It is with grief and a heavy heart that we received the sad news of the passing on of one of the doyen of the media and pioneer Managing Director of The Guardian newspapers, Dr Stanley Macebuh who died Sunday morning at 67.

Apart from his immense contributions as father of the intellectual genre of the newspaper industry, Macebuh, a renowned prose stylist and wordsmith will be fondly remembered for robustly steering The Guardian newspapers from its inception in 1983 and making it a must read for the intelligentsia and policy makers both in government and business.

With its different innovative sections which provided refreshing insights into news behind the news and its motto: Conscience, nurtured by truth, The Guardian has lived up to its image as one of the country’s most authoritative newspapers. Macebuh’s views was also fired by an uncanny vision of patriotism and fervent belief in the Nigerian project.

As chairman, editorial board of the Daily Times, the country’s surviving oldest newspaper, Macebuh and his able team of writers became a strong voice for galvanising national discourse on critical issues that transformed the paper into a formidable platform for alternate viewpoints. It is a salute to his management prowess that he not only mentored many of the country’s high profile journalists but many publishers also consulted him to grow their newspapers from infancy.

Besides Sentinel which was published in Kaduna, Macebuh a man who spared little thought about material wealth also founded The Post Express, the first Nigerian newspaper with an electronic edition that prepared the way for the IT evolution in the newspaper industry. The paper became popular for those seeking information about the country from outside its shores.

While the government and people of Edo State wishes to commiserate with the Macebuh family and the management of The Guardian, at this moment of tribulation, our consolation however is that Macebuh has left great marks on the sands of time.