Meet Sunny Ojeagbase, The Late founder of Complete Sport.

Sunny Ojeagbase is the founder and executive chairman of Complete Communications Limited, the publisher of Complete Sports and Success Digest. He recently passed away at the age of 71

Sunny’s death was announced by Julius Ojeagbase, one of his children on Monday evening February 28. He died at the age of 71 in Atlanta, USA, on Saturday, February 26 after a brief illness.

Sunny Ojeagbase Biography

Sunny Ojeagbase was born on 31 December 1950 into the family of Obazu-Ojeagbase of Uzebba in Owan West Local Government Area, Edo State. His father, Pa Johnson Ojeagbase, was a soldier who fought in the Second World War while his mother, Mama Janet Emilomo Ojeagbase, was a housewife and petty trader.

Sunny was actually born in Osogbo, the capital of Osun State. He, therefore, was also given the Yoruba name, Abiodun, having been born on the eve of a New Year’s Day.

After his primary education, young Sunny could not proceed to secondary school because his mother fell ill at the time and his father had exhausted his meagre earnings on treating his mother.

His application for a region-wide scholarship for students in the Western Region fell through and he had to settle for vocational training first as a shorthand and typing trainee and an apprentice mechanic for two days, before settling later as an apprentice printer for five years.

But due to his urge to start earning a steady income to support his father (his mother had passed on then) and his siblings whom he saw as his personal responsibility, Sunny enlisted in the Nigerian Army.

Joining the army did not initially solve his financial problems as he slipped into the habit of borrowing money for pool betting. He also got married and started a family early, meaning that his 19 pounds monthly salary as an Army private was never going to be enough.

When the Nigerian Government paid jumbo salaries to workers in 1972, under the famous Udoji Awards. Sunny was al to pay off his debts he also paid for a correspondence course with “Exam Success” which elevated his education to a secondary level. He later sat for the GCE examination as a private candidate and passed.

While still in the Nigerian Army Engineers in 1976, Sunny began writing unsolicited sports articles for Nigerian newspapers as a freelancer. He started with the Nigerian Herald newspaper in Ilorin, Kwara State; then the New Nigerian newspaper based in Kaduna; and then finally the Daily Times which was the largest selling newspaper in Nigeria at the time.

When Sunny was discharged from the Nigerian army in 1978, He (Sunny ) was engaged by the Daily Times as a freelance reporter, who later offered him full-time employment in 1979. And so, Sunny’s dream career in journalism began.

Sunny Ojeagbase revolutionized the presentation of sports pages in Nigerian newspapers. His reporting had such depth and his page layouts such beauty as had never been seen before in Nigerian newspapering. Mr Fabio Lanipekun, former Director of Sports at the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) and sports media veteran and historian, had this to say about Sunny’s impact at the National Concord: “For the first time, Nigerians were feasted with an imaginative display of sports stories from the front page to the centre spread, embellished with bold captivating pictures that seemed to leap out of the pages.”

Sunny left the Daily Times to join Sunday Concord in June 1980 as a reporter and rose rapidly to become the Group Sports Editor in 1982. The Guardian newspaper after launching in 1983 head-hunted Sunny from National Concord to become their pioneer sports editor. While at The Guardian, Sunny had elevated his education further by obtaining a Diploma in Journalism (Mass Communication) from the University of Lagos.

When The Guardian management announced a 25% reduction in staff salaries to cushion the business. Sunny took the risk and resigned from the company to start his own business in November 1984.

Sunny started his publishing business, Obazu Company Limited with Sports Souvenir, a pioneer all-sports weekly publication which struggled to survive the early years of its establishment. Sales were poor, unsold copies were heavy and advertising support was lacking.

In a bid to save the fledging business, Sunny dropped his family name, Obazu, from his business name and registered Complete Communications Limited. In November 1985, he then introduced Complete Football, a monthly colour magazine which, after some initial setbacks as well, finally turned the corner and became a household name in Nigeria. Complete Football magazine would go on to play pivotal roles in some of the major achievements by the Nigerian senior football team, the Super Eagles, including qualification for the 1994 FIFA World Cup (Nigeria’s first) and winning the Olympic Gold medal in football at the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games.

Several other titles followed from the Complete Communications stable such as Complete Football International which was printed in the United Kingdom and circulated in the USA, UK, Japan and several African countries. Other titles included Complete Football Extra and International Soccer Review. All these football periodicals eventually culminated in the introduction of Complete Sports daily newspaper in December 1995 as the flagship publication of the company.

At some stage during its 25 years of its existence, Complete Sports rose to become the largest selling newspaper of any kind in Nigeria.

Personal Life

Dr. Emmanuel Sunny-Ojeagbase is a devoted Christian and God-fearing man. He and his wife were ordained as Pastors by Holy Victory Apostolic Church, Ota.  He is blessed with six successful children and many grandchildren

Apart from his prolific articles on sports and business development, Dr Ojeagbase has published several books. Some of these include How to Make it in Nigeria Building Your Wealth from Ground Floor Up; Ideas! – The Starting Point of All Riches; What They Don’t Teach You At Lagos Business School; Bullet Proof From Poverty; Seven Laws Of Success That Turned My Life Around, among others. Needless to mention, Sunny himself is a voracious reader, especially of business and motivational writers.

Source: PMnewsnigeria.com