By Precious D Freeman
The management team of the Inquirer Newspaper has vowed to uphold the legacy of its fallen Managing Editor, Philip Nemene Wesseh, who was on last Friday, October 28, interred at the Brewerville Cemetery in Montserrado County.
Paying the paper’s last respect during the funeral service held at the Trinity United Methodist Church in the Borough of New Kru Town, the Acting Managing Editor, C. Winnie Saywah-Jimmy, eulogized the veteran pen pusher as one on whose shoulders the paper stood for over three decades.
She noted that as now he is in peaceful repose, his name will indeed remain a household name in the Liberian media as The Inquirer meant Philip N. Wesseh.
She made the vow at the somber occasion which was entreated with beautiful melodious Kru and English songs by the Trinity United Methodist Choir graced by the late Wesseh’s family including his wife, Teplah Toe-Wesseh and children who arrived from the United States to pay their last homage to their father and husband.
Wesseh was a father for everyone including, wayward folks, commonly known as “Zogos” the educated and uneducated class, and all spheres of human beings.
In a morose voice, she mentioned that Gina, as he was called among his peers; JY to his kids; Phil to his acquaintance; Uncle Philip for his younger staff and PNW would generally be used to identify this great son who inherited Grand Kru as a country of origin, yet in reality hailed from Maryland County.
According to her, the Managing Editor of Liberia’s oldest newspaper which has been on the newsstand since January 1991 in the country, cuts across several spectrums of the society and means different things to different people; having touched their lives in variety of ways.
In a mourning tone Madam Saywah-Jimmy added that Wesseh was the second Managing Editor of the Inquirer Newspaper since 1995 following the departure of the paper’s founding editor, then diplomat, Gabriel I. H. Williams, to the United States of America.
“PNW was also one of the prominent figures in socio-economic and political development of Liberia with over 40 years of professional services to the country carrying a pen that wrote nothing aside from ethical journalism,” she said.
“Indeed our hearts are heavy amidst lack of hand-over note as we shall neither hear his voice again though his resourceful articles linger on, giving us hope that the pen in reality has dried up and that he has indeed rested his case but his legacy lives on,” Inquirer Acting Managing Editor lamented.
“We too are left to fathom if his favorite quote, “I rest my case” did not actually mean perpetuity and if not, then for us, all we are able to say as we continue to come to terms with your passing is, Gina, we too, rest our case until we meet again,” she said.
Saywah-Jimmy stated that indeed, the great Gina has fallen and it is worth noting that his goodness has begun running after him and a crown awaits him.
“We, the entire Inquirer Newspaper staff, express our profound regrets and our promise is that we will uphold his Legacy and ‘Death, be not proud, though some have called the Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so’,” she concluded.
Also paying his tribute, the publisher of Liberia’s oldest newspaper, Daily Observer, Kenneth Yakpawolo Best, who is considered as the old hands in the business and a mentor to the deceased, showered praises on the fallen Liberian journalist who started his journalism career with the Daily Observer.
During Best’s tribute, the journalism advisor at the Internews Network, Maureen Sieh burst into tears as Best’s tribute was being paid recounting the journalism work during the life of Philip N. Wesseh on earth.
