About one year and three months have passed since that black day, Saturday, September 6, 2014, when the late Vice Chairman of The Sun Publishing Limited, Dimgba Igwe, was gruesomely knocked down and died four hours later at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, Ikeja, Lagos, from the fatal injuries inflicted on him. Memories of him still evoke emotions.
You could therefore imagine the initial shock this reporter had recently upon sighting somebody who looked so much like him in stature, complexion and mannerisms at the most unlikely of places.
I sighted him as he locked the driver’s side of his car doors as I tried to find a space beside his to put mine in the parking lot of the Institute of African Studies (IAS), University of Ibadan.
He threw me an-“Are you alright?” look as I almost rammed into him because rather than look directly in front of me, I’d shifted and kept my gaze fixed on him in sudden bewilderment. It would have been Dimgba Igwe’s second death through motor accident. But his would-have-been-killer would not be anonymous like the hit-and -run-driver, who knocked him down last year, while on an early morning jog in his Okota neighbourhood in Lagos, but one of his former employees and subordinates. Except that the man before me could not have been Igwe, who was buried at his home-town in Igbere, Abia State on October 11, 2014, for if the Holy Writ in which the deceased journalist himself subscribed to, is to be believed: “It is appointed unto man to die once…”
Although a strong believer in reincarnation, myself, I knew the late reputed journalist would have to be reborn of a new mother and undergo the cycle of nurturing and growth which would have taken another span of 60 years he lived before exiting earth, to be in the same form I saw on this sunny afternoon of October 2015.
The same petite frame, balding head, light-complexioned skin, the same genial, albeit serious countenance. The physical resemblance was unbelievable!
My subject looked at me again with puzzled interest as I refused to let my eyes off him, even after I had managed to park. Then, he suddenly seemed to lose interest and began walking away.
Still stupefied, I watched him go …And then, it occurred to me that I was letting a potentially classic human interest story, the kind that would have earned me a pat on the back from the late great, prose stylist and master of tabloid journalism, slip away. Immediately, I got out of the car and hurried after the stranger.
I finally caught up with him at the foot of the flight of stairs leading into the foyer of the institute adjourning the Draper’s Hall. I introduced myself and told him about my observation, politely asking if he would mind granting me an interview.
His response when it came triggered an even more overpowering memory of the nature of my late boss’s personality. Dr. Titus Kehinde Adekunle obliged after patiently lending me an ear of a benign priest and remarking in that same gentle, measured and soft spoken voice that was Igwe’s trademark, that it never occurred to him that he was a look-alike of the dead celebrated journalist.
More surprising revelations awaited me during my second encounter with Dr. Adekunle. For instance, I discovered that besides their age and physical affinities, he and Igwe shared other fundamental passions: spirituality, passion for work and intense love for books.
Like the late Igwe, Adekunle is a Pentecostal pastor and avid reader, who would spare no farthing to add new acquisitions to his already bursting, huge personal libraries! Alade Adebola, a Ph.D student of Dr. Adekunle, echoed what could have been a line from one of Igwe’s disciples. She described her teacher as “a very simple man, very knowledgeable, humble and peaceful.”
According to her, many of the students regarded him as a mentor: “He has passion for the job and we the students used to say, ‘In this department, if you have any problem, go to him, he will encourage you and put you on track.’
Alimi Saraju Adigun, an administrative officer at the institute, endorsed his passion for work: “He is a kind of person that attends to his students. He comes to office early and he is a workaholic, because he works very hard. He serves as a coordinator for seminar programs and he does it diligently.
Ironically, Dr. Adekunle, a lawyer of 30 years experience teaching African Law in the institute, is a fraternal twin. Indeed his indigenous name, Kehinde, signifies that he is the second born of a set of twins, who, in Yoruba belief system, is, however, the senior/elder that sends his mate, Taiwo, on errand to go explore the earth first. However, the twins are not identical and have never been mistaken for each other in their 60 years of sojourn on earth.
