| Urhobo Historical
Society |
Alfred Opubor (1937-2011)
Remembered
Professor Alfred Esimatemi
Opubor
BA (London); MA (UCLA); PhD
(Michigan State),
Fellow of the Nigerian Academy of
Letters
March 28,1937 – December 2, 2011
By John Nevboyeri
Orife
&
Ajovi
Scott-Emuakpor
It is with great
sorrow and grateful
resignation to the Will of God that we formally announce the
passing of our mentor
and big brother, Professor Alfred Esimatemi
OPUBOR, Ph.D, FNAL., who
was born on 28 March 1937
and passed away on December
2, 2011, at the age of 74, in Cotonou,
Benin Republic.
We lost this very illustrious Urhoboman, who lived a
full and
productive life. It is not going to be easy for us to
adequately present the life of this outstanding and
overwhelmingly charismatic
man to OUR world. It will be impossible to capture the
essence of this man, who
led a very robust and fulfilling life, a life that is full of enormous
vigor with which he
served humanity selflessly. Below is the announcement of his
passing as posted
by his two children, Ms Tsemaye Opubor Hambraeus and Mr.
John Opubor, on behalf
of the family.
Professor
Alfred
Esimatemi Opubor passed away on 02 December, 2011 at the age
of 74 in
Cotonou, Benin Republic.
Professor
Opubor
was son of the late John and Emily Opubor, husband of Amelia
Opubor,
father of Tsemaye Opubor Hambraeus and John Opubor, and
grandfather of Temisan,
Radha, Omala, Neneh, and Om.
Prof
Opubor,
an acclaimed African Communication Icon and a distinguished
scholar,
dedicated his life to contributing to Africa’s development
through his substantive
expertise and experience in
Communication for Development.
He
was the first Nigerian Professor
and chairperson, Department of Mass Communication at the
University of Lagos
and first Chairman News Agency of Nigeria. He also worked as
a Senior Adviser
in the United Nations, as a Secretary-General, Regional
Director, Evaluator and
Journalist.
Funeral service and memorials will be held in Nigeria on
dates to be advised.
Since this
announcement, we have
spent countless hours reminiscing about our early interactions
with this man
and what he meant to us. He
demonstrated very early in life that he was going to be an
intellectual giant,
having attended the prestigious Government College, Ughelli,
in Delta State (at that time Western Region) and, from
there to the premier
University College, Ibadan (now University of Ibadan).
Every time he came home
with the handful of Delta boys at the University in those
days, his humility
was palpable without losing that air of intellectual
elitism. When we both
arrived
MSU, fresh from just completing our undergraduate studies
at the University of
Nigeria, we met him as an advanced graduate student. He
was a mentor and an
older brother to us and he was generous in offering his
experience and guidance
to all and, particularly to those of us who share a
kinship with him.
When we first
arrived at Michigan
State University in 1966, we were novices in graduate school. He was the big
brother who helped us adjust
to the new environment, especially after it turned hostile to
Nigerians during
the civil war. He was the Nigerian who could communicate with
both sides of the
civil war divide because he spoke to us fluently in different
languages. He
would usually start with his flawless aristocratic English
accent, and then he
would change into Igbo, or Hausa or Yoruba as necessary and
also Pidgin
English. He never
forgot he came from
the Niger Delta, the headquarters of Nigerian Pidgin English.
He practiced what
he was studying, communications. He was an unbelievable
communicator.
He played a very
important part in
our development as young adults. He was the role model for
those of us who were
fortunate to have him around us and showed us how to navigate
the sometimes
frustrating academic waters. He celebrated the completions of
our doctoral degrees
with enormous pride and, in John’s case, he was not only the
best man at his
wedding, but also had the wedding held in the garden of his
home. We spent
countless weekends with
him and his dear wife, Amelia, and, to Tsemaye and John,
we were some of the
“Nigerian Uncles” they actually knew and interacted with.
Alfred
Opubor’s academic career was rich,
and his service to
higher education and to his country was very robust. He also
served the
International community with uncommon zeal. We have tried to
include most of
his services in this profile, but we can assure you that it is
not nearly
exhaustive, since our mission is to present the essence of
this man to
you.
Professor Opubor was a communicologist. A graduate of the University of London, (B.A. Honors, 1961), and the University of California, Los Angeles, (M.A. 1963), he was among the first generation of students of communication as a behavioral science at Michigan State University, MSU, graduating with a doctorate degree in 1969. His specialization was in message systems, with application to mass media and cultural industries, and communication for development.
