I first met Oga Dan Agbese in 1984 during the preparatory days of Newswatch, the pioneering Nigerian newsmagazine. Before then, his reputation had preceded him as one of the stars among the alumni of our Department of Mass Communication of the University of Lagos (UNILAG). Then we met at the home of Dele Giwa, Off Obafemi Awolowo Way, Ikeja, where I had gone to meet the four editors who were destined to shape our lives.
Agbese was the only one I did not really know among them then. He had the reputation of being the man writing the Candido column in the old New Nigerian newspapers, a great institution that dominated our growing up years that is now regarded as Nigerian Journalism Golden Age. Candido, the man behind the mask, column was said to have been created by Alhaji Adamu Ciroma, one of Agbese’s illustrious predecessors as editor of the New Nigerian. Here was he now before me in flesh and blood! We were to work together for five giddy years. His influence was to remain with me forever.
Newswatch early years was dominated by big dreams. I was among the four first editorial staff of Newswatch; Rolake Omonubi, Dele Olojede, Wale Oladepo and I. Among the four founders, three of them were already well known to those of us coming from the stable of the Concord Group of Newspapers.
Ray Ekpu was already a famous editor who ran the Sunday Times with so much vigour and creativity that the old conservative elements of President Shehu Shagari’s government felt very uncomfortable with him. He was forced out and, in the end, resurfaced as the chairman of the editorial board of the Concord Group, founded by that great man, Chief Moshood Abiola.
When I was a student at UNILAG, Giwa, as the Feature Editor of the Daily Times, was the man who made me a stringer for the paper. I was introduced to him by my friend and roommate, Waheed Olagunju, who later became the Managing Director of the Bank of Industry. I was writing a column for the Daily Times called Campus News every Friday. Yakubu Mohammed, the editor of the National Concord, was the one who employed me and Oladepo in November 1982. Mohammed was also the one Oladepo and I followed into Newswatch. The man we did not know before was Agbese.
We soon found Agbese to be in a special class of his own. To him, journalism was science. To him, a journalist needs to be precise and unambiguous. He should employ brevity if it would convey a clearer meaning than circumlocution. He writes as he speaks; with precision and wisdom. He put himself under the rigour of proof and demanded the same from us.
When we encounter Oga Agbese, we knew we were in a special master’s class of journalism. He taught us a lot. He demanded beauty of expression; not of flowery language, but of the kind of words that convey greater truth than the best photographs and paintings. He was a special kind of artist.
Like his other colleagues, Agbese regarded journalism as an instrument of service to Nigeria and humanity. He was resolute, resourceful and intrepid in the pursuit of his calling as a first-class journalist. He believed in journalism as a pillar of any thriving democracy. He put himself in the line of fine for his belief. He was fearless. Therefore, he was one of the heroes who gave us democracy.
He endured with dignity and courage the constant harassment and intimidations during the military era. In the formative years of Newswatch, he was designated the Managing Director until our editors decided to combine the office of Chief Executive and Editor-in-Chief Giwa was allowed to hold the two offices.
But the journey was meant to be turbulent. What was meant to be a professional business concerns soon became a serious struggle with the operators of the Nigerian state. On 19 October 1986, less than two years after Newswatch hit the news stand, Giwa was killed with a parcel bomb and our life was changed for ever. Our editors were at the centre of the storm. The echo of that bomb still rings in our ears till today.
Less than one year after Giwa was killed, Newswatch carried a story on a panel report on the draft Constitution that would guide the Third Republic. The military regime of General Ibrahim Babangida seems to have been looking for any excuse to pounce on the media house. This exclusive story, which is based on the truth, was the excuse the regime used to outlaw Newswatch. It passed a special decree, called the Newswatch Prohibition Decree, stating that even the media house cannot seek redress in the court of law, declaring that “notwithstanding anything written in the Constitution or any other law”, Newswatch remained banned. It was the beginning of Newswatch second session. I remember Agbese and his colleagues, corralled in front of our office at Oregun Road, surrounded by security agents as they were being prepared for detention.
But no prison could keep the soul of a great person in bondage. Despite the travails and vicissitude of those days, Agbese and his colleagues stood tall. He was figure of serenity under pressure, including the pressure of deadlines. He demanded from us his subordinates the exactness of science and would not allow any fussy language to escape his scalpel as an editor. He demanded what he gave.
His column, brimming with wits and wisdom, was a pilgrimage into Nigerian history and society. His thoughts, deep and clairvoyant, ring with candour and bitter truth. He was the one who described Chief Obafemi Awolowo as «the best President Nigeria never had”, in an essay he wrote to mark Awo’lowo’s 78th birthday. When the old man died on 9 May 1987, Chief Emeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu, was to quote him without attribution. Agbese was an original thinker who thought us to value critical thinking.
In October 1990, I went to inform him that I would be resigning. By that time, it had become an open secret that I and four of my colleagues were planning to start another magazine, TELL. He invited me to his house and we held a long discussion in his private study. It was an intimate moment and our discussion was frank. I learnt a lot of lessons on how to treat subordinates from the great men who led us in those giddy years at Newswatch.
I am indebted to Agbese. I leant Mass Communications at UNILAG, but the great men of Newswatch thought me journalism. Agbese was deep. His solidity and courage gave the impression of timelessness. You have the feeling that nothing could scare him and when you entered his office, he would raise his head, with his glasses perched on his nose, you were confronted with something almost spiritual. Agbese had a presence filled with ethereal force, creative and comforting. He transmitted his aura with effortless ease. He was a great man.
My memoir, One Day and a Story, published by Gaskia Media Limited in 2016, was based on my five years tour of duty in Newswatch. After it was published, I went to my bosses at their new office on Acme Road to present copies. I was received enthusiastically. Our former General Editor, Olusoji Akinrinade, joined Agbese, Ekpu and Mohammed to give me a royal welcome.
I am happy that I had maintained a cordial relationship with my old bosses over the years. Some years ago, when I approached Mohammed to come and serve on the Advisory Board of Gaskia Media Limited, he readily agreed. Recently I visited him at home to congratulate him on the publication of his enthralling autobiography, Beyond Expectations. With the death of Agbese, a significant chapter of that book has closed.
But Agbese, like all great thinkers and writers, would always be with us. His corpus of works, which includes, Babangida: Military, Politics and Power in Nigeria, The Reporter’s Companion, and The Art and Craft of Column Writing, would ensure that down the centuries, future journalists, historians and youths, would continue to cherish the depth of his thoughts, the profundity of his knowledge and the sheer beauty of his rendering.
Now, he has embraced mortality, the ultimate fate of all of us, so that he can inherit immortality. His magnificent wife, Aunty Rose, and wonderful children, should take solace that the patriarch completed his assignment on this side of the Great Divide. When he was with us, he was blessed with the wisdom of the ages like a living ancestor. Finally, he has become a true ancestor.
May his valiant soul find eternal rest.
Babarinsa, CON, Chairman of Gaskia Media Limited
