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I owe DAME a lifetime of gratitude – Ray Ekpu
Veteran journalist, Ray Ekpu was recently awarded Lifetime Achievement Awards for Media Excellence by the trustees of the Diamond Awards for Media Excellence Trust Fund.
In his acceptance speech, the recipient said he owes the organisers a lifetime of gratitude for the award.
In his words, “I feel honored to be named as one of the recipients of this year’s Lifetime Achievement Awards for Media Excellence by the trustees of the Diamond Awards for Media Excellence Trust Fund. I wish to express my deep gratitude to the trustees and in particular to Mr. Lanre Idowu, the supervising trustee of the group. Since I graduated into the club of the aged by becoming 70 in August, I consider this award as DAME’s birthday present to an old man. And since Christmas and New Year are just around the corner, the award comes as the icing on the birthday cake.
“DAME has done a wonderful job for our industry by standing guard over the professionalism, practices and ethics of our journalists and recognizing excellence through its yearly awards to deserving journalists across the entire media universe in Nigeria. Their exertions are worthy of our gratitude and commendation. I salute them.
“In 2016, my brother, friend and business partner, Dan Agbese, was honoured by DAME with its Lifetime Achievement Award. Dan and I graduated from the University of Lagos’ Department of Mass Communication in 1973. Fate took us in different directions as we tried to find the markets where we would sell the words in our heads. Again fate paved a common path for us and together, in 1984, with two other friends, Dele Giwa and Yakubu Mohammed, we embarked on the Newswatch adventure at a perilous time in the life of our nation. Since then, Dan and I have been together and like a Catholic marriage there has been no divorce; we remain together like gin and tonic.
“During our last days in Unilag, we used to debate amongst us as to whether or not anyone of us might get a first class degree. We dismissed the idea outright on the ground that mass communication did not possess the precision of mathematics or engineering. It was perhaps a dissonance reduction formula on our part since in our hearts, and at our sober moments, we probably didn’t think we had risen to that apogee of excellence. For our sanity it was better for us to say to ourselves that if none of us got a first class it was because it was unachievable not because we were lazy or unintelligent.
“And then the following year, 1974, a man called Olatunji Dare got a first class from that same department and proved us wrong. He went on to become a great columnist in the Guardian and a great scholar both in Nigeria and the United States. I am honoured to be receiving a lifetime achievement award with the great man today. I remember an article that Tunji contributed to the popular page 7 of Daily Times in 1978, titled “The Bus Stop Man”, a metaphorical excursion into the life of the urban underclass, the ghetto guy with obsessive qualities of rowdiness and gragra-ness. That evocative piece received a standing ovation nationwide. Tunji went on to establish himself firmly on the tablets of our minds as a great writer, humorist and satirist. Each time I tried my hands on satire I always came short. Satire has its perils. Some think it is some form of Afghanistanism, a flight from a fight or from a direct hit, a weapon of the artful dodger, an excuse not to speak uncomfortable truth directly to power. These assertions belong apparently to those who are intellectually challenged. Satire is an admirable genre that has endured and those who have mastered it as Tunji has deserve an ovation.
“In March 2010, I was given a Lifetime and Inspiration Award by the Nation Media Group in Kenya, publishers of the Nation newspaper. The paper was 50 years old then and at 62 then, I was 12 years older than the paper. Four other journalists from Eastern, Central, Northern and Southern Africa were also honoured with the award on that occasion. On that occasion I felt like the man who was asked the simple question, ‘how are you?
“And he answered with a parable, ‘The ground is not even but I am standing on it.’
“By this time Newswatch had gone through the bruising cycle of birth, death and resurrection as a corporate entity. Its founders and staff had been thrown into jail a few times and these multiple hammer blows, these hard knocks, had taken their toll on the organisation’s corporate health. The recognition was deeply appreciated but I wasn’t in the mood to break into song and dance because the responsibility of running a media organisation in Nigeria with all the uncertainties, the asphyxiating operating environment and the hostility of officialdom to truthful journalism were enough to take your attention away from considerations of jollification.
“Now I am free from those enormous pressures even though as a retiree without pension or gratuity I don’t even have the opportunity to stay on the queue like most pensioners–and collapse now and again–as they wait for the favour of being paid their legitimate entitlements. What a country! But I am happy that I am able to keep myself physically fit and mentally agile by continuing to engage in matters of the mind through column writing and mentoring some young minds in our profession.
“I didn’t know I would live to be 70 because life is a perilous adventure and in Nigeria it is even more perilous. A petrol tanker can fall and spill its dangerous content near where you work or play or live and you are dead. A house badly built by an irresponsible, a get-rich quick, corner cutting landlord can collapse and kill you. The fumes from your neighbour’s I-better-pass-my-Neighbour generating set can send you to the grave. A trigger-happy policeman can shoot you because of 100 Naira and blame it on accidental discharge. A million other silly happenings in this country can take your life away. Living to be 70, therefore, is largely by the grace of God. Personally, I have been tried for murder because I wrote an article that officialdom didn’t like. The offence of murder carries a death penalty. I have been tried, along with Dan Agbese and Yakubu Mohammed, for mutiny for publishing an interview that officialdom didn’t like. That offence carries a death penalty. In these two instances, God and the Judiciary delivered me from the jaws of the lion. So you can see why I owe DAME a lifetime of gratitude for this award.