He was appointed
on graduation in
1969 as Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication
at Michigan
State University, and in 1971 was promoted Associate Professor
of Communication
and Director of the African Studies Centre. In 1975 he
accepted the
Professorial Chair and Headship of the Department of Mass
Communication at the
University of Lagos, Nigeria.
There he trained generations
of journalists and communication professionals, and introduced
post-graduate
programs, until withdrawing from service in 1986.
From 1978-1982 he was National Director of the UNFPA/UNESCO Project on ” Communication Strategies for Family Health, Family Welfare and Family Planning in Rural and Semi-Urban Nigeria”, based at the Department of Mass Communication. At the University of Lagos, he also served as University Orator and Chairman of the Board of the Centre for Cultural Studies.
One of the
founding fathers of the
African Council on Communication Education, ACCE, he was
elected Vice-President
of the International Association for Mass Communication
Research
(1978-1982). He
served as Chairman of
the Communication Sector of the Nigerian National Commission
for UNESCO from
1975 to 1985. A
member of the UNESCO
International Panel on Communication Research, (1971-1981),
that defined the
parameters of the New World Information and Communication
Order debate, he was
elected in 1981 as the pioneer Rapporteur-General of UNESCO’s
International
Program for the Development of Communication, IPDC. He was
re-elected to the
Bureau and served three terms till 1987.
He was founding
Chairman of the
Board of the News
Agency of Nigeria,
NAN, (1979-83), as well as Chairman of the Board of the Bendel
Newspapers
Corporation, (19
77-82). In 1986 he
established Multimedia, a private
communications
consulting firm in Lagos, focusing on training and research in
media, culture
and development. During
that decade,
he was also Chair of the Friends of the National Museum in
Lagos.
In 1988 he was elected Chairman of the Conference of Information Experts of the Organization of African Unity, OAU. In that capacity he supervised the drafting of the African Communication Policy and the Statutes of the Pan-African Advertising Union.
Between 1980 and 1988 in Nigeria, he was: Communication Consultant to the Nigerian Federal Environmental Protection Agency, FEPA, the Directorate of Social Mobilization, MAMSER, the Ministry of Health’s Department of Population Activities, and the Federal Ministry of Information; Chairman of the Inter-ministerial Committee for the preparation of the National Environmental Policy; Chairman of the National Committee on Information and Chairman of the National Committee on Census Publicity and Public Enlightenment. From 1982 to 1990 he organized the annual 10-day workshop on Environmental Awareness for the Nigerian Media, in collaboration with FEPA.
From 1980 to
1981 he was Member/Rapporteur of AFRICOM, the Eminent Persons’
Group appointed
by UNESCO’s Director- General. He also served as research
coordinator of the
African Council on Communication Education, ACCE, and Chief
Consultant for the
UNESCO Regional Communication Office, both based in Nairobi,
Kenya.
From 1983 to 1986, he lived in Dakar, Senegal where he was Information Adviser to the newly established Pan-African News Agency, PANA, with responsibility for research and editorial training. From 1986 to 1990 he was Chief Consultant on Information to the Secretariat of the Organization of African Unity, OAU; and from 1989-1990, he served the Economic Commission for Africa, ECA, as Consultant for the Working Group on the Dissemination and Popularization of population information.
For nearly a
decade (1990-1998),
he served as Senior Technical Adviser in Information,
Education, Communication
and Advocacy with the United Nations Population Fund, UNFPA,
first in Abidjan,
Cote d'Ivoire, subsequently moving to the Country Support
Team, CST, in Harare,
Zimbabwe, covering more than 20 countries in east, central and
west Africa. His assignment
involved numerous diagnostic and
planning missions, organizing scores of training workshops for
national
partners and collaborators, and writing dozens of sector
analysis and strategy
documents on the relationships between communication, culture
and the arts, and
their use in education, population, reproductive health and
social development
program.
His expertise in strategic communication has been requested by several national, regional and international organizations, especially within the United Nations system. As National Consultant to the ILO in the 1980s, he prepared the communication strategy to support the Nigerian population and development program. In collaboration with UNESCO, he organized activities for the creation and consolidation of the Nigerian Association of Media Women, from 19981 to 1986. Through his company, Multimedia, he also helped to establish Artists for Population and Development, with funding from the UNFPA Nigeria office, in 1987.
