A special celebratory service for the passing on of Fourah Bay College senior academic, Professor Richard T. Mbayo, has been held at the college campus on Mount Aureol, Freetown. Senior academia, lecturers, students and other sympathisers assembled in the Lawrence Kamara Hall on the Multi- purpose hall for the service that was organized by the Mass Communication department.
Speaker after speaker made commendatory statements honouring the contributions and achievements of the late Professor M’Bayo who until his death was Coordinator of postgraduate studies and lecturer at the Mass Communication Department of FBC.
Head of department, Mass communication, Dr. Williette James, described Prof. M’Bayo as a very good man who taught students from year one to masters level. She described him as someone who was quite blunt and demanding when desiring the best from his students. Dr. James said Prof. M’Bayo’s goal was to see his five Ph.D. candidates, herself being one of them, graduate, and he achieved that. “Thank God he invested in us”, Dr. James noted.
A senior lecturer at FBC, Dr. Isaac Massaquoi, spoke about his personal relationship with the late professor whom he first got to know back in 2012 when he was abroad. He said at the time, he painstakingly tried to convince Dr. M’Bayo to join the Mass Communication department, seeing him as the perfect person that would propel lecturers and students to higher academia. Dr. Massaquoi recalled how he and other colleagues used the newly formed Media Reform Coordinating Group (MRCG) to finally bring Prof. M’Bayo to the university. He strove for excellence, introduced and equally encouraged the use of academic articles, he said.
“He impacted us so much and changed everything around us”, Dr. Massaquoi recalled. He consoled family members and the entire Mass Communication fraternity at FBC for the loss.
The Director of the Institute of Information, Library and Communication Studies, Solomon Sellu, acknowledged the pivotal role Prof. M’Bayo played in ensuring that five Mass Communication lecturers were conferred with doctorates, an unprecedented feat that was achieved because of his input. He said Prof. M’Bayo was a mentor and role model whose time and input at the university will always be remembered.
Professor Lawrence Kamara described the late man as a great colleague and a good leader who improved on the standards of teaching that both lecturers and students benefitted from immensely.
A student, Claudia Redwood –Sawyerr, said Prof. M’Bayo was a very quiet and fatherly figure and an example they could aspire to become in life. A Book of Condolence was later opened that saw Senior Lectures, Students and Journalists inscribe messages honouring his phenomenal academic contribution.
Prof. M’Bayo died in Nigeria earlier this month after a short illness.
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