NGE Holds Service Of Song For Remi Oyo

The obsequies for the former Managing Director of News Agency of Nigeria(NAN), late Mrs Oluremi Oyo started in Lagos yesterday  with a service of song in her  honour by the Nigerian Guild of Editors(NGE).

Oyo, a two-time president of the NGE and former Senior Special Adviser on Media and Publicity to President Olusegun died  on October 1, this year.

The event tagged “A Media Afternoon of Songs and Tributes”, which held at NAN Media Centre, Iganmu Lagos attracted editors from various media, friends and well wishers, as well as members of the family of the deceased.

The event featured tributes, songs, bible reading and prayers for late Mrs Oyo’s family, the country, editors and other journalists.

Speaking at the event, the President of  NGE, and Managing Director , The Sun Publishing Limited,  Mr Femi Adesina described the late Mrs Oyo as a woman of many firsts. He recalled that she was the first woman to lead the guild and first woman to serve as the Special Adviser on Media and Publicity to a Nigerian President.

The NGE President said Oyo through her achievements showed to the women folks in journalism that the sky cannot be their limits.

His words “in a profession where the glass ceiling for women is bulletproof, she simply shattered it.Today, Dame Oluremi Oyo is known for many firsts. The first woman to lead the Nigerian Guild of Editors(and for two terms)- and how she did it with panache and decorum! The first woman to be Senior Special Adviser(Media and Publicity) to a Nigerian President. Is there then still a glass ceiling? No, Dame Remi Oyo dismantled it all. Blasted and shattered it. She has shown the women folk in journalism : not even the sky is your limit, you can fly above the sky.”

Adesina said the late MD of NAN remained a model in the NGE, which she led for four years, noting that  her footprints in NAN “are indelible in terms of professional, human capital and infrastructure developments.”

The Executive Director,(NAN)Lagos operations, Mr Jide Adebayo  said late Mrs Oyo had a meritorious tenure as MD of the news agency, leaving behind indelible footprints in the organisation.

He stated that  the late MD took NAN from ground zero to new and unimagineable heights.

He added that she increased the number of news  stories generated by  the organisation from 60 to 300 daily and noted that in three years late Oyo delivered 19 states offices for the agency.

In his tribute, the Director, International Press Centre(IPC), Mr Lanre Arogundade while extoling the virtues of the late presidential spokesperson said she enthroned excellence in NAN

He added that she  played a prominent role in the campaign for the enactment of the Freedom of Information act.

Also, paying tribute to the fallen media amazon, the General Secretary, Newspapers Proprietors Association of Nigeria (NPAN), Comfort Obi expressed dismay that Oyo succumbed to cancer, at a time when she thought she had survived the disease.

In their separate speeches, the Lagos State Commissioner for Information, Mr Lateef Ibirogba and Professor Raph Akinfeleye of the Department of Mass Communication, University of  Lagos paid glowing tributes to late Mrs Remi Oyo.

In an exhortation, the Vicar, Emmanuel Anglican Church, Railway Compound, Venerable Rev Okey Ifionu said owing to the testimonies of how the former NGE President lived her life, he has no doubt that she lives on.

” A Christian is never lost. Sister Remi is not lost. She lives,” he stated.

The cleric charged the members of the NGE and others present to do diligently, whatever their hands finds to do in line with biblical injunction. He  noted  that there is need for everyone to be conscious of the fact, we are here for some time and that once life ends, nothing more can be done.

 Sun Report