The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Mass Comm

  • UNILAG Mass Comm: ’87 set donates interactive boards to dept

    The 1987 set of the department of Mass Communication alumni at the University of Lagos ( UNILAG ) has donated a set of interactive boards to the department.

    The coordinator of the 87 set, Alh. Tajudeen Adeyemi described the event as a privilege to give back to the department.

    He said, “The idea of this initiative came about at our second reunion. We thought of doing a tangible project that will be useful to both the staff and students of the department and contacted one of us, Dr. Olubunmi Ajibade, a senior lecturer in the department and he suggested interactive boards.”

    Adeyemi, who commissioned the facilities was accompanied by the President of Unilag Mass Communication Alumni Association (UMCAA), Mr. Vincent Oyo and members of the 87 set;
    Managing Director of Complete Communications, Alh. Mumuni Alao, Mr. Michael Bamigbola and Mr. Taiwo Osunsanya among others.

    Oyo said the move was a beginning of more support initiatives that would come to the department.

    He expressed enthusiasm that the interest of the department’s alumni body was to train students to do big things in the future.

    Uyo noted that the goal of UMCAA was to ensure that the department is transformed to a viable faculty of communication.

    He added however, that the association has been intensifying its efforts to kick start its “Gown-to-Town” programme which he said, was inspired by the need to intimate students with the best media industry experience.

    Meanwhile, in her address, the head of department, Prof. Abigail Ogwezzy-Ndisika described the gesture as a direction towards the destination communication is going globally.

    She expressed joy and gratitude just as she said the facilities would serve as one one the ways through which the staff and students of the department will “reskill and retool.”

     

  • 24-year-old bags third first class in BUK Mass Comm

    After 43 years, a 24-year-old Rufai Omeiza Aliyu of the Department Mass Communication, Bayero University Kano, made history, as he became the third student to bag first class degree.

    The Nation learnt that since the establishment of the department in 1975 under the Faculty of Communication, only two students  had made a first class before Aliyu.

    Alhassan Ado Doguwa bagged a first class in 1990, and Victor Olunloye, 2010.

    The Kogi-born graduate, who had a Cumulative Grade Point Average (CGPA) of 4.51, dedicated his academic success to God . “I dedicate my success to God Almighty, who has been my strength all through my academic pursuit so far,” he said.

    Aliyu was born into Dahiru Ohindase family on April 25, 1993 at Okene Eba in Okene Local Government Area of Kogi Central. He lost his dad six years after.

    He recalled that his father’s demise left a vacuum for his mum to fill. “I must admit it was tough, but through perseverance, hardwork and prayers, I was able to achieve my goal, which has always been first class from day one.

    “It was really not easy, because along the line, there were so many challenges, but with God’s help, I was able to overcome them.

    “My mother has been my strength and pillar that supported me all this while through my primary, secondary and to the tertiary level, and to God be the glory, who has crowned her efforts, with this great achievement,” he said.

    Commenting on Aliyu’s feat, his level coordinator, Dr Ashir Ashir, said: “I discovered him at the end of first semester examinations of his 100-Level, when he posted 5.00, and had since monitored and mentored him till the end.

    “Omeiza is highly intelligent, a bookworm, a genius that is highly conscious of his background and I’m not surprised he joined the exclusive class of mass communication graduates at the end of his programme.

     

    Dr Ashir revealed, I have visited the school at odd hours to monitor him and each time, I found Omeiza in the Library, or in the classroom conducting tutorial for his course mates, and apart from this, he is good footballer.

     

  • Mass Comm students host PR retreat

    The graduating class of Department of Mass Communication of the Lagos State Polytechnic (LASPOTECH), Ikorodu, has organised a Public Relations Retreat with the theme: The rise of advertising and the fall of public relations.

    The event, organised by part-time students, was held at the Students’ Union Building (SUB). The guest speaker and chairman of the Lagos chapter of Nigeria Institute of Public Relations (NIPR), Mr Olusegun McMedal, described public relations as a profession that “safeguards reputation”, adding that its objectives were to achieve good goals for clients.

    He attributed challenges facing the profession to activities of non-professionals, noting that the practice of public relations should not be left in the hands of people who only want to make profit.

    McMedal advised students interested in public relations to apply for NIPR training programmes and membership to learn from the professionals.

