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By Etim Etim

In the last one month, I have lost two professional colleagues who were also close friends. Anietie Ben Akpan, from Esit Eket, was a longtime correspondent of The Guardian in Calabar and later promoted South-South regional editor. We were particularly close when I was on the editorial Board of the paper in the late 1990s. He died in August, having retired from The Guardian some years ago to start his own newspaper, The Pillar. I was a regular contributor to The Pillar. Soft spoken and mild mannered, Anietie was a brilliant reporter who loved journalism and did his job diligently. He served with uncommon dedication, integrity and excellence. This morning, I spoke with his wife, Imaobong, and she’s, expectedly, heartbroken and distraught. Incidentally, Imaobong’s elder sister was married to another friend of mine, Ani, who died in 2024 in Canada. So, I now have two widows to comfort; sympathize with; pray for and worry about.

Patrick Odey died last week at his home in Uyo. Until his passing, he was The Punch correspondent in Akwa Ibom State. Odey was industrious, dependable and quite resourceful. I first met him in 2018 when I worked in the media team of Nsima Ekere’s campaign organization. The name Odey attracted my attention because my close friend in my undergraduate days answered the same name. I found Patrick quite creative in handling the many media assignments and projects assigned to him.

This morning, I also spoke with Ekerete Udoh, Chief Press Secretary to Gov. Umo Eno; Aniekan Umanah, Commissioner for Information and Nsibiet John, NUJ Chairman in the state, on these deaths. I thank Ekerete in particular for supporting the conveyance of Odey’s body to his hometown in northern Cross River State. I have requested the NUJ chairman to mobilize the media community to support Odey and Akpan’s families. Politicians support each other; soldiers don’t leave their colleagues behind; bankers cry when a colleague goes home, and all we do as journalists is to report all these. But how do journalists support one another?