Remembering Albert Alos, First Vice-Chancellor of Pan-Atlantic University

Albert Alos is remembered not only as the first vice-chancellor of Pan-Atlantic University, but also as an early believer in the economic power of Nigerian creativity.

Femi Odugbemi writes that he met Alos in 2003, when Odugbemi was president of the Independent Television Producers Association of Nigeria. A friendship grew from that meeting. Born in Barcelona, Spain, Alos came to Nigeria in 1967 and spent nearly six decades contributing to the country’s intellectual and institutional development.

An electrical engineer and professor, he taught at leading Nigerian universities before helping build Lagos Business School, where he became its pioneer dean. Odugbemi recalls their long conversations about capacity, monetization, business models and the potential of Nigeria’s creative economy. Alos also offered the school’s facilities and resources, introduced Odugbemi to useful contacts and helped develop the networks and business knowledge needed by creative practitioners.

In 2004, Alos hosted and personally supported the ITPAN International Forum on Video and Cinema in Africa at the newly built Lagos Business School auditorium in Lekki. For Odugbemi, the event showed Alos’s belief that media and business needed to work together for Nigerian creativity to thrive. Alos later commissioned a legacy documentary on Lagos Business School and followed its production closely.

He also joined the jury of the Afrinolly Short Film Competition. Alos understood, Odugbemi writes, that building Nollywood’s future meant more than celebrating established success. It also required identifying and encouraging emerging filmmakers.

The School of Media and Communication at Pan-Atlantic University reflects that same commitment to media, creativity and knowledge. Odugbemi says Alos understood that a creative economy needs talent, institutions, business knowledge, investment, infrastructure and capable new practitioners. “The imagination industry we see today has Prof. Alos’ fingerprints on it,” he writes.

“

The imagination industry we see today has Prof. Alos’ fingerprints on it.