From the farmlands in Ogun State grew a modest, but dramatic ambition to be an auto mechanic. From the mission for one year schooling to learn numeracy at age 13, arose a hunger for western education that that enrolled him in secondary school at 19. From an unexpected slight on his byline-driven career as a journalist beckoned the pull to academia. Idowu Sobowale, professor of mass communication, education policy regulator, journalist, and farmer, has, in this work, documented rich highlights of his life’s eight decades’ journey so far. It is an exciting narrative full of unexpected twists and turns that shows the corresponding grace of God in the life of an enterprising man whose footsteps dot the worlds of journalism, academia and politics.  

This is a book with riveting insights into the thrills, public-spiritedness, and dangers of journalism, the enthralling and high-minded world of academia and its sometimes-exacting pettiness. It is an account of the allure of politics of service, its admixture of headaches at dismantling old habits, and the joys of accomplishment, of breaking new grounds. UNEXPECTED TURNS provides guiding lessons on the complexities of life. It is an account of good old-fashioned values, a story of relationships, of old Nigeria, of its present, and of its future.  

Contents: Preface/Introduction Early Signs of Uncommon Destiny/IN THE BEGINNING/My Roots/My Nuclear Family/A Rebellious Streak in My Youth/Going to School/The First Miracle of My Life/Choosing a Secondary School/Baptist Academy in My Life/Entry into the Daily Times/Adventures in the Daily Times/The Story that Drove Me Out of Port Harcourt/Journalism and Exciting Moments of my Life/The Diversities of the Country/Time at Evening Times/From the Daily Times to Academia/Going to Syracuse/Introduction of Opinion Polling into Nigeria/Protest against Prof. Opubor/Journalism, News Media and Fake News/A Call to Serve/Return of Schools and the Fight against Indiscipline/Free Education and the Reality at the Tertiary Level/Issues in Education/Election Coverage of 1979 and 1983/Managing Searchlight, Prime People and The Republic/The Many Times I Cheated Death/Hand of Providence/Relationships with my Students and Colleagues/Appendix Opinion Polling in Nigeria.  

ISBN: 978-978-985-970-2 (Cased) YP: 2021. Pages: 286. Price: N10, 000 $10. Shipping cost depends on location.