One of the colleagues of Peter Enahoro whose demise at age 88 took place in London in April, Alade Odunewu, himself a frontline columnist and journalist, once wrote in his column of December 22, 1963: “…. Life simply goes on whether or not the men who only yesterday performed on the stage so wonderfully are present today to answer the roll call… but what if the great reaper called death has snatched them away? So, … life goes on, Sir.”

Pity. We Lost Peter Pan!
Peter Enahoro, or better known as “Peter Pan” of Daily Times at Kakawa Street, Lagos has taken his final exit from the Fourth Estate of the Realm. Peter was the best newspaper columnist of the 60s that Nigeria ever had; though he had other remarkable contemporaries like his older colleagues in the journalism profession.

Nearly, all of them have died. To name a few of them. Alade Odunewu (Allah-De), Ayo Adefolaju (Round the world in Eight days), Victor Olabisi Onabanjo (Aiyekooto) and a few others who worked as editors and columnists, Olu Adebanjo (Mickey Mouse) of Daily Express at Apongbon Street, Lagos; the famous Zikist, Herbert Unegbu (Unu Habib of West African Pilot at Yaba, Lagos and Lateef Jakande (John West) of Nigerian Tribune, Ibadan.

Others were Peter Obe (Chief Camera man of Daily Times), Gab Idigo (Editor, Daily Times), Peter Osugo (PECOS), the famous Daily Times Sports Writer/Editor, Nelson Ottah (Coz Idapo) of DRUM Magazine, and other journalists who have departed.

However, one of his old mates and a cherished colleague, Sam Amuka-Pemu, Publisher of Vanguard newspapers is still intensely active in newspaper journalism business. He regularly wrote his “Sad Sam” column in Daily Times of the same period.

Before Peter chose journalism as a career, there had been nationally acclaimed columnists like Abiodun Aloba (Ebenezer Williams), who Peter Enahoro described as the most powerful columnist in the country during his time and who was also editor, Sunday Times.

Peter owed his Daily Times job opportunity as Sub-Editor to Aloba who was the architect of his Daily Times appointment under the British newspaper administrator, the General Manager of Daily Times, Percy Roberts.

As he remarked in a book on Segun Osoba (himself a leading Daily Times reporter and newspaper administrator): “I think I was very lucky in that I met at that time a group of people in the Daily Times who lived the life of journalism. Journalism was more a way of life than a profession. I was just lucky to be in that set. Amongst them were…. Sonny Okongwu, Herbert Unegbu, the late Rabo Abaide, Oliver Jackman, Willie and Alex Nwokedi, Peter Osugo, Nelson Ottah and Aig Imoukhuede.”

Looking at his antecedents, Peter edited “Letters Page” and later “Features page” and became, features editor of Daily Times.

In 1958 when he was 23 years old, he became editor of Sunday Times and began his political column “George Sharp”, and added another column, titled “Peter Pan” which became very popular among all newspaper readers in Nigeria from the 1960s to the time he went on self-imposed exile to Germany, after the staging of military coup d’etat in 1966, and in the wake of the country’s civil war.

My encounters with Peter Enahoro began in 1962 shortly after he was appointed editor of Daily Times at Kakawa Street, Lagos.
I had read many of his writings in his column and I became his admirer while I was a reporter in Nigerian Tribune at Ibadan, under Alhaji Lateef Jakande as Managing Director and Editor-in-Chief of the newspaper; Prof. Akin Emiola was the editor of Nigerian Tribune, now a Professor of Law.

I saw an advertisement in Daily Times and I quickly applied for the post of a reporter; I attended an interview and Peter Enahoro offered me my second job as a reporter.

My appointment took effect from February 1962. I was 22 years old when he gave me my first assignment in Daily Times.

It was Peter Enahoro, as editor of Daily Times, who sent me on my first investigative assignment and initiated me into the cadre of senior reporters in journalism. He asked me to see Kayode Onabanjo and Bayo Rotibi who were Daily Times Chief Reporters and Senior Journalists. They both drafted some questions which I used in the interviews with minibus drivers whose acronyms were “Bole Kaja” and “Danfo”.

Those were the days when a young reporter in Daily Times had to prove his/her mettle and work very hard for a by-line.

As I was writing this tribute, I remembered vividly that unusual assignment. Unusual in the sence that I needed investigative journalism skill to accomplish the mission.

I was assigned to go to down-town Lagos’ active motor parks; Oyingbo Bus stop, Yaba Bus Stop and Obalende Bus Stop to interview minibus drivers. The objective of the assignment was to obtain their views and write an article on the reasons behind the slogans and names plastered across the windscreens of their minibuses and those written at the back or the sides of their vehicles. Such slogans as, “No telephone to heaven”, “God dey”, “Penny wise,” “Open your eyes”, “Eko o gba gbere” (No room for mediocres in Lagos); and many others of such words were the popular slogans of motorists of the 50s and 60s.

Apart from my regular judicial/court reporting assignments, I was given the assignment to report on Federal Government’s proposal to establish the University of Lagos (UNILAG) and to follow up all its developments.

My early years as reporter under the editorship of Peter Enahoro, and Lai Mabinuori, Kunle Animashaun, Babatunde Savage, I. B. Thomas (all News Editors) respectively, were very fruitful because during those years, I was able to build up my desire to remain focused on journalism as a career. Thus, since then journalism became my way of life.

Peter Enahoro was my great mentor in my chosen career, after L.K. Jakande. He personally assigned me to cover the Somolu Tribunal, the Lagos Executive Development Board (LEDB) Tribunal, the trial of Chief Obafemi Awolowo and the trial of his elder brother, Chief Anthony Enahoro, who were both charged with treason by the Federal Government.

