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the advertising industry had been hard hit, I am at a loss for words as to what hit the Christ’s School family where we are all like uterine brothers and sisters
Not since we bade farewell to our late Deputy Governor in Ekiti, the late Mrs Funmilayo Olayinka, have I seen anything like it: the overwhelming outpouring of grief, the massive turnouts at all the events and the compelling consensus about how our late brother positively impacted lives and the advertising industry, in particular. Uncountable were the testimonies – from school mates, especially from Christ’s School, Ado-Ekiti, which he attended from 1965-69, as well as from his colleagues in the advertising industry where he is rightly regarded as a pillar.
Without the least doubt, Sesan Ogunro was a colossus.
Until he was violently cut down, evening of Sunday, 23 December, 2013 at the Alausa Business District after attending a Christmas carol service at his church, Sesan, Managing Director of Eminent Communications, was everybody’s delight. Adroitly self-effacing, you would probably need to be told this is the man who had played such a huge role in putting advertising on its present pedestal in the country courtesy the several brands that emanated from his prodigious brain and his unstinting service in various committees, some of which he chaired. A Fellow of the Advertising Practitioners Council of Nigeria, APCON, he was one-time Chairman of APCON’s Advertising Standards Panel (ASP), Chairman of its Membership & Privileges Committee and Chairman of the Professional Practice Committee of the Association of Advertising Agencies of Nigeria, AAAN, a position easily recommended by his uncanny ‘expertise, enthusiasm and objectivity’, to quote Akinde, his successor as Chairman, Adverts Standards Panel.At the industry’s special valedictory session for him at the Protea Hotel, Maryland, Lagos on Wednesday, 9 January ,2014 at which was present all the leading lights of the industry, Sesan was generously referred to as ‘Mr Brand ‘ himself. Tributes poured in ceaselessly from all sectors of the industry.
If the advertising industry had been hard hit, I am at a loss for words as to what hit the Christ’s School family where we are all like uterine brothers and sisters. All of these two weeks had been hell on earth for us. There will be no words to describe what role Sesan played in revitalising The School. He has been a moving spirit and only a few weeks to his violent translation, he was being honoured by our Atlanta, U.S branch of the Alumni Association for his exemplary contribution to the school. You could call up Sesan at any time of the day or night for a Christ’s School matter. That we are seriously contemplating taking full responsibility for the running of the school owes largely to contributions by the likes of Sesan. Concerning The School, Sesan could very easily have been dubbed ‘Mr ever ready’. He was ever so unstinting in his support. And with him you knew exactly where you were. When my friend, a university Vice-Chancellor, intimated me with his university’s plan to set up an Advancement Committee and wanted a chair person, I hadn’t the slightest inhibition in recommending Sesan. I only asked my friend to let me consult him and his response was, ‘egbon, if you say so, who am I?’
He was that humble.
It will be appropriate at this point to hear the dirge from Christ’s School, Ado-Ekiti, as captured by Babatunde Faniyan, a classmate of Sesan.
Wrote Tunde:
Our season and the two bullets
He was a man of the people
With his easy disarming smile and quick wit,
Humour that penetrates and festers long
His attributes all the way from The School on Agidimo Hills
His legacy fit to cherish from now till Eternity
He may agree or disagree with you
But a ready smile of Tolerant Understanding
He has for all on all occasions
That indeed was our Sesan.
Capable confident, a high- flier
Humble beyond description
A thoroughbred Product of Agidimo Hills
Genius out of the Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria
He rode the Advertising world like a colossus
He built up the Nigeria Airways of old
Just as he did Cowbell, “Our Milk”
Sesan crafted the “MKO, Our Man” singsong
The Award-Winning HOPE ’93 Slogan
Which catapulted MKO to Nationwide Victory
Nor can we forget “Pam Pam Pa Pa Pam Paam MILO!”
Which still rings true and alluring To-day
They all came out of his prodigious brain.
He dined with kings and royalty
His productive hands leaving indelible imprints
Alas! Our prolonged rapport was not to be!
Those wicked, soul-less miscreants from the very pit of Hell:
They came, pulled the trigger and fired the bullet!
With a bullet wound, our man sought medical Help
To stop the Life-blood that was ebbing away
But instead of Help, the Nation’s accursed Medical institution
“Pulled the trigger” and fired a second”bullet” into Our man!
It is finished!
MOTHER-land snuffs out the life of her Worthy offspring!
Alas, they knew NOT whom they have cut down
Wicked, soul-less miscreants prowling our streets
Products of an accursed, maladjusted Society
Agents of the Cursed Spirit
They will never escape eternal damnation.
None of us you left behind is safe from these scallywags
Even then we dare to say “SHAME on them!”
They shall never know the Peace you NOW enjoy
ADIEU! Sesan, Our Brother and Friend.
Till we meet at the Feet of JESUS
To part no more.
Although I straddle Sesan’s two worlds of advertising, being a registered practitioner, and being six years his senior at Christ’s School, meaning he did not meet me there, I saw him always as my own younger brother; forever charming and his ready smile ever so captivating.
When he was appointed Chairman of the Ekiti Sate Broadcasting Corporation the first thing I told him was that he had to put in place an aggressive training programme especially for the newscasters. Mindful of costs, I suggested he used one of our higher institutions’ Language Labs but Sesan’s uncompromising addiction to excellence would not permit paucity of funds stand between him and his determination to bring them to Lagos to have the very best from the best training school as well as get exposed to experienced practitioners as trainers.
Completely devastated at hearing the news of Sesan’s untimely translation, the governor, Dr Kayode Fayemi, was one of the earliest visitors to the family house to commiserate and give words of courage to Dupe, Sesan’s adorable wife, and the wonderful children . It was the worst end of year news for all of us from Christ’s School. And looking back now, how I wished Sesan had attended our own Lagos branch carol service which held at exactly the same time at the Archbishop Vining Memorial Cathedral Church, also in Ikeja bearing in mind he never misses any of the school’s events.
But who are we to question God?
I sincerely commiserate with Sesan’s family, the wife, the children and the siblings and do pray that the good Lord will comfort and strengthen them.
And so shall it be in Jesus name. Amen.
