Frontline journalist and one of Nigeria’s foremost media administrators and author, Pastor Dimgba Igwe, who died yesterday has sent shock waves across the media industry.
He was known to many people at home and abroad largely because of his total devotion to his first love, journalism – for the past 30 years. Dimgba Igwe, ace journalist, publisher, author, biographer and pastor, was a role model to many practising and aspiring journalists. Along with his long-time journalist friend and business partner, Mike Awoyinfa, he had mid-wifed some hugely successful newspapers, including the now rested Weekend Concord, The Sun and lately Entertainment Express and Sunday Express respectively.
After the pioneering roles they played at the now rested Weekend Concord newspaper and The Sun newspapers, in 2011, Dimgba Igwe and Awonyinfa set about recording another landmark in the Nigerian media with the establishment of a newspaper entirely devoted to reporting the entertainment industry called Entertainment Express.
The newspaper hit the newsstand in June 2011. The duo were still engrossed in taking their new project to Olympian height when death came calling yesterday.
After a pioneering role they played at the now rested Weekend Concord newspaper where they distinguished themselves as journalists par excellence and lately, The Sun newspapers, Mike Awoyinfa and his friend, Dimgba Igwe are set to record another landmark in the Nigerian media with the establishment of a newspaper entirely devoted to reporting the entertainment industry.
He met his co-traveller, Mike Awoyinfa, at the Sunday Concord newspaper, and ever since then, they have been long standing friends. According to Igwe, “We discovered we are kindred spirits.” Speaking about the late Publisher recently, Awoyinfa said, “Dimgba complements my weaknesses, he adds to my strength. Only God knows why we came the way we are, even twins are not that close. We lean on each other and celebrate and mourn our woes together. We do everything together and I learn everyday from him, because he has his own areas where he is stronger than myself. Intellectually and spiritually, he is above me in certain respects. Sometimes, we do disagree to agree again, we know how to tolerate ourselves and we are not the greedy type,” Awoyinfa described his late friend.
The late Igwe was a hard worker. To many staffers at the outfits he managed while alive, he was something close to a slave driver. He loves to work and had actually planned to keep working for as long as his legs can carry him. To him, the idea of retirement was a strange one.
“Basically, when you say that you have retired, it is just a way of describing the fact that you are no more in paid employment, where you go to work at a certain time and return home later in the day; and at the end of the month, you are paid by that particular medium. No! It could also mean a transition to a different aspect of life. One plays some roles at the board level as in the case of The Sun newspapers or the Express, where we are Board members; so, one still plays a guidance role,” he once said.
On why he keeps muting business ideas even while neck-deep in his busy schedule as a media manager, Igwe said he got his kicks from looking at the many system failures that characterise the Nigerian polity.
“We (Mike and I) have also decided to develop a niche that had always been part of us. When we go abroad and talk to some of our other colleagues in the media, the things we describe are completely strange to them. They cannot imagine that you could do a business and then you would still buy a generator, drill your own borehole or even contribute to rehabilitating roads. So, this absence of infrastructure is absent out there. They have taken all that for granted. So, if you are a manager in Nigeria and you succeed, then, you can excel anywhere in the world.”
Aside journalism, Igwe, before his death and expectedly, alongside Awoyinfa, established his mastery of another form of writing. Together, the duo is unarguably the most renowned biographer in the country today. While they were still in various paid employment and after they decided to be on their own, the duo wrote the biographies of more Nigerians than anybody else has ever done.
“We have always done this simultaneously with journalism, which is writing books. And you know that this niche actually started 15 years ago when we wrote a book called 50 Nigeria’s Corporate Strategists. The irony is that I can’t even find a copy of this book now because it was stolen. We have printed three editions of it and they all sold out. It is a book that profiles 50 corporate leaders, trying to distil their management experiences and trying to work out case studies of how businesses are managed in our very peculiar terrain,” the late Journalist said of their exploit as biographers.
A man of many parts while still living, Igwe truthfully and of course correctly, described himself as a complicated person. According to him, being a Pastor and at the same time a businessman, he comes across to different people in different ways.
