As Death Deals Cruel Blows On Journalists

In the last few weeks Nigerian journalists have been hit hard by the untimely deaths of their notable colleagues. Just as they were trying to come to terms with the shocking demise of the Deputy Managing Director of The Sun Newspapers, Mr. Dimgba Igwe, news of the death of Remi Oyo began to spread everywhere. Oyo was the immediate past Managing Director of the News Agency of Nigeria, NAN. She died at 62 from cancer in a London hospital. She was also a former president of the Nigerian Guild of Editors.

It was yet another big blow to the journalism family when sports business analyst and presenter on Africa Independent Television, Godwin Spiff-Sagbama died during the same period after undergoing brain surgery. As journalists were still mourning the passing of these other colleagues, death bared its fangs yet again when it despatched Toba Suleiman of ThisDay Newspaper and Mike Akpan, Editor-in-Chief of Real News, to the great beyond.

A month or so earlier, Ben Charles-Obi, one of the founding editors of Insider magazine and a thorn in the flesh of military dictators in the 90s, passed on in Lagos following an undisclosed ailment.

Painful as their deaths are, that of Dimgba Igwe would not have occurred if not for the reckless hit-and-run driver who was the harbinger of death on that fateful Saturday while Igwe was jogging near his home in Okota, Lagos.

Never in the recent history of the journalism profession in Nigeria have several journalists died in such quick succession as we have witnessed lately. These departed warriors of the profession shall be remembered for their great contributions to nation building.

We join other grief-stricken Nigerians to commiserate with the families and loved ones they left behind. May God grant their souls eternal repose. And to the colleagues the departed journalists have left behind, we encourage them to overcome this temporary dark moment and keep the fire burning.