..…Car plunges into river on return from examining a Delta State PHD Student.
Prof. Lai Oso
The academic community lost an icon Saturday in person of Professor Lai Oso of the Lagos state University.
Prof. Oso was returning to Shagamu from Abraka by road after being an External Supervisor of a PHD Mass Communication Student at the Delta State University, Abraka when the vehicle conveying him plunged into a river near Ijebu-Ode in Ogun State.
Prof. Oso was a former Dean of the School of Communication Studies of the Lagos State University (LASU) where he was a Lecturer until his death.
He was one of the pioneer lecturers of the department of Mass Communication, the Ogun state Polytechnic in 1980.
He rose through the ranks and with dint of academic studies and work later became a Chief Lecturer and Head of Department of the institution now known as Moshood Abiola Polytechnic, Abeokuta.
Prof Oso who worked with Radio and News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) is current President, Association of Communication Scholars and Professionals (ACSPN).
He obtained his first degree in Mass Communication BSc at the University of Lagos; had his M.Sc in International Relations at Obafemi Awolowo University and got his Ph.D. in Mass Communication as a Federal Government Scholar at the Leicester University, England in 1977.
His Shagamu residence was jam packed with eminent Scholars and relations on Sunday at about noon.
One of the numerous visitors is the Dean of the Faculty of Communication and Media Studies at LASU, Prof. Sunday Alawode who confirmed the news to news hounds on Sunday .
Said he,“It is a rude shock to all of us even as we commiserate with Mummy Oso, the children and his entire family, the Communication family worldwide.
Prof. Lai Oso is survived by his wife, retired Matron Bimbo Oso of the Ogun State Health Management Services; his first child, Dr. Miss Simisola Oso who is also a Lecturer in the Faculty of Science at LASU and Mojo Oso Esq a lawyer who is planning to move abroad.
A former Dean of the School of Communication Studies Moshood Abiola Polytechnic, Dr. Goke Rauf who was also at the Shagamu home of the OSOS lamented the passage of “a good man and an iconic scholar well respected in the Communication Academia in Africa’.
Most of his students and colleagues in the Profession and at the Ogun State Polytechnic who are on the Mass Comm Platform (Mostly pioneer students of the department) described the news as a very bad one making this day a Black Sunday unto us”. Everyone expressed deep sorrow that a gentleman of the Pen Confraternity has exited.
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Patmos Media Line, Rev. Eniola Olatunji (formerly Yomi Kassim) said he knew Lai Oso in 1979 when he was a Correspondent of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abeokuta and he was the Sports Reporter of the Ogun State Broadcasting Corporation (OGBC).
Said he: “I can never forget Prof. Lai Oso. He made me go back to school. I had spotted a great error in the arrangement of the 1979 Ogun Green Courts which was an International Lawn Tennis Tournament on the ATP circuit at the Premises of the Abeokuta Sports Club and Lai Oso talked down on me telling me not to waste by brilliance but upgrade myself academically instead of being comfortable as a School Cert Holder”. I complied.
Dr. Oso visited my family at our Kado Estate home in 2001 when he came with the Ogun State Chapter of the Nigerian Institute of Public Relations (NIPR) to the Annual Conference at the Women Center as I also served for four years on the Executive of the Oyo State Chapter and we used to have tripartite programmes with the Lagos and Ogun State Chapters. The news of his death was shocking to me and my wife, Dr. Bunmi Olatunji a Chief Consultant Radiologist at the National Hospital, Abuja. His 2001 visit coincided with when my wife joined the National Hospital and was “washed’ by delegates of the Oyo and Ogun Chapters which then Dr. Oso was the Chief Organizer.
According to Tunde Abatan,Editor of Newdawnngr.com,”the news of his death came to me as a rude shock.”
Apart from being one of the early lecturers at the them Ogun state Polytechnic in 1980,Prof Oso has remained a confidant and mentor who had remained a source of inspiration to me.”
Professor Oso was the lead facilitator at a Three day Training Workshop my company of organized for the Correspondent chapel of Lagos state in 2017 sponsored by the Lagos state government.
U will surely moss his counselling,advice and be a rare passion for excellence in journalism”
As at the time of writing this report,the family is still busy mourning his passage and there has not been a hint on his burial arrangements.
Eniola Olatunji
reporting for Patmos Media Line with agency reports.
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