When media celebrate media by Gongbeat Ken
It’s not often that the media fetes the media. The Nigeria media, especially, seldom luxuriates with buntings and banners to celebrate its own. Yet, there’s always so much to celebrate in the media and among the nation’s media icons.
So, it was almost out of the routine on Friday, May 21, at the MUSON Centre, Onikan, Lagos, when nine departed media gurus were honoured in a memorable, yet emotional, afternoon of tributes. They were media owners, managers and editors at various times. Five died last year (that terrible year which a stubborn coronavirus almost yanked off from our calendar) while four joined their ancestors this year is.
The roll call: Malam Ismaila Isa Funtua (January 17, 1942- July 20, 2020), a Life Patron of Newspaper Proprietors Association of Nigeria, NPAN; Malam Wada Maida (March 5, 1950-August 17, 2020), former President of the Nigerian Guild of Editors, NGE, and former Managing Director/Chairman News Agency of Nigeria, NAN; Mr. Bisi Lawrence (October 23, 1932- November 11, 2020), former General Manger, Lagos State Broadcasting Corporation and newspaper columnist of repute; Chief Gbolabo Ogunsanwo (June 28, 1945-November 27, 2020), former Publisher of New Nation, former Editor, Sunday Times; Mr. Sam Nda-Isaiah (May 1, 1962-December 11, 2020), Founder and former Publisher of Leadership newspapers. He was the youngest of the lot having died at 58
Others were Eddie Aderinokun (July 1930-January 3, 2021), former editor of Daily Express; Mr.Ben Egbuna (July 13, 1949-January 28, 2021), former Director General, FRCN and Executive Director, Voice of Nigeria; Prince Tony Momoh (April 27, 1939-February 1, 2021), former Editor, Daily Times, former Minister of Information and Culture; and then the inimitable Alhaji Lateef Jakande (July 24, 1929- February 11, 2021), pioneer president of the NGE and NPAN, former Editor of Nigeria Tribune and founder, John West Publications. He was also former Governor of Lagos State, a former Minister of Works, among other responsibilities.
This was the esoteric media cast that death plucked from the pen firmament within the last one year. Save for Ndah-Isaiah, the iconoclastic pharmacist-turned journalist, others clocked the biblical 70 years ‘apportioned to man’ with Jakande bowing out a worthy nonagenarian at 91, barely five months to his 92nd birthday.
The event was put together by media organisations in the country: NPAN, NGE, Nigeria Union of Journalists, NUJ, and Broadcasting Organisations of Nigeria, BON. By a simple stretch of the mind, this was the first time the Nigeria media, in full consciousness, deliberateness and unhinged freewill, rolled out the red carpet to celebrate its departed in such number. And the attendance? Simply superlative. Mediapreneurs, editors (retired, untiring, aspiring and extant), media buffs, politicians, top cats in corporate Nigeria, royalties, all graced what Aremo Segun Osoba – himself an untiring reporter, editor and former governor, rolled into one fit and well-groomed body – openly described as the best attended media event by media personnel themselves. He was right.
