Former Managing Director of Daily Times, Ambassador Patrick Dele Cole has died in London at the age of 86.
Newsonspot reports that the veteran journalist, diplomat, historian and politician reportedly passed away on Saturday morning according to a family source.
Born on August 4, 1940, in Abonnema, Rivers State. He began his education at St Bartholomew’s School, Enugu, where he studied from 1946 to 1953, before attending Baptist High School, Port Harcourt, from 1954 to 1958, and Ibadan Grammar School from 1959 to 1960.
In 1962, he left Nigeria to pursue higher education at the University of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand, where he studied until 1965. He also attended the University of Cambridge from 1966 to 1970. Then King’s College, Cambridge, where he was a fellow between 1970 and 1973 and earned a doctorate in history. In 1975, he was appointed a non-executive director of the Daily Times.
He served as Special Adviser on International Relations under President Obasanjo from 1999 to 2007. He was also appointed Nigeria’s ambassador to Brazil and Argentina.
Cole made significant contributions to Nigerian Journalism, particularly through his leadership at Daily Times and his work on the Guardian Editorial Board.
He was also a presidential candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in the early 1990s.
Cole’s death marks the loss of a prominent figure in Nigeria’s journalism, diplomacy and political history.
