“Why I married Dele Giwa” Senator Florence Ita-Giwa, Wife Of Late Newswatch Editor, Discloses

Former special adviser, Senator Florence Ita-Giwa, spoke on a radio programme (Hit FM) in Calabar on Wednesday, disclosing why she fell in love and married her late husband, Dele Giwa.

Dele Giwa, who was the former  Editor-in-Chief of Newswatch magazine, was killed by a letter bomb on October 19, 1986.

PunchNg reports that she explained that she became interested in the journalistic write-ups as a result of the works of her mother, Beatrice Bassey-Ita and the likes of Peter Enahoro and Sam Amuka. Read what she said:

“I became attracted to journalism because of my mother and the likes of Peter Enahoro, Sam Amuka and others. My mother worked for the West African Pilot and later The Guardian before she joined Sketch where she retired. I stumbled into Dele Giwa because I liked his column. I did marry him eventually not because he was handsome, but what he had upstairs. When I met him coincidentally, I just told him that I had been reading his columns which I found entertaining and intellectually challenging. On that particular day, he looked at his time and said he was going home to write his column, he requested that I follow him to his house to see how he prepared the column, I agreed. We drove from Surulere to Ikeja because I was curious. When we got to his house, he went to his study and brought out one old typewriter and sat on the table with a glass of water and cognac and started typing straight from his head without looking at any material. He did this up till about 3.a.m the next morning, I was so amazed. I called my mum that early morning through his (landline) to inform her that I was with Dele Giwa and that he was typing his column from his head. From that day, we never parted until we got engaged three weeks after. He was a beautiful and intellectually rich human being that had so much in his head. He was very fearless. He was a prolific writer and I was always scared for his life.”

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The former presidential adviser, divulged this information as in response to a question on her relationship with Dele Giwa, the late prolific writer.