University Of Nigeria’s Erudite Scholar Goes Home In Style

A SAD day! The sorrow and tears trailing the death of Dr Anthony Chinedu Ekwueme, an erudite scholar at the Department of Mass Communication, University of Nigeria, Nsukka came to a boiling point Friday morning at his home town of Orba in Udenu Local Government Area of Enugu State.

Prime Business Africa reports that his colleague staff, undergraduate and postgraduate students of the Department wore mournful looks as they fought back tears to console Dr Ekwueme’s widow.

This UNN contingent was led to Orba by the new Head of Department, Professor Joseph Wogu, as the seasoned research expert was laid to rest.

His final interment followed a requiem Mass at the Orba Catholic Church 900 metres away from his residence.

The presiding priest, Rev. Fr. Emma Ogenyi, who was joined by Rev. Frs. Donatus Ajibo and Fidelis Asogwa as officiating priests, urged the congregation to see death as a necessary end that calls mourners to repentance in pursuit of heavenly glory. Describing late Ekwueme as having paid his dues on earth, the priest said God, as the final Editor of what men produced on earth, has the prerogative of mercy in determining what the final “movie of life would play in eternity.”

In attendance were former Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Director of the UNN Centre for Business Development, Professor Nnanyelugo Okoro, immediate past Head of Department, Dr Edith Ohaja, member of the Editorial Board of Prime Business Africa, Dr Michael Ukonu and other lecturers in the Department, Dr Chidiebere Nwachukwu, Dr Greg Ezea, Dr Chinwe Okpoko, Mr Ike Ugbo, who in the company of the Publisher/Editor-in-Chief of Prime Business Africa, Dr Marcel Mbamalu, represented the Jacksonites Alumni Association at the burial ceremony.

Named after the University of Nigeria’s Mass Communication Department building (the Jackson Building), the term “Jacksonites” is used to refer to  all alumni of  the university’s Mass Communication department, which was instituted in 1960  as Africa’s first School of Journalism when the university of  Nigeria was founded.

The Jacksonites as a registered association has been in the vanguard of supporting good journalism in Nigeria as well as offering support in actualizing the developmental objectives of the University.  It recently held its inaugural Jacksonites Professional Development Series in which issues of good journalism practice were ventilated by experts, Dr Nduka Otiono of the Institute of African Studies, journalism veteran Kingsley Osadolor and President of Jacksonite Alumni Association Worldwide, Professor Pat Utomi, among others.

A Canada-based Professor, Chinedu Ihuoma Mba led a team of Jacksonites, the Seminar Series Steering Committee, to organize the first leg of the quarterly webinar.