EXIT OF A MEDIA ICON Mr. Victor Oshineye Oshisada, a veteran journalist and educationist was born in Lagos on 1st June, 1940 to late Chief Matthew Osimosu Osisada and late Madam Christianah Osisada. He hails from Ijesa-Ijebu(Odo-Ayanyelu) under Odogbolu Local Government Area in Ogun State. He had his early education at Odo Oye Elementary School (1949-1950), St. Judes School, Ijesha-Ijebu(1950-1952)and Wesley School,Irolu(1953-1954)under the Western Region. He also proceeded to L.A Secondary Modern School, Odogbolu in 1957. He taught briefly at St. John Anglican School, Aroloya in 1958 before attending Teachers Training College Surulere, Lagos to obtain Grades One and Two teaching certificates between 1959 and 1964.He later taught at various schools among which were St. Peters School, Faji,Lagos and St.John Anglican School Aroloya,Lagos before quiting teaching for journalism. He worked with the defunct Morning Post Newspaper before obtaining a certificate in Features Writing in 1972 at Nigerian Institute of Journalism. He later joined Daily Times of Nigeria in 1973 under the late Alhaji Babatunde Jose. He rose to the post of Deputy Editor for Home Studies, Headlines, Periodicals, at different years. He attended various seminars and courses as he also obtained Advanced Diploma from Times Journalism Institute with Upper Credit until he retired from Daily Times of Nigeria in 1993.He worked briefly with John West Publications owned by Alhaji. Lateef Jakande. A media practitioner and a great contributor to various articles and dairies of events of the year for Guardian Newspapers until his demise on 22nd October, 2019 after a brief illness at 79 years. He will be greatly missed by all and sundry for his high sense of humour, discipline, passion and commitment to journalism. He survived by his wife, children and grand children. REMINISCENCE OF GOOD WORKS OF VICTOR OSHISADA According to Nicholas Rone, “death is the privilege of human nature”. One should know that he that dies pay all debts. An extract from a popular Christian hymn says that “thus when we pass from this earth and its toilings, only remembered by what we have done”. By the time we juxtapose all these, we can not but conclude that we must do good at all times and not only that, pursue it passionately as it is our calling in order to have positive impact on people we mingle with, remaining indelible in their minds for a very long time. This is necessary before death which is an escape mechanism comes calling. As a son to a father who believed that having quality education no matter your background is a very important panacea for the ‘disease’ called illiteracy. Education makes people easy to govern but difficult to cheat. The man Victor Oshisada detest children being out of school or being seen hawking due to financial reasons or out of the volition of their parents due to one covert reasons or the other. Anytime I was with him, he would pray for any child he met that he or she would attend a prestigious university and be a graduate, a wish of many parents. He was one of the ardent supporters of the late sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo. He was one of the beneficiaries of the free education programme in the then Western region before he became a teacher at a tender age, he believed so much in the late sage’s philosophy and ideology until his death. Concerning his past articles I carefully preserved, one topic caught my attention which was “Freeing politics from violence published in The Guardian on 15th November, 2006. He wrote that politics must be freed from violence by making it less financially rewarding and that it must be taught in the religious studies and history, even by lending my support in Civic Education from nursery, through primary, secondary and tertiary institutions to shape our youths . Britain as our colonial master did the same. He believed politics should be non-violent, but it must serve humanity and not to acquire wealth. Another topic of interest to me in the Guardian on 26th August,2006 was on “The upsurge of mental patients” he attributed habitual use of alcohol and drugs, socio-economic conditions in the country, voodoo curses from aggrieved or envious people as some causes of these upsurge. We can not shy from all these most especially our youths who indulge in use of hard drugs among which is tramadol coupled with the biting effects of the economy. He advocated collective responsibility of all Nigerians including highly-placed Nigerians and the honorable members of the National Assembly to handle this case which is not good for Nigeria’s image. While on his sick bed, I remembered him telling me of happenings in the presidency. I kept wondering on his passion and love for this great country Nigeria. Whenever Nigeria Super Eagles had any international match, he would call me severally to find out about the progress of our boys whenever he did not have the opportunity to watch the football match like the match between Nigeria and Cameroun in the last Nations Cup in Egypt. Internationally, he took case of Libya seriously which was publication of 23rd November,2006 on “why Gadaffi was killed”. He tried to correct the impression of Moammar Gadaffi’s long reign and perpetuation of himself to power which was misconstrued by so many people. Truly, we know what African leaders can do when it comes to holding too long to the reins of power. He specially wrote that Moammar Gadaffi was a strong leader who knew his onions by improving the economy of his country by concentrating in agriculture and industry with proceeds from oil. Not all African leaders could achieve these especially with long reign. The standard of living of Libya was high as it was the economic Mecca for African youths including Nigerians, but it did not go down well with the western powers due to their selfish interest. Of course, the rest is history as Libya is now shadow of itself. It is a great lesson to us that not everybody likes our progress even in international politics. On this final note, I salute the great father, counselor, teacher in the making, journalist, old age never hindered him from pursuing what he loved doing. It is love for the profession, journalism was pursued passionately that as a boy, I and my siblings would wait for him as he would not return home until the following day, it was during the analogue years especially when the whole country was waiting for the budget. At his age, he never stopped reading, making researches and typing. He promised to return to his work by the time he would overcome his ill health despite being dissuaded from going ahead, but it was never so. This should be a lesson to upcoming those who aspire to be journalists. According to Henry Ford, he said and I quote that “if money is your hope for independence, you will never have it. The only real security that a man will have in this world is a reserve of knowledge, experience and ability” Olusheye Oshisada is an educationist who lives in Lagos