See Something? Then, Say Something!
October 18 2016 By Abiodun Giwa
Dele Giwa, holding copy of the Newswatch magazine he co-founded with some professional colleagues aloft, during the launching.
It is the 30th anniversary of my brother's assassination in Nigeria. Many Nigerians will remember that on October 19, 1986, some unknown Nigerian dissemblers conspired and gave a bomb to an innocent man, who wrote before his assassination that innocence had died in the country, and that competition, which should be fair, had turned to an opportunity for which the powerful, dealt mercilessly with the less powerful.
And because of the manner he was eliminated with a bomb, many Nigerians believed he was killed so mercilessly by the powerful in the society, who had things to hide, because Nigerians knew that whenever Dele Giwa saw anything that constituted terror to their lives, he said it.
Meaning that he was known as a quintessential journalist, reporter and writer, in the mode of the best around the world. He lived by the truth in the family and upheld the truth as he was taught in the Journalism school - fairness, objectivity and accuracy as watch words, against dissemblers' philosophy of seeing blue and calling it black, to please pay masters.
Dele Giwa did not have pay masters as godfathers. If he had a godfather, the relationship between him and Moshood Abiola, his employer, would not have fallen apart over the woman, who became his last wife, because Abiola said that the woman was his girlfriend and that Dele should take his hands off her. But Dele invoked the spirit of the relationship between him and Abiola as that between an employer and an employee, and not between a slave master and a slave, with the former having total control over the life of the latter.
Of course, my brother's position on the rift between him and his publisher over the woman caused Abiola's removal of Dele as his Sunday Concord editor. But Abiola's decision became motivation for Dele for him to fly higher toward the establishment of the 'Newswatch' magazine, then the finest weekly news magazine in the country, a prove that his case was like that of a foundation built on a solid ground, in term of professional training and credence, and that no one needs to fight over spilled milk, when one is endowed with two hands and the intellect to show doubting Thomases that "Yes, we can," in the word of President Barack Obama.
Ever before the western world came under the enveloping terror that led to the establishment of the cliche, "If you see something, say something", my brother saw the terror visited on poor Nigerians by Nigerian successive leaders and he warned them that if the situation continued unabated, those leaders could one day be stoned on the streets for their lack of human feelings for the oppressed. He believed that it was not that the leaders lacked the knowledge of what they should be doing to make Nigeria a better place for all, but that their choice of crass selfishness and greediness have taken the front seat as they were always ready to destroy one another in their fight for senseless prominence, which did not promote Nigerians' welfare. He was not just a preacher against mindless selfishness and greediness that have held Nigeria's life up in the balance, his practical life of enabling young journalists and reporters and all that he had contacts spoke volume about his care for others, other than himself and his family.
One major trouble that he contend during his lifetime was how birds of different feathers flew together in the Nigerian political and social climate. He was a victim of a culture of dissemblance, where serious minded fellows interacted with people who kissed powerful people's asses for personal gains, unlike him, who worked very hard for all that he had and was not a Journalism practitioner cum Public Relations' practitioner. Though, he loved life and he lived it to fullest, careless that he was the son of a washer man. He wore the best suits, the best shoes and rode the best cars and lived a life that changed the aspiration and the lifestyle of many Journalists, meaning that being journalists should not conserve the practitioners not to know to live well, though he was himself not rich financially and materially.
It was a lifestyle he inherited from his father, a washer man who gave the best he could to his children in term of feeding, dressing sense and cleanliness buoyed by natural handsomeness, though he was poor financially and materially. But he provided for the needs of his children and he struggled to ensure his first child (Dele) had good high school education, the foundation on which Dele later built his own future. Dele impressed the same on his younger siblings and taught them never to take anything from where they had not sewn, with the spirit of hard work and resilience taught by our father. Based on my closeness to him and the lesson our father taught us about the need to always rely on the use of our two hands for survival, I knew the direction he would have wished to take the family after his assassination.
But dissemblers within and outside the family assailed the common sense, overthrew what would have been my brother's wish, replaced it with a fight over mundane material things and pushed the family toward disintegration. But I remember the two hands and our God given intellect, which no human power can take away, unless they take our lives. Moreover, my brother's assassination moved me closer to God, and in the circumstances, humans and their dissemblance no longer matter to me. And as Gani Fawehinmi, the lawyer who fought for an elusive justice in my brother's assassination said to our mother, " To trust no one, but look up to God.".
Lawyers in Fawehinmi's chambers were witnesses to how I was close to my brother in term of philosophy, love of the family, the need to uphold the truth and the direction the family should have taken after the assassination, based on our meetings in the chambers, on efforts to move the family forward. But I was like a lone sane tree seemingly in a forest of thousand demons. I witnessed humans in action.
The sad result was the loss of active legal and moral protection of Dele's interests in the Newswatch, before other co-founders sold the magazine and shared the money. The co-founders were united with Dele's wife against the family immediately after the assassination and she also found comfort in their corner against the family. Later the co-founders reportedly demanded her to pay an amount equivalent of Dele's share in the company and the inability to do that led to curses.
Deprived of input into the family seized by outsiders following an assassination, I did what I believed my brother would have done: Take my life and walk away to face my life for dissemblers to see that I still have a future, which our parents and Dele can be proud, and for which I remember him everyday.
