Anthonia Oore-Ofe, the daughter of one of the most widely travelled Nigerian journalists and former Chairman of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Oyo State Council, Barrister Wale Ojo-Lanre, was recently announced as the best female graduating student of the maiden graduating set of Dominion University, Lagos-Ibadan Expressway.
The announcement of 20-year-old Ojo-Lanre as a First-Class (Honours) Bachelor of Science graduate in Mass Communications with a 4.86 GPA was surprising to some, but to others who are familiar with her diligence in academics, coupled with her father’s profile, it was expected.
Just like her father, Anthonia Oore-Ofe Ojo-Lanre’s case was a confirmation of Proverbs 22:29: “Do you see a man skilled in his work? He will stand before kings; he will not stand before obscure men.”
Amb. Wale Ojo-Lanre is an educationist, journalist, and lawyer who was a former Associate Editor with the Nigerian Tribune Newspapers, two-term Chairman of the Oyo NUJ, Chief Press Secretary to former Ekiti State Governor, Engr. Segun Oni, Director-General of the Ekiti State Council for Arts and Culture, and Senior Special Assistant on Tourism Development to former Governor Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti State.
The daughter of the Usi-Ekiti-born tourism promoter’s academic prowess was well appreciated with cash prizes and awards. The awards include the Vice Chancellor’s Award for the Best Graduating Student in the Faculty of Arts, Social, and Management Sciences; the Overall Best Graduating Student in the Faculty of Arts, Social, and Management Sciences; and the Professor Adeyemi O. Ewetade Award for the Best Graduating Student in the Faculty of Arts, Social, and Management Sciences.
In a brief chat with REPORTERS AT LARGE, Ojo-Lanre expressed that her curiosity to know the technicalities behind the use of various mediums to inform a large, dispersed, and heterogeneous audience and also get informed propelled her decision to study Mass Communication. “Information is life. No one can survive without it. The fact that that could be achieved using various mediums was so captivating, and I wanted to do that. I wanted to know how it is done, the technicalities, and the complex ways,” she said.
As a 100-level student of Mass Communication at Dominion University, Anthonia launched an online news and gist platform, Anthonia Gists, which she later suspended to focus more on her academics.
Describing Anthonia growing up, her ecstatic father simply said, “We called her Prof. She is diligent, studious, resourceful, and very good at second-guessing.”