The coverage of Enahoro and Awolowo’s trials were done in association with my able Newsroom colleagues, Chief Segun Osoba and Bunmi Iyeru.

My relationship with Peter continued even when he was in self-exile until his death in April this year. Each time I visited London, he would ask me to visit him at his home during which we would discuss the state of Nigerian journalism, and journalism practice elsewhere in Africa.

I recall with nostalgic feelings my visit to him at his office at London when I covered the Commonwealth Prime Ministers Conference in London, and he had started his “Africa Now” magazine. I had an interview with him on his views on the then Nigerian political dilemma, his views on Nigerian journalism practice and on other issues. As usual, Peter had answers to all domestic and international issues, especially print media coverage on African politics.

His news magazine, “Africa Now” was an authority on African political issues. His African Affairs top Correspondents, Kayode Soyinka and Mr Ben Asante always roved the African continent conducting exclusive interviews with African leaders on continental politics, economies and military incursions in African democracies. Kayode Soyinka founded his own “Africa Today” after quitting “Africa Now”.

I recall one of Peter’s monthly comments in the magazine in which he took up the Ghanaian leader, J. J. Rawlings shortly after his second coup which ousted President (Dr) Hilla Limann.

Peter Enahoro in his usual “Peter Pan” model, wrote: “Rawlings was unbelievably popular with the vast majority of Ghanaians. It went into his head. Ghanaians today understand that the infany of the cold blooded slaying of officers whose guilt, if any, was never properly established, were despicable acts of gross indiscipline.”

Let’s see one or two of his views while on his editorial desk of Daily Times.
I have always been enchanted by his witty expressions which his Peter Pan column often provided his numerous readers.

Take a look at this one on the first Prime Minister of Nigeria, Alhaji Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa. He wrote:

“What a magnificent performance Prime Minister Alhaji Tafawa Balawa is putting up in London! He towers over his African colleagues and makes household names like Nkrumah, Nyerere, Obote seem like the ornithological names of a near-extinct bird species”. That was Peter’s commendable comment on Mr. Prime Minister.

Commenting on a political situation in Algeria in his column in the Daily Times in late sixties, Peter wrote under the title “DIABOLICAL: “The cruel and cynical hand of betrayal strikes once again. In Algeria, Mohammed Ben Bella is overthrown by his most trusted pal-colonel Howari Boumedienne. Ben Bella himself put one of his best friends to fight – the man who was Prime Minister of the Provisional Government in the days of the Algerian revolt and who shared a cell with Mohammed Ben Khedda. Ben Bella was able to argue three plausible reasons for double dealing Ben Khedda out of office”. That was typical of Peter Pan.

One can not chronicle Peter Enahoro’s writings in a short tribute. His contributions to African journalism are just too great.

Peter’s style of column writing like London Daily Mirror’s Cassandra (William Neil Connor), who Hugh Cudlipp told us had a predilection for writing about the famous and the infamous. So, also was Peter Pan. Combat editorial, satire, and euphemism were Peter Enahoro’s specialties and tools with which he communicated his views on issues of the time. But most of the time he was supportive of the down-trodden of our various societies.

He was a perfect words-smith, a story teller, and a pen combatant soldier of democracy. He authored four books in his life time: How to be a Nigerian; The New Nigeria; You gotta cry to laugh; Then spoke the Thunder.

With due respect, my social, professional and academic association with Peter Enahoro began in 1962 and lasted about 60 years, as I often visited him both in Germany when he was on German Radio as a journalist and commentator on African affairs, and when he finally settled in London.

We often joked each time I dined with him during my visits on his foreword which he wrote in my first book, “Media and Mass Communication in Nigeria” published in 1979.
What did Peter say about the book and about the author?

“Mr. Dayo Duyile is a young Nigerian whose professional career I have watched with more than ordinary interest because, if one may inflate one’s ego, I should say that I have perhaps had a hand in introducing him to the profession. He is a level-headed young man, who has written a level-headed book on a subject and a profession that will have an important part to play in these exciting times in the growth of nationhood and the development of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.”

Those were his words. Peter was elegant in prose always dressed in figurative expressions. He was an unrivaled wordsmith, a role model in journalism, a consummate journalist of the highest order; an incisive writer with exemplary record at Daily Times, Africa Now, Africa Magazine, and the African Magazine.

I owe this giant of African journalism a debt of gratitude for mentoring me in my chosen career. In short I would say that I owe the three personalities: Peter Enahoro along with Alh. L. K. Jakande and Alh. Ismail Babatunde Jose (the modern father of Daily Times) for their contributions to my journalism career. The trio had influenced my journalism life in a positive way.

Early this year, I called Peter to inform him of the coming of my newest book on my adventures in journalism since the early sixties in which I featured my encounter with Peter Pan in London. Obviously, he was pleased to hear that I had written another book that ronicles my experience, adventures and encounters in media newsrooms during my years as a reporter, and later as editor of Daily Sketch, Ibadan.

The Peter Enahoro that I knew, a.k.a. Peter Pan, had no patience for mediocrity and corruption in political governance which have become the norm of our present day politicians in Nigeria. Nigeria has lost a giant who was respected for his brilliant and meticulous journalistic writings.

No doubt, for a long time to come, Peter Enahoro, like his elder brother, Chief Anthony Enahoro, will be remembered for his stellar contributions to African journalism. Peter Pan will be remembered for posterity.

I extend my condolences to his family, other relatives, the many friends he accumulated in his wonderful career in his life. All of us, alumni of Kakawa Street and the reading public in England, in Africa and in Nigeria in particular will miss him, his wit, his excellent insights into African issues.
May God bless his soul. Rest in peace, dear Peter.