Tribune Publisher, Oluwole Awolowo, Dies at 70

The Publisher/Vice-Chairman of African Newspapers of Nigeria Plc (ANN), publishers of the Tribune Newspapers, Chief Oluwole Awolowo, and scion of the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo family, died Wednesday in the intensive care unit of Ward 3, South Wing of Wellington Hospital in St. John’s Wood, London at about 8.30 pm. He was aged 70 years.

According to his first daughter, Yejide, who was by his bedside when he passed on, the body of the late publisher would be brought back to the country for burial next week.
Yejide, a source said last night, was in company with her younger sister, Lola, when their father died.

Both of them had gone to the hospital yesterday afternoon in company with family friends, where they prayed for their father who was by this time slipping away.
Shortly after his death, the hospital authorities confirmed that his body had been moved to a funeral parlour in London, from where it will be flown to Nigeria by his family for interment.

THISDAY gathered that Awolowo had been in and out of hospitals for years following complications arising from a car crash that occurred on September 30, 2006.
His condition was said to have deteriorated, which prompted the Ogun State Governor, Senator Ibikunle Amosun, to send him to the United States for further treatment.
But he did not recover and ended up on a wheelchair before his eventual demise Wednesday.

The management of ANN, in a statement, also confirmed his death yesterday.
The statement signed by the Managing Director/Editor-in-Chief, Mr. Edward Dickson, said he died following complications arising from the auto accident on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway.
Despite his ill health as a result of the accident, the late Awolowo devoted his life to the service of God and was deeply involved in evangelical activities, the statement said.
In the past four years, he authored a Christian column, OBA'S LECTERN, in the Sunday Tribune.
The statement read: “He fought a good fight and has gone to rest with his maker. We ask for prayers at this most trying time for the Awolowo family and for the ANN Plc.”
Reacting to his demise, the pan-Yoruba socio-cultural organisation, Afenifere, described Awolowo’s death as a big pain and loss to followers of the sage, the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo,

In a statement by its publicity secretary, Mr. Yinka Odumakin, Afenifere said: “The entire Afenifere family mourns the passing away of the scion of our illustrious leader’s family, Chief Oluwole Awolowo. His death is a big pain and loss to all of us who are followers of the sage.

“We pray that the Almighty will strengthen our Mama and the entire family in this difficult moment. May his amiable soul rest in perfect peace.”

Also, former Governor of Lagos State, Senator Bola Tinubu, described the death of Awolowo as a sad and painful loss, even as he prayed to God to grant Mama HID Awolowo the strength to bear the irreparable loss in her old age.

“Oluwole was a gentle personality and a brilliant man, who loved people and affected his environment positively. He was one from a great family of excellent political tradition and his life and contributions would not be forgotten in a hurry,” he said.
Tinubu also prayed that God grant the entire Awolowo clan the fortitude to bear the painful loss.

“They must not despair, but must be strong for Mama and above all take solace in the fact that he lived a memorable and fulfilled life,” Tinubu said.
Amosun, in a condolence message, described the death of Awolowo as a sad occurrence, which has thrown the entire state into mourning.

The governor, in the statement by his media aide, Mrs. Funmi Wakama, said the fact that the late Awolowo was survived by his mother, Mrs. Hannah Awolowo, the revered matriarch of the family who is seen by all Nigerians as a symbol of Nigerian nationalism, made his death even more painful.

“We are surprised to hear about the sudden departure of the Publisher of Tribune titles who was not only the son of our late sage but was himself a major political figure, going by the prominent role he played in the Second Republic when he served meritoriously as a legislator in the Lagos State House of Assembly.

“The entire people of Ogun state mourn the departure of this illustrious son of our dear state. Our condolences go to the entire Awolowo family, particularly our dear mama, Chief (Mrs.) H.I.D. Awolowo. We pray that God Almighty will console and strengthen them at this time of grief. We also pray that God should grant the dead eternal rest,” Amosun said.  

With the death of Awolowo yesterday, Mrs. Tola Oyediran, wife of the former Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ibadan, Professor A.B. Oyediran; and Dr. Tokunbo Awolowo-Dosunmu are the two remaining children out of the five children of the late sage and his wife, Hannah.

Born in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, on December 3, 1942, Oluwole was the third child and second son of his parents.

At age 12, Oluwole joined the youth wing of the NCNC, the political party led by Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, which was a rival party to his father’s Action Group (AG).
This was later interpreted as not an act of rebellion, but freedom of expression which his father would later admire in his son.

From Ibadan Grammar School, he proceeded to Leighton Park School, Reading, Berdshire in England for further studies. He was admitted to Leeds College of Commerce where he graduated in Business Studies in the early 1960s.

After a successful sojourn abroad, he returned to Nigeria where he picked up a managerial work at the Nigerian Tobacco Company, Ibadan, and later, the Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation and the Nigerian Television Service, Lagos.

But following his father’s incarceration and the death of his older brother, Segun, in 1963, Oluwole went into active politics and became a member of the United Progressive Grand Alliance (UPGA).

With the emergence of the military on the Nigerian political landscape in 1966, he veered off completely from politics to focus fully on business. 
But he was later to return when he won his first elective office in 1975 as a councillor representing Apapa in the then Lagos City Council.

In 1979, he was the Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN) candidate for the Lagos State House of Assembly, also representing Apapa Constituency. He won a landslide victory and remained a member of the House of Assembly till 1983 when the military struck.