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His Friend, MIKE AWOYINFA Recalls Their Days
+What Others Said About Him
One of Nigeria’s most celebrated journalists and best friend of Chief Mike Awoyinfa, accomplished journalist and author, Dimgba Igwe, was remembered by friends, colleagues and family at a lecture organised in his honour to mark the 10th anniversary of his passing. Dimgba Igwe was fatally hit by an unknown driver while jogging on his street in Okota on a Saturday morning, September 6, 2014. He was rushed to a couple of hospitals before he finally gave up the ghost after he was taken to the General Hospital. At the time of his death, Dimgba Igwe was Associate Publisher of Entertainment Weekly Newspaper. He died at the age of 58. Mr. Dimgba Igwe, alongside his colleague and best friend, Mike Awoyinfa, pioneered the now rested Weekend Concord newspaper, The Sun Newspaper and co-authored several books including Osoba: The Newspaper Years, The Arts of Feature Writing and Mike Adenuga: The Business Guru. The veteran journalist, until his death, was the Assistant General overseer of Evangel Pentecostal Churchý, Lagos.ý
The 10th Anniversay lecture of Pastor Dimgba Igwe took place at the Colossus Hotel, Ikeja, Lagos, and it was held on the 6th of September, 2024, exactly ten years after the unfortunate demise of the very popular and highly respected journalist. Expectedly, in attendance were some of Nigeria’s most prominent journalistes, especially those who made their marks as pioneers of soft sel and tabloid publications. The title of the lecture was Tabloid Journalism: Yersterday, Today and The Future. Guest speaker was Mr. Muyiwa Adetiba, the founder of the defunct but hugely successful Prime People magazine and he spoke on the power and relevance of soft-sell magazine in Nigeria.
The programme started with award winning journalist, Mr. Shola Oshunkeye, who also worked very closely with the late Dimgba Igwe , recognising the presence of some distinguished journalists in attendance. He recognised the likes of the Guest Speaker, Mr. Muyiwa Adetiba, publisher of Prime People, the representative of former Ogun State Governor, Chief Olusegun Osoba, who is also the founder of Diamond Publication, Mr. Lanre Idowu, the General Manager, Vanguard Newspapers, Gbenga Adefaye, the General Overseer Evangel Pentecostal Church, Reverend Iheanyi Ejiogu, Vice President of the Chartered Institute of Personnel Management of Nigeria, Mrs. Chidinma Obiejesi, Co-founder of TELL magazine, Editor, Nosa Igiebor, former MD of The Sun, and former spokesperson to ex-President Muhammadu Buhari, Mr. Femi Adesina, Mr. Gbemiga Ogunleye, former Editor of the Sun, Mrs. Funke Egbemode, Mr. Ehi Ibrahimoh, Mr. Richard Akinola, Mr. Kayode Komolafe, Deputy Managing Director of This Day, widely traveled sports journalist, Kunle Solaja and so many others. But most especially, the anchor, Mr. Shola Oshunkeye recognised the presence of the best friend and colleague of the late Dimgba Igwe, Chief Mike Awoyinfa. And most significantly too, he specially recognised the presence of the widow of the late Pastor Dimgba Igwe, the Matriach of the Igwe family, Pastor (Mrs) Obioma Dimgba Igwe. She received a rousing applause and standing ovation for her resilience and commitment to keeping the late Dimgba’s family together and sustain his legacies. She has done exceedingly well in the last ten years raising the children, producing graduates out of them and guiding them into becoming worthy children of the late Dimgba Igwe. The General Overseer of Evangel Pentecostal Church, Reverend Iheanyi Ejiogu got the programme officially started with a very brief opening prayer, The moment he was done, Mr. Femi Adeshina, former Spokesperson to ex-President Muhammadu Buhari who also was very close to the late Dimgba Igwe having worked together before, took the microphone and recalled that very dark Saturday, ten years ago, when Dimgba Igwe was cruelly hit and killed by an unknown driver. He also paid tribute to the courage and the strength of the widow of the late veteran journalist, Mrs. Obioma Igwe.
Shortly after he was done, Mr. Lanre Idowu, representative of former governor of Ogun State, Chief Olusegun Osoba, spoke about the late Dimgba Igwe and how the book he and his best friend, Mike Awoyinfa wrote about Osoba titled, Olusegun Osoba: The Newspaper Years, remains one of the most significant books ever written about the media and the people who make the media tick. He recalled attending the book launch at Muson center, it remained for several years, by his reckoning, the best attended book launch he had ever seen, with lots of distinguished personalities in attendance.
Next was Mr. Nosa Igiebor, President of TELL Magazine who was also a member of the Concord family, where Dimgba made a huge name for himself. He spoke glowingly of the unique relationship that existed between Mike Awoyinfa and the late Dimgba Igwe. He extolled their virtues and the passion they showed for their work. But most significantly, he stressed that they were both very humble gentlemen. The Guest Speaker was next to speak and he spoke lucidly on the unique qualities of the tabloid. He paid glowing tributes to the hard work and creativity the duo of Mike Awoyinfa and Dimgba Igwe put into the creation of the new and phenomenal Weekend Concord at the time. He emphasised that what stands out tabloid stories are the empathy and emotion they bring into the story. In other words, he loved to humanise stories, a significant quality that has marked the tabloids different from the conventional publications.
The discussion session was next and it was co-ordinated by Mr. Ken Ugbechie, a top journalist. The discussants were Mr. Muyiwa Akintunde, publisher Breezy News Online, former Editor of The Sun and a former Commissioner of Information in Osun State, Mrs. Funke Egbemode, Mr. Richard Akinola and lastly, Mr. Steve Nwosu, a former Deputy Managing Director of the Sun, former Managing Director, New Express, now managing Director, People’s FM IO5.5 fm, Abuja. Every single discussant expressed their strong conviction for the tabloids and why it will always be unique and different from others.
Funke Egbemode narrated how much work they put into making Prime People the success story that it was back then. What stood the publication out was that they got stories behind the story and put in what is now known as investigative journalism into a soft sell publication.
Dimgba Igwe’s widow, Mrs. Obioma Igwe, recalled how tough it has been for the family without Dimgba. For the children, she said, it has been increasingly difficult for them to come to terms with the reality that their father is no more. Even the daughter could not attend the lecture because she was not sure how she would be able to sit through it all without letting her emotions get the better of her. She particularly thanked Chief Mike Awoyinfa for being an exceptional friend to the family since the passing of his best friend. She thanked him for being there for the family all through the last ten years that Dimgba Igwe passed away. She described her husband as a man of different dimensions. He was a kind man. He was a loving father to the children.
The last speaker was Chief Mike Awoyinfa. Expectedly, he struggled to keep his emotions in check while paying tribute to his best friend. He revealed how he has had his own close shave with death, surviving prostrate cancer. He talked about how he didn’t want to travel to UK for his son’s graduation and the wife had to reach Dimgba to persuade him to go.” It was like I had a premonition of his death and didn’t want to leave. But Dimgba, whom my wife knew I could not disobey, convinced me to travel. It was while abroad I received the news of his death” “He read to the hall the emotional letter he wrote to his friend titled, TEN YEARS WITHOUT MY FRIEND, DIMGBA IGWE. It was an emotional letter dripping with the profound pain and grief he has endured ever since the shocking death of his friend took place ten years ago. But, Mr. Awoyinfa strongly believes his friend is not dead, he lives on his his heart because according to him, they talk every time.
– WALE LAWAL
(08037209290)
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