Perhaps The Kunle Gbolagunte We All Don’t Know

“Good men must die, but death cannot kill their names”
- Danish Proverb

The question should not be if you are going to die, neither should it be when you are going to die. The reality is that we are all going to die, either today or tomorrow, but nobody knows the exact time, date, month or year.

The question should be, if you have the privilege to die today, would you want to die? Very hard to answer right? Don’t mind me; I am not also praying to die today. Just as you have prayed that you want to see your great grandchildren in wealth and in good health, I also want to live longer at least to a hundred years old. The truth is that none of us will leave this world alive, so nursing the fear that you will die one day is a waste of time.

But for Mr. Kunle Gbolagunte, he didn’t have the privilege to stop the death from taking him up. He would have loved to do that if he had the chance.

I never had any other relationship with him apart from being his student and he also being my lecturer at every stage of my class both at Eruwa Campus and at the Main Campus of The Polytechnic Ibadan. I was not an easy to notify the student in class, I had never been a class representative to any lecturer, I can count the number of times I had one on one conversation with Mr. Gbolagunte, not even up to five times but his life as a lecturer is a big reference that is worth emulating.

My first knowledge of him was when he was the Director of Center for Preliminary Program at the Eruwa Campus in 2003/2004. I could not gain admission through JAMB so I had to apply to study Mass Communication through the preliminary program.

As the Director of the Centre, he was always at the centre to give us new information on the program as our status was not well known at that time. The general cliché at that time was that “Pencil lofi ko oruko yin”, meaning that our name was written with pencil, that is, the name can be erased at any time because we were not regular students. Preliminary students were many at that time, may be more than the entire population of the regular students in both year one and two.

There was a day our data were needed at the center and we were asked to bring our school fees receipt to take the data. It was on a Saturday morning, the students had been on a long queue from 7:00am that was as long from the centre beyond the health center up to the security post. The bad omen at that time was that the sun shining in Eruwa was as hot as anything. We have been in this scorching sun waiting just for our names and numbers to be written down in one big file.

Around 11am, Mr. Gbolagunte drove in with one cream or white jalopy car; he could not believe what he saw with thousands of students standing in a long queue. Immediately, he came out of the car, he called out one of the non-academic staff in the center to know what was happening in a loud voice. After the woman's explanation, he told the worried and tired students to do a photocopy of their school receipt, drop the copy in a carton and go back home. In just a few minutes, the long queue disappeared, as if nothing had happened at that time. If not for him, we would have been there till the next day. KGB had an unusual way of thinking to give immediate solutions to problems.

The truth at that time was that it was difficult for me to believe that he was an indigent of the town. To me, he never seemed like an Eruwa indigene, not because as a lecturer, but the way he brought latest trends around the world to his teachings.

It was from him that I first heard Babara Walter and Al Gore when he was lecturing us in class. He taught us Newspaper and Magazine Production in the second semester. He was the one teaching us before Mr. Rotimi Bolarinwa took over from him. For the few times he came to the class, he was always coming with foreign magazines and newspapers to explain global trends in journalism.

I have never seen Wall Street Journal, Time Magazine with other foreign journals before. In one of the preliminary classes, there was a day he came to class to explain how knowledge, either old or new is relevant to our life, he gave an example of how University of Suxxes taught their student basic engineering skill by using bare hands to work in the workshop and in the field even when they have better technology to work with.

His teaching skills were multiple, he taught us Graphics Communication. He and Mr. Agoro taught us Public Relations in Eruwa. He was vast in the field of Public Relations. Mr. Gbolagunte opened my eyes to all the typefaces, when and how to use them, the San Serif, Egyptian type face, Bodoni, and many others.

What about statistics, he was a great Statistician. He explained statistics to you in a simple way you can comprehend and you will fall in love with it. During our class at Main Campus, he taught us Correlation, Chi Square and other topics. These are topics that were difficult to easily understand by any Mass Communication student but he took it in a simple way that we all had good scores in it.

Another thing I noticed about him again were his textbooks, from my experience in Eruwa with him, Mr. Gbolagunte did not print handout for us, his textbooks were of good standard, well written and researched that they were durable and can stand the test of time. They were well packaged with good design even up to the cover page. Some of those textbooks are still of good readings for me as I cherish them so much.

