Veteran journalist Dele Cole dies at 86

Nigerian journalist and diplomat Dele Cole died on the morning of Saturday, October 17, 2026, aged 86, according to family sources. A former managing director of the Daily Times, he served as special adviser on international relations to President Olusegun Obasanjo from 1999 to 2007 and later as Nigeria’s ambassador to Argentina and Brazil. Born in Abonnema in present-day Rivers State, Cole studied in Nigeria, at the University of Otago in New Zealand and at the University of Cambridge, where he earned a doctorate in history. He was also associated with the Social Democratic Party during the 1990s.