In royal colourful event, Association of Campus Journalists OAU celebrates 50 years of stardom

Lawal Olanrewaju

The 50th anniversary of the Association of Campus Journalists Obafemi Awolowo University was a reunion of notable alumni and the sensitization of prospective campus journalists. 

The anniversary witnessed a host of dignified and noble journalists from all walks of life in celebrating the landmark occasion.

The event, which was packaged to recognize the indefatigable effort of both past and immediate members of the association for their persistent effort at visualizing and effecting investigative journalism and ensuring ideal content is generated to people for consumption. 

The association deemed it right to use the occasion to train campus journalists on media literacy and the capitalization of technology in promoting fact-proof sources through the theme “Media Literacy and Digitalization (Past, Present, and Future).

The event kicked off with the ACJ’s President speech; Miss Faith Alofe, who in her opening remarks appreciated the effort of every member of the association for their immense contributions towards making it a reality and also appreciated all the notable invited guests ranging from Mr. Dapo Olorunyomi- Publisher Premium Times Newspaper, Mr Ebuka Ogbodo- Public policy manager, Meta(nee Facebook), Mr Kabir Adejumo- an alumnus of the association, Mrs. Olufisoye Adenitan, and Victoria Barnas- who was unavoidably absent.

The President further accentuated the achievements of the association over the years and seeks to always remain a go-to source news feed that disseminates fact-check news on campus. 

ACJOAU President- Alofe Faith

She however, reeled off the laundry-list of prolific journalists the association has bred since its inception- notably Kabir Adejumo-, who has won several grants and awards for his commendable investigative journalism and appreciated all the invited guests, partners, sponsors, and everyone present at the event and wish everyone an impactful. 

The keynote speaker, Mr. Dapo Olorunyomi ably represented by Mojeed Alabi of Premium Times Newspaper expresses his delight for being given the privilege to speak at the event and appreciated the effort of ACJ OAU most especially, the President for putting the beautiful program together. 

He also identified the presence of doyens on the seat and by extension regarding every attendee of the program.

Mr. Mojeed in his speech started by reflecting on the ethics that guides the conduct of journalism during his stay on campus. During his time, he said, “Before your content can be made to be published, it would have gone through a lot of scrutiny and fact-checks unlike today where one can just independently generate idea and make it a public consumption within minutes with less data from the comfort of one’s home”. 

Mr. Mojeed further regurgitated the 90s, when the print and local media outlets( Radio and Television) fawned themselves as the only authorized channel through which genuine sources can be tendered for publication or airing but which has been relegated with the emergence of technology. Then, he said, there were limitations to false content because of the ethics guiding journalism unlike now that technology has made it possible for anyone to create a blog or reel to disseminate false news without restrictions.

 

The speaker explicated three fundamental responsibilities of journalism. Which is, firstly, being a watchdog to government- by this he meant, the core responsibility of journalism is exposing the abnormalities of government and being a watch to all their excesses. And secondly, setting agenda for government by gauging the disparity and discontentment of the citizens and influencing through which government decision is influenced. Lastly, providing the access for every citizen to air their views on the activities of government. He said these are the core mantras of informative journalism.

He therefore, beckoned on all prospective journalists to see it as a need to effectively maximize the media space to promote and generate genuine sources and ensure they rigorously make effort at curtailing fake news and thus, on ending his speech, advises them to beware of politicians that might trickily dig them in so as to compromise them.

Mr Lekan Otufodunrin, the Executive Director of Media Career Development Network appraised the association in its discretion for seeing it as a need to train prospects in media literacy and digitalization. 

He emphasized the need for journalists most especially, the potential ones present at the occasion to detach themselves from generating biased sources or content that might defame or incite violence within and outside the campus.

Mrs. Olufisoye, a journalist at Radio Nigeria appreciated the effort of the association particularly, the President for her outstanding and remarkable leadership capacity. 

Mrs. Olufisoye further stated that, she should not have come especially on a weekend where she needed to attend to family duties, but determined to come when she got to know that a female was the President of the association and thereby persuaded her husband to accompany her. An invitation that he humbly adhered to when she informed him. 

She, however, spotted the challenges the local media outlet (Radio Nigeria) is facing due to the heavy traffic the online media spaces are generating but expresses her delight over the unrelated effort of the corporation in ensuring the ethical standard of journalism is not compromised.

Being a girl freedom advocate, she advises all potential ladies to hone up themselves and ensure they are not a liability to their spouses.

On the other hand, Kabir Adejumo also corroborated fellow acumens in their respective views in giving informative directives and guidance on how to be a critical journalist. 

Kabir admonishes all the prospectives to always remain bold even in the heat of challenges and ensure they never compromise their standard for whatever price because that, he said, will be the distinguishing factor that will make them distinct from those who lack the ethical guide.

In close, the association awarded notable alumni and the invited guests for honoring its invite and coming to immerse people from their pool of experience. 

Mr. Kabir on the other hand, presented awards to those who participated in his essay competition's maiden edition and handed them their prizes respectively.

The International Campus Journalism Conference will remain an epoch in the mind of every OAU campus journalist. Not only will it serve as a memorial, but will certainly be the key to becoming a prolific and celebrated journalist in the years to come.