Dale and Dele: Burying My Friends on My Birthday

Dipo Kehinde/

Two events on November 22 would have spelt happiness for me. But, two other events that same day have combined to bring sadness to my happy world.

November 22^nd is my birthday. I would have loved to pop some champagne as I clock 54 in Nigeria where the life expectancy is now 54. Going by the United Nations’ World Population Prospects, that’s an improvement for my country on past years. Just like me. Things are getting better. God willing, I’ll do another round of 54.

November 22 is also the birthday of NewsmakersNG, the prosperous online publication that I’m running with my fidus Achates – Remi Ladigbolu.

As NewsmakersNG is clocking 3 years, it has also given birth to three other online publications, and it has been the breath of life to two otherwise dead projects.

But, I cannot throw a party to celebrate all these accomplishments and what God has done for me and done through me in 54 years on November 22.

Ask me why.

I have lost two soul mates, and their families have chosen November 22 as a date for their rites of passage.

Renowned British-Nigerian artist, Dr David Herbert Dale would be buried on his birthday – November 22, just as a Christian Wake is being held for Dele Paul Osigbeme Agekameh, a multiple award-winning investigative journalist who would have been 61 next month.

As a multiple award-winning artist and journalist myself, I’ve related well with these two great men who had shown deep interest in my career. I’ve come to know their works as a combination of imagination and scholarship.

Dr Dale, who died at 71 on August 6, 2019, had guided me and he contributed a paper to the first exhibition catalogue of Creative Chambers in 1996. It was in support of my activities as an artist championing the cause of the working-class people.

I established Creative Chambers in 1995 as a coalition of consummate avant-garde artists and writers who used the Arts as a medium to communicate contemporary issues.

We tried to raise the consciousness of the people concerning their constitutional rights and civic responsibilities and increase their level of awareness or cognition of socio-economic and political issues so that they could apply their energies positively and participate actively in the transformation and advancement of Nigeria.

We organized the first-ever annual May Day art exhibition in the world to draw attention to the plight of the working-class people while commemorating the workers’ day celebration during which we sensitized employers of labour to value human life and activities.

Cool, calm, and collected, Dr Dale was not your everyday egocentric and weird artist, though there’s something about his bohemian lifestyle that my big brother, Tony Chiejina of the Dangote Group couldn’t place a finger on still. Our visit to the home of this outstanding artist who worked efficiently in 29 media, when he was still at Surulere, has remained an unforgettable experience for Mr T, as I love to call him.

Dele Agekameh aka Bob Dee, or, if you like, call him Castro, also had a special interest in my career as a journalist. He had been a great comrade before he lost a 10-year battle to his renal disease on October 11, 2019.

Agekameh was the CEO, Quicklink International Network; Publisher, the Capitol International Magazine, Vice-Chairman, Commonwealth Journalists Association; Senior Member, African Public Relations Associations; Associate, Advertising Practitioners Council of Nigeria; Fellow, Institute of Strategic Management of Nigeria; Fellow, National Institute of Marketing of Nigeria; National Director, Media/Public Affairs, National Think-Tank, and Columnist at the Nation Newspapers and Premium Times.

We had a strong affinity, shared values, and tastes in journalism and fashion items as shoes.

Our paths crossed in 2002, when Agekameh alongside the Chairman of Channels TV, Mr John Momoh, and Prof Jerry Gana had come forward to congratulate me after winning a prize that was the big enchilada at the Diamond Awards for Media Excellence (DAME), Nigeria’s version of the Pulitzer Prize for media excellence in the U.S.

History was made on that day because I put a stop to the 4 years domination by The News and Newswatch magazines of a major category of DAME sponsored by Nigerian Press Council.

That same 2002, I also had a great outing at the Nigeria Media Merit Award (NMMA), where I emerged as the Newspaper Reporter of the Year and capped it all with a BBC Prize. I was the Assistant News Editor, Investigations at The Comet Newspapers then.

I was the first newspaper reporter to emerge as Press Reporter of the Year at the DAME. I scored another first in being the first reporter in Nigeria on the Crime Beat to win such a Prize. I have also raised reporters on the Crime Beat who became Press Reporter of the Year and Newspaper Reporter of the Year at the DAME and NMMA – Sesan Olufowobi, now News Editor at the Punch Newspapers and Toyosi Ogunseye, a former Sunday Editor of the Punch, who couldn’t just stop winning prizes. She’s a Mandela Washington Fellow with over 30 media awards including CNN MultiChoice African Journalist of the Year Awards (2011 and 2013), Knight International Journalism Award; Nigerian Academy of Science Journalist of the Year 2013, The Future Awards Africa 2013, and Child-Friendly Reporter of the Year by DAME, all in a spate of 16 years.

