Chief James Onanefe Ibori has described the late Sam Nda-Isaiah, who died Friday night, as a man with strong convictions and who expressed them passionately.
In a press statement signed by Ibori’s Media Assistant, Tony Eluemunor, Ibori said that Nigeria will remember Nda-Isaiah as a man of many parts. He was not just a Leadership newspaper publisher but an influential columnist who maintained a weekly newspaper column for decades. Nda-Isaiah the businessman and writer was also a politician who grew to the stature of contesting seriously for the presidential ticket at the national primaries of the All Progressives Congress.
According to Ibori, “because of Sam Nda-Isaiah’s background as journalist and politician, added to his inclination to audaciously speak his mind on political issues, his paths and mine often crossed, especially during the administration of the late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, and the controversies of that period.
On one occasion, I had a reason to reply to one of his articles – and he honoured my right of reply and published it in the space meant for his column. That was commendable. Beyond that, he was courageous enough to say openly, years later, that he was misled on certain things he wrote about me, and that he was sorry. It takes personal courage and a large heart to do such, but then, anyone who knew Nda-Isaiah would have also known that he was courageous and that he had a large heart.
Ibori sends his condolences to Nda-Isaiah’s family and the Leadership newspapers and prays that God will give them the grace to keep his dreams alive. “That is the greatest tribute they can pay to that worthy Nigerian” he added.
