A former managing director of the News Agency of Nigeria, NAN, and presidential assistant on media to former President Olusegun Obasanjo, Oluremi Oyo, is dead.
The husband of the deceased, Vincent Oyo, confirmed her death to newsmen on Thursday morning, in a statement saying that she died on October 1st in a London hospital after a long battle with cancer.
Oyo, a veteran journalist, was appointed Senior Special Assistant to President Olusegun Obasanjo for media and publicity, in 2003, the first woman to occupy the office.
In 2007, she was appointed managing director of the News Agency of Nigeria and is said to have improved the service delivery of the agency to bring it into the digital age.
She was born 1952, in Ilorin the Kwara state capital, where she began her basic education at St. James’ Catholic Primary School.
She later left Ilorin to further her secondary education at St. Louis Secondary School, Bompai, Kano State.
Oyo gained admission to University of Lagos, UNILAG,, where she bagged Diploma in Mass Communication with distinction and later a post graduate Diploma in International Relations at the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs as well as a Master’s degree in International Relations at the University of Kent, Canterbury in the United Kingdom.
She began her career as a reporter in the former Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation, NBC, now Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria, FRCN, attaining the position of Principal Editor before moving to the NAN where she served as Editor and Pioneer head of the quality control desk.
The Oyo worked for more than 10 years as Nigeria Bureau chief for the Inter Press Service Global News Agency, ranked as one of the10 best news agencies in the world.
She was the first female president of the Nigerian Guild of Editors, a fellow of the Guild and Nigerian Institute of Management and the Institute of Public Administration of Nigeria.
Oyo has bagged many awards including the national award of Officer of the Order of Niger, OON, in 2006. She was a Dame of Saint Gregory the Great, a knighthood conferred on her by Pope Benedict, XVI, in acknowledgment of her support for girl child education.
She is survived by her husband, Vincent, children and grandchildren.