His life was almost an equivalent of the Zimbabwean writer and author of “House of Hunger”, Dambudzo Marechera whose notoriety for opposing the status quo has remained undiminished in the African literary world. Before his death on December 16, 2024, Sam Asowata’s irrepressible devotion in walking alone over what he believed to be for the common good was unshakeable.
Our path first met at LEADERSHIP in 2005 after crossing from “The Punch” to the then newly established medium to assume the position of the pioneer editor of the Sunday edition. Asowata’s intellectual prowess was easily discernible, just as his ungovernable character. He cherished the trophy of being Nigeria’s youngest editor at 28. In the early days of LEADERSHIP going into daily production, Asowata was a perfectionist whose ability to make clean copies out of poorly written scripts attracted him to the “Kakakin Nupe” and founding chairman of the newspaper, Mr. Sam Nda-Isaiah.
The Beloved Sams!
It was not a surprise that the two Sams took a liking for each other based on what they could offer to each other. The newspaper owner wanted someone to clean dirty copies into excitingly readable pieces, while the man who held Nigeria’s youngest editor’s trophy was itching to recreate his editorial skills he claimed surprised his first employer who would later become the governor of Ogun State, Chief Segun Osoba. Both Sams were known to adopt a perfectionist perspective. Many things were wrong in the early stage of the newspaper’s formation, but very few dared to approach the chairman whom many feared could be termed as disrespectful.
Asowata’s reputation for fearlessness was known beyond the newsroom. Like Marechera whose actions were not tempered with existing reality, Asowata was the bull known for telling truth to power. While the media mogul was noted for his dream to be realised within a twinkling of an eye, Asowata disagreed, insisting that Rome was not built in a day.
Though he was never appointed a substantive editor of any of the titles, Asowata bestrode the top echelon of LEADERSHIP as a colossus. He had his ears to the ground and never failed to warn treacherous characters of going to point the chairman to errors in the newspapers. There was a particular top editorial staff member who was famous for pointing errors to the chairman. When at last the newspaper owner was convinced he was competent to become an editor, taking into consideration his expertise in identifying errors, the former identifier of errors could not last two months as editor.
To drive editorial staff to meet deadlines for production, Asowata was appointed general manager of the Newsroom. His duties were simply to remind reporters on deadlines and advised them to either “shift in or ship out” if they adhere not to deadlines. In some cases, he reportedly stormed the chairman’s office to demand for the “Last Word” column written by the newspaper’s owner. Like the chairman, Asowata was not fond of laptops and expensive phones; he preferred working on papers.
Book Editor
Some four years ago, I contacted him to edit my first book that is yet to be presented to the public. His editing skills were not in doubt, but we would argue over appropriateness of words or phrases. He was in love with simple sentences and was an expert in cutting down long and windy sentences for clarity. Even when expressions were not against rules of grammar, Asowata would find a way of enhancing clarity. He detested wrong spellings, especially names of people, and deployed every effort in avoiding misspellings.
A few weeks before his death, I approached him to go through the book he edited some two years ago. In less than two weeks, he called to inform me that he had finished going through. Going through some of the pages, I observed some red ink.
“As an editor, your writings must be devoid of clichés and should be a bit tight. Nothing more. Please, ensure you look through and ensure the corrections are done,” he said. I promised to do that. I never knew it was the last time I would share a moment with him.
Asowata was never afraid to walk alone. He dared where even the angel dread to tread and had several brushes with the Akwa Ibom State government under former governor Godswill Akpabio now Senate president. According to his Facebook wall, he was arrested 13 times and jailed twice. He abhorred the Nigerian system and rejected any attempt to play along. In the twilight of his years, he completely insulated himself from the maddening crowds of apologists that he once described as unworthy of a nation with a conscience.
Lover Of Competence
He had no respect for a system that sacrificed competence in order to enthrone mediocrity. It was obvious that he had given up on Nigeria even before he died. Unlike Marechera of Zimbabwe, our Asowata found peace suffering in silence over horrifying injustices unleashed on citizens in a country that holds so much promises, but nothing concrete in enthroning justice and equity for its ethnic nationalities that are mutually distrustful of one another. Like someone rightly said, he never tried to engage in changing public perception of what he was; but those close to him knew he was a great personality and a humanist who was alarmed by the wickedness of the system dedicated to the service of Mammon.
When he finally succumbed to the cold hands of death, it was far away from the crowd. He lived in accordance with his dream and crossed over to the other side to meet other great souls who lived true to their conscience.