On the contrary, Adekunle would cause a stir if he walked into any member of the circle Igwe kept while alive, especially the corporate headquarters of The Sun Kirikiri, Industrial Estate as staffers were likely to mistake him for a resurrected Dimgba, I told Adekunle. Our encounter explored the issues of kindred identity between him and Igwe, before diverging to survey the world of the academic and Christ Apostolic Church pastor, who also doubles as a member of the church’s highest decision-making organ, the General Executive Council.
Adekunle, a Yoruba man, was disappointed though that more than a year after Igwe’s killing, security agents were yet to unravel the murder and bring the culprit to justice. He charged the state to urgently find and punish the killer of the famed columnist, who through his writings, mentorship of younger generation of accomplished professionals and successful promotion of a unique brand of journalism through The Sun Newspapers, gave the profession a new face and positively impacted the nation.
Excerpts…
What do you know of Dimgba Igwe?
I don’t know him in person. I heard about him at the time he had an accident of sort when he was jogging along the way and was killed by a runaway driver. I read a lot of newspapers – The Sun, The Punch, and all the rest. Certainly I must have come across some of his writings.
I just told you that you are a carbon copy of him. How does that strike you?
Well, that maybe so, but we have not come across each other but then people do say that human beings are usually made in twos. Well I don’t know. There was a time when someone came to my neighbourhood, and when people saw him they thought I was that person.
I told them that I was in my house, but people just came to me and said they saw somebody that looked exactly like me and that they were surprised.
If you had known that you both looked alike, would you have loved to meet him when he was alive?
Oh, definitely I would have, not necessarily because we looked alike, but for his brilliance and innovation in trying to find another means of approaching journalism in Nigeria, because you said he pioneered the tabloid approach used in newspapers in Nigeria, which focuses more on the common man, the interest of the downtrodden and things like that. Well, that’s quite interesting for someone to have thought that we should shift our focus from all these big men to ordinary men on the street. I think that was an achievement on his part.
So, who’s Dr. Adekunle?
Simply, I am a lawyer; I have been a lawyer for the past 30 years. Later, I developed interest in academics; I came into the academics about eight years ago. I am a lecturer at the Institute of African Studies, where I teach African Law and other related courses.
Why did you opt for the academic world? One thought the pasture was greener in private legal practice?
Well, I was a private lawyer when I suddenly developed interest in the academics. Basically, I wanted to just see what I could do with my hands, and then when I came for my masters in the university, they said I could proceed to the PhD degree programme and I simply proceeded. I got my PhD in African Law and I went back into practice, then later there was vacancy here and I applied for it and that’s how I came into academics. I realized that I should impart that knowledge to the younger ones, the upcoming ones.
Now, let’s return to you and Dimgba. How would you describe your own person?
Well, I would say I am quiet, definitely if you come across me you will know, because there is hardly anything that will make me to be antagonistic towards anybody. So, to that extent, I would say I am quiet, but then, when it comes to doing my work, I am obviously very passionate and very energetic and up and doing.
What instilled that discipline – personal inclination or faith and by the way, what religion do you belong to?
Christianity and I attend Christ Apostolic Church (CAC).
Could you be a pastor?
Yes, I am a pastor and that’s what I was going to say, that the religion usually takes a very big part of what I am, in the sense that it affects most of my behaviour and activities. I have been a pastor in CAC for many years and even a member of the General Executive Council for several years. I worship at CAC Adamasingba, but I have a church at Ireakari very close to Adamasingba.
So, how active are you in the faith?
Definitely, you ought to know I must be very active when I say I am a member of the General Executive Council of the church, that’s the highest policy making body of the church.
Let us talk books. How much do you love books, besides professional compulsion as a lawyer and academic?
Reading books has been my main occupation; I just can’t do without books. I just bought these books this morning- (Shows the reporter two copies of the Nigerian Weekly Law Reports). And that’s how I buy them every week. I cannot do without books, because, as you can see, I am reading projects of some students. If I don’t read books, how will I be able to supervise effectively? I read books now and then, so that I can bring the knowledge to impact on others.
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