Dele had his failings as a human being, but they were less in comparison to his successes. Of course, one of his failings was that he trusted every fool around him. But, he knew that when you see something and say something, the evil ones will come after you and that people get killed as journalists for saying what they see. Yet, it never deterred him from saying whatever he saw was right against evil. Although, he was not religious, but he had the belief that whatever one sows will be reaped, sooner or later.
And because of the manner he was eliminated with a bomb, many Nigerians believed he was killed so mercilessly by the powerful in the society, who had things to hide, because Nigerians knew that whenever Dele Giwa saw anything that constituted terror to their lives, he said it.
Meaning that he was known as a quintessential journalist, reporter and writer, in the mode of the best around the world. He lived by the truth in the family and upheld the truth as he was taught in the Journalism school - fairness, objectivity and accuracy as watch words, against dissemblers' philosophy of seeing blue and calling it black, to please pay masters.
Dele Giwa did not have pay masters as godfathers. If he had a godfather, the relationship between him and Moshood Abiola, his employer, would not have fallen apart over the woman, who became his last wife, because Abiola said that the woman was his girlfriend and that Dele should take his hands off her. But Dele invoked the spirit of the relationship between him and Abiola as that between an employer and an employee, and not between a slave master and a slave, with the former having total control over the life of the latter.
Of course, my brother's position on the rift between him and his publisher over the woman caused Abiola's removal of Dele as his Sunday Concord editor. But Abiola's decision became motivation for Dele for him to fly higher toward the establishment of the 'Newswatch' magazine, then the finest weekly news magazine in the country, a prove that his case was like that of a foundation built on a solid ground, in term of professional training and credence, and that no one needs to fight over spilled milk, when one is endowed with two hands and the intellect to show doubting Thomases that "Yes, we can," in the word of President Barack Obama.
Ever before the western world came under the enveloping terror that led to the establishment of the cliche, "If you see something, say something", my brother saw the terror visited on poor Nigerians by Nigerian successive leaders and he warned them that if the situation continued unabated, those leaders could one day be stoned on the streets for their lack of human feelings for the oppressed. He believed that it was not that the leaders lacked the knowledge of what they should be doing to make Nigeria a better place for all, but that their choice of crass selfishness and greediness have taken the front seat as they were always ready to destroy one another in their fight for senseless prominence, which did not promote Nigerians' welfare. He was not just a preacher against mindless selfishness and greediness that have held Nigeria's life up in the balance, his practical life of enabling young journalists and reporters and all that he had contacts spoke volume about his care for others, other than himself and his family.
One major trouble that he contend during his lifetime was how birds of different feathers flew together in the Nigerian political and social climate. He was a victim of a culture of dissemblance, where serious minded fellows interacted with people who kissed powerful people's asses for personal gains, unlike him, who worked very hard for all that he had and was not a Journalism practitioner cum Public Relations' practitioner. Though, he loved life and he lived it to fullest, careless that he was the son of a washer man. He wore the best suits, the best shoes and rode the best cars and lived a life that changed the aspiration and the lifestyle of many Journalists, meaning that being journalists should not conserve the practitioners not to know to live well, though he was himself not rich financially and materially.
It was a lifestyle he inherited from his father, a washer man who gave the best he could to his children in term of feeding, dressing sense and cleanliness buoyed by natural handsomeness, though he was poor financially and materially. But he provided for the needs of his children and he struggled to ensure his first child (Dele) had good high school education, the foundation on which Dele later built his own future. Dele impressed the same on his younger siblings and taught them never to take anything from where they had not sewn, with the spirit of hard work and resilience taught by our father. Based on my closeness to him and the lesson our father taught us about the need to always rely on the use of our two hands for survival, I knew the direction he would have wished to take the family after his assassination.
But dissemblers within and outside the family assailed the common sense, overthrew what would have been my brother's wish, replaced it with a fight over mundane material things and pushed the family toward disintegration. But I remember the two hands and our God given intellect, which no human power can take away, unless they take our lives. Moreover, my brother's assassination moved me closer to God, and in the circumstances, humans and their dissemblance no longer matter to me. And as Gani Fawehinmi, the lawyer who fought for an elusive justice in my brother's assassination said to our mother, " To trust no one, but look up to God.".
Lawyers in Fawehinmi's chambers were witnesses to how I was close to my brother in term of philosophy, love of the family, the need to uphold the truth and the direction the family should have taken after the assassination, based on our meetings in the chambers, on efforts to move the family forward. But I was like a lone sane tree seemingly in a forest of thousand demons. I witnessed humans in action.
The sad result was the loss of active legal and moral protection of Dele's interests in the Newswatch, before other co-founders sold the magazine and shared the money. The co-founders were united with Dele's wife against the family immediately after the assassination and she also found comfort in their corner against the family. Later the co-founders reportedly demanded her to pay an amount equivalent of Dele's share in the company and the inability to do that led to curses.
Deprived of input into the family seized by outsiders following an assassination, I did what I believed my brother would have done: Take my life and walk away to face my life for dissemblers to see that I still have a future, which our parents and Dele can be proud, and for which I remember him everyday.
Dele had his failings as a human being, but they were less in comparison to his successes. Of course, one of his failings was that he trusted every fool around him. But, he knew that when you see something and say something, the evil ones will come after you and that people get killed as journalists for saying what they see. Yet, it never deterred him from saying whatever he saw was right against evil. Although, he was not religious, but he had the belief that whatever one sows will be reaped, sooner or later.
