Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - A New Award for Toyin Falola

Congratulations to Prof Falola for the honour. We wish you long and fruitful life

Sent from my HTC

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From: "tunde_babawale via USA Africa Dialogue Series" <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
To: "'Adeshina Afolayan' via USA Africa Dialogue Series" <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>, "USAAfricaDialogue" <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
Cc: "UCJ UI" <ucjunibadan@gmail.com>
Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - A New Award for Toyin Falola
Date: Sun, Oct 9, 2016 1:20 PM

Congratulations Oga on yet another accomplishment. May your star continue to shine.

Tunde Babawale

Sent from my BlackBerry 10 smartphone.

From: 'Adeshina Afolayan' via USA Africa Dialogue Series Sent: Sunday, 9 October 2016 12:44 AM To: USAAfricaDialogue Reply To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com Cc: UCJ UI Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - A New Award for Toyin Falola

Toyin Falola bagged Distinguished Award for Academic Excellence at University of Ibadan

The Union of Campus Journalists (UCJ), University of Ibadan, today added another honor to the already brimming chest of Professor Toyin Falola. The UCJ is one of the few student groups on the University of Ibadan campus that has maintained a consistent tradition of character-molding and extra-curricular professional training for its members. Yours sincerely is also proud to have been a fringe member of this unique body in the early 90s as a student cub columnist. The association has maintained its reputation since then. In fact, its guest lecturer at today induction and award ceremony was Koláwolé Olátúnbosún, an award-winning journalist, writer, linguist, teacher, translator, culture activist. And Koláwolé Olátúnbosún was the president of UCJ from 2002 to 2004! The UCJ also counts amongst its own Tolu Ogunlesi (the Special Adviser to the Nigerian President on New Media), Fisayo Soyombo (of the online newspaper, TheCables), Gbenga Salau and Olaiya Templer (The Guardian Newspapers), etc. 

In his lecture at the occasion, Mr Koláwolé Olátúnbosún shared his passions about writing, his experiences, both sweet and bitter, in journalism, his Yoruba language advocacy and his commitment to cultural consciousness. According to him, the state of cultural degradation in Nigeria is too deplorable. And this is not only in the curious diminishing of the, say, Yoruba language, but also in the terrible neglect of cultural sites and the pig-headed demolition of cultural places. The guest lecturer shared some of his painful experiences in reporting these occurrences. But in spite of these experiences, according to him, the imperative of truth is very significant to reportage, and the reportage especially of cultural dislocations in the Nigerian national space. When government officials assiduously prevent the revelation of information that put them on the spot, then journalists also must not relent in pursuing the truth about their misdeeds. Journalism, for Koláwolé Olátúnbosún, "journalism is too important to be left to journalists alone." This statement speaks not only to his own passion as a journalist without any training in journalism, but also to the hearts of the eager faces of the members of UCJ as well as their new inductees who were charged to take journalism and their responsibility to the community to heart.   

What the UCJ calls its Famous Five Awards is a 29-year old organisational tradition which recognizes and honor great individuals who have impacted their fields of endeavor. This year's ceremony has five categories—politics, academics, journalism (of course!), entrepreneurship and technology. His Excellency Kashim Shettima, the governor of Borno state, got the award in the political category; the multiple award-winner, Ms Toyosi Ogunseye of the Punch Newspaper is the awardee in journalism; the award for entrepreneurship went to Mr Mene Blessing, the CEO of an up and rising agricultural business initiative focusing on livestock feeds; Mr Joel Ogunsola was honoured in the technology category for social and technological entrepreneurship.

 

And the Distinguished Award for Academic Excellence went to Professor Toyin Omoyeni Falola, of the University of Texas at Austin, who has dedicated his academic prowess in "repositioning, retelling and restructuring the narratives of the Yoruba people and Africans as a race." 

The UCJ president, Oredola Ibrahim, remarked that "all the five awardees [were] carefully chosen, and in this era of virtue scarcity, I can say that these people are role models…"  

 

Adeshina Afolayan, PhD
Department of Philosophy
University of Ibadan

+23480-3928-8429

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