By Peter Ajayi Dada
“I shall pass through this world but once. Any good therefore that I can do or any kindness that I can show to any human being, let me do it now. Let me not defer or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again,”—Stephen Grellet.
The quotation above summarises the life and times of late Rt. Rev. Msgr (Prof) Joseph Oladejo Amiola Faniran ,71, whom God called from this world to himself on Saturday, March 11,2023, from this writer’s point of view.
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On that fateful Saturday, the National President of the Catholic Media Practitioners Association of Nigeria (CAMPAN) and my very good friend, Patrick Osu, called my line and without our usual pleasantries and jokes asked me : Have you read the post on SIGNIS-NIGERIA WhatsApp platform.
What was it about, I asked. He intoned with a statement of finality “Msgr Faniran is dead.” I ended the conversation with this short prayer: ” May his soul rest in peace.”
I opened the SIGNIS-NIGERIA WhatsApp platform and low and behold, I read the terse statement forwarded there by Rev Fr Martin Diipo Badejo which confirmed the death of Msgr Joseph Faniran as having occurred some hours on that bleak Saturday.
The statement is reproduced below:
“Transition to Glory!!!
With deep pain, but with hope in the ressurection of Christ, we announce the passing unto (onto) eternal glory of our able and energetic Monsignor Joseph Faniran.
Msgr. Joseph Faniran passed on to the great beyond this afternoon, 11th day of March.
We commit his soul into the hands of God, that he may find peace and rest with God.
Revd. Fr. Emmanuel Farinmade
Diocesan Secretary.”
With the passing on of Msgr Faniran to the great beyond, the Social Communications Family of the Catholic Church in Nigeria and in Africa has lost an icon, a leading light, an encyclopedia of knowledge and a proponent of Social Communication from the African perspective.
Rt Rev Msgr Edward Ogidan in his autobiography titled:”A Priest Forever, A Gift To Others” which he wrote to commemorate the anniversary of his Silver Priestly Jubilee listed their classmates that were ordained same year in their different dioceses as : Rev. Fathers Peter Ajibola and Raphael Chiaka of Ibadan, George Egbe , Anthony Okafor and Ambrose Okonta of Ussele-Uku, James Nzonwanne for Idah, Barnabas Anikor Salawu of Lokoja,Joseph Dejo Faniran of Osogbo, Joseph Dayo Akinjo and Joseph Ogunduyilemi of Ondo, Patrick Okure and Pius Okon of Calabar.
Others are:Alexander Nneckireru of Warri, Dennis Tegbe of Port Harcourt, Jeremiah Eruaga and Paul Adoganne of Benin City, John Ayodele and Edward Ogidan of Ekiti respectively out of the seventy students that were admitted into the Major Seminary in 1970 after the end of the Nigerian Civil War. My condolences to those still alive among them and may the souls of those who had been called from this world by God to eternity among them rest in peace. Amen.
Also, Msgr Ogidan said in.the book that their class was referred to as the ‘refugees’ by the then Rector, Msgr Patrick Governor Ugboko, because of its large population compared to the 23 canfidates that were admitted into the Major Seminary in 1969.
Similarly, my condolences to the Catholic Dioceses of Oyo and Osogbo respectively on the demise of our own mentor, father, friend and an ever-willing and an ever ready personality and a visionary per excellence who was always ready to render assistance to anybody at short notice. He was such an amiable and gentle priest with a large fecundity to remember and call anyone he had met once by his first or baptismal name. He was always very accommodating and making anybody that came his way in his lifetimes to feel at home with him.
Why my condolences to the two dioceses mentioned above, our revered Monsignor was ordained into the Priesthood on December 26,1976 at Modakeke, his home town by our Baba, Most Rev Julius Babatunde Adelakun, Bishop Emeritus of the Old Catholic Diocese of Oyo after he had successfully completed his priestly training at the Saints Peter and Paul Major Seminary, Bodija -Ibadan that same year. By divine providence, he was the only seminarian raised to the order of the priesthood in the old Catholic Diocese of Oyo in that year.
Until Msgr Faniran’s death despite serving the Catholic Church in Ghana, Rome and at CESACC in Port Harcourt where he retired in February last year when he attained 70 years, he remained a priest of the Catholic Diocese of Osogbo.
Your Lordship, Most Rev John Oyejola of the Catholic Diocese of Osogbo, whom I will describe as the Chief Mourner here, accept my condolences on the death of our Monsignor whose knowledge, experience and other qualities I guess , the diocese would have loved to tap into for its growth and development following his retirement from CIWA after years of meritorious service. However, God, our creator, is the only interpreter of his own actions and anybody who wants to query him will have to travel to heaven for an answer. The Yoruba couched it succinctly thus “Kabi O o si Eledumare. Bo ti wu Oluwa ni se ola. Bo ba wu a se igba otutu, mo ba si tun wu, a tun se igba ooru” literally meaning: ” Who can probe the almighty God. When he feels like, he brings about the rainy or cold season and when he chooses, he introduces the harmattan or dry season to the world.”