My last encounter with him was during our last semester in the final year, he took us a course that I failed, how I failed it I did not know. What I knew was that I failed the course, I had 38. With that 38, it means I will not graduate that year. The failure had never been my desire so I met the course representative who informed me to meet him in his office. I went to his office; he asked me what happened and why I failed the course. I told him that I was sick, which was a dead lie.

Perhaps if I had known, I wouldn’t have gone because I heard the truthful truth of my life on why I had to be negligent at that critical time of graduating. He shouted at me and told me to go away from his office.

A few days later, I met him in his office again. He said to me, “Gentle man, even If I have to help you with just two marks you have to prove it to me” “Ehnnnn”, I said.

The next day he came to the class and after he had taught us, he asked me to address the class on what the new ASCOM Caretaker Committee must do to reposition the association because it was a Public Speaking Class. Either I did well or not, he gave me a handshake after the presentation and later informed the course representative to tell to me to see him in office. Getting to his office, I was surprised with what he did, he was asking me all the questions that I failed during the examination to test if indeed I was sick. Lo and behold, I was very afraid but when I saw his seriousness, I answered him but not everything.

“So why did you fail?” he asked me. I told him I don’t know. “If you had answered the way you have answered now, you would not have scored 39”, he uttered. I passed the course at the end.

For me the lesson is beyond just passing, but the confidence he helped me to gain during that time. Mr. Gbolagunte was not just a teacher, but a teacher that understood what it meant to be students. 
What many will also appreciate about KGB is his super sense for fashion. He was a Fashionista. If he wore native attires, he will wear it with dignity and strong finesse.

Above all, he has come and he has gone. He has fought the good fight of his life, impacted life and created opportunities for many. Every institution, either big or small needs a catalyst. An agent, a channel, a bridge, a man who creates a path for others to follow, who awakes the giants within, who ignites a little spark that snowballs into a bonfire, who builds a canoe and creates ripples across the ocean, who unleash myriad of other activities, who opens another phase, who breaks barriers, inspiring the human spirit to travel, to tour, to soar, up and away.

The roll call is endless. Mr. Gbolagunte was a man of excellence and distinction. People like him don’t usually come into the world; they come, perhaps once in a century or in a millennium.
He has come, he has done the best he could do in his own capacity and he has gone. What should we say about him? Should we immortalise him? At least to keep remembering him anytime we see his name on any edifice either at Eruwa or in Main Campus but the truth about naming edifice after people is that it does not represent the actual intention of keeping people alive after they have passed on. There are many structures named after people that are moribund today.

Let’s immortalize Mr. Gbolagunte but not naming anything after him, he should be remembered by giving both departments in the institutions new look that command respect and what good journalism and broadcast education represent. I don’t know the state of the equipment in the departments now, but if the equipment cannot enhance students’ skills to a meaningful level, I think they should be overhauled and the support of ex-students should be sought to refurbish the departments in both institutions.

All around the world, the media profession had been greatly disrupted by technology. Newspaper circulation has drastically dropped with the advent of online news; digital advertising is taking over from traditional advertising. Radio stations today compete for listeners; any station that does not have engaging program will find it hard to gain and retain listeners’ attention. The numbers of people that watch television has continued to cascade not because of anything but to the fact that technology invasion is real.

I don’t know how many of us that still invites photographers to our event, if it is not a major event like wedding, because our phones take good pictures.

With all these happening, we really need to pay strong attention to the technology side of journalism. Journalism as a profession will not go into extinction; it is the journalist who refuses to reinvent new trends in journalism that will be jobless. Please let’s immortalize KGB by making the department of Mass Communication the best choice option for any student that wants to study Mass Communication in Nigeria.

I also seek that the Mass Communication Department should be metamorphosized into School of Communication Studies just as what we have in Lagos State University to attain higher stage of professionalism and specialization.

The truth is that we are all end products of our teachers, from elementary space to any stage of our life. Great teachers produce great students. In my journey outside the institution in the last six years, I have seen brilliant and excelling guys that graduated from the department. What this means is that we have brilliant lecturers not just in the department, but in the entire institutions.

They have sown seed of greatness in us. To honour them, we must appreciate all their efforts. Thank you all. 
May the Lord continue to honour you all.

Thank you,

Seye Joseph
@theseyejoseph