By Jossy Nkwocha
When the news of the demise of Mr Dan Agbese filtered into my ears yesterday, shock waves ran through my entire body. When I was General Editor of Newswatch Magazine from 1999 to 2002, Mr Agbese, the then Editor-in-Chief of the elite publication, was my direct boss.
I enjoyed a very good working relationship with him, learning from him, and growing with him. When I resigned from Newswatch to set up a public relations practice, he also became someone I consulted regularly and my family even paid him visits at his palatial Festac Town, Lagos home. I was inspired by his way of life.
He died yesterday, 17th November 2025, at the age of 81, having been born in 1944. Â He was the oldest of the other surviving founders of Newswatch Magazine namely Ray Ekpu, Yakubu Mohammed, and Soji Akinrinade, after the dastardly assassination of Dele Giwa, the founding Editor-in-Chief of Newswatch, through a parcel bomb on Sunday, 19th October 1986.
In the then Newswatch Magazine family, Oga Dan, as he was fondly called, was the quintessential Editor, who taught everyone the essentials of journalism — factual, ethical, grammatical and investigational, among others.
He loved simple, unambiguous prose.
He was the last person to edit and pass on the week’s Cover Story at about 3am on every production day, and he did so with tooth-pick scrutiny.
Oga Dan may ask whoever wrote the cover story to rewrite it as many times as he wanted to ensure the story passes the professional eye of the niddle. He was a worthy alumnus of the Department of Mass Communication, University of Lagos. Indeed, Oga Dan was feared by everyone. The fear of Dan Agbese was the beginning of journalistic wisdom.
Ironically, he was the one loved and highly respected by everyone! He was a simple, easily approachable person. Oga Dan was so humorous that he could joke with everyone and had a pet name for everyone.
He was the kind of person that reporters could run to, to talk about their personal problems. And he never failed to give a helping hand. He usually cared for the welfare and well-being of reporters, editors, and other staff.
At any point in time while we were at Newswatch Magazine, he was calm, easy-going, exuding peace of mind, and detribalised. My senior colleague and mentor, Mr Onome Osifo-Whiskey, ex-Newswatch senior editor and one of the founders of TELL Magazine, and I spoke about Oga Dan Agbese in our private discussion a week earlier. We mentioned the above attributes, which stood him out among his contemporaries.
It was Oga Onome that broke the sad news to me that yesterday after he read it in The Guardian newspaper. Since then, I have been short of words and reflecting on life. In fact, the sudden death of Oga Dan Agbese is very painful.
However, one can be consoled with the fact that he lived a good life and impacted many lives positively. I express my deepest condolences to his immediate family as well as all members of his journalism fraternity.
