Giwa And Beatification Of The Pen

Last Monday, nineteenth October 2026, marked precisely 4 many years after the angel of loss of life violently claimed the lifetime of the Founding Editor-in-Chief, Dele Giwa, via a parcel bomb, sending waves of concern ripping throughout a rustic that was then basking within the dawn of a heat relationship between the media and the army regime, headed by General  Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida. With Giwa’s loss of life, accusing fingers have been pointed at each the State Security Services (SSS) and the Directorate of Military Intelligence (DMI), headed by AK Togun and Col. Halilu Akilu, respectively. Two days earlier than his homicide,  the ace journalist had been grilled by SSS operatives over some columns he authored within the ‘Newswatch’ journal, together with an alleged plot to stage a socialist revolution.

Who Killed Giwa?

Since the loss of life of Newswatch’s founding Editor-in-Chief, the nation has been preoccupied with the duty of looking for his killers.  Leading this cost was Fawehinmi, who resorted to the courts to safe permission to prosecute the heads of the 2 safety companies concerned within the interrogation of the journalist earlier than his homicide.  In a landmark case, Fawehinmi v. Akilu & Anor (1987), the Supreme Court dominated unanimously in Fawehinmi’s favour in December 1987 when it put aside the decision of each the High Court and Appeal Court in Lagos that dismissed Fawehinmi’s functions as a result of he lacked the suitable to prosecute Togun and Akilu over the matter. The Apex Court dominated that, in felony issues, significantly homicide, “every citizen is their brother’s keeper”.  The courtroom granted Fawehinmi go away to use for an Order of Mandamus to compel the Lagos State Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) to prosecute heads of each the SSS and DMI. If they declined, the Justices endorsed a certificates permitting Fawehinmi to proceed with a non-public felony prosecution. The case returned to the Lagos High Court, and Justice Eniola Longe quashed it in February 1988 as a result of the data lacked advantage and substance.

Fawehinmi would later revive strikes to have each the 2 army officers and General Babangida seem earlier than the Oputa Panel that carried out its proceedings between October 200  and October 2001. IBB refused the panel’s invitation, stressing that he wouldn’t get a good listening to or justice. Through his counsel, the previous army president mentioned he feared the panel would change into a media spectacle meant to humiliate him quite than discover the reality. Besides arguing that the panel lacked tight procedural management, IBB’s attorneys expressed apprehension that the witness field can be decreased to rehashing points which have been handled in 1987 and dismissed by Justice Longe, together with cross-examining him over unrelated, extremely delicate political issues that included the annulment of the June 12, 1993 presidential election and the Ejigbo army airplane crash, amongst others. After yet one more spherical of authorized fireworks, the Apex Court dominated that the panel had no energy to summon IBB as a result of it couldn’t difficulty a summons.

Press Freedom Sacrifice

The fortieth anniversary of Giwa’s loss of life this Monday got here with a brand new give attention to remembering the murdered journalist. Former colleagues of the pioneer Editor-in-Chief of ‘Newswatch’ launched ‘Dele Giwa’s Granite Journalism’, led by the journal’s solely surviving founder, Ray Ekpu, shifting the main focus from 4 many years of ‘who killed Giwa’ to documenting his journalistic footprints.

The Founder and Chief Executive Officer of ‘The Cable’ on-line platform, Simon Kolawole, whose assessment of the e-book was titled ‘The Pen That Outlived The Bomb ’, famous: “One of the tragedies of Dele Giwa’s assassination is that the manner of his death has sometimes overshadowed the magnificence of his life. The parcel bomb has threatened to become more famous than the pen. His murder has remained a subject of public fascination, sometimes at the expense of his extraordinary contributions to Nigerian journalism.”

Describing the e-book as “a necessary correction that reminds us that before Dele Giwa became a martyr of press freedom”, Kolawole added that Giwa “was, first and foremost, an outstanding journalist, a compelling storyteller and a writer of uncommon gifts.” According to Kolawole, the e-book includes “74 pieces written by Giwa himself, two interviews with him and 16 tributes by some of the finest journalists and writers of his generation, some of whom are now of blessed memory.”

Epitome Of Excellence

Beyond the ‘literary elegance’ that Giwa demonstrated whereas he lived, Kolawole mentioned the e-book “reminds us that he was also a journalist of strong convictions. His articles on press freedom, censorship, political power and professional ethics demonstrate an abiding concern for the role of journalism in society.”

As Dele Giwa declared, a journalist’s main pre-occupation is to state the reality and maintain techniques and their brokers accountable for the general good of society. The killers of Giwa could stay unknown, however remembering and documenting his footprints and legacy honours what he stood for and provides enduring illumination and steering for future generations to be impressed by and emulate the excellence he demonstrated as a journalist. If the justice system, in response to Ekpu, has didn’t resolve the thriller behind the killing, Giwa’s colleagues have to be recommended for dwelling on the indelible footprints he left within the development of Nigeria’s media occupation.

We ought to by no means waste power probing the rubble of the previous. Media practitioners mustn’t ever permit his violent homicide to dwarf the grandeur of the journalism occupation he practised.  We have mourned Giwa for a very long time. Let his phrases console us: “No evil deed will go unpunished. Any evil done by man to man will be redressed, if not now, then later; if not by man, then by God.”