Also to His Grace, Most Rev Gabriel Abegunrin, the Archbishop of the Catholic Archdiocese of Ibadan, may the good Lord condole and console you. You will, no doubt, best be pained by the death of Msgr Faniran having worked closely together for many years in the old Oyo Diocese while the Chief Servant Leader, Bishop Julius Adelakun, was the Chief Shepherd there and in Osogbo Diocese while Your Grace was its pioneer Bishop.
Rev.Fr. Peter Adeyemi in the published biography on the then Bishop now Archbishop Gabriel ‘Leke Abegunrin titled: “A Shepherd In Service” wrote that Fr Faniran preached the homily at the Mass of Thanksgiving after the priestly ordination of the then Fr Abegunrin on 22 April,1979 at St. Joseph’s Catholic Church, Iwere-Ile in the present day Oyo Diocese.
Adeyemi also wrote in the book that Fr Abegunrin assisted Fr Nicholas Okesola at St. Mary’s Catholic Church, Ilesa, for six months before he was moved to Our Lady of Assumption Parish, Oyo Town
to assist Rev.Fr.Joseph Faniran. He also recalled how God used Fr Faniran as the genuine adviser to the then Fr Abegunrin when Bishop Adelakun wanted to send him to Rome to study Canon Law.
According to Fr Adeyemi, when Fr Abegunrin arrived Oyo from Osogbo where he had met with the Bishop following His Lordship’s invitation to him, Fr. Abegunrin narrated the message the Bishop told him to his senior brother priest. Quoting from the biography, Faniran later in the evening of that day when they were strolling together as was their custom and praying the rosary brought up the matter again and advised the then Fr Abegunrin to study whatever the Bishop asked him to study, even if the Bishop asked him to study sand, he should do it since the Bishop is the one to provide a job for him when he is through with the study.
Adeyemi concluded that Faniran reminded the then Fr Abegunrin that obedience to Ecclesiastical authorities , no doubt, always pays off in the end. It was a case of two children of the same mother telling themselves the truth without any negative ulterior motive attached to it. The author concluded that Fr Abegunrin took to the wise counsel of Fr Faniran and went back a few days later to inform His Lordship then in Osogbo that he was ready to study what the Bishop had asked him to go and study in Rome. The rest as we say is history today.
Similarly, I extend my sympathy to the entire staff and students of CIWA in general and the Centre for the Study of African Culture and Communication, (CESACC) which Prof. Faniran nursed from academic and pastoral infancy into becoming a think tank for the Social Communications Apostolate of the Catholic Church in Nigeria , West Africa and the African continent.
There is no gain saying the fact that Msgr Amiola Faniran as a reservoir of knowledge was a great and an impactful mentor on his mentees, a lecturer who performed his ordinary statutory duty in an extraordinary manner to the greater glory of God and the good of humanity for the several years he served at CESACC in CIWA. May the fruits he and his team planted continue to bear fruits in multitudes among the present and generations yet unborn.
My personal contacts with Msgr Faniran dates to my years as the Communication Officer in the Directorate of Social Communications at the Catholic Secretariat of Nigeria ( CSN) while still on Force Road in Lagos between Year 2000 and Year 2003.
He would come visiting my boss then, the then Rev Fr.Emmanuel Badejo, now Bishop Emmanuel Badejo of the Catholic Diocese of Oyo. My Lord, kindly accept my condolences on the death of our Monsignor. May His soul rest in peace. Monsignor would commend and appreciate our contributions to the growth of Social Communications in the Church and encouraged us to keep the flag flying. He was, indeed a good motivator, a sterling team player that would identify the quality in the individual and would do all he could to tap it and develop it for the good of the individual and the society at large. That indeed is leadership that should be emulated by all and sundry.
Also in Year 2020 shortly before the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic, he was one of the guest speakers at a seminar organised by CAMPAN , Lagos Archdiocese, meant to chart the way forward on how Social Communication can be better deployed towards further promoting the activities of the Catholic Church. Also, SIGNIS-NIGERIA in collaboration with CESACC organised another programme in Port Harcourt in 2021 where he served as one of the principal facilitators. I was privileged to attend both events . At all those events , Msgr Faniran exhibited a high sense of humility despite his exalted position and was ever willing to explain things to us the participants in simplified manners, spicing such explanations with his infectious smiles which earned him the admiration of all .