    Another speaker and Chief Executive Officer, Mega Guards, a private security firm, Mr Richard Amuwa, said the rise of advertising was not the reason for the challenges facing public relations, noting that advertising also has its challenges.

    Amuwa also spoke on nation building, admonishing the students to imbibe good character. He said education should not be about building big structures, but to produce brilliant graduates that would serve the country for better purposes.

  • Mass Comm students bid HOD Farewell

    Mass Communication Department of the Kogi State University (KSU) in Anyigba, has bade its Head, Dr Chika Asogwa, farewell. The event, which held at Prof Francis Idachaba Theatre, was attended by staff and students.

    Asogwa, a Catholic Reverend Sister, was described as a woman, who  revolutionised the department.

    Staff and students took turns to eulogise the HOD for her dedication, hard work, discipline and academic brilliance. Asogwa was said to have used her creativity to stop malpractice and manipulation in the department.

    The Deputy Vice-Chancellor (DVC), Dr Salihu Musa, who represented the university management, described Asogwa as “a woman of taintless character”, saying her dedication to service was unparalleled.

    He said: “It is painful to lose this woman of virtue to another institution. We can’t help but let you go. You have shown us that, where there is a will, there is always a way. You came to touch our lives in different ways. All we can do now is to wish you the best in your new capacity.”

    In an emotion-laden voice, a lecturer, Dr Gabriel Ottah, said the exit of Dr Asogwa had created a large vacuum that would be difficult fill. The department’s Examination Officer, Mr. Success Ojih, said Asogwa changed the department’s fortunes during her tenure.

    Reacting, visibly overwhelmed Asogwa expressed gratitude to the staff and students for support and cooperation she enjoyed while she was in the saddle. According to her, there is no way she could have succeeded in her role as HOD without the cooperation of staff and students. She said everything she did was for the benefit of the department.

    Highlights of the ceremony included a drama presentation in which students humorously portrayed the former HOD’s character. This elicited admiration from members of the audience.

    The drama was followed by presentation of gift to Asogwa by students.

  • Mass Comm wins faculty debate

    Mass Comm wins faculty debate

    Department of Mass Communication of the University of Lagos (UNILAG) has won the Faculty of Social Sciences Debate, which was organised by Social Sciences Students’ Association (SOSSA). The department won the debate for the second time in a rowý.

    Femi Akinseye, a 200-Level Mass Communication student, beat 16 other contestants to emerge winner of the debate. Charles Agu, a 400-Level Mass Communication student, won the last year’s edition.

    The debate with the theme: Africa and the future we see, tested contestants’ knowledge on Africa’s social institutions and challenges.

    After the opening round, four contestants moved to the final round to discuss the topics: Religion as a hindrance to developments in Africa and Secession is the lasting solution to the states at wars.

    Funke Ademola-Aliu of Mass Communication Department argued that the 21st Century produced criminals, who hid under the guise of religion to perpetrate terrorism, corruption, environmental pollution among others.

    But, Femi opposed the argument, arguing that religion had been the fulcrum of developments in Africa. He said prominent pioneers of education in Africa were the missionaries, who came from Europe to build schools and establish of printing presses, among others.

    He added that leaders of all religious had registered preach against terrorism, corruption and ethnicity, adding that religious organisations gave more scholarship to the less-privileged than the political class.

    Femi said: “Religion has contributed to the economy through religious organisations. Several business establishments ranging from banks, media and publishing houses have been established by religious bodies to promote socio-economic wellbeing of the people. Today, religious organisations run several humanitarian and charity organisations that provide services to tackle poverty and malnutrition.”

    At the end of the debate, Femi was declared winner. Akpan Joseph of Department of Economics came second, while Funke came third. Margaret Azuma of Geography Department came fourth.

    SOSSA president, Saheed Ipaye, said the essence of the debate was to engage students to critically analyse challenges facing Africa. He said SOSSA would continue to train world-class debaters the country would be proud of.

    Femi described his feat as “great”, hailing the organiser for giving him the opportunity to develop his intellect.

  • Mass Comm. wins soccer contest

    Mass Comm. wins soccer contest

    It was all excitement at the sport centre of the Kogi State University (KSU) in Anyigba as Students’ Union Government (SUG) organised a soccer contest for all departments of the school. The contest started with preliminary stages, where the departments were divided into groups.

