African history is replete with committed individuals who dedicated their lives to advocating for the development of the continent.
According to The Republic, Sumonu Oladele Giwa was one of such individuals; a journalist whose commitment to African progress can be compared to legends like Thomas Sankara, the Burkinabé president who, despite his presidential status, was devoted to improving the lives of the masses.
Born in Ile-fe, southwest Nigeria, on 16 March 1947, Giwa spent his early years in the ancient town.
In 1971, he relocated to the United States to continue his education.
He studied English at Brooklyn College and, after, earned a Master’s in Public Communication from Fordham University.
After university, Giwa worked for The New York Times. In 1979, he returned to Nigeria, where he joined The Daily Times.
That same year, he published the article ‘Golden Fleece’.
In 1980, Giwa joined The Sunday Concord. Four years later, with other journalists interested in pursuing a high standard of journalism in Nigeria, he founded Newswatch and became the magazine’s first editor-in-chief.
The celebrated journalist, Giwa had a successful and illustrious career.
He distinguished himself from the outset through his unrelenting commitment to quality journalism and by possessing what many agree was ‘complete mastery of what it takes to be a good reporter.’
Dele Giwa’s return to Nigeria from the US coincided with the Second Republic (1978-1983). However, the Second Republic was cut short by a military coup led by current president, Muhammadu Buhari.
Nevertheless, during the Second Republic, press freedoms faced repression and clampdowns on journalists were not uncommon.
In 1982, for instance, Dele Giwa was arrested for one of his publications in the Sunday Concord.
Despite the tensions journalists in his era faced, Giwa’s attention to political and social injustice was unwavering.
Four years after his arrest in 1982, Giwa was assassinated. On 19 October 1986, he was killed by a parcel bomb.
Dele Giwa was reportedly killed after he received a parcel bomb which detonated at his residence, then located at No. 25 Talabi street, Ikeja, Lagos state.
The journalist who died at 39 was known for exposing corrupt and illegal dealings of the government and this earned him recognition.
The assassination occurred two days after he had been questioned by officials of the State Security Service (SSS).
The Newswatch editor had just written an article on second-tier foreign exchange market (SFEM), a Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) policy introduced at the time.
Under the SFEM policy, the determination of the naira exchange rate and allocation of foreign exchange were based on market forces.
In the piece, Giwa said if SFEM failed, the people would stone “their leaders in the streets”.
Ajibola Kunle Togun, the then deputy director of the SSS, later met with Giwa and said he did not find anything offensive in the story.
But in a different turn of events, Ray Ekpu, a colleague of Giwa, said Togun accused the journalist of planning to publish the “other side” of the story on the circumstances that led to the removal of Ebitu Ukiwe as chief of staff to Ibrahim Babangida, former military head of state.
Giwa was also accused of plotting with the Nigeria Labour Congress NLC), the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) and other groups to carry out a “socialist revolution”.
Around the same time, Giwa was quizzed by Halilu Akilu of the directorate of military intelligence (DMI) over an allegation that he had been heard speaking to some people about arms importation.
He appeared at the SSS headquarters on the matter on October 16, 1986 — two days to his assassination.
On 18 October, Akilu called Giwa’s home and asked his wife Funmi for directions as he wanted to stop by on his way to Kano.
On the day of the assassination, the DMI official reportedly told Giwa over the telephone that the matter had been resolved after the journalist inquired about his frequent calls.
Not long after the call, a package was delivered to Giwa which severely wounded him. He was with Kayode Soyinka, London bureau chief of Newswatch, who narrowly escaped the blast after he excused himself to visit the restroom.
Giwa was taken to the hospital but later died from the wounds he sustained from the blast. He would have been 70 this year.
According to reports, his last words were “Ray, they got me”, to Ray Ekpu, his friend and colleague.