He was a man always ready to show gratitude for every gesture no matter how little believing that one good turn deserves another. In his acknowledgement pages in the extract from the doctoral dissertation he submitted to the Faculty of Social Sciences of The Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome in 2003, he wrote “With joy, I acknowledge the fatherly support that I received from Most Rev.Julius Babatunde Adelakun , the Bishop that ordained me a priest twenty-six years ago and inspired me to embark on the wonderful search for the way to carry out the mission of Christ through the means of social communication.
“My joy and gratitude is no less expressed to Most Rev. Gabriel ‘Leke Abegunrin who actually sustained me morally, spiritually and financially all through the period of this study.” Also, he was full of appreciations to the Diocesan Clergy, the Religious and the Laity of the Diocese of Osogbo, and the love and support he said he enjoyed from many of his friends throughout Nigeria in addition to those from his international benefactors and benefactresses alike.
Msgr Faniran deployed his versatile knowledge, cosmopolitan outlook and experiences garnered from town and gown to the advantages of his students at CESACC and the Universal Church as a whole.The CESACC family were very privileged to become the first and direct beneficiaries of the experiences he acquired while serving : first as the Director of the old Oyo Diocesan Social Communications Commission which he established, secondly those experiences he garnered as the Press Secretary to the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar ( SECAM) in Accra Ghana which enabled him to experience at close quarters the situation of the Social Communication Apostolate in many African countries. Also, during the historic African Synod in Rome in 1994, the then Holy Father, Pope, now, Saint John Paul 11, appointed him an observer as well as the Information Assistant with the responsibility of reporting the goings-on in the Sula to the world press in English Language. The CESACC family members under his fatherly guidance and mentoring were, indeed ,a favoured generation. They should, therefore, endeavour as individuals and family not to allow the labours of our hero’s past be in vain.
He had done his best and left the rest for his makers to judge and angels do no more. But what would be said of the rest of us he had left behind to continue serving God and his people with the various talents we are endowed with by our creator after we would have departed from this world?
Thanks to the leadership of the Catholic Church in general and especially his Bishop then for identifying the potential inherent in him and encouraged him to develop it for the common good. Msgr Faniran’s over 46 years in the Priesthood were years of bounteous harvest for the Catholic Church at parish, diocesan, national continental and at World levels.
His penchant and genuine love towards the promotion of human community through communication motivated him to focus his doctoral dissertation on the theme, “Communalism As A Feature Of African Communication : An Exploratory Study With Special Reference To The Yoruba of Nigeria”. He successfully defended the dissertation and submitted it to the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome in 2003, exactly twenty years ago. Faniran in part of his conclusion in the dissertation in Chapter 8 (2) said, “…a communalistic understanding of Communication shifts the emphasis away from media to mediation, and from instruments to the world of the persons using them. In other words, the appropriate site of communucation is the interaction between persons who actively participate in co-creating and sharing a meaningful world or social order. In that process, they build up mutual understanding that leads to the creation of communion and community.”
Seventy years is our life span and eighty for those who are strong as stipulated by the Holy Bible. Msgr, through the grace of God ,was strong and surpassed 70 years by one year, one month and some days having been born on February 6, 1952 and died on March 1,2023 . He spent over 46 years of it in serving in God’s vineyard , preaching the gospel and winning souls for eternal life. Thank God for a life well spent by Msgr Joseph Faniran in serving his creator and his people because it is not how long but how well that matters most.
Adieu, Rt Rev Msgr ( Prof.) Joseph Oladejo Amiola Faniran, Professor Emeritus of Pastoral Communication at CIWA. You planted you foot on the sand of time, made remarkable landmarks and attained the peak in your vocation and in the academic. May you continued to be remembered for the good works you did across the globe and may God grant your soul eternal rest. Amen.
Perhaps, you come across our deceased members in the Social Communications Department such as : Fr Toyin Pinheiro, Prince Iwa Oyefade, Mr Bimbo Alade, Mr Bayo Irekiigbe and Fr Thomas Ajayi,give them my greetings. Also, say me well to Msgr Peter Ajibola, your classmate at Bodija and several others too numerous to mention here.
Ojo ayo kan nbo, ta o goke lo s’Orun,
Ta o goke lo,
Ta o dagbere fun aye yi pe
Aye o digbose
Sleep on, Msgr Joseph Faniran, one of the fathers of Social Communication in Nigeria, and in Africa till we all meet on the day of Resurrection.
Peter Ajayi Dada is the National Secretary of CAMPAN and a retired Deputy Editor-in -Chief (DEiC) from the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).
