There appeared a repetitive consistency in the expressions of sympathisers who in their condolence messages to Daily Trust newspaper described the late Durosinmi Irojah, a.k.a Oga Duro, as a humble, professionally excellent, exceptionally brilliant, dignified and fearless upholder of the pristine ethos of the journalism profession.
These eulogies pale into miniscule when compared with the lamentations of both senior and junior colleagues who may have undergone Duro’s baptism when like a general in a battle field he spared no one in the newsroom in his undiluted quest to roll out quality, responsive and responsible newspaper. Duro’s penchant for upholding journalism’s ethics often curries the umbrage of many of his subordinates. But by his death and from the lamentations of many of us it turned out that he built and endeared in us all that we all seemingly missed in the classroom and which we probably would not have realised if fate had not crossed our paths with him. And when the man died suddenly, he orphaned a multitude of professional children wailing for ideas not yet imbibed from.
No doubt, Oga Duro had that rare gift of knowledge unequalled or perhaps by a handful of his contemporaries. Although self-effacing, Duro’s qualities stood him out in the midst of a multitude of talented journalists ever produced from this country. It is perhaps this professional quality imbued in him that probably became both a burden and a propeller for quality and which eventually created in him the willing consciousness that his responsibility was first and foremost to his folks – all of humanity, irrespective of religion, tribe or race against the mundane tendency to bury conscience and serve the men with power, money and influence. For as brilliant as he was, he would have made his mark in the temple of the fabulously rich newsmen but he chose instead to pitch his tent on the side of the conscientious. Therefore at each opportunity on matters of principle he would retort in Yoruba: “Omo ogbologbo reporter?” (Me, old reporter?)
It would suffice to recall just one moment he chose to be the quintessential journalist not compromised by extenuating circumstances. While in London as Daily Times correspondent during the Second Republic, the national chairman of the then ruling National Party of Nigeria (NPN), Chief Adisa Akinloye, visited London, Duro received an order from his headquarters in Lagos to interview him. According to him (Duro), there seemed no justifiable public interest in the ruling party’s national chairman’s visit and therefore did not deserve an interview that could not have been conducted in Nigeria but since he was ordered to get an interview he came to Chief Adisa and asked him which questions he would want him (Duro) to ask. Adisa, according to Duro was furious since he wanted his presence in London exhaustively reported by the government’s mouthpiece and which the paper’s London reporter obviously truncated.
Expectedly, Duro’s stay in London was unceremoniously ended shortly after Chief Adisa’s return and as punishment for his audacity he was vilified by being redeployed from the editorial department. As frustrating and tragic this might be, Duro emphatically stated that he never regretted his action but rather relished it.
Such was the stuff our Duro was made of and he often punctuated his stance by saying: “what else do I have other than my integrity. I can’t allow anybody to rubbish it at this stage” At another time he would retort ‘I won’t do this (if it was an order or threat) – even if it would cost me my job and my life.”
For those who know Oga Duro, he was a raw and typical symbol of dedicated workaholic who even when sick still performed his duties like a missionary. Naïve to dubious tendencies, Duro was completely a direct opposite to any pretences of what he was – a genius - which he proved by making first class in English from the famous Ahmadu Bello University at a period acknowledged as the peak of intellectual prowess in Nigerian universities.
The worth and weight of Duro, the substance and consequences of his passage are captured by prompt expressions of shock, grief and eulogies by all who have one way or the other encountered him or had even the faintest knowledge of him.
General Muhammadu Buhari, ANPP presidential candidate in the 2003 presidential election says, “The news of the sudden death of Mr. Duro Irojah, one of the best professional journalists Nigeria has produced got to me this week.” According to Buhari, “Mr. Irojah has helped in setting up several newspapers in Nigeria including Weekly Trust, Daily Trust, Today newspapers and The Guardian.” He laments that Duro’s death came at “this point of our national existence when the services of such competent hands will be needed more than ever before.”
For Hon. Ghali Umar Na’Abba, former speaker of the House of Representatives, Oga Duro’s death “is indeed a great loss, not only to Daily Trust…nor his family members, but to everybody who believes in the theory of positive societal transformation through the means of competent journalism. There is no doubting the fact that the vacuum created by his death will be difficult to fill. Journalism in Nigeria has indeed suffered a heavy blow.”
In his condolence message to Media Trust, publishers of Weekly Trust and Daily Trust the speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Aminu Bello Masari, said he was deeply saddened at the death of Duro who he described as a “pleasant personality and a thorough-bred professional who had contributed his best to uplift the practice of journalism in the country,” adding that by his death the practice of conscientious journalism has been lost.
The ruling People’s Democratic Party, (PDP) in a condolence message through its national vice chairman, North West Zone, Dr. Bello H. Mohammed describes the deceased as “Daring Duro” whose death he says is “both a tragedy and a loss to your company, the journalism profession and the nation for he was without doubt, an excellent newspaperman whose incisive write-ups as the northern correspondent of The Guardian in the early 1980s enriched politics in the North tremendously.” Veteran politicians of the North, the party stalwart says, “will greatly miss the “Daring Duro” as he was popularly called in political circles where he has left indelible marks in his profession.”
For the FCT renaissance minister, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai, Duro was an “intelligent, dedicated and astute journalist whose sense of social responsibility and balanced reporting remains unequalled.”
From the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, (NNPC), through its general manager, Group Public Affairs Division, Dr. Levi Ajuonuma, is a condolence that describes Oga Duro as, apart from being a hardworking and amiable personality, a man whose “quest for truth and fairness to all parties in his journalism work contributed to the upliftment of the Daily Trust group in particular and Nigerian journalism in general.”
The spontaneous renditions of grief, which started pouring in the wake of the news of Oga’s death, still continue to flow and may endure for some time. But for Media Trust and many of us who worked, shared and benefited from his archive of rare reservoir of encyclopaedic memory, Duro’s death would remain a bleeding wound. By his death, many of us who are scions of his ingenuity and resourcefulness uninhibitedly accessible through his cultured humility, a library of inestimable worth has been incinerated.
While a condolence register could not best express feelings at moments of this tragic nature, it however gives a glancing insight into the recesses of turmoil in the breasts of those who jotted down one, two or three sentences or even the often uncoordinated phrases spontaneously conjured from quick reflections of fleeting memory. For many of us, the notes in the condolence register belie in a way the pangs of sleeplessness many went through on Friday, August 13 on hearing the shocking news of Oga Duro’s demise. Even many days later, many still looked bedraggled for obvious lack of appetite. It is more shocking for most staff for Duro’s death was the first and most high profile in Media Trust.
The dirge or epitaphs however say one thing: that Oga Duro lived a fulfilled professional life and would be dearly missed. Even though he died at the age of 56, he remained agile, strong and worked harder than most of us who are by far younger, a fact that was one of two main areas of his disagreements with many of us. The second being that he never read beyond the first paragraph any write-up that has jumbled tenses and if he must when the story is good, he did by swearing and smoking several sticks of cigarette.
What many of us have the privilege of learning from Duro holds the capacity to sustain us in the conduct of our career as journalists and capable of taking us to levels far above what we may imagine.
Words may therefore fail to adequately express our feelings of what nature has denied us – but we can only say adieu, Oga…until we, by the Grace of God, meet to part no more.
