“It has been very painful for us to miss the man who did everything for The Guardian, who put his resources into The Guardian and almost lost his life because of The Guardian,” Adesina told Sunday Trust, adding, “the greatest tribute we are going to pay and those who are coming after us will pay, is to keep The Guardian as the flagship of the Nigerian press. Of course, it is painful and quite devastating but the children, family, workers and those who are going to come after us have all realised that the best tribute to the late Ibru is to sustain The Guardian newspaper. The structure on ground is sufficient to sustain the paper.”
Speaking on the kind of character traits of the later publisher, which helped put the newspaper on a sound footing, Adesina said, “he was, indeed, a father to all. He founded The Guardian when he was in his 40s. He has that leadership trait in him such that he was able to hold together the best of the best in Nigeria then. The Guardian led the trail in employing graduates and core professionals. It took a man who had the vision and zeal to lead that crop of people at the time. And that tradition continues in The Guardian till date. The late Ibru brought out the best in Nigerian journalism. He gave it the kind of prestige it never enjoyed in the country before.
“Interestingly, that has become a tradition in The Guardian today. As we speak, you will find people of various disciplines here who are not practicing their core professions but working as journalists. We have veterinary doctors, architects, medical doctors, agriculturists, Ph.D holders, among others. They are put together to run the Guardian and that is what has been sustaining the newspaper till date. He was indeed a very great man. As a father, he was great. And in the profession, he was also great.”
Adesina added that the late Ibru succeeded in making it known to the world that The Guardian newspaper is an independent voice of the people. “Since the establishment of the news medium, he spelt it out that we should not derail nor waiver from the ideal of the newspaper as an independent voice of Nigerians. I wouldn’t want to say the assassination attempt shaped anything, but will say it was an affirmation of his beliefs in an ideal he so much believed in and that almost cost him his life.”
The newspaper was first published on February 22, 1983 as a weekly, appearing on Sundays. It began daily publications on July 4, 1983.
Journalists and publishers have been paying tributes to the late Ibru. Simon Kolawole, the Editor, Thisday, told our correspondent that the late Ibru “was a rare breed, one of the very few publishers who were not in the business for political gains. He built an institution that will surely outlive him. The Guardian is a very strong institution.”
Also, veteran journalist Ray Ekpu, of Newswatch Magazine had this to say: “Mr. Alex Ibru left an indelible mark in journalism. He made one of the best contributions to the development of the media in the country. There is no great journalist or writer of this era who does not know or appreciate his contributions.”
On his part, the chairman of the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ), Lagos State council, Mr Deji Elumonye, described the death as a colossal loss, not only to the media industry, but the nation at large. He lauded his contributions to the growth of developmental journalism in Nigeria.
According to the NUJ, the establishment of The Guardian 28 years ago bolstered developmental journalism in Nigeria. “We, in Lagos NUJ, also remember the deceased for his non-interference in the editorial policy of The Guardian because he allowed professionals to dictate the Editorial direction of the flagship as The Guardian is known in the media circle,” Elumonye said.
Sir Mobolaji Johnson, the first governor of Lagos State, added his voice by saying, “Alex Ibru’s death is a loss to the family and the nation at large. He was the man who developed The Guardian up to the standard which it is before he died. He has left his footprints on the sands of time. The nation has lost a great son and publisher of a newspaper like The Guardian, which is still the flagship of Nigeria. Even if the government does not immortalise him, what he has done will forever remain a legacy and that is enough to immortalise him.”
The Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Attahiru Jega, who paid a courtesy visit to the Ibrus last week, described the late publisher as a rare breed. He said, “with his founding of the flagship, The Guardian, stable in 1983, he pioneered the intellectual ferment in the Nigerian media. Paradoxically, that also marked the beginning of the liberal press culture by which ordinary Nigerians have come to acquire a strong voice for self-expression, which is a vital ingredient of the liberal political dispensation that we enjoy in this country today.
Alex Ibru (March 1, 1945 – November 20, 2011) a billionaire businessman, was a one-time Minister of Internal Affairs from 1993 to 1995 during the military regime of General Sani Abacha. He attended the Yaba Methodist Primary School, Lagos (1951-1957), Ibadan Grammar School (1958-1960), Igbobi College, Lagos (1960-1963) and Trent Polytechnic in the United Kingdom (1967-1970) where he studied Business Economics. Alex Ibru escaped an assassination attempt during the military regime of General Sani Abacha. On February 2, 1996, his car was fired at and Ibru was hit. In December 2010, a Lagos High Court acquitted those accused of the attempt to kill him.
