Before We Bow-out With Heads High

This is probably my last note as the Public Relations Officer of the ‘Union of Campus Journalists, LAUTECH’, as the Union will be having her election tomorrow, Friday, May 29, 2015 and handing over to the new executives will be done as soon as the election is held.

A long journey it has been. I remember our days in the wilderness- I will call it: always stuck in meetings to “trash” issues (as we do say) with no way-forwards. Our fruitless meetings at the Kudirat Abiola Building, before finding our path to revivify the ‘Union of Campus Journalists’ which had gone into extinction. It’s been three (3) years now. How Time Flies! I must say I’m privileged to be part of the team and to have had the opportunity to serve this Union as the Image Maker.

I’m very honoured to have worked with some personalities in this arduous but a worthy journey. The members of the Executive- Oseni Oluwatobi (President), Ajayi Oluwasunkanmi (VP Admin.), Bilau Ademola (VP Editorial), Adedeji Oluwatobi (Gen. Sec.), Okunoye Toluwase (AGS), and the ever committed members of the union. Though our ideology defers, and many times we had to fight to agree and disagree to agree.

It has been a long, interesting and challenging journey but through it all, commitment, courage and determination, coupled with the support received got us all to this point. We have run with perseverance and have finished the race; whether we have finished the race successfully or not is not for us to say- we’ll leave it to the members and friends of the Union, our ardent readers and the generality of the Students populace who look up to us for confirm, balance and fairness in news reporting, to be the judge.

To the ever dedicated members, we say thanks to you all. We might not have been the best executives you wish for, but I believe we’ve all played our roles the best it could be played. And the joy of it all is that together we’ve made unimaginable accomplishments for our Union. I feel incredible pride in what we have all accomplished. Your contributions to the successes of the events we were able to host during our tenure can never be undermined. We thank you for your willingness to give up, on many occasions, your personal time to serve the Union.

There have been struggles of course. But in the end, we take pleasure in what we have done in years that have brought us tremendous challenges. I can’t say we have achieved success without sacrifices. We’ve all been intimidated and harassed; we’ve experienced emotional trauma and psychologically, we’ve been down. In the face of suppression of press freedom and injustice, we all stood firm.

The journey had been a rough one with lots of challenges but we thank God for giving us the boldness and courage to overcome them all. It took us all the courage, passion, determination, dedication, endurance, perseverance, selflessness and the enthusiasm to render our services to and build a strong and formidable press organization(s). We’ve all done our best to raise the bar of ethical journalism, promote and uphold press freedom in this our community; we’ve together made UCJ an intellectual Union that promotes values of journalism to the core, and ready to stay the course for the future.

History we’ve made for ourselves and posterity shall judge us all with fairness. We’ve not only wade through ponds; we have whirled against strong, crashing waves in an ocean in the midst of strong storms, while struggling to stay afloat. It may not be Everest but it’s a mountain, we have climbed through struggles and gravity itself to reach the peak.

As we’ll be leaving the stage for others, I thank you all for your supports, your friendship and the honour to having worked with you. I’ll always remember the things we achieved together: our arguments, our shared laughter, our joys as well as our struggles. I am forever grateful for your stimulating company and the enormous collection of shared experiences indelibly printed on my mind. You will all live on in my memories. If I’m chanced a 100 times, I would love to work with you all.

Thank s to you all!
Oluwatomilola Boyinde, TOMINIGERIA, PRO, Union of Campus Journalists, LAUTECH. [email protected] , @TomiNigeria, 08032434218, 2AF2EB9D.