In 1999, UNFPA
and UNAIDS assigned
him to lead the team of consultants that prepared a report on
HIV/AIDS advocacy
based on field research in six African countries. The report
recommended
diagnostic and strategic tools for national communication and
advocacy programs
that are currently widely used. In 2000, he led a consultation
organized by FAO
in defining procedures and tools for the establishment of
national
communication policies in West Africa.
With the World
Health Organization
he conducted training workshops and prepared projects on the
future of health
communication in Africa, 1998-2000.
In 1999-2000 he was commissioned by the Embassy of the Kingdom of Belgium, Harare and the Secretariat of SADC to prepare “SADC: Information 21”, a communication strategy for the Southern Africa Development Community.
In 2001, he was a
Communication
Consultant to the World Bank for the Urban Water Reform
Project in Ghana, as
well as the preparation of a development communication
strategy for the
Government of Ghana.
In 2002 he served
as a Ford
Foundation consultant to mentor the Institute of African
Studies at the
University of Ghana for the establishment of their program in
Chieftaincy
Studies. He also provided technical assistance to the National
Film and
Television Institute in Accra as part of the Ford Foundation
consultancy.
As Senior
Consultant to the
Chairman of the African Union Commission, he proposed the
conceptual framework
and operational procedures for the establishment of a
Pan-African Radio and
Television Network in 2005-2006.
Among other
activities, he has
been: Chairman of the African Script Development Fund and
Member of the Board
of the Centre For African Family
Studies, CAFS, the
leading regional NGO in reproductive health, based in Nairobi,
Kenya.
Professor Opubor
is a member of
the Advisory Committee of the Nigerian Community Radio
Coalition, an advocacy
and capacity-development group working for the recognition of
community
broadcasting as the third tier of broadcasting in Nigeria. He
was nominated in
2004, by the Nigerian Federal Government, to an Experts'
Working Group to
review the national communications policy, and subsequently,
in 2006, was
appointed Chairman of the Community Radio Policy Drafting
Committee whose
report was submitted to the Minister of Information in
December that year. As a
Consultant to UNICEF and the Ministry of Information and
Communications in July
2010, he led a preparatory stakeholders’ workshop and updated
and finalized
both policy documents for adoption by the National Council on
Information and
presentation to the Federal Executive Council.
From 2002 to 2007, he served as Coordinator of the Working Group on Communication for Education and Development, COMED. Co-sponsored by ADEA, the Norwegian Education Trust Fund and the World Bank, COMED is located at the WANAD Centre, in Cotonou, Republic of Benin. The COMED Working Group trains journalists reporting on education, as well as information and communication officers of ministries of education. As part of developing a media specialization in education reporting, COMED established a continent-wide network of over 350 media professionals, and ten national chapters, supporting them with capacity-development activities as well as updated information.
In 2008-2009, as
Consultant to the
ECOWAS Commission, he prepared the communication policy and
strategy for moving
ECOWAS from “A Community of States to A Community of People”.
As Chief Executive of the WANAD Centre, Professor Opubor designed and oversees the mass media component of the Abidjan-Lagos Corridor Project funded by the Global Fund for AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. The five- year project (2007-2012) is implemented in five countries on the West African Coast: Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, Togo, Benin and Nigeria, and seeks to address prevention, treatment and care issues concerning HIV/AIDS in the context of trans-border mobility among the countries. WANAD partners with 25 broadcast media organisations (five per country) to ensure capacity reinforcement for demand creation, public awareness and behavior change through quality programs.
From 2003 until his passing, Professor Opubor was Secretary-General and Chief Executive of the West African News-media and Development Centre, WANAD. He is currently Vice-Chair of the Board of Directors of the Panos Institute (West Africa), and Member of the Africa Board of Inter-Press Service, the Rome-based international news agency with regional headquarters in Johannesburg, South Africa.
In 2010 he was appointed to the Advisory Board of the Reporting Development Network Africa, funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and based at Rhodes University in South Africa. He is also a member of the Nigerian Think Tank on Climate Change created by the Special Climate Change Unit of the Federal Ministry of the Environment, and Coordinator of the Selection Committee of the Water and Food Award in Copenhagen, Denmark.
As we mourn the
death of our big
brother, we are grateful that God in His infinite wisdom gave
him to us to
enrich our lives for a while. We pray for his widow, Amelia,
and for his
children and grandchildren.
May His Soul
Rest in Perfect Peace.