“Now let us interrogate ourselves. How did it happen that a Nigerian journalist, Mr. Jones Abiri, was in detention for two years and we did not know or if we knew, we did not care until foreign journalists raised the issue during the IPI conference in June? Was it absentmindedness, a coverup, the failure of memory, the decline or death of investigative journalism, the fear of officialdom or the assassination of our collective conscience? Whatever it was, we bear the blame and the shame in full as professionals.
“Now the campaigns are here and soon the elections will be at our door, will we do our duty to Nigeria by being fair, fair, fair? The Fairness Doctrine in Journalism is the ultimate doctrine, the philosopher’s stone, the elixir, the cure all, the miracle drug, the measuring rod, the sounding board for professional and ethical journalism practice. But fairness comes with courage, not just knowledge. In the midst of temptations to be partisan, let your courage shine through. I ask you to be fair because that is the highway, the paved path to a fair, progressive, just and egalitarian society. Partisanship is not.
Acceptance Speech by Mr. Ekpu as a recipient of the 2018 Lifetime Achievement Award of the Diamond Awards for Media Excellence, December 15, 2018.
News
‘If You Want It Dirty, You’ll Get It Dirty’, Benue Diaspora DG Escalates Threat Against National Record Reporter
By Our Reporter
The Editor-in-Chief of National Record, Iduh L. Onah, has raised alarm over what he described as ‘grave threats’ issued against one of the online newspaper’s reporters, Mr. Amos Aar, by the Director-General of the Benue State Directorate of Diaspora Linkages and Investments, Professor Abraham Tartenger Girgih.
In a letter dated June 25, 2025, addressed to Prof. Girgih and made available to the press, National Record condemned what it called “unwarranted threats” following the publication of a report on the funding challenges being faced by the Directorate under the DG’s leadership since its formation in 2024.
According to Onah, while the publication welcomes robust engagement in the form of rejoinders on stories perceived to contain among other things misinformation, misrepresentation or distortion, no one has the right to issue threats.
“While it is within your right to respond to perceived misinformation or misrepresentation and distortion or outright fabrication, in any publication, it is, however, beyond that right to issue a threat as grave as “dire consequences”, Onah stated.
The Editor-in-Chief further noted that the situation escalated after the publication of a follow-up report when Prof. Girgih called the correspondent and made what the paper considers to be a further threat.
“After the publication of the threat and other claims in your rejoinder, you again went ahead to issue what we deemed to be further grave threat when you stated: “…if you want it dirty, you will get it dirty”, among other words perceived as veiled threat, in a telephone conversation you had with our correspondent shortly after you may have read our follow-up report,” stated the Editor-in-Chief.
The management of National Record expressed deep concern for the safety of its correspondent and other staff, especially given the hostile tone of Prof. Girgih in his conversation with the reporter.
The media organization said it is taking steps to notify security agencies, the Benue State Government, and professional journalism bodies about the threats, while also demanding a written assurance from Prof. Girgih that no harm will befall Mr. Aar or any member of the newspaper’s staff.
“We demand from you a written assurance of Mr Aar’s safety from harm and that of our other staff, and a further commitment to desist from harassing, heckling, intimidating or bullying us in whatever manner,” Onah wrote.
While no official response had been received from Prof. Girgih as at press time, National Record expressed hope for civility going forward and reiterated its commitment to its constitutional mandate as a stakeholder in the Fourth Estate of the Realm.
The letter reads in full:
Professor Abaham Tartenger Girgih
The Director-General
Directorate of Diaspora Linkages and investments
Makurdi, Benue State.
Dear Prof. Girgih;
THREATS ON OUR PERSONNEL AND ORGANISATION
On behalf of the Management of Contest Communications Limited, publishers of National Record, I bring you warm fraternal greetings.
We wish to express our dismay and concern over your threat on our Benue State Correspondent, Mr Amos Aar, in particular, and generally, our entire organisation, as contained in your rejoinder to a report we had published on challenges being faced by the agency which you head.
While it is within your right to respond to perceived misinformation or misrepresentation and distortion or outright fabrication, in any publication, it is, however, beyond that right to issue a threat as grave as “dire consequences”.
After the publication of the threat and other claims in your rejoinder, you again went ahead to issue what we deemed to be further grave threat when you stated: “…if you want it dirty, you will get it dirty”, among other words perceived as veiled threat, in a telephone conversation you had with our correspondent shortly after you may have read our follow-up report.
While we intend to take steps to formally note these threats before the appropriate security agencies, the Benue State Government under which you are serving, as well as our professional organisations nationally; we wish to inform you that the life of our Benue State Correspondent, Amos Aar, and our entire personnel, remains insecure in the context of your threats.
In that regard, we demand from you a written assurance of Mr Aar’s safety from harm and that of our other staff, and a further commitment to desist from harassing, heckling, intimidating or bullying us in whatever manner from carrying out our constitutional mandate as key stakeholders in the Fourth Estate of the Realm.
As we look forward to relating with you in formal, civilised manner, and prompt action on our demands, please, accept the assurances of our esteemed regards.
Iduh L. Onah
Editor-in-Chief
National Record (https://nationalrecord.com.ng)
The Enugu State government has inaugurated a steering committee to eliminate Gender-Based Violence, GBV, in the state, declaring zero tolerance for the social malaise.
The inauguration took place at the Government House Enugu.
The panel, which is chaired by the Commissioner for Children, Gender Affairs and Social Development, Mrs. Ngozi Enih, draws its membership from the Nigeria Police Force, Ministry of Agriculture and Agro Industrialisation, Ministry of Local Government, Rural Development and Chieftaincy Affairs, Ministry of Human Development and Poverty Reduction, Ministry of Trade, Investment and Industry, Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Education as well as the Civil Society.
Inaugurating the panel known as the Steering Committee for Strengthening Institutional and Community Responses to End Gender-Based Violence/Domestication of Enugu State Gender Policy using the Oputa Panel approach, Governor Peter Mbah restated his administration’s commitment to not bringing perpetrators of GBV to book, but also putting in place proactive measures – activities, infrastructure, and systems in place to prevent them.
Mbah, who was represented by the Secretary to the State Government, Prof. Chidiebere Onyia, said, “We take gender-based violence seriously. We have zero tolerance for it, and in Enugu State, we are ready to go the extra mile to deal with it.
“If you notice, the government has selected people that are very committed to this goal. This is not an activity where we just want to check-off the list. We will track this. We will monitor this, and we will have quarterly engagements on the successes that this particular committee has achieved in terms of reference that we are going to send.
“We will tighten those terms of reference indicators, so that we monitor what we are doing both in terms of cost input and the value added. It’s very important to us. Many people will be involved – civil society, the police and various ministries.”
He however, said that the effort was to protect everyone, men and women alike, as GBV was not restricted to any gender.
“The whole idea is to hold people responsible that are involved in matters relating to gender violence and deter people that by culture or by association get involved in that, protect women, protect our children, and in the case of violence against men, protect our men because most times we misconstrue gender violence to mean women, but it can also be men too.
“We encourage our men to speak out and to make sure they understand that the policy that Enugu State is soon going to domesticate is for everyone, and not only for the female gender,” he stated.
In her remark, Mrs. Enih, explained that the Oputa Panel approach was inspired by the need to cover all local peculiarities in domesticating the policy on GBV, restarting government’s confidence in the members of the panel.
“The approach we are going to use is the Oputa Panel approach, and in the Oputa Panel approach, we are going to tour the 17 Local Government Areas to get firsthand information about what our people are going through because policy is meant for the people, and a policy should suit the people.
“Again, every community has its peculiar problems, so that’s why the government decided that if we have to domesticate the gender policy, we have to hear from the people who own the policy and know the changes that they desire to see. That is the reason we are using this approach.
“The committee members are to also serve as judges. As we gather this information from our people, we will come back to tailor it in a way to suit the people of Enugu State, and then our policy is ready.
“We want the people to know that there is a gender policy for them. I can assure you that when the people are aware that there is such a policy, they will seek for the enforcement of that policy. So, this is not going to be one of those policies that will just lie on the shelf,” she said.
Digital solutions provider, Globacom, has congratulated Christians in Nigeria on this year’s Easter celebration, and urged them to emulate the noble qualities of Jesus Christ.
The company, in a goodwill message to the Christian faithful in the country, lauded their perseverance through the Lenten period which preceded Easter. It enjoined them to always promote the ideals of selflessness, love and peace among all as a way of demonstrating the virtues of the exemplary life of Jesus Christ.
“Peace, love and sacrifice are the central message of Easter. Christ offered himself in atonement for the sins of the world and he lived a life which made Him an eternal symbol of peace and goodwill for mankind”, Globacom added.
The company enjoined all Nigerians to share in the lessons of promoting selflessness, a necessary ingredient in the growth and development of every society. It also enjoined all Nigerians to join hands to make Nigeria a better place for all.
Easter is celebrated yearly at the end of the Lenten season of fasting and prayer considered as a ritual of purification for the Christian faithful. It also precedes the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus Christ on Good Friday and His eventual resurrection on Easter Sunday.
The company assured its customers of seamless voice, data and Short Messaging Service (SMS) during and after the Easter celebrations, while urging them to avail themselves of the various data and voice offerings on the network.
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