The Historical Facts About Dele Giwa
Dele Giwa (16 March 1947– 19 October 1986) was a Nigerian journalist, editor and founder of Newswatch magazine.
Early life and career
Sumonu Oladele " Baines" Giwa was born on 16 March 1947 to a poor family working in the palace of Oba Adesoji Aderemi, the Ooni of Ife. He attended local Authority Modern School in Lagere, Ile- lfe. When his father moved to Oduduwa College, Ile- Ife as a laundry man, he gained admission to that school. Dele Giwa travelled to the USA for his higher education, earning a BA in English from Brooklyn College in 1977 and enrolled for a Graduate program at Fordham University. He worked for The New York Times as a news assistant for four years after which he relocated to Nigeria to work with Daily Times.
Dele Giwa and fellow journalists Ray Ekpu, Dan Agbese and Yakubu Mohammed founded
Newswatch in 1984, and the first edition was distributed on 28 January 1985. A 1989 description of the magazine said it changed the format of print journalism in Nigeria introduced bold, investigative formats to news reporting in Nigeria. However, in the first few months of the administration of General Ibrahim Babangida, who took power in August 1985, the magazine was shamelessly flattering. It printed his face on the cover four times and even criticised " anyone who attempted to make life unpleasant for Babangida" . Later, the paper took a more hostile view of the Babangida regime.
Giwa married an American nurse in 1974. His second marriage, to Florence Ita Giwa, lasted 10 months. He later married Olufunmilayo Olaniyan on 10 July 1984, and they were married until his death in 1986. He was survived by his mother, wives and children.
Assassination
Dele Giwa was killed by a mail bomb in his Lagos home on 19 October 1986. The assassination occurred two days after he had been interviewed by State Security Service (SSS) officials. In an off the record interview with airport journalists, Lt. Col. A. K. Togun, the Deputy Director of the SSS had claimed that on 9 October Dele Giwa and Alex Ibru had organised a media parley for media executives and the newly created SSS. Togun claimed that it was at this meeting that the SSS and the media executives reached a secret censorship agreement. Under this agreement, the media was to report any story with potential to embarrass the government to the SSS before they tried to publish same.
Giwa had been invited by the SSS to their headquarters for the first time on 19 September 1986 after writing an article in which he described the newly introduced Second- Tier Foreign Exchange Market (SFEM) as " God' s experiment" and suggested that if they failed, the people would will stone their leaders in the streets. Giwa was interviewed and his statement taken by two SSS operatives. He was later taken to meet with Lt Col Togun, the deputy director of the agency in his office. Togun is reported to have told Giwa that he
found nothing offensive in the story as Giwa had also stated in the same story that he was hopeful that Babangida seemed determined to make SFEM work.
In 2001, General Ibrahim Babangida refused to testify before a national human rights commission about the Giwa murder. Babangida, Hakilu and Togun went to court and obtained an order restraining the commission from summoning them to appear before it. The Chairman of the commission commented that the commission had the power to issue arrest warrants for the trio but decided against this " in the over- all interest of national reconciliation" .
In 2008, the Government of Nigeria named a street in the New Federal Capital Abuja after Dele Giwa, as they did with other activists such as Fela Anikulapo Kuti and Ken Saro Wiwa.
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