Newswatch founders lament Nigeria’s slow growth, vow to tackle Jimoh Ibrahim

Despite over 50 years of Nigeria’s independence, some veteran journalists believe that the country’s development has experienced a rather sluggish growth.
Four former editors of one of the nation’s notable magazines, Newswatch, put their thoughts together in a book titled “moving in circles”, which was launched in lagos.
The journalists also vowed to to challenge their alleged sack by the Chairman and Chief Executive of the board of Newswatch, Dr. Jimoh Ibrahim.

Ibrahim recently bought the controlling shares of the magazine. The editors are Ray Ekpu, Dan Agbese, Soji Akinrinade and Yakubu Mohammed.

One of the editors, Ray Ekpu, said said when they admitted Ibrahim into the Newswatch Communications fold on May 5, 2011, they thought judging by the earlier discussions, that the original vision of the magazine would be enriched by value-adding investment.

He said, “We thought Ibrahim came to help journalism, not to harm it. We thought he came to support journalism, not to scuttle it. We thought he came to buy and build and not buy and bury our dear magazine.

“When you kill a publication, you kill the hopes and aspirations of millions of readers, advertisers, distributors, vendors, researchers and the general public.”

Ekpu lamented the fate of the publication they nurtured for 27 years, saying the businessman carefully camouflaged his intentions when he first approached them.

“Ibrahim has been mouthing incomprehensible sentiments about our Dele Giwa, trying to fraudulently ingratiate himself against the iconic journalist. The Dele Giwa we knew would never have contemplated the non-publication of Newswach even for one week. Never!”