International journalist, Kayode Soyinka has challenged a recent interview by former Deputy Director of the State Security Service (SSS), Brigadier-General Kunle Togun (rtd.) in which he alleged that the publisher of the pan-African magazine, Africa Today, has questions to answer in connection with the death of the then Editor-in-Chief of Newswatch magazine, Dele Giwa. Soyinka, then the London bureau chief …

Dan Agbese was unapproachable at the time I got to Newswatch. I had been reading him over the years, from the time I was an undergraduate. Along with his colleagues, Dele Giwa and Ray Ekpu, he epitomised the highest standards of journalism practice in Nigeria, if not in all of Africa. I was particularly enamoured of his colourful, yet ironic …

I knew DrNyaknno Abasi  (Nyaknno Osso) before I knew him. As an addict of Newswatch magazine from its founding week, I encountered him through the Editor-in-Chief’s corner of the groundbreaking magazine. His work as the librarian who sought relevant information for the big and not-so-big contents of the publication were well documented on that page. I finally met the research …

Sylvanus Ukafia, a medical doctor and a pastor, has fun memories of his first encounter with Ray Ekpu. His father, the late Owen Ukafia, an accomplished journalist in his own right, worked at the once bubbling Nigerian Chronicle in Calabar, where Ekpu started his journalism career. The senior Ukafia kept feeding his son daily with juicy stories of excellent journalism exemplified …