. He has been described as ‘perhaps Africa’s best-known international journalist’”.
Born January 21, 1935, Enahoro was a journalist, author, businessman and publisher.
Enahoro studied at the prestigious Government College, Ughelli (in present-day Delta State), and was a contemporary of JP Clark, Africa’s first professor of English.
In 1954, Enahoro began his career in the media as an Assistant Publicity Officer for the Department of Information, which is now the Federal Ministry of Information.
At the age of 20, he joined the Daily Times as a sub-editor before becoming Assistant District Manager at Rediffusion Services in Ibadan in 1957.
He was appointed Editor of the Nigerian Sunday Times at the age of 23, then Features Editor of the Daily Times in 1958, Editor of the Daily Times in 1962, Group Editorial Adviser of the Daily Times in 1965, and Editor-in-Chief of the Daily Times in 1966.
During the 1960s, Enahoro went into self-imposed exile for 13 years. From 1966 to 1976, he was the Africa Editor of National Zeitung in Basel, Switzerland, before becoming the Editorial Director of New African magazine in London in 1978.
In 1981, he established Africa Now, a pan-African news magazine. In 1996, he became the sole administrator of Daily Times Nigeria Plc. His “Peter Pan” column, which he started in 1959, ruffled political feathers. In his book, ‘The Press of Africa (Macmillan Press Ltd.)’, Frank Barton called Enahhoro “arguably Africa’s best journalist writing in English.”
Before his death, Enahoro wrote four books: How to Be a Nigerian (1966), You Gotta Cry to Laugh (1972), The Complete Nigerian (1992), and Then Spoke the Thunder (2009).