Toyosi, who started her journalism career on my crime desk at The Sun Newspapers is today Africa’s most decorated Editor, the Vice President of the World Editors Forum (WEF), and the Head, West Africa, at BBC World Service. 

At the DAME and NMMA, I had very strong contenders, including Steve Ayorinde, who recently served as the Lagos State Commissioner for Information and then Commissioner for Tourism, Arts and Culture. He came second.

Agekameh was one of the giants I had to contend with at the DAME and NMMA.

He was very happy to see me emerge as the winner. We took to each other like a duck to water, there and then. I later got to know him as a man who was always happy when people around him make progress in their private or public life. And, he was ever so generous that he would not let those events pass without sending you a gift or calling you to let you know how pleased he was with your achievements.

Two years after I won the DAME, Press Reporter of the Year, Agekameh also won it. He was Senior Associate Editor of Tell Magazine at the time.

In those days, only men of valour who had somehow danced with death emerge as winners of these prestigious topmost awards at the DAME and NMMA.

The awards didn’t come cheap, unlike the situation we have today when some phoney organizations now give media awards without requesting for entries. They do it like the Big Brother Naija reality show. All you have to do is call on friends and relations to vote for you. Ta ni esinsin o ba gbe, bi ko se elegbo? (Who would the fly go for, but the man with an open wound?) Pardon my ‘French’.

Some don’t even need anybody to vote or scrutinize anything, once they like your face they’ll just say ‘come and take award’.

I have never seen such backhanded phoney-baloney on the media scene in foreign lands.

The NMMA and DAME, and, of course, the awards instituted by Africa’s first Nobel Laureate in Literature – the Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism (WSCIJ) remain the only credible and worthy honours for professional journalists in Nigeria today.

You will shiver, when you hear the big names behind those awards, such as the late Doyen of Nigerian journalism, Alhaji Babatunde Jose; celebrated dean of satirical writings and colossus columnist, the late Alhaji Alade Odunewu aka Allah Dey, who was the Chairman, Board of Trustees of NMMA; the late Tunji Oseni, a revered media critic and former Editor of Sunday Times; Mr Sam Amuka Pemu, the Publisher, Vanguard Newspapers; Mr Adidi Uyo, Mr Ben Lawrence, Mrs Agbeke Ogunsanwo, Mr Tam Fiofori, Mr Sunmi Smart-Cole, Prof Lai Osho, Mr Lanre Idowu, and Dr Abigail Ogwezzy Ndisika, among other notable giants in the field of Mass Communication.

These people will not dash anybody awards. You must earn it.

There was a 22-man Panel of Judges for the 2002 DAME. Going by an article in the In-House publication – Media Review, various sub-committees presented reports of their assessments of the entries amid heated debates in categories where there were no clear winners.

The battle for the Press Reporter of the Year prize was described as the most competitive. My entry, The Queen of Glory, was documented as an outstanding example of good investigative reporting spanning three towns. The organizers acknowledged my extensive legwork. The scoop, a solo effort, was also described as a breath of fresh air and unusual kind of story in the Nigerian press.

Through the years, Agekameh continued to follow my career and we always shared opinions on how security in Nigeria could be better managed. He was more experienced and more connected than me, but he would always relate with me as if we were on the same level.

When I was the Deputy Editor at the Nigerian Compass and at the same time handling the Crime Desk, he sent his nephew, Jubril Sado, to train under me.

As some of my protégés serving in the Nigerian Navy and Nigeria Police Force, Sado, a talented journalist is now a Customs officer.

When I reflect on my journey through the world of Art, Fashion, Journalism and Corporate Communications, and the lives that God touched through me, I just have to thank the Almighty for strengthening me.

As journalists, we see some good things and so many bad things happening around us. You have to lift yourself above your feelings and document those moments in good prose with catchy headlines, no matter how horrible they are.

I remember a headline written by Mr Femi Adesina, now the Special Adviser, Media, to President Muhammadu Buhari. He was my editor at The Sun when we ran a story of a building that collapsed and buried people on Easter Day. Adesina’s headline was: ‘Buried on the Day of Resurrection’.

Many tributes have been written on Dr Dale and Agekameh. We shall continue to celebrate the exemplary lives they lived. They were jolly good fellas, which nobody can deny.

Shame on Death. These souls have been victorious. They have inscribed their names on the tablet of eternity. That must be the goal of everyone. Strive for excellence; love unconditionally; live the good life and be close to God. 

We must not fear death. It’s a prize that must be paid.

Only God knows the hour.

You never know with women, says James Hardley Chase. It’s the same with Death.

Adieu Dr David Dale. Adieu Dele Agekameh.

• Dipo Kehinde, Artist, Writer, Designer