The strength demonstrated by three daughters of the late Publisher of the EagleOnline, Mr Dotun Oladipo at his funeral on Thursday and yesterday in Lagos assured sobbing mourners that Oladipo, despite his sudden demise, is still living in his family.
Rather than putting on all black outfit, they were dressed in white which depicted hope and brightness for them after their father’s departure.
The spectacle at the DayStar Christain Centre, Oregun, Lagos was celebration of life of a man who served and left behind a lasting legacy in his chosen profession and among his fellow practitioners, associates, friends and school mates.
Though Oladipo was aged 56, his funeral was like that for a centenarian who had lived a fulfilled life. While some mourners wore white dress, others appeared in other colours watching performing drummers and trumpeters surrounding the white casket bearing remains of Oladipo.
During the service, the choir rendered hymns such as ‘Blessed Assurance’ and ‘It Is Well with My Soul’ were rendered by the choir, while the clergy told the attentive congregation about temporariness of life and urged them to always remember God in all their undertakings as exemplified by the deceased who left at the least expected hour.
The preacher also consoled the bereaved family and charged them to accept their new reality and move away from grief, the thief of human joy, declaring that their late father lived a worthy life of which they would be proud. He said their father touched lives positively during his short sojourn on earth.
A a short video of Oladipo’s life and career pinched the hearts of his colleagues, especially at the concluding part wherein Oladipo did what looked like a premeditated sign off with “It is Dotun saying goodbye.”
One of Oladipo colleagues in the Guild of Corporate Online Publishers (GOCOP), Mr Dapo Falade, who travelled from his Ibadan base to the funeral service, reacted to the final words with submission to the force of emotions. “That particular scene held my heart. I didn’t know when tears dropped from my eyes,” he revealed.
In honour of the deceased, the GOCOP has promised to institute what it called the Dotun Oladipo Prize for Online Journalism, according to Deputy President Mr Olumide Iyanda.
He made the announcement at the service of songs for Oladipo, saying “I therefore wish to announce, on behalf of our President, the Executive Committee and the entire membership of GOCOP, our intention to institute the Dotun Oladipo Prize for Online Journalism.
“The prize will recognise outstanding online journalism in Nigeria and keep alive the values Dotun represented as a journalist, publisher and leader. The details will be worked out by the Guild in due course.”
Oladipo died on August 25 at the age of 56 on his way to hospital in Lagos. He was a founding member of GOCOP and served as president of the Guild from 2017 to 2021.
“At the time he died, he was Chairman of the GOCOP Constitution Review Committee and was arranging accommodation for members coming from outside Lagos for our annual conference in October.
“That was Dotun for you. He could be involved in the big decisions and still worry about where a colleague would sleep,” he said.
Iyanda revealed, “On the morning he died, he told me he was going to the office partly to sign a guarantor’s form for a GOCOP member travelling out of the country. He never got to sign it. Even on his last day, Dotun was thinking about what he could do for somebody else. He was a major artery of GOCOP. He was our dealmaker, our peacemaker and our joy giver.”
At the service were Enugu State Commissioner for Information and pioneer GOCOP president Malachy Agbo, immediate past GOCOP president Maureen Chigbo, former Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE) president and former presidential spokesman Femi Adesina, former NGE president and former Osun State Commissioner for Information Funke Egbemode, former NGE president and Provost of the Nigerian Institute of Journalism Gbenga Adefaye, incumbent NGE president Eze Anaba and Vice President of the International Press Institute,IPI Nigeria, Mr Fidelis Mba.
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