    The teams which qualified from the group stage were fixed against one another in the knock-out stage, leaving Mass Communication and Philosophy departments to qualify for the final round.

    At the final match, players of the Mass Communication Department were clad in yellow jersey and led to the field by the supporters, while their counterparts from Philosophy adorned green jersey.

    It was a hard challenge for the communication students playing against Philosophy team whose members are professional players in the university’s football team.

    The Philosophy students dominated the field as they seemed more experienced than their counterparts in Mass Communication.

    The Mass Communication players, knowing the capability of their midfielder, Peace Egwuda, decided to feed the player with some deft passes to destabilise their opponents’ defence.

    After 90 minutes, the match ended goalless. This made the referee to take decision and called for penalty shootout.

    Philosophy’s Joseph Enemali, who kicked the first penalty, missed the goal. But all Mass Communication players scored points with their kicks. The penalty ended 5-4 in favour of the Mass Communication.

    At the end of the match, Peace was declared the Man of the Match, due to his magical left foot that disorganised the opponents for the duration of the match.

  • Mass Comm. applicant emerges best in AAUA test

    A prospective student of Mass Communication, Fuad Oriloye, has emerged overall best candidate among 17,717 applicants that sat for the post-Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) organised by the Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba-Akoko (AAUA in Ondo State.

    Fuad scored 259 in UTME and had 86 per cent in the entrance exam of the university.

    Mercy Akinmusire, a Direct Entry candidate, who applied to study English Education, came second, scoring 82 per cent.

    Other candidates who had high scores include Emmanuel Adeniji, a Direct Entry candidate of Mass Communication, Busayo Leramo, a prospective History and International Studies student, and John Bamidele, who also put in for History and International Studies. They all had 80 per cent.

    Reacting to the development, the Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Academic, Prof Oluyemisi Adebowale, expressed delight at the development, saying: “It is a toast and a reflection of the quality of the examinations conducted by the university and Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB).”

    She congratulated the outstanding candidates, saying the university would not only admit them but was also keen to see them joining list of its best students.

    About 5,513 of the candidates, who sat for the test, scored 45 per cent and above.

     

  • Mass Comm wins faculty debate

    A Student of the Department of Mass Communication of the University of Lagos (UNILAG), Charles Agu, has emerged winner of theInter-departmental debate of the Faculty of Social Science. He beat five opponents from other departments to win the contest.

    The debate, with the theme: State fragility: The bane of Nigeria security challenges, had participants testing their knowledge on a wide range of topics. The first set of speakers from the departments of Economics, Political Science and Psychology supported the motion, while speakers from Social Work, Mass Communication and Sociology opposed the motion.

    The presenters mounted the podium to buttress their points, after which they were given an impromptu topic to debate on.

    The debater from Political Science spoke on “EFCC is relevant to fighting corruption”, his counterpart from Sociology spoke on “Nigeria should withdraw from the United Nations: True or false” and debater from Social Work spoke on “LGBT right is a prevention of fundamental human rights in Nigeria”.

    The debater from Economics spoke on “The power tussle in national assembly an index of democratic consolidation”, while the speaker from Mass Communication spoke on “Devaluation of Naira: A right step towards economic development” and thedebater from Psychology spoke on “Autonomy of INEC is a myth”.

    Members of the Panel of Judges said they were impressed by the speakers’arguments, but advised the debaters on stage management.

    The assessment was done independently by each judge but the head of the panel, Dr Olubunmi Ajibade, gave the aggregate of each debater.

    At the end of the contest,the representative of Mass Communication Department won with 218 points, with departments of Economics, Social Work, Sociology, Psychology and Political Science trailing behind with 205, 204, 197, 179 and 161 points.year’s edition of Enactus National Entrepreneurship Challenge will start on Tuesday.

    The contest, which will hold at Civic Centre on Victoria Island, Lagos, will be attended by hundreds of students from higher institutions across the country.

    The event with the theme: Enabling progress, will afford participants to showcase their innovative ideas and solutions to many challenges in business, community-based and educational projects.

    The students are expected to tackle real problems that will have positive impact on people, business and society.

    In preparation for the contest, the participants visited cities and rural communities across the country to initiate projects that would impact and improve the quality of life and standard of living. The projects were nominated for the contest and students are expected to defend the feasibility of their work.

