Wow! I just stumbled on this topic after all these years! Guess I must have been sleeping. We seem to share a lot in common here 'cos I also picked my interest in Nigerian news media in the early 80s as a kid.

My dad, after reading, would toss the mags on the dining table for whatever reason. I would feast on any readable stuff then. From Time to Newsweek (columnists like Joe Klein et al), African Guardian (Mokwugo Okoye, Irabor et al), African Concord (Lewis Obi et al) to the groundbreaking Newswatch powered by Dele Giwa and crew. I followed Giwa's Parallax Snaps briefly, albeit with a child's mindset, until the letter bomb saga. I'm surprised no one here mentioned the master of satire, Dan Agbese whose word craft inspired over 70 percent of today's columnists. He is easily one columnist I miss his write ups so much today.

You guys just met Nduka Obaigbena as a media 'mafia' today without tracing his roots. This guy, I must say, has come along way in the media. He alone competed with the soar away Newswatch when he floated his Thisweek, styled after America's Newsweek. And can he write too! Don't you all wonder why he was able to assemble these good writers if he didn't know his onions in the field. And to think he was in his 20s then... Wow!

One outstanding incident then was in 1987 when IBB proscribed Newswatch. Ray Ekpu, Agbese, Yakubu Mohammed - the surviving trio after Giwa - carried on with their firebrand type of journalism egged on by a cheering audience and a fearless Gani Fawehinmi. Obaigbena, as Editor-in-Chief of Thisweek, wrote a very significant editorial. It was handwritten! And just a sentence: He left a whole editorial space blank and at the end of the page wrote: "...that the ban on NEWSWATCH be lifted!" This touching but creative gesture left an indelible impression in my young mind hence I kept a copy of this edition till this day. Despite the fact that they were in competition, somewhat, he sacrificed a whole editorial page!

Thank you guys for taking me back in time. I agree with what you wrote about most of the columnists though some names ought to be included. Keep it up guys. Someday, I will post my top 20 columnists. Ciao.

daVinci1: I agree with what you wrote about most of the columnists though some names ought to be included. Keep it up guys. Someday, I will post my top 20 columnists. Ciao.

Please do