Nigeria, Jan. 25 -- Yakubu Mohammed, a co-founder of Newswatch who died in the early hours of Wednesday January 14 aged 75, and myself were friends and professional colleagues of over 50 years. This goes back to our days of reporting and writing for the defunct New Nigerian as undergraduates, he from the University of Lagos {UNILAG) and I from Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria.

Both of us joined the newspaper, once regarded as the most literate, authoritative and independent in the country, as full time staff in 1976 after our National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) year in 1975. He had served with the newspaper as a youth corper at its headquarters in Kaduna on its own request, and I at a Catholic secondary school in Ozuobulu, near Nnewi...