Remebering Dr. Levi Ajuonuma

I Flew Dana Air to Abuja and back last weekend with my husband. In Abuja, we visited one of our family friends and when we told the man we took Dana Air, he was surprised. I asked him why and he said because it crashed last year. I told him the company is back and doing good because their flight is always on schedule with courteous crew members and always fully booked. The man was still not convinced and I realised fear which is not of God is eating him up.
Fear is not good at all. It paralyses Faith and causes a grown up man to start behaving and reasoning like a child. Soon, I will write about Fear.
While in the friends house we remembered Dr. Levi Ajuonuma, the former Group General Manager, Public Affairs, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, who was one of the passengers on the ill fated Dana Airline flight that crashed 3rd June 2012.

Dr. Levi was a member of our Church then, Powerline Bible Church. He was very active in most of the fellowships and departments of the Church that he was a member. I remember that every year before our annual Power Conference, he would have assisted our Bishop to appear in most of the television shows to talk about the conference and the speakers. In fact for the years he was a member of the church, it was like a ritual and we were always having visitors flocking to the Church during those conferences.

This was possible because Dr. Levi was a broadcaster and public relations consultant with many radio and Television Stations. He was producer and presenter of such shows as Levi Ajuonuma Live, The Sunday Show and Showtime on NTA Network, as well as The Nation Today Live on NTA Channel 10. He had another show called  Open House Party on Raypower 100FM, a programme that ran for years. He was also the owner of Lasom Communications Ltd (a consortium of media and public relations consultants), engaged in marketing and public relations consultancy for a number of organisations such as the United States Information Service, Federal Road Safety Commission, Nigerian Institute of Structural Engineers etc. He also designed and produced corporate marketing and brand promotional TV programmes for corporate giants like Nigerian Breweries Plc, Cadbury Plc, Intercontinental Bank Plc and others.

Dr. Levi Ajuonuma was a broadcaster per excellence. He had been in the industry for about two years before he proceeded to the United States of America  (Huntington College), Indiana, where he bagged a Bachelor of Arts in Communications. He later got a Master of Arts and Ph.D in Mass Communication from the University of Minnesota in 1983 and 1987 respectively. 
He worked briefly as Assistant Professor at the Department of Journalism, Keene State College of the University System of the State of New Hampshire, USA.

Dr Levi Ajuonuma

When he eventually came back to Nigeria, he got engaged with productions of shows on television and radio stations. That is why the church then was always getting free air time.
He got married again in the church but one of his Shows then created problems between him and our Pastor and he had to leave but he was still in touch with my husband for his legal issues. We were really sad that he was one of the 153 people who died in the ill-fated Dana Airline crash at Agege, Lagos last year.

His hardwork paid off as he was later employed as the Chief Image Maker of the NNPC. He was able to deploy relevant communication tools to get Nigerians to understand the workings of the oil and gas industry and especially the NNPC.
His dedication to duty was not forgotten as Petroleum Technology Association of Nigeria, gave post-houmous award of  "The PETAN Outstanding Leadership Award" at the Offshore Technology Conference (OTC) in Houston, Texas, USA recently. The award was presented by Andrew Yakubu, Group Managing Director, NNPC and was was received by Michael Ajuonuma, his first son on behalf of the family.

One of his legacies in television broadcasting is the NTA Network programme, Tuesday Live, which is still running.

 I pray God will continue to be with his family and make them forge ahead as one big strong family.

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