ICJC’18 : Dignitaries storm OAU, as ACJOAU organises a ground-breaking conference

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It was an auspicious occasion on Saturday, 10th March 2018 at the Ajose Lecture Theatre of the Obafemi Awolowo University, ile-ife as the Association of Campus Journalists hosted its annual International Campus Journalism Conference (ICJC 2018).

The conference which was the fifth edition and use to be a sessional program. The conference is a gathering of mainstream journalists, campus journalists, and social media enthusiasts. It’s geared towards improving the qualities of Campus journalism and the mainstream journalism.

This year had in attendance important dignitaries such as the Oluwo of Iwoland, Oba AbdulRasheed Akanbi; the Vice-Chancellor of the Obafemi Awolowo University, Professor Eyitope Ogunbodede; Engineer (Mrs) Margaret Oguntala, A Business woman and the veteran journalist; Mr Sam Omatseye who was ably represented at the occasion served as the Keynote Speaker and spoke on the topic; Journalism as an elixir in the fight against terrorism.

The Conference began with the opening speech from the Royal Father of the day the Oluwo of Iwo land, who claims to be the king over all gods and not the second in command of any as against the mythology of Yoruba about the concept of gods.

He said “all gods are legends in Yoruba land and Yoruba people turned them to gods. In his words How will you tell me that one person came to this world with a chain, bird and sand to create the world? ” The gods are static and can’t move from place to place, subjecting myself to these gods mean I’m also static. They are dirty, where they’ve been kept for years are not clean. Some of our gods still ask for human sacrifice, are these gods so inhuman? Move from all myth and superstitions that bring you down, we must move from this stage to the advancement in technology.”

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“I don’t ask for the wisdom of Solomon, he has never seen an aeroplane, he has never flew in one, if Solomon watches a television and sees someone running towards him, he’ll run because he does not understand how these things work so I ask for wisdom greater than that of Solomon, wisdom to survive in today’s world”.

The Royal father said that he came to free the youths and the nation at large from all poverty of the mind that is imprisoning them.

He also said that journalist should be free to report any news in order to change the nation. Urging journalists to take corruption out of journalism and the youths not to forget their culture but to take corruption out of tradition and culture.

He stated that being a King is a service to humanity and not to be wealthy. God serves us and a king is put in a position to serve humanity and servants are the provider.

He concluded his speech by saying that the youths should never ask for the downfall of their enemies. “your enemies are your footsteps, ladder to greatness, the more enemies you are the greater you become, even Buhari has enemies but he is on top and above them”.

The Vice-Chancellor also in his address at the event commended the organisers of the program for organizing such a program. The Professor of Dentistry stated that he was also a member of the association when he was an undergraduate (41 years ago) under the Buggle news agency. The Vice-chancellor mentioned that despite the fact that the University doesn’t have a department of Mass Communication, it had produced some of the finest journalists in the country and plans are on to introduce the Department.

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Speaking on the recent accommodation policy of the University, the Vice-Chancellor expressed that it was a ‘necessary evil’ and was going to be implemented. He mentioned that the current pressure mounted on the resources of the Halls of residence is far away above what they were created to cater for and he acknowledged that the current state of the numbers in the Halls was due to the Ife-Modakeke crisis that saw a lot of students moved to campus. He however stated that steps were already being taken toward resolving this and even though it might be inconvenient at first, it’s going to pay off ultimately. He then debunked rumour being peddling around about increment in school fee, and other charges.

The mother and chief launcher of the day Engr. (Mrs) Margaret, an alumna of University of Benin who also shared her experience as a campus journalist and editor of Campus Press organization during her days as an undergraduate, she further explained that her passion for writing was what led her to joining campus journalists . She however advised all the campus journalists present to always be meticulous in their dealings as journalists. The Mother of the day and the chief launcher of the day did launch the magazine with an undisclosed amount and also promised to always be supportive to the organization as her passion for writing keeps growing everyday. She said.

written By Okeowo Olasunkanmi

Source; Socioscope

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