Veteran journalist Gbolabo Ogunsanwo is dead, tributes pour in

A veteran Nigerian journalist, Gbolabo Ogunsanwo, is dead.

According to available information, he died in the early hours of Friday in his late seventies.

Ogunsanwo edited the Sunday Times during the Babatunde Jose era and was popular with his column: “Life with Gbolabo Ogunsanwo.”

He was one of those swept aside following the take over of the majority shares in the Daily Times by the then military government.

He went on to found a magazine: “The Premier.”

One of the early mourners was the Ogun State Governor, Dapo Abiodun, who condoled with the family and friends of former Editor of the Sunday Times.

Abiodun said Ogunsanwo “really exemplifies excellence, courage and forthrightness that our State is known for. Indeed, he was a role model that nurtured many reporters who have also become legends in the pen-pushing and leaders in other spheres.”

The deceased, he said, “carried himself with dignity and was considered as conscience of modern Nigeria”.

Another veteran of the old Daily Times era, Araba Tola Adeniyi, said of his then colleague: “He was a humourist.

“His writings were both intellectually and scholarly sound.

“He died on Friday in Lagos on his way to the hospital.

“He was the editor of the Sunday Times and also acting editor of The Daily Times in 1974.

“During his time as the editor, the paper was selling between 950,000 and one million copies in a day.

“It was unprecedented.

“We would miss him.

“The media industry has lost a colossus.”