Dimgba Igwe : A Shining Light , Says OritsejaforAyo , President Of Christian Association Of Nigeria *(CAN)

Honestly, I only wish I was not com­ing here under this circumstance, looking at what has happened. I know I have been here before but that was a little bit different.

Then, we were here for a service. I feel the pain but it is joy to be here because of a man who, in my own opinion, was a shining light; someone that you could not hide.

One thing I’ve found out about us, those of us who are Christians (I don’t know much about the Muslim religion) is that there are those who tend to separate their spirituality from their secularity. And I see that as very dangerous. So, you find people who go to church on Sunday and greet God, and tell Him: “How are you? I hope you are doing okay?” (They) give a little offering, dance a little and do all the ceremonies, and then they step out. For them, that is the end of spirituality. Now they go into another world and start living another life. But that is not what the Holy Bible says.

So, there are people who have successfully been able to blend their spirituality with their secularity. And Dimgba was one of such persons. He did it so well that you could feel his Christianity. While he never tried to impose it on anybody, never tried to force it on anyone, at the same time you could feel it. You could feel a man that believed in God, who honoured his God; to whom Christ was everything. Every time I picked The Sun and read what he was saying, I could pick that there. You could tell that this man meant what he said. Just like in my own, if you like call it profession, to which Dimgba also belonged, there are writers who write for many other reasons, you know. I don’t want to get into that. They write for many reasons. But he was one of those who wrote because he was convinced that this is what he should be writing. And he wrote that way. You may not agree with him. But you could tell that  this man was convinced about what he wrote

about. And I think that was part of what will build Nigeria.

We have lost a great light. I don’t know how to explain it. I am supposed to build people’s faith. And I still do that. But it is still a shock to me, to realise that he is not here. We talked several times. We even made some plans. We made some plans on some things I wanted him to do and he was willing and all that, just only to hear that he is dead. It is hard for the mind to comprehend. But in everything, the Bible says give thanks to God. Even when you don’t understand it, you cannot explain it, it does not make sense to anybody, yet God is God. It happened suddenly to us as human beings but not to God. He knew from the foundation of the world that this was coming. And now it has come.

My prayer for The Sun is that God would continue to be with you as always, because this is probably one of the greatest media houses in this country today. When The Sun first started years ago, I don’t know whether they said tabloid or so… To me you have gone far away from that. But when you first started some of us said it was a joke. We said it was one of those very unserious bunches of people. But when we started seeing some people in The Sun we said it cannot be what we thought. And gradually, today it is a mega thing.

I don’t think there is anybody in Nigeria today that does not read The Sun newspapers. But The Sun would not have been where it is today if not for certain persons. And I have a strong feeling that Dimgba Igwe was one of such persons; one of those who gave it this larger-than-life feeling. You can see people coming from everywhere. You can see everybody having that feeling, being touched. He is not the first person in your profession tha t has gone. But there are few in your profession that have been so well received even at death, like this man.

I have come with pain and to join you to bear the pain. But I have also come to celebrate. To celebrate a man who, in my own opinion, lived his life well. Jesus lived for 33 and a half years and in three and half years of his life on earth, He changed the history of humanity. There are people who have lived for 110 years and they did not make any difference on earth. I don’t know whether you are aware that Aaron lived for 123 years. His younger brother, Moses, lived for 120 years. Unfortunately, you cannot see anything tangible that Aaron did. In fact, when you look at what some of us call, “Hall of Fame” today in the Holy Bible (Hebrew 11), Aaron’s name was not mentioned, the first High Priest of Israel. And he lived for 123 years and yet his name was not mentioned. But a harlot’s name is mentioned. So, sometimes it is not how long you live but how much the life you live contributes or improves the lives of other people. We will miss him (Igwe), but some of the things he did will keep speaking for him.

I don’t think we will forget him because while he was a writer, journalist and executive member of this company (The Sun), he was a Christian and a man of God. I celebrate you. I celebrate you for producing this mega person that has touched the whole nation. I think it teaches us that no matter how you look at Nigeria we can do things that can affect this nation positively.

And no matter how we look at Nigeria, eventually those little things that you have done or you are doing that you may think nobody sees as anything may end up being the very thing that people will celebrate in you. I just wonder who is going to step into those big shoes.

I pray that The Sun will get better. I know one thing about God: and that is that He prepares people. I pray that The Sun will get better so that wherever Dimgba is, if he is able to look down, he will see The Sun experience improvement, advancement and fulfillment.