AS MY TEACHER AND MENTOR GOES HOME – Henry Chigozie Duru, PhD

0

Yesterday, Thursday, January 7, 2021, I was at Ezinifite for the final phase of the funeral rites of my erstwhile lecturer and undergraduate project supervisor at the Department of Mass Communication, UNIZIK, Prof. Paul Chuba Agba (KSM).

The 80-year-old professor was lowered into the womb of the mother Earth by some minutes past 12noon in his compound at Ezinifite, Aguata LGA of Anambra state, immediately after a pontifical Requiem Mass celebrated by the Catholic Bishop of Awka Diocese, Most Rv. Dr. Paulinus Ezeokafor, at St. Pius X Catholic Church in the same town.

It was an emotion-laden moment as I stood with the immediate family by the grave side while the solemn interment was performed. My memory ran fast and far backwards as I recalled my time with Prof. Agba at UNIZIK. He taught me three courses as follows: Specialised Reporting, MAC 301 (2003/2004 session); International Public Relations, MAC 451 (2004/2005 session); and International Communication, MAC 422 (2004/2005 session). Finally, he supervised my project as I wrote on the Nigerian newspapers’ coverage of the agitations in the Niger Delta.

ALSO READ  JAMB trains 180 lecturers, teachers on critical assessment competency

Agba’s time as my academic mentor was special. He was thorough, always demanding more than the average, and in fact, had zero tolerance for ignorance. He was encyclopedic, a quality I admired and which further energised me in my culture of versatile reading. He gave difficult tasks, asked difficult questions in class, and routinely chastised folks for exhibiting ignorance, even though many of the questions were drawn from other subjects or fields outside our mass communication discipline – he preferred versatility as against intellectual provincialism among his students. Agba, as he was widely called, pushed us hard, and while his thorough and tough approach scared some students away, it was the exact thing that drew me closer to him. I prayed that he would be my project supervisor, and this he became.

ALSO READ  “Nigeria has been unfair to her youths and have mortgaged their future - Onyemelukwe

More interestingly, Prof. Agba was teacher of teachers. He taught many of the people that taught me. In fact, the man that examined me at my PhD defence and awarded a doctorate degree to me, the erudite Prof. Nnanyelugo Okoro, was his ex-student – currently the Dean, Faculty of Arts, University of Nigeria, Nsukka.

It was at UNN that Agba spent the better part of his academic career while also spending some time at UNIZIK and later Madonna University, Okija. We will all miss him – all of us his erstwhile students now working in the media and other industries including the classroom “industry” where he worked and made his mark.

ALSO READ  Soludo rebuilding Anambra LG system for all-inclusive development – Commissioner

I last met Agba physically in 2006 when as a Zamfara state-based corps member, I had breezed into Awka to say hello to a few friends. Years later, when I returned to the East from Lagos in the course of my journalism career, my attempts to see him were unsuccessful as he was no longer based in Nigeria but the United States. I was never to sight him anymore.

Adieu Prof. P. C. Agba
Adieu great mentor
Good night Ugoyibo Ezinifite

Till we meet to part no more!

Your grateful student,
Henry Chigozie Duru, PhD

Requiem aeterna dona ei, Domine, et lux perpetua luceat ei, requiescat in pace. Amen

What are your thoughts?

Discover more from Odogwu Blog

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading