This piece is a difficult piece. The creative muse refused to cooperate; the words refused to flow; even the page seemed anaemic, and the pen at sometimes became rebellious. This obviously is not because I have lost my writing dexterity even when it’s been long I did something journalistic as this, perhaps because the sadness that enveloped my heart, the devastated position over the unimaginably sad reality that the subject of the piece; my great teacher, mentor, father, career confidant, boss, inspirer, motivator, benefactor, guardian and defender – Prof. Olaiwola Muraino Oso is gone. Indeed, communication scholarship is depleted.
I came across this beautiful creature in 1991, precisely when I got admitted into Ogun State Polytechnic for my National Diploma programme in Mass Communication. He was not teaching any of the courses at our level, but he was the most known to everyone. He was a disciplinarian, an astute scholar, a teacher per excellence, a distinguished mentor to some of our lecturers, a father figure to all in the department. The mention of his name would naturally spark fear in any student. My first lecture contact with him was in HND 1 where he taught us a course that he is widely known for; a course that have given him a name; a course that created a niche for him; a course I can confidently say without any apology, at least within my years of academic sojourn, that no one else taught as him – Communication Theory.
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Prof. Lai Oso indeed deserved the name “The King of Theory”, a name he was known for in the academic industry. It is practically impossible for any student taught by this enigma to have a deep and contextual understanding of not less than fifty theories of communication. Ditto to other courses, he was outstandingly a genius, such as Communication and National Development, Community Journalism and Broadcasting, and Public Relations. His scholarly books in these areas remain unbeatable until today. Shockingly, since his departure from the polytechnic, knowledge in these areas has indeed depleted.
An academic of repute, whose objective for book writing was purely pivoted on the advancement of knowledge beyond frontiers; our faithful departed Prof. Lai Oso stood for excellence as against the recent trend where commercialization is prioritized above knowledge transition. I could vividly recollect when he was to birth one of his books: “Communication and Development: A Reader, published under the umbrella of Jedidiah Publishers, it took consistent efforts of his disciples to persuade him to write. In fact, when the pressure became so unbearable to him and perhaps to get him motivated, grapevine information had it that it took the likes of Messrs. Kayode Ayankojo, Bidemi Osunbiyi, and Sulaimon Osho draft a table of content for him to further coerce him to do their bidding. Nothing pointed to the fact that he fancied book writing as much as he does to journal publications. But the thinking of those disciples was that Prof. Oso was a living Communication Library who should not die without replicating those contents in his head for future generations.
Afterwards, our communication encyclopedia has authored more books that are points of reference by other scholars. Today, the giant of communication has to his credit over two hundred published articles in highly rated national and international journals, sixty eight of which he had before he left Moshood Abiola Polytechnic for greater accomplishments – a feat that accorded him a record that will forever be one of its kind in the history of Moshood Abiola Polytechnic as the first and the only lecturer ever promoted from Senior lectureship to Chief Lecturer. Again, with his demise, scholarship is depleted.
In mentorship, no one has beaten his record anywhere he was privileged to work. At Ogun State Polytechnic now Moshood Abiola Polytechnic Moshood Abiola Polytechnic, where he mentored me from studentship into lectureship, none after him came near his mentorship prowess. While I was everywhere doing all available postgraduate degrees after my Higher National Diploma, Prof. was a standing pillar that propelled my spirit. “Wasiu, it is better to have what you don’t need than to need what you don’t have”. Those were those words that made me go through five universities, including Babcock University, where I bagged my doctorate degree in 2019.
At another instance, during my studentship in the Polytechnic, during the most controversial period in the history of our department; “The Bilikisu Obey’s era”, those who witnessed it would understand what I meant, I was the Secretary General of the Association of Mass Communication Students (AMACOS), who was innocently taken to be a part of a masked mafia tormenting the department under his headship, he called me after an altercation between him and the executives, again one day and said: “Wasiu, there is danger in following the crowd. Those words have livening up my career as an academic.
There is no living tertiary institution of learning in Nigeria, offering Mass Communication or ‘Media Studies’ as some institutions have it, that our dinosaur of communication studies have not impacted. He was external examiners mostly at postgraduate levels to almost all of them in the South, in the North, and even in the East.
Quoting from Olaniyonu’s tribute: “he was one of the few teachers of that course who have attended to students at all levels – from National Diploma to Doctorate level. He had taught in over 20 universities either as full-time, part-time, or guest lecturer, external examiner, external assessor, doctorate student supervisor, and so on”. The departed Prof. Oso was a nationalist in media studies mentorship. At Caleb University where he did the sabbatical that took him officially out from polytechnic academic sojourn; Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago-Iwoye and Lagos State Polytechnic where he worked till his death, testimonies at his residence on the Sunday his death was publicly announced by Head of Departments, Deans of Faculties, and other faculty members present reflected that his mentorship intrepidness remain unconquered.
The question on every lip is: Who else do we run to for academic mentorship? Who would pick our calls at odd times as Prof. Oso did? Honestly, without prejudice to other great scholars still living, Oso’s mentorship remains unbowed. Yet, scholarship is once more depleted.