“It is a bit complicated because as you know, I am a pastor of a church. And as a pastor of a church, it depends on the activities of the day. I wake up, relax and set my agenda. After my prayers, exercise, break-fast and all that, I head for my study to work. One of the ironies is that I have three offices and I am about to have one more. I have an office at home, there is another one at the Express, while I also have an office in the church; and as a matter of fact, Corporate Biographies, which is our publishing company, is also making an office for me.”
A consummate journalist till he breathed his last, the erudite media manager was never tired of propagating the many powers of the average journalist. To him, there was hardly any other profession as endowed with power and authority to positively impact on their society.
“Journalists have residual advantages. What are these residual advantages? They have exposure and access (to information) and they are always operating in the written word every day of their lives. However, a journalist has to beware of the tempting attraction of routine.”
One other thing Igwe would be remembered for was his detribalised nature. He never wanted to know where the reporter or Editor is from. The person, not the background, was his interest. And he carried this nature right into all his other human relationships.
“For me, it’s a question of synergy of ideas. If you find somebody that your ideas flow with, it’s easier to work with that person. I don’t look at people in terms of where they come from, but I look at their hearts. If the heart of a man is good, whether he’s Hausa, Yoruba or Igbo is irrelevant to me. Personally, I have always been positively affected by the people outside my tribe than the people from my tribe. I’m a detribalised Nigerian. I look at human beings in terms of their quality.”
With the death of Igwe, the Nigeria media industry has lost another firebrand professional, a type that is not easy to replace.
Igwe’s death, my saddest day- Kalu
The publisher and chairman of The Sun Group of Newspapers and New Telegraph, Dr. Orji Kalu, has described the death of the vice-chairman of the media conglomerate, Mr. Dimgba Igwe, yesterday, as the saddest day of his life.
In a statement by his media adviser, Mr. Ebere Wabara, Kalu, who is in London, said in a telephone conversation, that he was devastated by Igwe’s death. He declared: “Igwe, apart from being my kinsman, was one of the founding pillars in the establishment of The Sun. He worked tirelessly with others to ensure the instant success story associated with our tabloid today. I will surely miss his professional advice, camaraderie and brotherliness,” Kalu said.
Kalu enjoined God to strengthen his family and associates to bear this irreparable loss, pointing out that “journalism has just lost one of its brightest minds respected for analytical writings right from his National Concord days. This is indeed my saddest day,” Kalu declared.
On why he keeps muting business ideas even while neck-deep in his busy schedule as a media manager, Igwe said he got his kicks from looking at the many system failures that characterise the Nigerian polity.
“We (Mike and I) have also decided to develop a niche that had always been part of us. When we go abroad and talk to some of our other colleagues in the media, the things we describe are completely strange to them. They cannot imagine that you could do a business and then you would still buy a generator, drill your own borehole or even contribute to rehabilitating roads. So, this absence of infrastructure is absent out there. They have taken all that for granted. So, if you are a manager in Nigeria and you succeed, then, you can excel anywhere in the world.”
Aside journalism, Igwe, before his death and expectedly, alongside Awoyinfa, established his mastery of another form of writing. Together, the duo is unarguably the most renowned biographer in the country today. While they were still in various paid employment and after they decided to be on their own, the duo wrote the biographies of more Nigerians than anybody else has ever done.
“We have always done this simultaneously with journalism, which is writing books. And you know that this niche actually started 15 years ago when we wrote a book called 50 Nigeria’s Corporate Strategists.
He was shining star of Nigerian journalism, says APC
The All Progressives Congress (APC) said yesterday that with the death of Pastor Dimgba Igwe, Nigerian journalism has lost a shining star.
The party, in a statement in Lagos by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, expressed “shock and sadness at the sudden death of such a vibrant, cerebral and wonderful person, who has been a constant star in the constellation of Nigerian journalism for decades, without compromising his personal and professional integrity.”
It condoled with the family and friends of the late Pastor Igwe, and prayed that God will give them the strength to bear their loss.
APC asked the police to find and bring to justice the driver of the vehicle that knocked him down while jogging around his residence.
‘’Words are not enough to describe the huge loss, to his family, friends, profession and indeed our entire nation, that Igwe’s death represents. But we are sure the achievements he recorded in his lifetime will forever be a source of pride – and indeed a soothing balm – to all,” the party said and prayed for the repose of his soul.
