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| Tunde Olusunle |
Fresh from a recent trip to Katsina State where I was formally inducted into the Nigerian Guild of Editors, NGE, at the 10th Annual Nigerian Editors Conference, ANEC, I was going to dwell on the visibly impressive developmental strides of the Ibrahim Shema administration which caught my eye during my stay in the state.
My respected senior colleague, mentor and Fellow of the Guild, Chief OnyemaUgochukwu, CON, had invited me to meetings of the council over the years and I found one reason or the other to dodge the annual conference. Little wonder that then President of the Guild, Femi Adesina, my good friends Hakeem Bello and Yemisi Fadairo all poked fun at me that I should have been in the Guild over 20 years ago. Shola Osunkeye indeed promised to get the Guild to surcharge me for delayed induction!
As we sat over a drink that evening, Olofu had received a beep on his phone. He reached for it, scrolled to the news update page and asked, looking in my direction as he digested the message he just received, “Dimgba Igwe don die?” I am in the same journalistic profession as Dimgba Igwe, Olofu was so sure I probably knew.
“Dimgba? Die?” What do you mean?, I asked rhetorically. “He was in Katsina for the Guild of Editors Conference which I attended last Saturday”, I told him. I reached for my phone and called Tunde Ipinmisho, a senior colleague whom I have known for the better part of the last three decades, and who was also in Katsina. “Yes, we lost, Dimgba Igwe”, he confirmed. “He was jogging in his part of Lagos earlier today (that Saturday, September 6) when he was knocked down by a vehicle”, Ipinmisho explained. Shortly after Ipinmisho and I concluded our discussion, I received a mail from the secretariat of the NGE, signed by the General Secretary, conveying the sad news to the Guild, corroborating Olofu and Ipinmisho.
I don’t remember meeting Dimgba Igwe formally during his lifetime, but I sure knew him by reputation. Journalism is much like football, especially in the modern era, where technology takes the man plying his trade faraway Istanbul to my hometown Isanlu. The reputation of the conscientious practitioner sprints thousands of miles, ahead of him.
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| Mr. Dimgba Igwe |
Dimgba Igwe and his professional siamese twin, Mike Awoyinfa, jointly took entertainment journalism many notches higher, as their partnership robustly bestrode the Nigerian media scene, for nearly three decades. From Weekend Concord to the Sun and thenceforth to Entertainment Express, both men continued to be pacesetters in their own genre of journalism and models to the younger generation of journalists.
Indeed, despite his multi-faceted professional enterprise as a journalist, publisher, author, biographer and administrator, Dimgba never played the “Pharisee” as it were. His work never betrayed the depth of his immersion in Christian service. It is instructive that while serving as Vice Chairman of the Sun Newspapers Ltd, Dimgba was equally the Deputy General Overseer of Evangel Pentecostal Church, Okota, Lagos. It was a classic example of balancing the secular with the celestial.
Beyond his immediate and extended biological families, Dimgba will be sorely missed by several other units and sub-units of the global family. As I write this, it is even harder to believe a whole year has passed since this unfortunate incident. Continue to rest in peace, Dimgba.
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