    Teams from over 40 tertiary institutions will present their individual projects before a panel of more than 60 business leaders, who will evaluate the projects’ feasibility and opportunities. The contestants will go through two preliminary stages and teams with best projects will proceed to the grand finale, where winner will emerge.

    The team that wins first position will get the chance to represent Nigeria at the Enactus World Cup holding in Johannesburg, South Africa between October 14 and 16.

    The event will feature a special competition for prizes in the second edition of Sahara Light Up Nigeria Challenge. The contest, sponsored by Sahara Group, is structured to stretch the creativity and ingenuity of the Enactus teams in developing energy projects that can generate electricity and conserve power for the future use.

    There will also be a Future Women in Leadership Forum, where women leaders in each Enactus team will be engaged in mentorship to develop their leadership skills and achieve their full potentials. The objective of forum is to provide answers to key questions on leadership, using practical life examples.

    Enactus is an international non-profit organisation that brings together students, academics and business leaders who are committed to using the power of entrepreneurial action to improve the quality of life and standard of living of the people.

     

     

  • Mass Comm elects woman president

    Mass Comm elects woman president

    For the second time in two years, members of the National Association of Mass Communication Students (NAMACOS) at the Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba-Akoko (AAUA) in Ondo State have elected a woman president.

    Miss Idowu Owoseni, a 400-Level Public Relations and Advertising student, won the association’s presidential contest with 97 votes to beat her male rival, Olaniyi Agun’s 85. The election was held at the department’s Relaxation Centre.

    Jamiu Abubakar defeated his opponent, Mary Ayerun, to become the Vice President.

    Others were elected unopposed. They are Bukola Akinpelu, Treasurer; Seyi Atere, Director of Social; Samuel Oluremi, Sport Director; Charles Abeoluwa, Public Relations Officer; Tolulope Adeyemo, Welfare Director and Raphael Ojo, General Secretary.

    Idowu, who was excited, dedicated her victory to her colleagues, describing the election as free, fair and credible.

    She promised members a robust leadership, saying she had programmes that would better their lots.

    Olaniyi berated the Electoral Committee headed by Endurance Idowu, for bad preparation, which he claimed contributed to his loss.

    He said: “I bear no grudge against the winner, but the electoral process was badly managed and this is my concern. If we could not conduct an election in a credible manner, I wonder the kind of foundation we are laying. I spoke with an observer from the English Department and he was very disappointed. The exercise was marred by rowdiness and this tells us that the electoral committee was ill-prepared.”

    Olaniyi, however, praised the winner’s courage. He advised her to provide the good leadership that would reposition the association.

    Omodunni Alero was the first woman president of the association.

     

  • Mass Comm. holds assembly

    The Department of Mass Communication of the Nasarawa State University in Keffi (NSUK) has been moved from the Faculty of Arts to the Faculty of Social Sciences. But, the reason for this was not clear to many students.

    To explain the reason for the action, students held a congress at the university’s 100-seater auditorium, where they were told that the university’s Senate had approved the transfer since February.

    The former Head of the Department (HOD), Mallam Sani Rabiu, it was learnt, sent a memo to the Vice-Chancellor, Prof Akaro Mainoma, seeking the transfer of the department because the discipline was carved out from Sociology, which is a Social Science field and that theories of Mass Communication came from the Sociology, Psychology and Social Psychology.

    Other reasons adduced for the action stated it was learnt, were the research methods used in Mass Communication were adopted from the Social Sciences and that National Universities Commission (NUC) listed course under Social Sciences.

    Rabiu told staff and students of the department that the reasons were fundamental and not sentimental. He explained that Mass Communication must be under Social Sciences faculty, noting that full accreditation of the department by the NUC may be delayed if it remained under Arts.

    Rabiu also showed the audience a 24-page research paper titled: Why Mass Communication belongs to the Social Sciences to back his claims.

    The Dean Faculty of Social Sciences, Andrew Zamani, an Associate Professor, welcomed staff and students of the department to his faculty.

    He said the Faculty of Social Science comprised five departments, saying Mass Communication would be the sixth department.

    The HOD, Dr Tonnie Iredia, urged students to embrace the department’s relocation to Social Sciences, saying the action was done in school’s best interest.