JOURNALISM WITHOUT MASS COMMUNICATION DEPARTMENT

Journalism in Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife is that which cannot but be peculiar. This is due to the fact that the University has no Mass Communication department and as such, students practicing journalism practice as extra curricular activities. Although, few students have the intention of being media practitioners in future, yet the limitation by the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) that her members cannot but be graduates of journalism, at least a minimum of Ordinary National Diploma (OND).
The date or year in which the practice of journalism started in Obafemi Awolowo University cannot be specified, but the rationale behind it been pronounced is not far fetch. Some group of students few decades ago were interested in bringing sanity to the OAU community. They published private or ‘sacred’ stories of the OAU community for the purpose of correcting social ills. These journalists were taken to the students’ court, tried and on most occasions discharged and acquitted. One of such was The Parrot among others. This news papers were always served hot at the halls of residence on Monday morning. Few years later, the various News Agency saw the need to have an association to fight for the common interest of all journalists, and this was how the Association of campus Journalists was born. The various news agencies elected Executive Councils members across the various news agencies to lead the association.
Based on the to promote the readership of each news agency and the fact that some student could not afford to purchase the paper also accompanied with the cost of production, some news agencies decided to get News boards-standing boards that they paste their news articles for all to read the articles for free. Based on the relevance of the Journalists, the University Management gave the Association of Campus Journalists, the sole right to conduct the press confrontation and manifestoes. This exercise is a core of the transition process of the student Union leadership.
Today the Journalism in OAU is a moving train. The News boards make publication from time to time and the print do their business regularly. ACJ-OAU has over 30 registered press board, 10 news prints and close to 300 members. Some of this news agencies are Ife Educator, Infocus, The Councilor, Socioscope, The Critic, Icons, The Eagle, Nasels Communication Bureau, Medivioce to mention but a few.
The ACJ-OAU knowing her limitations, especially the fact that she may be handicapped in the ethic of journalism resolve to invite practicing professional journalists and writers to educate and enlighten her members as regards the ethics of the profession. In the past the likes of Nngozi Nwozor (The Nation), Sam Omaseye (The Nation), Segun Adeoye (Tell), Segun Adisa (Anchor of Labe Orun), El-Nukoya and Fatimah Abdukareem (Nigerian Association of Women journalists (NAWOJ) President, ) have been her guest.
The ACJ-OAU has refused to be confined to the four corners of Obafemi Awolowo University, some of her members write for National Dallies. While Fatai Moshood writes for the Compass, Oni Afolabi, Ayodele Obajeun, Hannah Ojo, Yemisi Akingbola and Akpomuje Paul write for Campus life page of the Nation News Paper. OAU students’ union is vibrant not in herself but in the fact that her activities is brought to the notice of the entire students and Nigerians as a whole by the ACJ.
However the ACJ has her challenges and one of such is the impression the OAU community has about us. We are opponents to the university management and adversary to students. We are loved by neither. Imagine that on the floor of the congress, I as the General Secretary was almost assaulted because the thought I was management boy and was taking snap shots to be taken to the management for explosion of radically students. One Honorable member of the Parliament Folarin Kazeem at the Presidential debate of English students’ presidential election (2008) was badly comported and the Vice President Administration of the ACJ, Miss Ife Akala, took the snap shot, and he dragged the device forceful and deleted it. Such persons have forgotten that the media is there to caution.
No thanks to the University Management of OAU too because journalists have more than once been victim. A very recent example is the of Mr. Ayo Ademuluyi, the Formal Editor of The Eagle News paper who published a ‘report’ on the VC’s EFCC investigation and is yet to be mobilized for law School. Well, No one knows reason behind his immobilization because all his results have been released and he has graduated. Although, it may be difficult to establish a cause and effect relationship between the witch’s cry and the child’s death as the aftermath, yet, there is possiblity.
ACJ-OAU has a peculiar case, but journalism has come to stay and is per of every faculty and department. All we need is commitment on the part of her member. If there is anything the ACJ-OAU has achieved is in a concrete demarcation between her and the student union leadership. Her secretariat is separate from the union building and the Students’ Union is not a member of the ACJ and cannot lord over the ACJ. Conclusively, the fourth estate is in isolation, which is in the interest of all. Our motto is ‘…asserting the strength of the pen.’ But as far as I’m concerned, what keeps my going is the need to impart life.
Afolabi Oni
A4
‘…imparting lives’
General Secretary OAU-ACJ 2008/09, Assistant General Secretary OAU-ACJ 2007/08