AS I stood on the podium at the Princess Alexandra Auditorium (PAA), the most revered venue in the University of Nigeria Nsukka (UNN), it seemed surreal for a few moments. The last time I was in the hall was 25 years ago. Back then, I was a young, lanky undergraduate, and you only step into the legendary hall during convocation ceremonies, inaugural lectures, and similar important events.
At such occasions, one will be fortunate to sit or stand at any corner at the facility. But this time I was the star attraction. I was the visiting intellectual. The place was packed to the brim, everyone looking intently and eager to listen to my lecture. I had to make it memorable. I had to make it reverberate across the university community and beyond.
The date was Thursday, February 20, 2025, and I was at UNN to deliver the 14th Jackson Annual Lecture organised by the Department of Mass Communication, UNN, with the theme “Local Content, National Development and Strategic Communication Imperative”.
The day began at the office of the Head of Department, Prof Michael Ukonu, who led staff and other guests to pay a courtesy call to the Associate Dean, Faculty of Arts, Prof ChinweOkpoko. After the short ceremony, we proceeded to pay the second courtesy visit, this time we were ushered into the Vice Chancellor’s conference room. Dotting the hall and peering into our faces were the portraits of past vice chancellors of UNN. Great scholars and administrators – Prof Umaru Shehu, Prof Frank Ndili, Prof Chimere Ikoku, Prof Ginigaeme Mbanefo, Prof Chinedu Nebo, Prof Barth Okolo, Prof Benjamin Ozumba, and many others –legends that changed UNN for good.
The Deputy Vice-Chancellor Academics, Prof Johnson Uramawelcomed the delegation on behalf of the newly appointed Acting Vice Chancellor, Prof. Oguejiofu Ujam. He commended the Mass Communication Department for organising the Jackson Annual Lecture, and harped on the important role of the alumni in developing their alma mater. He also promised to follow up on my recommendations on how the university canpursue effective collaboration with key agencies and institutions in the energy and related sectors.
When we got into the Princess Alexandra Auditorium, it was already filled with participants, despite the fact that school was not yet in full swing and students were still resuming for the new session. The audience included 38 academic staff of the Mass Communication department – professors, and senior lecturers, some from my undergraduate days. From my interactions with them, I could affirm that the department is well-resourced and prepared for the ongoing unbundling of Mass Communication programme, in line with the directive of the National Universities Commission (NUC).
Additional 20 academics came from diverse fields – engineering, biological sciences, physical sciences and pharmaceutical sciences, keen to listen to the lecture and learn the application of local content to their disciplines. As one of the dons put it, the lecture was for the entire university, and not just for the department of Mass Communication or Faculty of Arts.
Indeed, I argued in my lecture that the local content policy and implementation connects to several disciplines and industries – law, engineering, economics, development studies, philosophy, education, etc. I also submitted that the campaign for Nigeria’s independence by our famed nationalists was a sort of local content advocacy. I also posited that John Payne Jackson, founder of Lagos Weekly Record, Nnamdi Azikiwe, with hisWest African Pilot and their co-travellers were engaged in local content advocacy, because they deployed their platforms to fight colonial rule, and seek the enthronement of local governance, promotion of local personnel and local management of resources.
The bulk of the audience comprised students from the mass communication and related departments, including students from the Institute of Management Technology (IMT) Enugu. The event enjoyed massive pre-event publicity in the national media, and within the university, thus generated considerable interest.
On the rationale for convening the annual lecture, the HODMass Communication department described it as an intellectual festivity, which welds the town and gown. It is also an effort tofoster exchange of ideas between communication practitioners in diverse fields and the academic community. Such interactions promote scholarship, innovation and pursuit of excellence in the field of mass communication, he added. Ukonu reeled out several initiatives he was championing, to keep the department on the upward trajectory. Some of them include training programmes for staff and students, notably an in-depth AI training and a 5-part series on singularity communication, a paradigm developed by an alumnus and global marketing communications icon, Uche Cletun Onyebuoha, based in Toronto, Canada.
The Jackson annual lecture lasted nearly 100 minutes, and I explored several concepts relating to the oil and gas industry, particularly the nexus between local content and national development, and the place of strategic communication in implementing both ideas successfully. I shared case studies on how the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) successfully deployed strategic communication initiatives over the past 14 years, to promote local content, making it a national agenda, winning prestigious awards as the best federal agency in the country consecutively, and attracting understudies across Africa. I discussed some strategic communication strategies and charged planners of national development plans to adopt some of them, if they seek to propagate President Bola Tinubu’s national development plans effectively, achieve effective citizen engagement and accomplish sustainable economic growth for our dear nation.
From the engaging questions, comments and commendations from the students and lecturers it was evident the lecture was well received. The chairman of the organising committee, Dr. Chidibere Nwachukwu, made the point that the department had been practicing local content for a long time. He said that the Jackson Annual Lecture can only be delivered by Jacksonites, former graduates of the department, who have distinguished themselves in the practice of communication and related endeavors and wish to share their experiences to motivate the next generation.
Several accomplished Jacksonites had taken the podium in the past years. Some of them include the renowned political economist and former presidential aspirant, Prof Pat Utomi, former Minister of Information, late Chief Tony Momoh, former General Manager, Public & Government Affairs, ExxonMobil NIgeria, Mr. Paul Arinze, former Special Assistant Media & Publicity to President Muhammadu Buhari, MallamGarba Shehu, Manager Communications, Chevron Nigeria Limited, Mr. Victor Anyaegbudike, and a host of others. I am proud to be counted alongside these outstanding individuals.
When the formal event ended, guests and university personnel were treated to delicious meals, including fresh palm wine.Undoubtedly, Prof Michael Ukonu and the organising committee had pulled out all the stops to make the event wholesome, even attracting two royal fathers, and a business tycoon to chair the occasion.
As I granted interviews afterwards and posed for photographs, I thought again about my younger self, who graduated in 2000, and began his journey at the Advertising Regulatory Council of Nigeria (ARCON), New Age Newspaper Lagos, Punch Newspaper and now with NCDMB. He had big dreams, but did not imagine that his career path and further studies would bring him back to the Princess Alexandra Auditorium, as a guest lecturer at the Jackson Annual Lecture.
After graduated from UNN, I sojourned briefly to the University of Lagos, University of Abuja, before I acquired my terminal degree at the University of Port Harcourt. But despite experiencing different cultures and learning from different schools of thought, locally and overseas, it is difficult to displace my first love. When I stood on that podium, and heard the famed UNN anthem composed by Sam Ojukwu, Hail Versity of Nigeria, My Alma Mater…, I knew I was back to where it all began for me, I knew I was back home.
- Dr Ezeobi, MNPR, ARPA, is the Manager Media and Publicity, Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB).