By Maik Ortserga
As part of the activities to celebrates Benue State’s golden jubilee, a journalistic giant – Chief Dan Agbese who passed on a few months ago– is given a well-deserving honour by His Excellency Governor Hyacinth Alia who renamed the Benue Printing and Publishing Company after the late icon.
The journey of Agbese becoming one of the pioneer experts to form the media foundation of Benue state started on the 27th of September 1972 when the then Governor of Benue-Plateau State, Police Commissioner J.D Gomwalk constituted a Board of Benue-Plateau Printing and Publishing Corporation with Mr. James Akperan Orshi, then Solicitor-General and permanent Secretary, Ministry of Justice and other eminent personalities on the Board. The mandate of the eight-member Board was to start the publication of ‘The Nigerian Standard” in a rented residential house at No 5, Zaria Road.
This was the paper that would graduate from a local paper to a mature respected national newspaper, and also introduce the profession of journalism to many indigenes of Benue-Plateau State. ‘The Nigerian Standard” served as a training ground to those who would become the best journalists in the country. The list would include people like Dan Agbese, George Ohemu, Simeon Shango, Gideon Barde, Rufai Ibrahim among others. Agbese described the problems encountered during the production of the first issue of “The Nigerian Standard,” in a pamphlet titled “Looking Back” which I would like to reproduce here:
“It was clear, however, that sweat, however generously expended in pursuit of ambition, works no magic. We did not just work, we plodded. Everything was set up for maximum mental and physical punishment. It fell for the government printer to produce the newspaper. But it was done manually. This meant that every word was hand-composed and the compositors picking individual letters from trays containing various typefaces. It was a laborious task suited to the leisured lifestyle of the civil service, but a living horror to the frenetic pace of newspaper publishing. The compositors themselves were like punishment about to destroy the world. We wrote in English, they composed in non-English. Almost every word was a stranger to us and the English Language. Their work boggled the mind and befuddled the brain. Proofreaders wept. Sub-Editors cried. The agony was unbearable. We had no respite. We had the printing press to contend with too. It was a small letter press with its technology anchored in the 18th century. Its manufacturers did not anticipate that one day it would be the drumbeat of the inadequacies of the press. Worse, it took its own sweat to do it.”
Although ‘The Nigerian Standard’ started with Mr.Iliya Audu as its first Editor, Mr. Gideon Barde, who had just completed his post-graduate course in journalism from the University of Wales, Cardiff, United Kingdom was appointed Editor on September 4, 1975 but was relieved of his appointment in March 1978, and his assistant, Dan Agbese took over as Editor. He had been chief sub-editor of The Nigerian Standard, between 1974 and 1976), and later Assistant Editor before his elevation as Editor.
Between 1980 and 1982, Dan Agbese returned home and served variously as the General Manager of Radio Benue, Makurdi; Special Adviser and Director of Information for Benue State. So, Agbese was among the trailblazers who placed Benue State on the media map right from the creation of the state, turning Benue’s media apparatus into a respected national voice.
The defining period of his career was his partnership with Dele Giwa, Ray Ekpu, and Yakubu Muhammed to co-found Newswatch magazine in 1984, a brand that revolutionised Nigerian journalism with its investigative flair and presentational style. At some point, the magazine’s professional pursuit of truth got it into trouble with the military government of the day. It is a testimony to the magazine’s success and appeal that it inspired the founding of several other magazines fashioned after its model.
As Niyi Osundare noted, Agbese was “debonair, professional, and unsparingly witty” – qualities that defined his impactful career. His stardom in Nigerian journalism was undisputed. When he received the Prize for Lifetime Achievement at the 25th Diamond Awards for Media Excellence (DAME) held in Lagos in 2016, the citation captured his essence, characterising him as “a great columnist, stylist and wordsmith,” “witty and sarcastic,” a “master of informed commentary,” and “easily one of Nigeria’s most respected and influential writers. Dan Agbese’s death on November 17, 2025 at the age of 81, predictably made the headlines.
Agbese’s legacy lives on in the journalists he mentored and the profession he championed. Naming this institution after him ensures his contributions to Benue’s media landscape are never forgotten.
