Meet UNILAG’s first female Professor of Mass Communication

Kelechi Amakoh writes on the well-deserved appointment of Dr Abigail Ogwezzy-Ndisika as the first female Professor of Mass Communication in the University of Lagos.

On Monday, June 5, an erudite scholar, Abigail Ogwezzy-Ndisika joined the league of professors at the University of Lagos as the university administration confirmed her as a Professor of Mass Communication. Her appointment makes her the first female professor to be produced by the department and the third female professor of mass communication in Nigeria.

Before her appointment, Nigeria only had two female professors in the field namely: Prof. (Chief) Stella Okunna, former Commissioner for Information and Economic Planning, Anambra State  and Prof.  Kate Azuka Omenugha, former Commissioner for Education, Anambra State.

Ogwezzy-Ndisika’s elevation comes on the heels of her appreciable foray in the field of communication with research interests in communication for development, public relations and advertising, though she says it is “like a dream.” “I’m yet to come to terms with this but its reality now to be at the peak of this profession. The University of Lagos management should be commended. If you do your work and meet the criteria for promotion, you will be promoted.”

She was appointed after sixteen years of full-time lecturing at the department . She was first appointed to the department on March 22^nd 2001 as a lecturer II. She rose through the ranks and has had the opportunity to teach, supervise and mentor several communication students at undergraduate and postgraduate levels.

Apart from being the first female professor produced in the department after over fifty years of its existence,  46-year-old Ogwezzy-Ndisika also made history in 2014 when she was the first female to be appointed as the Acting Head of the Department. During her two-year stint as head of the department, the department experienced tremendous growth and development. She has over forty (40) publications and twenty- eight (28) conference papers to her credit.

The mother of two graduated in 1991 as the Best Graduating Student of English Department, University of Port Harcourt. She later bagged a Post Graduate Diploma and Master’s Degree in Mass Communication at the University of Lagos in 1995 and 1997 respectively, a Second Master’s Degree in Gender Development at the University of Sussex in 2001, UK and a Doctor of Philosophy in Communication Arts at University of Ibadan in 2005.

Congratulations to a Professor of Firsts!