Idowu Sobowale at 80

Editorial

His Lifetime Achievement Award at the 23rd edition of the Diamond Awards for Media Excellence (DAME) in 2014, in Lagos, made a statement about his professional significance.  He was honoured “for his lifelong devotion to media development.” Before this, he had received a national honour, Officer of the Order of the Niger (OON), under the President Olusegun Obasanjo administration.

Prof. Idowu Sobowale, who turned 80 on March 29, achieved recognition despite the challenges of his early years. Born in Ashipa near Abeokuta, in present-day Ogun State, his father was a farmer, and his mother a petty trader.  “I lived in the village until I was 13,” he said, farming and planning to become a mechanic. His trajectory changed when he started school in his teens.

After his secondary education at Lagos Baptist Academy, he was a pioneer student at Daily Times Training School, Lagos. The newspaper had a big reputation at the time, and he was expected to work in the newsroom after a 12-month programme.   His brilliance changed the arrangement. After a month, the Australian trainer considered Sobowale good enough for the newsroom and recommended that he should be sent there. He rose to the position of assistant editor.

For self-improvement, and to improve his position at the newspaper, he attended University of Lagos (UNILAG) where he earned a diploma and a first degree in Mass Communication. He was the best student in his degree class and got a six-week sponsorship to the UK based on his academic performance. He left Daily Times for UNILAG where he became an assistant lecturer in mass communication in 1975.

“Eventually, I found myself at Syracuse in the United States to do my master’s degree, which I combined with coursework for PhD; and in three years I was back with not only master’s degree but with PhD,” he said about his educational pursuits. It is a testimony to his intellectual capacity and zeal for self-improvement that he pursued and acquired the highest academic qualification in his field.

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Having specialised in Precision or Scientific Journalism, he notably introduced opinion polling to Nigerian journalism. He established a public opinion polling desk at The Punch newspaper, and the first survey results were published in the newspaper in April 1979.

In academia, he progressed in leaps and bounds. He was twice acting head of the mass communication department at UNILAG. He became Professor of Communication Studies at Lagos State University (LASU), which he helped to establish in 1983, and where he was instrumental in starting a mass communication programme.

The topic of his inaugural lecture, delivered in September 2005, ‘Opinion Polling in Nigeria: The Neglected Route to National Development,’ not only shows his passion for his specialisation but also his concern about the country’s underdevelopment. He was dean of LASU’s School of Communication, and also dean at Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ogun State, where he developed a postgraduate programme in mass communication. It is striking that Caleb University, Imota, Lagos State, has named its Faculty of Communication and Media Studies in his honour.

For a man who nearly missed getting an education, he remarkably played significant roles in the education sector as a two-time special adviser on education, and commissioner for education, in Lagos State. “Alhaji Jakande asked me to chair the committee that transferred pupils from private to public schools when he became governor,” he said of his time in the Jakande administration from 1979 to 1983. “For a long while, the Lagos State government took over all private schools,” he stated.

“During Tinubu’s era,” he said of the period from 1999 to 2007, “a committee was set up to return all schools to their various owners and I happen to have been the person that implemented that policy.” He was a commissioner under Tinubu.

The theme of the 5th Idowu Sobowale Conference at LASU, to mark his 80th birthday, reflected his abiding interests:  ‘Media, Public Opinion and Governance in Africa.’ We wish him many happy returns.