Nigerian Muslim journalist dies on Eid day, NSCIA mourns

An editor at the New Telegraph and a prominent member of the Nigeria Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs, Waheed Bakare has died.

This was disclosed earlier this morning by the NSCIA Media Committee chairman, Dr. Femi Abbas.

Bakare, who died on Sunday May 24, in the evening of 1441AH Eidul-fitr day, was Saturday Editor at the New Telegraph and a regular guest on TVC Journalists Hangout.

According to the statement released by the NSCIA, Bakare died after battling two-week illness.

“We of the Media Committee of Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA) hereby announce the demise of one of us, Waheed Bakare, an ardent journalist of international repute.

“His demise after a brief illness of about two weeks has come to reduce our media strength by a chunk,” Abbas disclosed.

Abbas further hailed Bakare’s media prowess used throughout his life to protect and defend Muslims and Islam in Nigeria.

“And, now, without him on board, the train of our profession continues its journey to a port of no specific destination.

Whenever we announce the obituary of a fellow, male or female, we hardly think of the implications of such for now or for the future.

“Nigerian Journalists, particularly Muslims, are an endangered professional specie whose deaths entail nothing more than mere lamentations with consequential public indifference,” Abbas said.

Femi Abbas therefore urged the Ummah to remember and support Bakare’s immediate family he left behind.

“Now, in death, he left behind, not only a wife but children as well. And this is a time when Journalists in private media outfits are virtually on their own in terms of salaries and other benefits. Who now cares for Bakare’s family?” Abbas added.

“While wishing the family of Waheed Bakare the right fortitude with which to bear the entailed agony of his demise, we also pray the Almighty Allah to repose the soul of deceased in perfect eternal bliss,” he concluded.