On Monday, October 19, 2026, the cream of Nigeria’s print media, the Press, gathered at the Nigerian Institute of Journalism (NIJ), Ogba, Ikeja for two significant reasons: in memory of the founding Editor-In-Chief of Newswatch Magazine, Dele Giwa, who died forty years ago; and launch of a book in his honour.
Dele, one of Nigeria’s most courageous journalists, was killed through a letter bomb delivered to his home in Ikeja, Lagos, on Sunday, October 19, 1986 – exactly forty years ago. He was merely 39 years old at the time. Four decades after the incident, his killers have not been brought to justice.
The unresolved murder has remained a painful test of Nigeria’s commitment to press freedom, public accountability and the rule of law. It was in such uncertain mood that the editors gathered in paradox of celebration and mourning for one of their own who added glamour to the industry but was silenced in bizarre circumstances in his prime. The highpoint of the day was the launch of a book; ‘Dele Giwa’s Granite Journalism’, edited by his Newswatch colleague, Ray Ekpu.
It turned out a roll call of the leading lights in the industry. Among those in attendance were the publisher of Vanguard Newspapers, Uncle Sam Amuka-Pemu, the oldest practicing journalist in the country; former Ogun state governor and erstwhile editor of Daily Times, Segun Osoba, publisher of THISDAY Newspapers, Nduka Obaigbena, the surviving member of the Newswatch founding editors, Ekpu, other ex-staff of the organisation, Soji Akinrinade, Nosa Igiebor, Onome Osifo-Whiskey, Kunle Obasa, Maureen Chigbue, Muyiwa Akintunde (National President, NIJ Alumni Association) and Ishaya Ibrahim.
Other gatekeepers of the industry such as erstwhile Managing director of The Guardian, Emeka Izeze, Managing Director of TheNiche Online Newspaper, Ikechukwu Amaechi, President of Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE) and Editor of the vanguard, Eze Anaba, Managing director of The Sun and Secretary of NGE, Onuoha Ukeh, Eniola Bello of THISDAY, Simon Kolawole of The Cable online, publisher of Newsmart online newspaper, Rose Moses, Media scholar, Dr. Olayinka Oyegbile, veteran editor, Tony Iyare, were also in attendance.
The event provided room for reflection on the life and last moments of Dele Giwa. Dele’s teacher in the United States, Dr. Yemi Ogunbiyi, recalled the student days of the deceased and his foray into the Nigerian media in a manner that spoke of courage and candor. The somber side of the gathering was the recollection of Dele’s last moments by Dr Dokun Adeleke, a member of the medical team that attended to him at First Foundation Hospital, after the blast. While he recalled the pains Dele went through and the determination to live without success, there was pin-drop silence in the hall. Obviously distraught Dele’s wife, Funmi, who had borne the brunt of widowhood she was not prepared for, managed to maintain a carriage that barely concealed the trauma she had gone through in the last four decades. Aisha, the daughter, who was a toddler at the time of the incident and was saved from the blast because she was taken upstairs for a nap by her nanny, was brief in talking about a dad she hardly knew. It was indeed, a moment of deep and painful reflections.
But more worrisome is that forty years after the gruesome incident, the perpetrators have not been apprehended. It thus, reinforces the question by TheNiche Columnist and former National Secretary of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Shu’aibu Usman Leman that: Forty years after this tragedy, what has Nigeria learnt about the need to protect journalists and defend the public’s right to know? This is perhaps the biggest irony of the Press and Media practice in Nigeria. The Press as the Fourth Estate of the Realm is seen as one of the four pillars of democracy along with the executive, legislature and the judiciary. It is at the intersection of the state, the citizen and good governance. Its role in ensuring good governance is summarised in section 22 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) as part of the fundamental objective and directive principles of the state policy. This responsibility requires the Press to exercise vigilance on the relationship between the government and the people.
Since the establishment of the first newspaper in the country Iwe Irohin – a Yoruba local newspaper, by an Anglican Missionary, Reverend Henry Townsend, on November 23, 1859, in Abeokuta, Ogun State, the relationship between the Press and politics in the country has been marked by friction, occasional coexistence and mistrust. While both seek to advance good governance in various manners, working together for the purpose has not been smooth. Pressmen and politicians have always worked at cross purposes. It is in this quest for good governance and better society that Dele Giwa’s death can be located.
That can also explain the disappearance of Bagauda Kaltho of the NEWS Magazine, even when suspicions were high at the time that he might have been murdered by the killer gang of the General Sani Abacha regime (1983 – 1988).
There was equally the 1973 Minere Amakiri episode as recalled by Jola Ogunlusi in his 2013 publication, ‘NUJ: A history of Nigerian press’. It was a particular episode, that stands out as an example in the series of humiliating experiences Pressmen go through in carrying out their lawful duties. Amakiri was the Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Correspondent of the Nigerian Observer, the Bendel State Newspaper. He did a story on the teachers’ strike in the state, that was incidentally published on a day that coincided with the birthday of the then Military governor, Navy Commander Alfred Diette-Spiff. The Governor considered the story embarrassing and ordered Amakiri to be tortured by his aides. The offence earned Amakiri a head shave with a rusty razor blade after he had been stripped naked and beaten with lacerations on his body. Diette-Spiff is currently the traditional ruler of his community in Bayelsa state, while Amakiri is only mentioned as a footnote.
Media organisations have also not fared better as some had been censored or proscribed for allegedly publishing stories that the authorities consider offensive. Matthew Hassan Kukah’s observation in his 2011 insightful work; ‘Witness to justice; An insider’s account of Nigeria’s Truth Commission’, that “The media more than any other organisation had resisted military rule and they had paid the price as individuals and institutions”, is therefore, correct. The Press and practitioners in the country can be said to have paid their dues in the making of the Nigerian nation. There have no doubts been occasional incidences of overzealousness, malfeasance and untoward conducts by some black legs in the industry. But on balance, the practitioners, from the forerunners like Herbert Macauley, Ernest Ikoli, Nnamdi Azikiwe, Obafemi Awolowo, Increase Coker, Mokwugo Okoye, Babatunde Jose, Melie Kafundu Chukelu (MCK) Ajuluchukwu, Lateef Jakande, showed worthy example in nationalism and nation building. Contemporary gatekeepers have tried to keep to the tradition. For professionals and the industry that have put in such sacrifices, the least that the state owes them is guarantee of security as they go about their job.
This is why the non-apprehension of the killers of Dele Giwa, forty years after, remains troubling. I agree with the NGE that forty years is a long time to wait for justice. It is an unconscionably long time for a nation that claims to uphold the rule of law. It is instructive that the Guild is not calling for trial by media; it is not asking anyone to be condemned without evidence but demanding that a grave crime against a Nigerian citizen, a distinguished journalist and the freedom of the Press should not remain an enduring symbol of impunity.
“Dele Giwa was no ordinary journalist. He was a journalist of uncommon audacity, intellectual rigour and literary elegance. His journalism was granite-like: firm in conviction, uncompromising in its pursuit of truth and resistant to the pressures of power. He understood that journalism is not a public relations department for those in authority, nor is it a convenient instrument for flattering the powerful. It is a public trust. He helped demonstrate that Nigerian journalism could be intellectually sophisticated, fearless in its interrogation of power and compelling in its presentation of facts.
“Through his work, he challenged the culture of timid reporting and reinforced the proposition that public office must never become a sanctuary from scrutiny. His assassination was not merely the murder of an individual. It was an assault on the freedom to ask questions, expose wrongdoing and hold power accountable. It was an attack on the fundamental right of citizens to know what is being done in their name”. The NGE has said it all. Not much requires to be added!