[UPDATED] Scholars mourn ex-LASU don, Oso

The Association of Communication Scholars and Professionals of Nigeria has described the death of Prof. Lai Oso was a monumental loss to the association.

The ACSPN said that Oso’s death is a huge loss to Nigeria and the global mass communication and journalism community.

Recall that the ex-President of the association died in a motor accident along the Benin-Sagamu expressway on Saturday, June 25, 2023.

The ACSPN, while extolling his virtues, stated that Prof. Oso became the President of ACSPN in 2014, after the incorporation of the Association late in 2013, and served meritoriously till the year 2020, when he passed the baton of leadership to the current President, Prof. Umaru Pate, Vice Chancellor of Federal University, Kashere, Gombe State.

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In a statement on Sunday, the association’s public relations officer, Lanre Arogundade, noted that Prof. Pate, in his tribute, said, “Professor Oso held the firm conviction that the meeting of the gown and town would benefit the mass communication and media fields for the maximum impact of both professions on democracy and development. He pursued this conviction relentlessly and his death is a collective loss.”

Also in his tribute, Prof. Nosa Owens-Ibie, the General Secretary of ACSPN and Vice Chancellor of Caleb University, Imota, Lagos, said: “Under his tenure, the Association began the process by producing, in collaboration with UNESCO and other stakeholders, the first draft of what has now been launched as the Unbundled Mass Communication curriculum, following a curriculum development workshop for communication and journalism courses in November 2015.

“He was a scholar who helped to make scholars out of others through knowledge building, scholarly articles, and book publications, and it was also under him that ACSPN commenced many niche programmes, including its mentorship series, and organised town-meet-gown training and knowledge sharing events across the country,” Prof. Owens-Ibie said further.

Arogundade, extolling the late Professor, further maintained that “Oso was affable and humble, qualities that endeared him to the younger generation of media and communication scholars and professionals who constantly sought his support and mentorship. His services were also constantly demanded by institutions of higher learning and civil society.”

While expressing regret that he died while returning from Delta State University, where he served as external examiner at the University till the day before.

“ACSPN extends its heartfelt condolences to the wife and children of Prof. Oso, his other relations, associates, and colleagues,” he stated.