MORE condolences have continued to stream in for sports publishing pioneer Dr Emmanuel Sunny Ojeagbase.
The founder and Executive Chairman of Complete Communications Limited died on Saturday in the United States of America aged 71 after a brief illness.
The sports minister Sunday Dare praised achievements of Ojeagbase, who published the first football magazine in Nigeria, Complete Football, and the first all-sports weekly and daily newspapers, Sports Souvenir and Complete Sports.
Dare then prayed for the repose of Ojeagbase’s soul and strength for the family to bear the loss.
The Nigeria Football Federation described Ojeagbase’s passing as ‘shocking’, with the body’s President Amaju Pinnick stating that the departed oracle of sports writing and sports publishing carved a bold niche for himself in the profession, made a profound impression on the terrain as he tutored and mentored those who came to be the foredogs of the following decades and left his giant footprints in the sands of time.
“Anyone in the line of football, nay sports knew Pastor (Dr) Sunny Ojeagbase. He was the authentic legend of sports writing and sports publishing, and even went into other terrains that people thought was not possible,” Pinnick said in an official NFF statement.
“We are shocked by his death at this time because he still had so much to give. However, God loves him much more and he has taken him at the appointed time. Our joy is that he lived a full, fruitful and fulfilled life. On behalf of the Nigerian football family, we pray that Almighty God will grant him eternal rest and also grant the family he has left behind, as well as the Complete Communications family, the fortitude to bear this great loss.”
The NFF wrote in a tribute to Ojeagbase: “Soft-spoken, self-effacing, unclamorous yet far-sighted, Ojeagbase made sports reporting an outstanding section in The Guardian Newspapers in the early 1980s, before leaving in 1984.
“The same year, he founded Sports Souvenir which became Nigeria’s first all-sport publication, to which he added Complete Sports, Complete Football International, Complete Football Extra, Sports Digest, ISR and other publications in the following decades, creating a media behemoth that in turn nurtured geniuses and prodigies who went on to dominate the profession with brilliance.”
In a press release on Tuesday the Sports Writers Association of Nigeria, wrote: “The Sports Writers Association of Nigeria has received with huge shock the demise of the founder and Executive Chairman of Complete Communications Limited, Publishers of Complete Sports Newspapers, SuccessDigest and other Online Publications, Dr. Emmanuel Sunny Ojeagbase.
“SWAN recalls his tremendous contributions to Sports Development through his various publications which has provided gainful employments for hundreds of Nigerian youths including many of our members serving across the country.
“Complete Sports has offered a platform where many SWAN members practiced and even excelled in their chosen career. SWAN take solace in the fact that late Sunny Ojeagbase lived a very fulfilled life and will be remembered for enduring legacies he has left behind.
“The late media Icon made his landmark as the pioneer publisher of sports news in Nigeria when in 1984 he established the Sports Souvenir weekly newspaper.”
The Lagos chapter of the association also mourned Ojeagbase’s death and eulogised the accomplished businessman.
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