Ambassador Patrick Dele Cole dies at 86

Eminent journalist, Ambassador Dele Cole, is dead.

Aged 86, Cole died this morning, according to family sources.

He was the Managing Director of Daily Times before being appointed Nigeria’s ambassador to Argentina and Brazil.

Things to know

He was born on August 4, 1940, in Abonnema, in the Kalabari Kingdom of present-day 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, when 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.

He also ventured into politics and was associated with the Social Democratic Party in the 1990s