Idowu Sobowale

Idowu Sobowale died on the morning of Thursday 8 October 2026, aged 85. His son, Richard Adeyinka Emmanuel, said in a statement reported by the Daily Sun that his father had "joined the saints triumphant this morning" and that details of the funeral rites would be announced by the family. The cause of death was not made public.

Idowu Akanbi Sobowale was born in 1941 in Ashipa, a small town near Abeokuta in what is now Ogun State, Nigeria. His father was a farmer and his mother a petty trader. Published accounts of his birthday differ: his 80th birthday was marked by Lagos State University on 29 March 2021, while a DAME Awards citation gives 4 January 1941.

He told interviewers that he lived in the village until he was 13, farming and planning to become a mechanic. He first went to school in January 1954, already in his teens, and later attended Lagos Baptist Academy in Lagos.

He began his working life at the Daily Times, where Babatunde Jose gave him his first job. He went on to earn a diploma and a bachelor's degree with honours in mass communication at the University of Lagos. After working as an assistant lecturer there, he studied at Syracuse University in the United States and received a PhD in scientific journalism in 1978.

Sobowale's career moved between the newsroom, the university and government.

In journalism research, he is credited with bringing opinion polling into Nigerian journalism. He set up a public opinion polling desk at The Punch newspaper under its publisher Sam Amuka, and the first results were published in April 1979. In 2005 he returned to the theme in his inaugural lecture at Lagos State University, Opinion Polling in Nigeria: The Neglected Route to National Development.

At the University of Lagos he was twice acting head of the Mass Communication Department. As Special Adviser on Education to Lateef Jakande, the first civilian governor of Lagos State, he was among those who conceived Lagos State University, which opened in 1983. The Guardian recalled that in this role he oversaw Jakande's school policy and turned down an offer from UNESCO to help start a university in Malawi so that he could stay in Lagos.

Under Governor Bola Tinubu he served first as an adviser and then as Lagos State Commissioner for Education from 1999 to 2003, chairing the committee that recommended returning mission and private schools to their original owners.

At LASU he became Professor of Communication Studies and served as the pioneer Dean of the School of Communication from 2004 to 2007. He then moved to Olabisi Onabanjo University in Ogun State, where he developed postgraduate teaching in mass communication.

Sobowale was a Baptist and a deacon, and the family's announcement of his death described him as Pa Deacon Professor Idowu Akanbi Sobowale. His 80th birthday celebrations in 2021 included a thanksgiving service and the launch of his autobiography, Unexpected Turns. His son, Richard Adeyinka Emmanuel, announced his death. Friends and former students knew him by the nickname ID Noble.

Sobowale is remembered as one of the founders of journalism and communication education in Nigeria and as the person who brought scientific polling into the country's newspapers. Generations of journalists and communication scholars passed through his classes at the University of Lagos, Lagos State University and Olabisi Onabanjo University.

His honours included appointment as an Officer of the Order of the Niger by President Olusegun Obasanjo and the DAME Lifetime Achievement Award. Caleb University in Imota, Lagos, named its Faculty of Communication and Media Studies after him, and the Association of Communication Scholars and Professionals of Nigeria holds the biennial Idowu Sobowale International Conference in his honour.