By Kehinde AdAdemuyiwa
Dr Adeola Yusuff
Three alumni of the Department of Mass Communication, Crescent University, Abeokuta, were recently conferred with Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degrees at the combined 29th and 30th Convocation Ceremonies of Lagos State University, LASU, Ojo.
The three new doctors are Waheed Ogunjobi, Adeola Yusuf and Sussan Ngozi.
In the same ceremony held on Wednesday, August 19, 2026, another product of the department, Nurudeen Salako, who had graduated with a First Class from Crescent University, capped his Master’s degree with a Distinction.
The feat has not only brought pride to the Crescent University community but has further cemented the institution’s growing reputation as a citadel of academic and moral excellence.
Head of Department of Mass Communication of the Abeokuta based University, Dr Kola Adesina, a Nigerian-British veteran journalist and communicator, has in recent years been quietly but steadily transforming the future of media training in Nigeria.
The department recently scored 93.5 per cent in the accreditation exercise of the National Universities Commission (NUC) and has now produced a cluster of doctoral graduates in a single convocation, a development that speaks volumes about the depth of its academic foundation.
Dr Waheed Abiodun Ogunjobi
Dr Suzan Ngozi
Dr Nurudeen Salako
Dr Waheed Abiodun Ogunjobi, a Senior Editor with the Ogun State Broadcasting Corporation, OGBC, and Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Institute of Public Relations, NIPR, Ogun State Chapter, earned his PhD from LASU.
He had earlier earned a First Class degree from Crescent University and a Master’s degree from the University of Lagos.
Dr Adeola Yusuf, the Team Lead and Editor-in-Chief of Platforms Africa, was also conferred with a PhD. Yusuf, who graduated from Crescent University in 2013, is a multiple award-winning journalist and publisher whose academic journey has always run alongside his professional practice.
His emergence as a doctorate degree holder, alongside his pioneer colleagues, is further proof that the department’s foundation was laid on solid rock from the very beginning.
On her part,Dr Susan Ngozi, the third of the trio, also earned her PhD from LASU, and her achievement further strengthens the argument that the Crescent University Mass Communication Department has become a place where scholars are made and not just students who pass through.
For Nurudeen Salako, who had earlier graduated with a First Class from Crescent University before proceeding to LASU for his Master’s degree, the story is no different.
He earned a Distinction, and his performance has confirmed that the training he received at Crescent was not ordinary. Salako, who works in corporate communications and public relations, had already distinguished himself during his undergraduate days, and his showing at LASU has further validated the quality of foundation he got from his alma mater.
What makes his case special is that it shows Crescent graduates do not only shine at home; they go to other institutions and still stand out. It is one thing to be a big fish in your own pond; it is another thing to enter a bigger pond and still be recognised as a big fish.
That is exactly what Salako and the three new doctors have done, and it is the kind of result that any university would be proud of.
The LASU feat is, however, only one chapter in a much larger story.
The Department of Mass Communication at Crescent University has itself recently crossed a historic milestone, conferring PhDs on its pioneer set of doctoral graduates. Six candidates made up that inaugural cohort, and their successful defence of their theses marked the formal coming of age of the department’s doctoral programme. The pioneer PhD holders are Sunday Olakunle Somorin, a former Chief Press Secretary to the Ogun State Governor and veteran journalist; Odenike Timothy Omolaso, a Lecturer at the Federal Polytechnic, Ilaro, who etched his name in the institution’s records as the very first PhD graduate in Mass Communication in the history of Crescent University; Olufunmilayo Thomas-Kuye, also of the Federal Polytechnic, Ilaro; Morayo Ayoola, a lecturer at the Federal Polytechnic, Ilaro; Modupe Apanishile, a Senior Information Officer at the Public Relations Unit of the Federal Medical Centre; and Oluwatoyin Idehenre, Confidential Secretary to the Honourable Commissioner for Youth and Sports.
The pioneer doctoral candidates were examined by a distinguished panel of external examiners, a testament to the rigour and seriousness with which the department approached its first doctoral cohort. The panel included Professor Dele Odunlami, Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences at Olabisi Onabanjo University (OOU), Ago-Iwoye; Professor O. Oyewo, a renowned scholar in media and communication studies at the Department of Communication and Language Arts, University of Ibadan; and Professor Akanni Tunde Musibau of Lagos State University (LASU), a well-decorated international scholar with extensive grants and sponsorship experience.
The oral defence sessions spanned three intensive days, with two candidates examined per day, making for a long and demanding week for both the candidates and the examiners. Their rigorous evaluation and scholarly input underscored the depth and quality of research produced by the graduating set, further validating the university’s contribution to the field of mass communication.
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When asked what this moment means to him and to the department, the HOD, Dr Adesina said, “It means that their labour is not in vain. It means that the seeds they have been planting in the lives of these young men and women are yielding fruit that will nourish generations to come.
When they train their students, they do not just teach them to pass examinations. They teach them to think, to question, to research and to lead. They tell them that the certificate they collect is only the beginning. So to see them now being conferred with PhDs, the highest academic degree in the field, is a fulfilment of their mission. Our Mass Communication is not just a department; it is a factory where scholars and media leaders are produced. He added
On what the department does differently, Dr Adesina explained that they do not just teach students about communication; they make them communicators.
According to him, from their first year, the students are writing, producing, broadcasting, and publishing. He explained that the department has created a culture where practical work is not optional but compulsory, and that they produce newspapers, magazines, radio programmes, and online content as part of the training. He also emphasised character and discipline, noting that a brilliant student without character is a dangerous person.
He added that they train the head and they train the heart. That, according to him, is why when their graduates go elsewhere, they do not just survive; they thrive, because they are already grounded in research, already published, and already have the discipline to succeed. ‘’When any of our students apply for a post graduate programme anywhere in the world, they are not starting from scratch; they are building on a solid foundation,’’ he said.
The HOD further explains that the success of these alumni is not a coincidence, and it did not start today. According to him, the department’s slogan, “Our First Class is World Class,” was not coined in a vacuum. It came from a track record that includes alumni like Dr Rafiat Gawat Raji, a First Class product of the department who earned a scholarship to pursue a Master’s degree at Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen, Scotland, and has since become a distinguished scholar.
The department has graduates working with global brands such as the BBC and Nestlé. It also mentors PhD students and encourages its graduates to aim for the highest levels of academic achievement. So when three of them bag PhDs at the same convocation and another earns a Master’s with Distinction, it is simply the latest chapter in a long and proud story, he added.
Crescent University, Abeokuta, was founded in 2005 by the late Judge Bola Ajibola, a former Attorney General of Nigeria and Judge at the International Court of Justice. The university is built on the pillars of academic and moral excellence, and its Department of Mass Communication offers a curriculum that covers journalism, broadcasting, public relations, advertising and digital media production.
The department is committed to producing graduates who are not just job seekers but job creators, equipped with the skills and knowledge to succeed in the global media industry. The convocation of August 19, 2026, will be remembered for many things.
Still, for Crescent University, it will be remembered as the day the institution’s investment in its students came back with dividends of three PhDs and a Master’s with Distinction, and as the year the department’s own doctoral programme came of age.
