Who Is Ebenezer Williams?
Abiodun Aloba (1921-2001) was a Nigerian journalist from Edo State, Nigeria who was an editor in the Times Group of Newspapers and later became the general manager of the Nigerian Observer. He was one of the founding members of the Zikist Movement in 1946 (a radical political group founded in February 1946 by young enthusiastic Nigerian nationalists).
Aloba wrote a few booklets and insightful articles on Nigeria.
He is sometimes considered a pioneer of the Nigerian press.
The Life of EW
Abiodun Aloba (Ebenezer Williams) was born on December 21, 1921 to Timothy Aloba. He went to St Paul's School, in Igbara Oke and then Government College, Ibadan. He started his journalism career in 1945, when an article he sent to the Daily Service was printed. Prior to that, he worked with the United African Company. In 1945, he started working in the press room at the Nigerian Mercantile Guardian and the Nigerian Advocate, he was then the latter's assistant editor, a year later, he moved to the West African pilot (1946-1947), the Comet and then the Eastern States Express (1949-1952) where he served as the editor. He joined the Times Group in 1952. He became the Editor of the Sunday Times subsequently.
In 1961, he became the Editor of the Morning Post and at the onset of the first military regime in the Mid-West; he was called on to help the region's governmental mouthpiece as a founding manager of the Nigerian Observer. He also helped in starting the Nigerian Herald of Kwara State later in the 1970s.
In the political arena, he worked with the late Abubkar Tafawa Balewa (First Prime minister of Nigeria) and was a special assistant to Shehu Shagari (First Executive President of Nigeria).
In 1983, Aloba returned home to Benin City and went into private practice. He died on January 28, 2001. He was a relentless advocate for children and the less privileged.
Aloba chose the pen name Ebenezer Williams.
A lot has been written about the late Ebenezer Williams.
QUOTES:
“Of particular interest to me was a columnist popularly known as Abiodun Aloba (also known as Ebenezer Williams) who wrote so brilliantly that I asked God for his kind of diction.”
By: Dele Momodu
“It was in Sunday Times that the seemingly controversial Aloba made many lasting admirers, and of course enemies, on his column as Ebenezer Williams.”
By: Nigerian Observer
“Another key player in my image-making role was Abiodun Aloba, an erstwhile member of the Zikist Movement.”
By: Former Nigerian President, Alhaji Shehu Shagari
“For in his heyday the contemporary generation of field commanders in Nigerian journalism posing as generals would not have been fit to tie his shoe laces.”
By: Peter Enahoro
“Many feared his excruciating punches. Behind his pen is a power that has made plain the foibles of many mighty men.”
By: Yinka Aderibigbe
“In the years to come, his work in other newspapers would make him the best known Nigerian journalist of his generation. His Sunday Times column under the anonym of Ebenezer Williams, was especially admired for its sardonic style.”
By: Former Nigerian President, Alhaji Shehu Shagari
“I satisfied myself and I would say I satisfied my God, by saying what I believed was true.”
By: Ebenezer Williams
