Nigeria has lost another iconic player in its film industry as renowned filmmaker and music executive ,Obafemi Lasode, has died at the age of 69.
Some have reported he was 70 but he would not have been until December as he was born on December 4, 1955.
While Lasode’s musical adventures climaxed in his becoming the President of the Performing Musicians Association of Nigeria, PMAN, his best known film is Sango (1997), which starred Femi Adebayo.
Adebayo has saluted him in a tribute, recalling how he invested trust in his ability.
As ‘The Guardian’ reports, Lasode’s ‘Sango’ impacted the industry because it explored the story of the Yoruba’s deity of thunder, Sango, in an ambitious and culturally sincere way.
died on Thursday after a decades-long career that helped shape the visual and sonic identity of Nigerian entertainment.
Confirming the news, family sources said Lasode passed peacefully in Lagos, with arrangements for burial to be announced in the coming days.
Lasode’s storied career began in New York, where he worked as a promotions coordinator for Inner City Broadcasting Corporation before bringing Nigerian music icon Sonny Okosun to the Apollo Theatre in 1984—a landmark moment in African music history.
“That moment at Apollo was about announcing Nigeria’s voice to the world,” Lasode once said in a 2001 interview. “We weren’t just performing; we were claiming space.”
“He was one of the first to treat African storytelling with cinematic seriousness,” said Prof. Ahmed Yerima, theatre scholar and former artistic director of the National Theatre. “His film Sango wasn’t just a movie—it was a statement.”
Lasode’s studio, Afrika ’n Vogue/Even-Ezra, became a creative incubator for emerging artists and filmmakers across West Africa. In academia, his book Television Broadcasting: The Nigerian Experience (1959–1992) became a staple in communication studies curricula and was widely cited in research on post-colonial media evolution.
Born in Port Harcourt on December 4, 1955, and originally from Abeokuta, Lasode earned degrees in Business Administration from the Kogod School of Business in Washington D.C. and Communication Arts from the City University of New York. He attended St. Gregory’s College in Lagos.
Tributes have poured in from colleagues, protégés, and institutions. The Directors Guild of Nigeria released a statement calling him “a pioneer whose works defined the intersection of culture, film, and music.”
As Nigeria’s creative economy continues to expand globally, Lasode’s contributions remain a foundation. His passing marks the end of an era—but his legacy, many agree, is firmly immortalized in the annals of Nigerian cultural history