An advocate of free speech, which until his last breath he stood on, Prof. Oso did not only say it, he walked the talk. As Head of Department, he was a fantastic professional under whose leadership all departmental publications thrived and breathed. No gagging, no intimidation on the parts of both the students and their staff advisers from any quarter. An apostle of objectivity, truthfulness and fairness, he was an ethical teacher, leader and professional who would encourage you to write and criticize government and authorities without any fear or favour as long as all information are factual and can be proven. He saw campus journalism as an instrument of social reformation rather than a megaphone of institutional authorities. I could remember vividly in a particular Poly Echo edition, wherein the management was, though, badly battered in a report of mismanagement, an allegation that is truthful with facts and figures. As usual, the management raised an eyebrow over the report, and the editor, Sunday Saanu, was summoned to a panel. As the sitting Head of Department and a professional that he was, Prof. Oso insisted that the reporters did not do anything unethical; that unless the management can prove otherwise on the allegation, he refused to allow both the editor and the adviser to be sacrificed by the management. The Sunday Saanu that was not sacrificed is today a senior officer in the Public Relations Unit of the premier university, University of Ibadan. Do we still have such leaders in our various departments? Are we not now witnessing where it is, even the Head of Department, that would pioneer the process of sacrifice of both the editorial adviser and possibly the reporters. Is this a reflection of professionalism consumed or proof of loyalty to authorities? Posterity would tell. Scholarship in professional mentorship is indeed, further depleted.
A philanthropic Oso is another version of him not known to many. Contrary to the unscientific belief that the Ijebu people are stingy, our dear legend transcends this bias as he is not just a giver but a silent philanthropist. Despite that the take home of a lecturer of Prof. Oso’s calibre is never enough for his needs – family, research, and publications – this down to earth man has many indigents on his scholarship at all levels of education. One of the beneficiaries, a younger brother of a renowned broadcaster, could not hold his emotions while eulogizing the large hearted Oso’s gesture towards him and his likes. A successful young man who, throughout his tertiary education, enjoyed Prof. Oso’s scholarship, which covered tuition, accommodation, feeding, provision of books, and research materials, referred to him as God sent. He is not the only one in this class. Several others whose voices may not be heard are there on the kind gesture of this legend academic. Without their benefactor, and in the absence of anyone who would further this gesture, what becomes of these scholarship recipients? Scholarship continues to be depleted.
A deep reflection into the life and times of this departed, but ‘living’ legend further saddened me as I am yet to see one of the new generation lecturers who fits in to the ideals of what he stood for (knowledge expansion beyond frontiers), all he struggled for (professionalism), what he advocated for (freedom of expression and free press), what he desire for (government and authority’s accountability to citizens). Would his exit not become “One Death, Too Many”? Who replicates his ideals among the breeds he left behind? Will scholarships not be more depleted? Time will tell.
To all of us living communication scholars, Lai Oso came, he saw, and he obviously conquered. Every tribute in his honour remains a sincere reflection of what he was that most us were unable to express to him in his lifetime; perhaps because we are aware he is not a man who enjoy such frivolities of praises. Without a doubt, his contributions and impact have given rise to countless human lives, which will continue to flourish. As aptly put by Jamiu Folarin :“Oso’s enduring legacy is majorly in the thousands of scholars he has built both in the academics and industry over time. His impact and everlasting memory will be etched in his dedicated service to humanity”.
The million naira questions I wish to ask are: What will be said of you after your own demise? Who are your mentees? Who are the beneficiaries of your own scholarship? How many people did you sacrifice just to protect that position, which to your small mind, will never end? What is the impact of your efforts towards professionalism? Are they progressive or retrogressive? Those on whose panels you acted as experts or external examiners, did you remember the aftermath of your recommendations? Of course while no sane person would wished anyone dead, did you also remember that death don’t give quit notice, just as it did not give to our Professor Lai Oso, what then do you think would be the contents of your condolence register? Let me ask again, if those students whom you asked to re-purchase that textbook they once bought before without it being revised, but you just took advantage of their situation because they had carry-over in the course you facilitated which you are still privileged to take survived you, do you imagine what would be the contents of their tributes after your demise? What will be the comments of those staff and students whose lives you mortgaged to fuel your greed? Let every conscience judge itself; the end surely will justify the means. No matter what any mortar does, our actions and inactions will sure define what would be said about us after our demise.
As a student supervisee of Prof. Oso, he never knew who typed my project for me; are you replicating his ideals when you transcend from being a supervisor into ‘project production manager’ because of your pecuniary motives? If you assess yourself and your conscience failed you in those tests above, even if you had once being a student of this late legend, then know that you are one of those who are working to jeopardize his ideals, as such, you are not a proud member of Lai Oso dynasty.
Wasiu Tejuoso, Ph.D. is a lecturer in the Department of Mass Communication, Moshood Abiola Polytechnic, Abeokuta.
